Margita Naďová

* 1931

  • "I'll tell you one more thing - In our Jewish barracks, when the Germans were there, I don't know why, but they gathered the Jews from the surrounding houses and the poor people sat on the stairs there. I would say such old people back then. They had those Jewish stars. And someone cried. There was a general practitioner in the house below, he was Schlesinger. They also did not return, only the son returned. They had a daughter upstairs, they were about the same age, and that daughter came back. There was also a Jewish shack next door, so perfect, it was a lawyer. His name was Stern, they also had one daughter and one son, and they didn't return either, only the daughter. They converted to the evangelical faith and changed their name. Those Sterns were Javor and that Lengyel was Livor. And those down there didn't (Schlesinger), they stayed as Jews. Well, they took them, but only at the end, because the Germans also needed those doctors. I do not know it. But it looked that way.' 0:33:02 - 0:35:30 - Margita remembers the Jewish neighbors from the house where they lived

  • "I remember that my son was 15 years old at the time. We lived here since 1963, he was born in 1953. Unfortunately, he died in 1982... And I know that I still sinned against him then, because those guys, he was 15 years old at the time, hung there like those tanks, so I say - Good Lord, you don't know what can happen. There someone throws a rock or something and they can start shooting or something. Don't you dare go there. They were here like a college, there, especially in that street, there was a tank next to a tank. And that's where those kids used to go. I know that when they arrived on August 21, the man's colleague called that the Russians were here. Still in the morning at five o'clock or whatever. And there was a dairy in the next barrack, and there she also had sugar, flour and all kinds of products. When I went there at seven, there wasn't even a kilo left. Not even a liter of milk, as soon as people found out, they bought everything. I remember that side of it.' 1:04:33 – 1:06:15 - Margita remembers August 1968 and the arrival of Warsaw Pact troops in Trenčín

  • "It was a great joy, I remember that in Žilina there was a smaller fireworks display than at that time. It was a great joy. People cheered because it fell. And then the reporting started. My father could not get a job for a long time because he was accused of making a pact with the Germans. Almost yes, when he went with those transports, with those weapons, because he knew German. I still have the rest of the cutlery that my mother brought from Germany with wooden handles, all the cutlery. The Žilina machine factory produced weapons that were exported to Germany. As allies, as the Slovak state, of course, it went to Germany. There was only one plus, my mother's sister was married to an guy from Ostrava, and my father got together with the train driver, so that when he didn't go with the transport, they sent them packages, bacon and so on. Because there was nothing in the Protectorate and we had paradise." 0:52:19 – 0:54:05 – Memories of the end of the war. Margit's father was reported to have collaborated with the Germans

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    Trenčín, 03.04.2023

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As children, we did not decide whether someone was a Jew or a „non-Jew“

Margita Naďová as a young girl
Margita Naďová as a young girl
zdroj: Witnesses archive

Margita Naďová, nee Humelová, was born on March 6, 1931 in Žilina. as the only child of Ján Humel and Helena, née Klčová. During the war, they lived in sublease on Kálov Street in the house of doctor Schlesinger. The father knew German and worked in Machine factory of Považie, which during the war focused on the production and export of weapons to wartime Germany. Margita became friends with girls who came from different social classes. One friend came from a mixed Jewish-Czech marriage, the other from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the third was the niece of Ferdinand Ďurčanský, one of the co-authors of the Jewish Codex. She remembers the deportation of Jewish families from the neighborhood and the closest neighbors. After the suppression of the SNP, the German command, later the Soviet command, was located in their house after the deported neighbors. She remembers the execution of a member of a guerrilla group not far from their home. After the war, her father had problems because of working for the Germans. In 1946, the family moved from Žilina to Trenčín because of the father‘s work. Margita finished business school and married Michal Naď. Over time, she lost contact with her childhood friends. She experienced the arrival of Warsaw Pact troops in Trenčín. She and her husband were never involved in politics. Both worked in the construction industry all their lives. They raised two children. Margita is retired at the time of recording her lifestory.