Anna Mandelíková (rod. Sidonová)

* 1942

  • “When the army was dissolved and my daddy returned home, he went into hiding. In the next village at my grandmother’s place he dug a hole under the dog’s house. I had his diary where he wrote the key words for when the food came or when there was danger. About three families used to live there sharing a large common yard and there I was, sort of hidden among other children because the Germans would not go that far. Naturally, my father came out almost blind as he only had been using candles for a month. And then the Uprising came and I remember how we all saw him off. There was a truck loaded with men and I remember well how we were saying goodbye. I was three.”

  • “After the war my father returned home. I also need to say those were the former Hlinka Guards again who eventually falsely denounced him. They used to come to our home, did not know where to search for him, thought perhaps he was no longer alive, they weren’t sure. After the war my mother often said, ‘Look, that person took our radio.’ We had to live among the people who used to point guns at us. If I had to tell names, there was a Gonda, for instance. And my mom always showed me, ‘You see, those people raided our home.’ And how could we live with them then? We surely had to.”

  • “And then the Germans moved in and one of them would grab my mother and say, ‘You are taking care of a Jewish child!’ And surely, my sister looked a bit different, perhaps more Jewish. But since I was darker and different from the other children because of my curly hair, from then on, my mom told me, she would rather cover my hair (with a scarf).”

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    Bratislava, Slovensko, 28.03.2018

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November 89: my father cried of the fear the Slovak State would be back

Anna Mandelíková at young age
Anna Mandelíková at young age
zdroj: archív pamätníčky

Anna Mandelíková (née Sidonová) was born in Sliač, on April 24, 1942 to a Christian mother and a Jewish father. Her birth was just one week after her father’s parents and his five siblings were deported to Auschwitz, where all of them perished. Anna’s father was the only one in the family, who didn´t go, due to his importance as a foreman, which enabled him a temporary exemption from deportation. After the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising, he fought in the 1st Czechoslovak Army as an artillery lieutenant participating in the battles against the Nazi occupation in Handlová, Nová Baňa, Zvolen and Donovaly. After the Uprising was suppressed, he had to hide in different places, mostly in the mountains. Anna with her mother and sister experienced repeated raids of the Hlinka Guards. At the time of the Uprising, they lived with a family, which, later, had to accommodate Wehrmacht soldiers. One of the Germans suspected that Anna was Jewish, which gave her mother a reason to move to a remote area where the girls would be better dispersed amongst the local children. After the war all members of the family engaged in building a better country, however, they soon became the victims of the regime they had been supporting. Anna’s father was falsely convicted for fraud and sent to prison and forced labor in the uranium mines, the children were denied a study at the universities they had chosen. Anna eventually became a P.E. teacher and a successful basketball coach, however, without a party membership, her career could not move forward. The close relationship with her father induced her interest in searching for her identity. After the Velvet Revolution in November 1989, she spent some time in the US with her father’s sister Frederika, who escaped the Holocaust. From her she learned most about her family. Today she lives in a senior home for the Holocaust survivors. She enjoys the company of her grown-up grandchildren and also artistic painting.