Heda Ambrova in her friends’ yard

This photo was taken in Piestany in our friends’ yard, probably in 1924. Upper row from left: Pavel Ringwald, Ladislav and Michal (Miki). Standing in the bottom row am I (Heda Ambrova), my cousin Karol Kürti and my sister Magda Erdelyiova.

Jewish social life in the town took place only via the Maccabi. We didn’t have a gym, so my mother and her friends signed an agreement with the workers’ gymnastics club. They had a hall that also had a stage for theater performances. The club let us use the hall, and Maccabi purchased equipment – parallel bars, uneven bars, a mat, a pommel horse and a sawhorse. We then exercised there twice a week. Our instructors were qualified. I know that one of them had come all the way from Ostrava. His name was Müller. He found a job here, and then began instructing. He even taught preschoolers. He also taught two young women, very talented ones, from Trnava. Towards the end, a student from the Faculty of Philosophy who was taking physical fitness, English and German also exercised there. Each year a so-called Academy was held, where a gymnastics program was put on, and later also musical numbers. It was very popular amongst the non-Jewish population as well. The gymnastics numbers were so good that Sokol came to see my mother to see whether she wouldn’t take on some group of Sokol children.

Photos from this interviewee