Mr. Stolpyansky, Mrs. Wintersteinova and Mrs. Aliska Grossova

Mr. Stolpyansky, Mrs. Wintersteinova and Mrs. Aliska Grossova

This photo is from the Turiec region, near the village of Motycky, where we were in hiding. It was taken at the end of March 1945, and from left to right shows: Mr. Stolpyansky, Mrs. Wintersteinova, and Mrs. Aliska Grossova. Everyone was tanning in the sun that had come out after a long and cold winter.

During our stay in the mountains we also experienced a few close calls. Another group was active nearby. They weren’t very disciplined. They used to go on the castle road, where the German army had patrols. Well, as luck would have it, they caught them. Their only one bit of luck is that they were older soldiers, Austrians. They didn’t concern themselves with them, and said to them: ‘You know what, we’ll turn around, and you’ll go away!’ The second close call was when Domin and I went on patrol. Suddenly he threw me on the ground. I asked him what was going on!? ‘You didn’t hear that bullet?!’ Back then we told ourselves that we’d had amazing luck. If it was to happen again, we probably wouldn’t have survived. Daily we’d wake up to the unknown. We didn’t know what the day had in store for us.

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