The year was 1916, Slovakia. Soon after her fathers death, Mary took a job working in an iron shop as a saleswoman, owned by a local Jewish family, the Singer family. They knew she was supporting herself and her 6 brothers and sisters. They were millionaires when their business was strong. Mary asked Mr & Mrs. Singer why they continued to work. Mr. Singer replied “I work so that my children can have a better and more secure life.

She worked for them 7 days a week from 7 am until 6 pm. They gave her breakfast every morning but she went home for lunch and dinner every day. The shop was open on Sundays from 10 am until noon and the Singers gave Mary that day off so she could attend church and pray. Her monthly salary was 400-450 crowns. It was the best shop in town and she was making very good money. The shop was large, manufacturing all sorts of goods made of iron. She would often deliver goods such as bricks, shingles and scrapes to customers. Often times her customers would ask her to unload more then they paid for and she just would not do it. She couldn’t betray the trust she had with the singer family that had taken such good care of her. She often times would secure bids for building materials, of course with the 10% overhead added. Her customers that did not pay more usually paid the price that was asked of them. Poorer customers usually paid less and negotiations were skipped as she and the Singers knew how much they could afford.

Mary would often spend her evenings in the Singers garden behind the shop after closing. They had the most beautiful roses that would bloom in spring and summer and they had allowed her to pick them, to take to her mothers grave once or twice a week.

She was very distraught at the death of her parents. They left her and her 6 brothers and sisters orphaned. Her father was killed in the war (WWI) and her mother they say died of a broken heart soon after receiving the news. She often grieved more that her fathers grave was empty. His remains left in Serbia somewhere and are still to this day.

The Singer family knew of her pain and made her life as comfortable as they could. When Mary fell ill with a lung infection, they wrapped her in cold sheets to break her fever and painstakingly took care of her for 5 weeks as she lay with a high fever unable to attend to herself.
February 18th, 1921.

When she was well she contacted family in Spisska Nova Ves who took her in and nursed her back to health. Soon after, a cousin in American contacted her and her brothers and sisters and asked them if they wanted to Come to America. She did. Along with 4 other siblings.

Mr and Mrs Singer and their son, Vilam, who later took over the shop after his parents death, were very fair and treated Mary with all the respect they could give. She felt very sorry for the Jews in Slovakia. They were heavily persecuted and ostracized during WWII. His brother was exterminated in a concentration camp and his parents were both shot by the Nazis. The entire family died that Mary had known. Viliam, a son, survived and passed away in 1970, As Mary stated in a diary, after hearing from his wife shortly after. Another brother of Viliam also survived and married a Catholic girl probably out of fear of persecution.

After the Nazis, the Russians (Communists) stepped in and took over the entire property, where Viliam worked as a manual laborer until he was 74.

Although Mary and her siblings were able to leave for America, her sister Margaret and her brother, Mikulas, a Catholic priest, stayed behind in Slovakia.

I wrote this story in honor of Holocaust Day using the very words of my Great Aunt Mary through her letters. The information is all true. The names have not been changed. The information has just surfaced in my family in regards to my great Aunt Mary who also passed away in the early 70s. Im am not Jewish. I am just one person with family that lived through one of the most horrendous periods in our world history. I’m just one person who will continue to pass down this story and more to the next generation that follows mine. The Holocaust will always be remembered. It was one of the most evil periods in history that could never be forgotten.

In total, about 100,000 Slovak Jews (including those who fled before the war) were murdered in the Holocaust. Approximately 25-35,000 survived, including 4,000-5,000 who hid with the partisans or in cities and towns. After the war, most Slovak Jews immigrated to Israel.

Why do we remember? Why are things written down? Why is there a Holocaust Museum? You can look at it in the same way as to why we have the Bible. Why the writings in the bible go back so far and have been so well preserved. So no one can ever forget the truth.