http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Interview with Mikulas Judikovic April 7, 1997 RG-50.030*0453 This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection PREFACE The following oral history testimony is the result of a recorded interview with Mikulas Judikovic, conducted on April 7, 1997 on behalf of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The interview is part of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's collection of oral testimonies. Rights to the interview are held by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The reader should bear in mind that this is a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. This transcript has been neither checked for spelling nor verified for accuracy, and therefore, it is possible that there are errors. As a result, nothing should be quoted or used from this transcript without first checking it against the taped interview. This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection MIKULAS JUDIKOVIC April 7, 1997 Question: This is a United States Holocaust Memorial Museum interview with Mikulas Judikovic, conducted by Sidney Bolkosky, on April 7th, 1997, at Mr. Judikovic’s home in Southfield, Michigan. This is tape number one, side A. Could you tell me your name please, when you were born? Answer: My name is Mikulas Judikovic, in Slovak. I was born October the 26th, 1919 in a village called Cecehov. It’s on the outskirts of Michalovce, about four miles from Michalovce, three and a half miles. Q: And this was in Czechoslovakia when you were born? A: And this was in Czechoslovakia. Q: Tell me a little bit about Michalovce. A: Michalovce was a city where it was – there belongs many villages in the outskirts of Michalovce. And the Jewish community was very large, it was almost 3,000 Jews. The city by itself had about 15,000 people. There were about six synagogue [indecipherable] smaller, two big one. They were ash – the two big one were Ashkenazis. The smaller one – one, strict Orthodox, or less Orthodox, small synagogue. And the synagogue where I belonged were about – the membership, about 300 people, 350 peop – families. We had a cantor, steady cantor and a rabbi. We had a choir in our shul. By the way, here in Detroit lived Cantor Fuchs(ph), This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection 4 Interview with Mikulas Judikovic April 7, 1997 who was a member, like a little boy in the choir in our shul. And I met him about 10 years ago here in Detroit. He died last year. Q: Was your family – A: From – from the – about 3,000 people, ab – approximately 120 people came back, all of the – all of the rest perished in the concentration camps. Q: Was your family religious? A: My family was strictly religious. We had kosher households, and my father re – my special ri – my grandfather lived with our ho – in our house until year 1929 or 1930. When he died, he was 83 years old. He was very reli – religious, he was wearing a beard. And a-at home I spoke with him only Yiddish. With my siblings and my parents, most of the time we spoke Hungarian or Slovak. Q: How many languages did you – were – were there in your household? You spoke Slovak, Hungarian, Yiddish. Anything else? A: No. Q: Wha-What do you remember about your grandfather, anything else? A: My grandfather was very, very familiar with the family [indecipherable] loved very much his grandchildren, and he was very happy because the two older sister – I was the third child, and the first two children were girls. And he was very happy when I was born, because finally, he said [indecipherable] but a boy, my This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection 5 Interview with Mikulas Judikovic April 7, 1997 eynikle(ph). So he was very happy, and I think even the other – my other brother was born – one bro – was – brother was born in 1921, but he died in 1920 fo – five, of leukemia, I think, if I took what to – illnesses of today. Then the other ma – bro – brother was born in 1924, he disap – he died in concentration camp, he was 18 years old. So ma – still my grandfather la – I – he was – I was his lovely child, because I was the first born boy, and he couldn’t happier than – I have to, like a little boy, to have to fast Erev Pesach like a first born boy. So he was very religious, and that we had all the time kosher household, even during the war when it was very hard, and he wasn’t more – alive any more, but my family, my parents were used to keep the kosher household, si – we were holding til the last moment. Q: So the family was you, two sisters – A: Then – the other two sisters were born – the one sister was born then in 1927. Q: And what was her name? A: Haide(ph) was born in 1927, and Lola was born in 1929. Q: You said there were older sisters. A: The two older sisters, the one was born in 1917, he – no, she died in concentration camp with her husband and three small children. Q: And what was her name? A: Clari(ph). The other sister was born in 1918, she lives in Toledo. This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection 6 Interview with Mikulas Judikovic April 7, 1997 Q: Toledo. And – and you have one more sister, who lives in Detroit as well. A: I have two sisters here in Detroit. Q: So – so how large is the family all together in your household then, living together. You had you, your – your two older sisters, your brother – A: The older sister leaved the – our house in 1936, when she was married, and she lived in a village not far from Michalovce, and my other sister Lily, who lives in Toledo, my father managed to get some papers and get her out with the last boat in 1939 from Germany to America, because my father has these siblings. He had three brothers and two sisters here in the United States, who came to this country in the 1920s, so she came here in 1939, really. Q: And what was your father’s name? A: My father’s name was Mark. Q: And – and how many – how many brothers and sisters – how many aunts and uncles were there in – from your father’s side? Your – your aunts and uncles. A: Here in the United States, if I am not mistaken, altogether about five or six uncles and aunts. Q: And any – did any stay in – in Czechoslovakia? Any of his siblings? A: No. This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection 7 Interview with Mikulas Judikovic April 7, 1997 Q: They all came here. What about your mother’s si – your mu – what was your mother’s name? A: My mother’s name was Malvina, and she had – I have to think how many sisters she had. Sh-She had about seven or eight sisters and brothers in Czechoslovakia, none of them in the United States, and most of them, actually all of them, died in concentration camp. Nobody survived [indecipherable] Q: And they had children as well? You had cousin? A: Yeah, my – my mother’s sibling – brothers and sist – had children. Mo – many of them survived, they live mo – many of them in Chicago, then in California, some of them. Q: If you had to estimate the – the extended family, how large would you say? Aunts, uncles, first cousins, just the first cousins. A: I can count that cousin – ainkle – uncles, aunts and cousin, about 35 or 38 who perished in concentration camps. After the war, survived about 10. I mean, cousins. Q: And in ma – in me – in Michalovce, what did your father do? A: My father was a broker with cattles. And he usually bought – he had people who are buying for him cattles and – how you call the small sheeps? Q: Lambs. This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection 8 Interview with Mikulas Judikovic April 7, 1997 A: Lambs, lambs. And they were slaughtering there Michalovce – near Michalovce, and sending every week to Prague, to the capitol of Czechoslovakia, and he used to actually to travel almost every week to Prague where he was – he has his stall there, and he was selling there in Prague.