Testimony of Lea Magda (Lustig) Yaakovi, born in Banska Bystrica, Czechoslovakia, 1931, regarding her experiences as a child in Banska Bystrica, in hiding in Piestany and a bunker in a forest

Testimony of Lea Magda (Lustig) Yaakovi, born in Banska Bystrica, Czechoslovakia, 1931, regarding her experiences as a child in Banska Bystrica, in hiding in Piestany and a bunker in a forest Life in Banska Bystrica before the war; rise to power of the Hlinka Slovak People's party, 14 March 1939; throwing of rocks at Jewish shops by Hlinka Guardsmen; escape of Jews to Hungary; ban on possession of radios, telephones, record players and sports equipment from 1940; yellow badge, 1941; expulsion of Jewish teachers and students from schools; expanding of the Jewish school and absorption of Jewish children and teachers; expulsion of her family from their apartment, 1941; evening curfew; deportation of Jews to Poland, spring and summer, 1942; deportation of her older sister and her family to Auschwitz; family is granted permission to remain because of her father's work; disappearance of children from her class; travel restrictions; ban on train travel; confiscation of her aunt's house and escape to the city center; outbreak of the "Slovakian Uprising", 29 August 1944; liberation of Banska Bystrica by partisans; escape of Jews to Banska Bystrica; her mother passes food to the refugees; German occupation, October 1944; her family escapes to the hills in the vicinity; life in Piestany in the home of a local family in exchange for money; contact with partisans in the vicinity; escape to the forest with the approach of the German Army; Germans break into the house of the local family and discover the hiding place; murder of her father at Kremnicka at a killing pit; escape to a bunker in a forest; life in the bunker including help from villagers; liberation by the Red Army, April 1945. Return to Banska Bystica; end of the war; displays of antisemitism; aliya training in Bratislava; aliya to Israel, 1949.