Hronec Pavel & Hroncová Paulina ; Father: Pavel ; Mother: Hroncová Katarína

Hronec, Pavel Hroncová, Katarína Hronec, Pavel Hroncová, Paulina Zoltán Karšai was a doctor in Tisovec, in central Slovakia. In this capacity, Karšai and his family – his wife, Mira, seven-year-old daughter Judit, and baby Andrej – received exemptions from the deportations of 1942. When the uprising broke out in 1944, Karšai joined the rebels, servíng with them as a doctor. During this time, his family stayed with some Aryan friends in the village of Polhora. With the suppression of the uprising, Karšai found them there and the family left their shelter and began to wander around looking for a secure hideout. All the while, ss soldiers and their local accomplices were patrolling the area. In his desperation, Karšai remembered his acquaintance, the evangelical pastor Pavel Hronec, who lived in the nearby village of Hronsek (near Zvolen) with his wife, Paulina. Karšai and his family managed to find their way to the Hroneces’ home, where they were warmly received and offered assistance. Hronec housed the refugees at a neighbor’s home, ostensibly as visiting friends. The Karšais were concerned that their Jewish identity would be discovered and that their stay jeopardized the Hroneces’ safety. To ease the situation, Hronec suggested hiding the Karšai children with his parents in Zvolenska Slatina. Hronec’s mother, Katarína Hroncová, came to take the children and after a difficult farewell from their parents, she escorted Judit and Andrej by train to her home. Hroncová told her neighbors and friends that the children were relatives whose parents had sent them to her because they feared the approaching front. Zoltán and Mira, in the meantime, considered returning to Tisovec, but an Aryan acquaintance warned them against this and they fled in November to the mountains. There, they managed to make contact with one of Zoltán’s former patients, from the village of Polhora, who found a hideout for them, where they remained until the liberation of the area in February1945. Zoltán then enlisted in the Red Army where he served as a doctor treating injured partisans. With the help of the Russians, he managed to acquire a horse and cart on which he could travel to fetch his children. He found them still in hiding with their hosts, where, due to the ongoing fighting in the area, they were preparing to evacuate. The Russian officer then brought them all back to the army base, where the reunion of the family was celebrated. When Andrej grew up and asked his mother why the Hroneces had risked their own lives to save Jews, instead of answering him, she handed him a box of letters of postwar correspondence between Mira and Katarína. In one of the letters, Katarína wrote: “What we did for you, Mirka, my dearest, was motivated by our duty as Christians and our love for your family.” On January 24, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Pavel Hronec, Paulina Hroncová, and Pavel’s parents, Pavel Hronec and Katarína Hroncová, as Righteous Among the Nations.