Tököly Vincent & Anna

Tököly, Vincent Tököly, Anna Anna and Vincent Tököly lived with their young daughter Alžbeta in the village of Jarok, near Nitra. They supported themselves by running a small farm. The Ressler family – Moshe, Zipora, and their three daughters, Aliza (b. 1930, later Barak), Rachel (b. 1933, later Harel), and Miriam (b. 1937, later Frumer) – survived the deportations of 1942 in Michalovce. Later, following the forced evacuation of the Jews from eastern Slovakia to the west in the spring of 1944, the Ressler family settled in Nitra. The renewed roundup of Jews after the German invasion in the beginning of September that year prompted the Ressler family to abandon their apartment and look for a refuge. They wandered around in the forests and fields for about a month, until they reached the village of Jarok, on the outskirts of Nitra. Refugees they had met while wandering told them about the underground storage warrens scattered around the village that had been used in the past for storing barrels of wine. The Resslers found one of these holes in the ground and crawled inside. There they discovered a room to sit in and, deeper inside, there was even a more spacious area where one could stand up. Now they had to deal with the question of food because they only had a small quantity of bread with them. The parents decided to send two daughters, Rachel and Miriam, to the village to ask the farmers for food. They received something from every house they knocked at. One couple, Anna and Vincent Tököly, offered even more: they promised to take upon themselves the burden of collecting food from the local farmers and to bring it to the hidden Jewish family. The local priest prepared food for the Resslers and he also preached to his congregation the importance of assisting people in need. The locals understood that he was talking about the Jews. From then on, Vincent went to the hiding place at least once a week, at night, and brought the Resslers food that would last for afew days. He encouraged them to believe that the war would not last too much longer. Some time later, three young men joined the Resslers in their hideout. It was refreshing for the Resslers to have company, and the young men enjoyed the spacious and comfortable hiding place. Vincent took care of the safety of all these hidden people and warned them whenever searches for Jews were imminent. One day, he arrived in the middle of the day and told his wards that an extensive search for Jews was being carried out in the village. He advised them to flee the village until the danger subsided. The Resslers were subsequently captured in the adjacent village and put in detention in Nitra. However, they managed to escape and returned to their hiding place in Jarok. Once there, they renewed contact with the Tököly couple and their food supplies were renewed until liberation. The contact between the Resslers and the Tökölys was cut off a short time after the war. The Resslers immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1947. In 1990, the Ressler sisters decided to visit their hometown. They located the Tökölys’ daughter Alžbeta Chudačíková and, during their emotional reunion, they learned that Anna had died from tuberculosis in 1949 and Vincent had died in 1975. On June 2, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Vincent Tököly and Anna Tököly as Righteous Among the Nations.