Meňhart Julius & Meňhartová Emerencia

Meňhart, Julius Meňhartová, Emerencia Julius Meňhart and his wife, Emerencia, lived in a neighborhood of private homes on the upper part of Mount Zobor in Nitra. Some of the local residents were vintners or had fruit groves. The Meňhart family had a reputation for being ready to take risks to rescue persecuted individuals. In later years, their son, eng. Pavol Meňhart, was still able to name 19 such survivors from memory. All the rescue stories took place in the war’s final months, apart from one, which is related to the deportation of Jews in 1942. During that period in 1942, one of Emerencia’s neighbors, the widow Adlerová, whose only son lived in Mandatory Palestine, was hospitalized after trying to kill herself. Knowing that Adlerová was in danger of deportation after her recovery, Emerencia removed her secretly from the hospital in rural clothing and lodged her in her home until she recovered and the danger of deportation had passed. When the hunt for Jews was renewed soon after the German invasion in late August 1944, the widow Adlerová again found shelter in the Meňhart home. Also in hiding there at the time were the Stark and Schoenbaum families. Additional refugees who sought shelter with them were not turned away, either. However, the authorities knew about the Meňharts’ willingness to assist refugees and carried out frequent searches of the house. Accordingly, the family arranged a hiding place for the new arrivals outside their home and saw to their basic needs there. In this way they helped the Gellert family, the Volners, and others. The few survivors who were able to testify sought to express in words the nobleness of the rescuers’ deeds, and praised Emerencia, in particular. “I never met another woman like her,” Mrs. Adler said. On January 24, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Julius and Emerencia Meňhart as Righteous Among the Nations.