Hubina Štefan & Hubinová Zuzana ; Daughter: Krchňavá Anna (Hubinová)

Hubina, Štefan Hubinová, Zuzana Krchňavá, Anna Before the war, the Diamant family from Piešťany would spend their summer vacations in the village of Kálnica in the Trenčin district of northwestern Slovakia. During their stays, they befriended the Hubina family, local residents. Štefan and Zuzana Hubina were Evangelical Christians who lived on their family farm with their daughter, Anna. Gavriel Diamant was a dentist and his wife Katarina assisted him. The couple had two children, Julia (b. 1935) and Andrej (b. 1939). In 1940, the Diamants' apartment was confiscated by a Hlinka Guard, and the family moved to Nové Mesto nad Váhom, in the Trenčin district. When the deportations of Jews from Slovakia began in the spring of 1942, Dr. Diamant was exempted from deportations due to the small number of dentists in the area. After the Jewish school that Julia attended was closed, her parents sent her and Andrej with their cook to the Hubinas in Kálnica. Their parents visited them on weekends. In the summer of 1944, following the deportations of Jews from the Hungarian provinces, Katarina Diamant’s mother, Helena Schlesinger-Slávik, returned from Budapest to join her daughter’s family in Slovkia. In August 1944, when the Germans occupied Slovakia and began a systematic manhunt for Jews and partisans, the family fled to Kálinca. Even there, however their situation became more and more perilous. Julia recalled a German soldier arriving at the Hubina farm and requesting a drink of water and to wash his face. He asked Julia in German to bring him a towel. She ran into the house to fulfill his request, not understanding that by showing that she understood German she was revealing her identity – local children did not speak German. Zuzana Hubinová realized the danger, and immediately hid the nine-year-old in the kitchen oven. Staying in the village was now too dangerous. Štefan Hubina helped the family build a bunker in the nearby forest, where they werejoined by Gavriel’s brother Ignac Diamant, and two other relatives. The Hubinas prepared them food, which Anna secretly brought to them. When it began to snow, Gavriel feared that their footsteps would lead the Germans to the hideout. He therefore decided to return with his family to Nové Mesto nad Váhom. His brother and the other two relatives decided to stay, but were caught two weeks later. In January 1945, Gavriel and the rest of the family were all caught and brought to the Sered detention camp. Gavriel was put to work in the infirmary and Katarina in the tailor workshop, producing shirts for the German army. On March 9, 1945, they were transported to Terezin. Julia and Andrej were separated from their parents, and placed in one of the camp’s children homes. When a typhoid epidemic broke out, Gavriel and Katarina fell seriously ill, and Gavriel succumbed to the disease. After liberation in May 1945, Katarina returned to Nové Mesto nad Váhom with her children. A Slovak family had taken possession of their home, so they went to stay with friends. When Štefan and Zuzana Hubina heard about their return, they began supplying them with food from their farm. The Diamants later moved to Levice, and in 1968 Julia and Andrej immigrated to Israel. Following the passing of her mother in 1973, Katarina joined her children. Throughout the years they maintained contact with the Hubinas, visiting them one last time before they left Slovakia. On August 17, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Štefan and Zuzana Hubina and their daughter Anna Krchňavá as Righteous Among the Nations.