David Sivor

“When the immigration to Israel began after the war, my parents wanted to go, but my grandma was very old and they didn´t want to leave her alone. Therefore they couldn´t come in the beginnings of 1949, and subsequently the borders were closed, thus they were unable to travel anymore. I left with a group of 44 young people from Bratislava station on February 14, 1949. We went to Vienna, where we slept over in a Jewish community camp and we continued to Genoa, where we also stayed for one night. From Genoa we sailed on a smaller ship to Israel. This ship belonged to English military fleet and was called Medex. There were 250 of us onboard. The parents were afraid I would have nothing to eat and thus they packed some goosey meat for me. I hanged it on a little string. It was a horrible journey, everybody threw up, but I was having bites of my goosey meat. When we arrived in Haifa on February 23, I just remember us singing Hatikvah, a national anthem of Israel, when being up onboard. We were all very excited.”

“On my 10th birthday in July 1944, we were already in hiding, but my parents bought me a Swiss watch Doxa. This! This is the watch that I got. It is working until now. On a day, when my mom went to work with fake papers, her watch was broken. I told her to take my watch. She took it to the hospital and didn´t return it as she went from there directly to – Patrónka and Theresienstadt, also with my watch. After the war on May 8, 1945, the Theresienstadt was liberated. She came back home around May 20 and she returned me my watch. So this watch went through a very long and interesting journey. It is a very important keepsake for me.”