Pavel Eli Vago

“Sometimes later, a policeman came to my grandfather and told him: ‘Sir, I received a note you have been hiding some Jewish children.’ But I have to tell you that my sister and I were already prepared for that. We planned that if a policeman came, we would hide into a wardrobe and we would hold its door really tight. However, I made a tactical mistake, because since being at my grandpa’s place, I was wearing slippers. As I ran to that wardrobe, I missed one step and my slipper was left out on the floor. Based on this the policeman knew someone was hiding there. Afterwards he firmly opened the wardrobe. He couldn’t see us right away, yet, after he pushed the clothes to the left and right, he noticed there were two children hiding in the corners. Then he went to my grandfather and said: ‘I am sorry, but I have to take the children away.’”

“We were walking down with our backpacks, weak and freezing, hungry and thirsty, spotting a small house. We didn’t know, where we were, that it was a little village Hronček. We knocked on the door and a girl opened to us. She has still been alive, her name is Valika Vaculčiaková. I remember that her mom made tea for our whole group and one cannot even express what was it like to drink that tea back then. Unbelievable feeling. Mr. Vaculčiak then told us: ‘Listen, you are a very big group and we are also afraid we could be taken over by Germans. Therefore, I am very sorry, but you cannot stay here. However, I might be able to find a cabin in the woods, where you could hide.’ We didn’t have any other possibility, so we followed him. It was only few kilometers and suddenly we saw the cabin. The door was open and no one was in there. There was a wooden plank bed, what felt like Hilton Hotel back then, after all those nights we slept freezing under the open sky.”