Some Roma from Moravia managed to escape from the Protectorate to Slovakia, so they were saved. Some of them, such as such as Kýr,[1] Franta[2] and Karel[3] from the Union of Roma [Union of Romani-Gypsy], were even hidden by Slovaka.
Ignác Zima’s eldest brother was conscripted into the army and was captured in Russia, along with other Roma, such as Františka Zimová’s brother Matěj. Local Roma partisans included Palko,[4] Ferda,[5] and also Izák.[6]
The guards treated the Roma terribly. In the winter, for example, they dragged them out of the house barefoot into the snow; they didn’t even allow them to take their shoes.
The guardsmen were mainly men from rich farming families; only about two of them came from poor backgrounds.
At the time when Ignác Zima was hiding with his parents and siblings in the woods around “Smolnička”[7] and Šaštín, the Germans established an ammunition store in their house and placed an anti-aircraft gun right in front of the house. When the Zima family returned, Ignác’s father, an experienced soldier, decided that they would dig a two-metre-deep pit to which they carried the ammunition and buried it.
When the Russians arrived, the local Roma first saw it as a deliverance. But then they started to go after their women, and so even the older ones had to hide under the bed and smear themselves with soot to make themselves ugly.[8] The Germans had not been like that; Ignác Zima said they were probably too choosy to start anything with gypsy women. A Russian, called Misha rode his bicycle to the settlement and went after Lucko[9]’s girlfriend Kori, who was nicknamed “Slepá” (Blind)[10]. Her father heard screaming and crying from the house, so he ran in, threw Misha out, beat him and smashed his bicycle. The Russian had to leave on foot, and when his commander heard what had happened, he said he wanted to shoot him. But the Russians gave the Roma food, which the children came to fetch with pots. Ignác Zima recalled that he and the the other children wanted to try smoking, but to get cigarettes they had to do “quails” – lie on their backs and shake their arms and legs. He said the Russians stood round them laughing.
He also remembered that when the front moved closer and they were hiding in the farmer’s cellar in the village, there were Hungarians in yellow uniforms with them. They were afraid of the Russians because Hungary had fought on the side of the Germans. However, Bučko[11]‘s little girl, who was still wrapped in swaddling clothes, started crying a lot, so the Hungarians threw them out because they were afraid of being exposed. Then they hid in the stable, where Kalnáčka’s boy[12] started to create a fuss. His father couldn’t bear it anymore, so he took some slurry and water and gave it to him to drink; the boy apparently stopped crying and nothing at all happened to him.
[1] First name not given.
[2] Last name not given.
[3] Karel Holomek, one of the most important Romani scholars and representatives of the ethno-emancipation movement before and after 1989.
[4] Bartoloměj Daniel (ed.) also speaks of the partisan Palko from Kopčany; see the memoir in this database; Palko’s surname is not given.
[5] Surname not given.
[6] Surname not given.
[7] Probably the village of Smolinská.
[8] See Koloman Pompa’s testimony: when the soldiers of the Slovak army were returning from Italy through western Slovakia; people welcomed them as protectors against the Russians raping women. (ed.)
[9] Not specified.
[10] Not specified.
[11] Not specified.
[12] Not specified.
