Ladislav Banga

The Roma of Hradiště in southeastern Slovakia were musicians, they also made bricks and worked in a factory. They lived in small houses that they built out of unbaked bricks called valki in Romani. Ladislav Banga’s father trained as a blacksmith; he could read and was employed as a blacksmith at the Ipeľ brickworks. They had eight children, and their father, like other Roma from their village, told the children fairy tales.[1] The Slovak neighbours respected the local Roma because they went to school and behaved like everyone else.

[1] In 1970, Ladislav Banga’s younger brother Dezider, a journalist and acclaimed poet, collected the stories from the Roma among whom he grew up and published them under the title Čierný vlas (Black Hair).

Around 1944, when Ladislav was about thirteen years old, fighting commenced in Hradiště. The family evacuated to the town of Poltár, about a day’s walk away. The older Ladislav pushed his little brother Dezider all the way in a pram. Later, a neighbour and friend of the father’s from the village took them in. The other Roma remained hidden in Poltár and not far from it, in the village of Uhorské. The Banga family had food supplies hidden at a neighbour’s house, and Ladislav Banga would go to get them so that they would have something to eat. During the day, in the late afternoon, the shooting stopped, so they were able to move around until the fighting resumed at night.

The Germans brought many Romani people from Romania to the village; they slept in various villages and eventually made their way up into the hills to the partisans, almost all of whom survived. One of them was a good fiddle player; his name was Lukáš and he was said to be able to play Romanian rhapsodies. Their parents communicated with them in Romani.

They left the Romani people at Hradiště alone and did not take them to the camp; Ladislav said their neighbours were nice. However, the Roma from Uhorské did get sent to the labour camp in Hanušovce nad Topľou because they were wrongly accused of stealing. They were reported by a local teacher, a member of the Hlinka Guard. The Roma from Uhorské were proud musicians; they were told to dress smartly, because they would be going to play. So they came to the camp with their instruments. They were beaten and given little food. Apart from Aladar,[1] who died from the beating, all the men returned home. At the time of the interview, only the son of one of the Roma originally imprisoned, Koločaj, was still living in Uhorské.[2]

At Hradiště, the Roma, including Ernest Balog, were joining the partisans,. And in 1944, Ladislav’s father also joined them.

His eldest brother was in the army and there was also another Romani man in the army who took part in the fighting in Russia. During the uprising, a grenade landed next to his brother and covered him with earth, but he was not injured.

When the Germans were looking for partisans in the village of Hradiště, they made everyone appear before them: the Roma and their non-Roma neighbours. The eldest brother had his army uniform at home, but at that moment he himself was among the villagers who had to assemble. Ladislav Banga hid the uniform in his bed so that they would not find it. He knew what would happen to everyone if they found it – the house and the whole village would be burnt down and the villagers would be shot. The Roma knew about the harsh treatment meted out to the Roma in Tisovec, where a German posing as a partisan came and persuaded the Roma to help blow up a bridge; but the Roma did not find out that it was a trap, and the Germans then went there with certainty, Ladislav said. The Roma had to dig pits for themselves, and the Germans then shot them above them.[3]

[1] Surname not stated.

[2] First name not stated.

[3] See also the testimony of Koloman Sendrej.

His younger brother Dezider did well at school; he had learned to read and write before he started school. His father therefore enrolled him in Lučenec for further studies in 1953, but he was rejected because they said he would not be able to cope. So his father went to his former partisan commander at Kalinovo and he helped the young Dezider. Dezider attended the pedagogical school in Krupina, then wrote poetry and short stories. He subsequently enrolled at university [the Arts Faculty of Comenius University] in Bratislava.

Ladislav Banga was part of band playing modern music and jazz along with his his brother, who had fought in the Uprising, and four others. Previously his father also joined them. His eldest brother was a primáš; as a result of the war and the cold conditions when he was covered in earth by the grenade explosion, he suffered from kidney disease and contracted tuberculosis; he died in 1964.

Ladislav Banga performed with his brothers until 1978.