Mara Hakeľová

During the war, there were about thirty cabins at Sása in central Slovakia. The Roma were warned by the local committee[1] that if they joined the partisans they would be shot by the Germans. The German commander lived at Sása with rich farmers, and soldiers would come to the settlement on the lookout for Romani girls – Mara’s father and mother used to weep, out of fear that their daughter would be taken away. But her mother stood up to the soldiers and told them they could shoot her, but she would not let her daughter go. So the soldiers used to go to the settlement, and to other girls, and bring them sausages, meat, milk and money. When cattle were being slaughtered, the Roma could go for the entrails; they would then render the lard and cook the offal. They were not destitute. The girls drank, sang and danced with the soldiers, protecting not only themselves and their families, but also the whole settlement. Mara asked ​“her” German, the commander of the garrison, not to harm their people in any way, so they were left alone. However, in the village of Senohrad, for example, the Germans rounded up the Roma and shot them all.

[1] The local National Committees were not established until after the war; the survivor is probably referring to the administration of the village during the war.

After the war, Mara Hakeľová married, and she and her husband lived together for about thirty years until he died of tuberculosis.