Pavlína Dašková

Pavlina Dašková’s sister got married in Ľubietová. In February or March 1945; the couple walked to another village to visit her husband’s sick sister as no trains were running at that time. However, on the way they were caught by the Germans on suspicion of being partisans. Pavlína Dašková was at her mother’s place, and when her sister did not return, her mother went to look for her, but the Germans caught her too. They wanted to put her on a truck with the others, but one German persuaded them to let her go. The house where Pavlína Dašková lived was burned down by the Germans, just like the other houses in the Roma settlement. The family then lived with a brother whose house had not burnt down. In the village of Pusté, the Germans herded all the Roma into one house and wanted to burn them alive, but one German let them out. Dašková mentions her mother’s very rich brother, who lost a leg in the First World War. He was a musician, who also farmed and owned land; he helped the poor and beggars, both Roma and Slovaks — and lost all his money when the settlement and his house burned down.

Pavlina Dašková was fifteen years old when she went to identify her murdered relatives [at a mass grave]. She recognized her sister and brother-in-law by their clothes. They had been arrested at Ľubietová [near Banská Bystrica] some time in February or March 1945, loaded onto trucks with others and later murdered. She fainted at the grave. I felt as if I had died, she said.

Pavlína Dašková had eleven children of her own and also raised her sister’s two children. At the time of the interview, one son was studying at the conservatory in Žilina, another was an engineer in Bratislava, another son was graduating from high school, another had graduated from a hotel school, one was an aircraft mechanic in Bratislava, one was a repairman and one an electrician; one daughter worked at the post office in Bratislava, the oldest daughter was in Galanta, one was a seamstress and one attended a nutrition school. One of her sister’s sons was a labourer and had been working in a sawmill for over thirty years; the other was in the Czech lands and was always in prison.