Zuzana Bučková
Zuzana Bučková (1925, Sásová, now part of Banská Bystrica – year of death unknown)
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During the war, Romani people were allowed into the town only with passes; those who did not have them and were caught were arrested. There was famine and the Roma had to go to the slaughterhouse to get [intestines] to make Romani goja sausages. On one trip to the slaughterhouse, the women were arrested and then the men who went to find them were also arrested. They were were interned in [Banská] Bystrica, where they could be brought food. The prisoners were forced to do hard labour and were not given enough food; Bučková recalls how emaciated they were. They were taken from Bystrica to Kremnička [now part of Banská Bystrica], where they were eventually executed and buried in a mass grave.
Zuzana Bučková and her parents were spared this fate and survived the war, but all her parents’ siblings and their families perished in Kremnička. When the Russians arrived in 1945, their anti-tank brigade opened the mass graves in Kremnička. Relatives were recognized by their clothes and and were given burial.
Testimony origin
The conversation with Zuzana Bučková was conducted in 1992 by Milena Hübschmannová. The conversation was recorded in the Romani language and was printed without questions; the original text was abridged and edited with a translation in Czech. Mrs Bučková’s husband, Juraj Bučko, was present at the interview and his testimony is included in the database. The conversation is supplemented by comments by Helena Jonášová, a social worker at the local authority in Banská Bystrica who mediated contact with Mr. and Mrs. Bučko.
