The following is a transcription of an oral report, in Slovak, given to
Marian Brown and Sylvia Wittman by Hanosovce museum director, Mgr. Agata
Krupova about the history of the Jews >from that town. The tape was
transcribed into English by Slvia Wittman of Prague, and therefore the

English may be a bit rough. However, it is very understandable as it is,

and no

editing has been done. Please see my comments at the end.LS

SLOVAKIA - SEPTEMBER, 2000

TRIP TO HANOSOVCE NAD TOPLOU, THE BIRTHPLACE OF MOSES HIRSCH HUEBSCHMAN,

MY GREAT, GREAT GRANDFATHER

TAPE #1, NUMBERS 398 - 427

Marian: We are in Hanosovce nad Toplou in a museum in a very lovely

chateau in a lovely office talking to the Director, Mgr. Agáta Krupová,

and she is

going to tell us a little about the history of this town where Moses

Huebschman was

born in either 1807 or 1809 -- my great, great grandfather.

Sylvie (translating the Director's words): This is a town and it was a
town. The city was Catholic and the Hungarian nobility was uprising.

In 1717

the Protestants had it and then it was given back to the Catholics. So in

the

period of Joseph II the Protestants build another church

TAPE #2, NUMBERS 1 - 227

Sylvie: We were saying that the city is based on agriculture, that the

city began in the 14th century, originally a Catholic city, then it was

Protestant in the times of uprising against the Hapsburg empire, then

it was Catholized

again by force in the period of Joseph II. In the period of the Edict

of

Tolerance, 1781-84, the city was again getting a new Protestant church.

Marian: Where did the Jews come from?

Sylvie: The book that the Director handed to me says that the Jews who

came to Hanusovce were namely running the Korcsma, Inns or pubs, and the

ones who

were doing handel which means the exchange business. They were also

carpenters, bakers, glass makers, and they worked with wires. They most

probably came

in the second half of the 18th century in the period of the enlightened

emperor Joseph II. As I said after the Edict of Tolerance.

Here is a picture in the book of a Jewish seal of the Jewish community

in

the second half of the 19th century in Hanusovce. We also know the

names of

the rabbis since 1786. Here is Rabbi Moishe Frankel and most probably it

was

he who started the local chevra kadisha meaning Society of Holiness that

was the

burial brotherhood. In 1888 there was a small Jewish religious

community of 338

members and in 1930 they had only 270 members. In the period of the

second World War in 1942, they deported all the Jews and also the rabbi,

Ergon

Adler.
The synagogue in Hanusovce was made out of wood and there are very few

of

these that survived. In the year 1850 the mayor of the Jewish

community was

Bertran ben Zion who built a new synagogue. The Hanusovce town de Juffe

donated a

piece of land and also 5,000 dehal and 50 florins (?). To build a

synagogue they

also need donations >from bigger Jewish community in Saros County. The

synagogue was demolished during the second World War but we know >from the

walls that

were surrounding the synagogue that it was 8.5 by 11 meters. It was

similar to

the synagogue in SarisskeLuky (Sebes Kellemes). It had a beautiful

facade 5-6

steps 3 meters long, etc.

In 1941 some crazy engineering student, seduced some workers to burn

down

the synagogue. Here there is also a Jewish synagogue 40 x 45 meters.

It had

a special wall entry and the new cemetery has a separate entry. Al the
stones are oriented to the east and the cemetery is right in the city.

It is not

destroyed at all. The old people >from Hanusovce remember the Yeshiva

where the

bochar were studying to be the rabbis. So here is a word calling the

Synagogue

Buzsna. Buzsna is a Polish or Ruthenian word. It means that the Jews

had

to come either >from Poland or >from the area of the Ruthenians because

it is

not a Slovak expression, no a Jewish expression. The Director is saying
something very interesting. The local dialect has a lot of words coming

from

Ruthenian, Polish, German and even, English. Certain food dishes they

call

"dinnerAmerica" and this comes >from dinner because they had a lot of

people who emigrated

to American, made money and came back to buy a piece of land. They mixed

the

English they learned with local dialect.

The book says that as the Jewish community was growing they had their
shochet (kosher butcher). So they had a Yeshiva, kosher butcher and a

mikva.

So now I have in my hands a private book that a local man wrote about

the

history of Hanusovce and his memories of the city. He was not Jewish

and

he was not any big friend of the Jews. His name was Andre Skrinak and his

book

is called The Truth of Hanusovce, a History of a City, written in 1995,

the

time of the 50th anniversary of the end of the second World War. There

is a

section about the Jews which I will translate for you. H says that all

the shops

were in the hands of the Jews who pushed out all the others >from the

shops,

even the Hungarianized Christians. According to the census of the 14th

century,

there were two Jewish families living in Hanusovce. But the new

Czechoslovak

Republic was such a tolerant place, much better than the surrounding

countries,

that many Jews moved there. Hanusovce had a very strong Jewish center

with a rabbi,

synagogue, and a Yeshiva high school. The shops were divided in such a

way

that they wouldn't compete one with another. Not only the businesses

but also

the life of our ancestors (meaning the Christians) they had in their

hands!

This we can easily prove >from the information about their occupations:

Lefkovich, Maximilian Notary
Dr. Greenstein Voiteck Medical doctor
Altman, Mark Apothecary
Unitan, Alvin Rabbi
Bloomfield, Jacov Textile business
Friedman, Nathaniel Mixed goods shop
Friedman, David Educational tools
Friedman, Yoshe Agent
Gottesman, Samuel Agent
Ziebler, Moricz Mixed goods shop
Licht, Elgan Furs
Wall, Alexander Curing herbs
Wall, Adar (called Schmuel) Inn/Restaurant
Miller, Salamon Iron
Neuman, Izaak Butcher
Schachner, William Eggs
Schonfeld, Leopold Greens
Gutman, Ladislav Mixed goods
Zipser, Frankiczech Restaurant (the pub still exists)
Zerholtz, Alexander Real estate
Hindeman, Ladislav Cows and cutlery
Cohn, Ludwig Goldsmith

The poor Jews were apprentices but none of them ever worked in the

fields.

Rosenwasser Alexander was involved in the fields but to such a great

extent that he could be called a "great" farmer or someone who is running

a lot

of agricultural businesses. Bieder and Neuman were tailors. Chaim

(unfortunately I don't know his second name) was fixing shoes. Ladomer

had 16 children

and he was just schlepping around with a buggy behind his very skinny and

poor

horse. He was buying old clothing. I can't put the entire list of the

Jews in the period of the First

Republic of Masaryk. But at this time there were at least 20 person who

were Jewish

living in Hanusovce. They were not the poorest ones, however some of

the local

Christians looked down on them. According to the Masaryk First

Republic,

everyone had to go to school. That was the law. First four years and

then the Ministry decided six years which was the elementary education.

In the 19th century Hanusovce somehow was no longer considered to be a

city; it was considered to be a village. Their economy was based on

agriculture.

But they had one big plus and it was the Notary because the Notary was

working

for 40 villages and that is almost like a county. The Notary had power

in the

19th century. He made sure that your signature was your signature,

that

papers were original papers, He was recording all the marriages, the

metrics, and

practically all the census. He was the one who had to stamp and seal

every civil record, as well as all synagogue records.

Marian: Another thing I am thinking about is about my Huebschman

ancestors

and where they lived after they were married. My great, great

grandfather,

Moses Huebschman, born in Hanusovce, married Rachel Friedman >from Circ

and he

moved to that town with the wife's family. And again, his son, Marcus,

married

Marie Glueck, and he moved around a lot before he emigrated to Cleveland,

but he

also moved to the towns of his wife's family which at that point was

Sarisske

Luky.

Sylvie: This is a typical classic thing because every Jewish boy has to
study. He has to learn. When he marries, he typically goes to the house
of her parents and the parents support the two young people, either

because

he has to study or else he will inherit the business of the wife's father.

So

most of the men moved to the family of the bride.

Marian: Another question. How did people travel? By boat on the

rivers?

By horse?

Sylvie: The Director is telling me that Hanusovce is actually on the
crossroad of four passes and the main business roads are the road going

north to

Poland and the road going to the Ukraine. This is why . >from Presov it

is about

25 km and that is the distance a horse can travel without being

terribly

exhausted. After about 25 km you have to feed and water them and let

them sleep so

where would they go? To an inn. This is why the Jews had the inns like

your

ancestors. The horses were taken care of and the travelers slept and

ate

at the inn.

So how did they travel? With horse and buggy or on horses. And they

also

traveled in the Post trucks. In the 19th century, there was a big

wooden

truck, four horses, and one section would be for people to travel and

another

section would be for the postal letters and packages. Like in America,

stagecoaches which was the post also. Again about the inns, or Korcsma,

the count owns

it and rents it to a Jew. The Jews is running production of the

alcohol, the

production of soda water (a very old thing). He doesn't have it only as

a

restaurant but also as an inn with rooms, stables for the horses - a

total

cavaransari like in Turkey. He serves food and is very independent from

the Jewish community. He is not viewed by the leaders of the Jewish

community

as a "righteous Jew" because he was often open on Saturday because he

deals all

the time with gentiles, etc. >from this inn, later it converts to the

post

office which has horses and also an inn and a restaurant. And then the

same

building converts to the post office exclusively.

mod. - There are many forms of anti-Semitism. After all, the concept, if

not the term, has been around for several thousand years. Andre Skrinak in

his

book called The Truth of Hanusovce, a History of a City, written in 1995,

exhibits an overt form of verbal

anti-Semitism (see above). There are more subtle forms of anti-Semitism. I

would like to point out two statements made

WITHOUT MALICE that INADVERTENTLY exhibit this more genteel form of

anti-Semitism. However, before I do, I would like to

state that just as it is possible to witness expressions of

anti-Semitism

without Jews (as Poland is often time accused), it is also possible to
express anti-Semitic statements without being an anti-Semite. This can
happen when the culture in which one lives has absorbed anti-Semitic
stereotypes, information and falsehoods. For example: 1. "In the period

of

the second World War in 1942, they deported all the Jews and also the

rabbi, Ergon Adler." In 1942 it was possible for

those who were there to state that the Jews were deported. By 1945, the

war

was over and the Jews didn't return; they knew, by then, that they had

been murdered, not just deported. I

have heard >from people in various parts of Eastern Europe, in responding

to the probing question of what ultimately happened to the deported Jews,

the

chilling response that they all left for America and Israel. That is one

way to avoid culpability in the matter of the murder of the Jewish

population

of Hanusovce, not to mention, a satisfactory method of legitimizing the

theft

of all their property.

Disconcerting statement number 2: "The synagogue was demolished during

the

second World War." Followed by the statement: "In 1941 some crazy
engineering student, seduced some workers to burn down the synagogue."

I

can accept the latter sentence, even though all societies try to blame
aberrant behavior within their midst by defining the offending person as
insane, how does a crazy student seduce workers to burn down the

synagogue? The answer is simple - lawlessness against Jews and their

institutions

were permitted by the authorities. And what is worse, the other residents

of

Hanuscovce who were not crazy and were not workers allowed them

to do it. There is no record of the populace trying to stop them or even

to attemt to douse the flames once the fire started. More startling are

the

words of the preceding sentence, "The synagogue was demolished during the

second

World War". Why was it demolished? Was it in the way of a proposed
superhighway? Did the authorities try to move the building first, prior

to

demolishing? Did the Jewish population object? No, they were already

gone

or confined. Did the non-Jewish residents object? There is no record of

such

a protest. LS
--

--
Marian Brown
Cincinnati, Ohio

Searching SLOVAKIA: GLUECK, Hazlin/Kohanovce/Kurima/Bardejov/Sarisske Luky

Cleveland, OH 1879; HUEBSCHMAN, Circ/Hanusovce nad Toplou/Presov,Sarisske
Luky >
Cleveland, OH 1879; HEIMOWITZ, Lemesany > Cleveland, OH 1873; HOLSTEIN,
Kosice/Rozhanovce > New York, NY 1887; LISSAUER, Budulov, Janok, Peder,
Kosice >
Oklahoma/Texas 1883; NEWMAN, Bohdanovce, Licartovce, Presov > Cleveland, OH
1873; PAUKER/PARKER, Dravce/Spisska Nova Ves; TURK, Turna nad Bodvou,
Bodrogkeresztur, Sarospatak, Satoraljaujhely > Oklahoma 1879; ZINNER,
Huncovce,
Dravce, Spisska Nova Ves > New York City & Oklahoma 1895