204
PART ISAN IU VIEW
were required
to
attend lectures by clergy. Wh en a Ca tho li c pri est came
to the school and lectured on the grea tn ess of J osef T iso, Silvia stood up
and said , " It 's no t true. All of my fa mil y d ied in th e wa r because of Tiso,
because of th e Ge rmans and beca use of th e Slova ks." Mos t o f the other
students we re ange red by this outburst and , feeling iso lated , Sil via walked
out of the room .
In
spite o f such in cidents, the J ews I talked to in
Bratislava had seen mo re J ewish life in the past four yea rs than at any time
since 1968, w hen , fo ll owing the Soviet invasio n o f Czechoslovaki a, most
of Slovaki an J ewry , includin g the last rabbi , emi grated . There is a wide
range of fi gures o n how many J ews li ve in Brati slava - between fi ve hun–
dred and a th ousand . Mo re seem to turn up all th e time as J ewish activi–
ties increase . Sin ce 1990, a J ewish Fo rum has met regul arly; it 's usual for
seve ral hundred parti cipants to ga the r to hea r spea kers o n subj ects of
J ewish interest.
Th e new fr eedom sin ce the fa ll of Communi sm mea ns d ifferent
things to different people . To some it means that you can say " N a Straz"
again. T o some it mea ns hav ing a J ewish Fo rum and fi ll ing th e largest hall
in Brati slava, some eight hundred sea ts, fo r a H anukka h program. To
Fero Al exa nder it has meant lea rning about his country fo r the first time.
His parents were Auschwitz survivo rs. His grandpare nts did no t survive.
His older bro ther was bo rn in Th eresienstadt. But hi s parents do not talk
about any o f thi s very mu ch . Fero has a passion fo r Slova kian fo lk music,
and he plays vio lin in a group that to urs dressed in trad iti o nal Slovakian
costumes. H e never th ought this was an odd thin g fo r a J ew
to
be doing
until after 1989, when an histo ri an spoke at th e J ewish Fo rum o n the his–
tory of th e Slova k state. Fe ro was shaken by thi s new info rmati on. "I
didn ' t know. I didn ' t as k. N ow th e situati o n is that I know what hap–
pened during the Slovak state and still
I 'm
here." H e asks and repeats the
questi o n as th o ugh speaking to himse lf, " Wh y am I here, play ing folk
music?"
Since 1989 abo ut fiv e Slo vak J ews have emi grated eac h year. For
many J ews the issue is no t so much their own future as the future of their
children. Sil via Kraus's fa ther, T omas Kraus, thinks bo th hi s daughters
should leave. But he w ill stay. After the fa ll of Commu nism he dropped
his ca ree r as a spo rts j o urn alist to start an impo rt-expo rt business. He be–
li eves capitalism has a future here. H e even recentl y res igned as president
of the J ewish Communi ty
to
give mo re time to his new business. But he
is determined that his da ughters w ill leave Slovak ia as soon as they fi nish
schoo!. Silvia says that she would at least li ke to do some specialty work in
Vienna. "Th en I w ill see," she sa id . Vi en na, an imposs ibl e wo rl d away
under Communism , now turns o ut to be a half-h o ur commute from
Bratislava. But no o ne o n a Slova ki an sa lary ca n affo rd to go there.
