![]() Benjamin and his brother went to his sister's usual hiding place: a compartment that was covered by a pile of lumbar to simply look like a heap of wood. However, one evening, they did not have enough time to disperse. The local Hlinka guard had a list of where the Jewish families lived if they requested them, someone from the office would inform the families that a deportation was going to happen. Throughout the years of 1941 - 1943, the Benjamin's sisters, mother, and brother each had hiding separate spots that they would go to when they heard of a roundup/deportation. When the transport left, he left through the front gate. “It was a good place to hide in the big garden.” He was there all night. He landed in the backyard of the gendarme station. There was a five foot wall that he began to climb using a tree branch, and some of the other Jews helped him over the wall. He was taken into the courtyard of the district office where more local Jews were being rounded up. The first time, Ben was caught on the street by a gendarme who knew he was Jewish. In his hometown, Benjamin narrowly escaped being sent to a concentration camp on multiple occasions. Benjamin recalled the various ways people avoided deportation, such as acquiring fake baptismal records from the local Church. It wasn’t smart to do because it said she was still Jewish. ![]() Her new papers said she was younger than 16. Benjamin's sister, Maria Weinburger, who had just turned 16, attained fake papers and was re-named Eva Blau. A few months later, all men of the same age had to report to a labor camp. "The collection of Jews was usually done at night and they gave you 15 minutes to pack what you wanted."īy spring of 1942, in March, all girls and ladies age 16 - 35 are to report and be taken to a labor camp. no more than two Jews could walk together in the streets in the town of Michalovce). The deportations of families started in 1942 in Benjamin's town. With these came seven o'clock curfews and more restrictions on the Jews and their social lives (i.e. That I was different." In 1941 all Jews were ordered to wear a yellow armband to identify themselves as Jewish, but a year later the identification became the familiar yellow Star of David stitched to the outside of all clothing. I had to be politically aware, at all times, that I am Jewish. “I skipped over the childhood years because I really didn’t have any childhood years. "You Cease to be a Child": Benjamin's Struggle in his Hometown Stores began to be Aryanized Jews were forced to give up jewelry, radios, and furs but, "the Jews were hoping they would survive." At this time, Jewish people were being dehumanized and removed from civil services. In "1940 or 41" Ben Wayne recalls going to school one day and not being allowed to enter The Gymnasium because of his Jewish Heritage. He began to notice changes in his own neighborhood one woman was an outspoken anti-Semite and had her two sons enlist in the SS. This group would eventually become the first Slovakian SS group known as the Hlinka Guard.Ī patrol of the paramilitary Hlinka Guards in the streets. There was a rise of Slovakian nationalism that had the same anti-Semitic foundations of the Nazis. In 1939, Slovakia broke away from the Czech Republic, and became a protectorate of the Reich and ally of Hitler. This ultimately led to him being removed from his Jewish culture by the local Rabbis, who claimed he was a bad influence. He passed the exam, and began taking classes 6 days a week, forcing him to work on the Sabbath. In 1937, at the age of 10, he took an entrance exam for an institution called "The Gymnasium." The Gymnasium allowed European students to gain 8 years of education with two years of college credit deemed acceptable in America. The death of his father at the age of seven did not stop him from pushing on. Benjamin noted a strong anti-Antisemitism that existed where he grew up before the Nazi influence came into Slovakia. In his words, he was "easily identified as a Jew." On his way to school, he would often encounter other kids throwing stones at him. Because of his Hasidic Jewish heritage, he wore a cap and had his hair styled as a crew cut with the traditional sideburns hanging down. Nonetheless his education continued, and he started Hebrew school at the age of five. In his home, they had only a well, but no electricity or running water. "I do not blame any generation of today for what happened." - Benjamin Wayneīenjamin Wayne, was born on July 6th 1927 as Vojtech Weinberger, in Michalovce, Czechoslovakia.
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