1. An only child in Prešov

Oskar Štaub--today Oscar Sladek--is born into a Europe that is rapidly changing. The democracies of the interwar period are increasingly turning towards authoritarianism, and nationalism is on the rise. In Germany, Adolf Hitler has come to power as the leader of Germany’s Nazi party. Antisemitism—framed in economic, political, and racial contexts—is increasingly common. In eastern Slovakia, the virulently racist antisemitism that Hitler’s regime would spread has yet to take hold, but long before Hitler’s emergence there is evidence of antisemitism in largely Catholic Slovakia. For example, in the fifteenth century Jewish merchants were banned from settling in the city of Prešov to ensure they could not compete with local businesses. It was not until the late eighteenth century that the ban was lifted. Despite this history of discrimination—which was not uncommon in Central and Eastern Europe—Jews in Slovakia in the early 1900s lived in relative freedom: they were able to practice their religion and had equal political rights with their non-Jewish neighbors. Jewish communities could be found in urban centers and in rural areas; Slovak Jews spoke Slovak, German, Hungarian, or Yiddish—or all of these languages—and engaged in a variety of trades and professions. According to a 1930 census, there were 136,737 Jewish persons living in Slovakia. And in 1928, a museum documenting the history of Slovak Jews was even opened in Prešov.

On their family radio in 1939, Oscar hears the announcer talk about the German army marching on Prague. He also hears his parents discussing Hitler and his hatred for the Jewish people. Gradually, the influence of many of the antisemitic and fascist beliefs of Hitler’s government, the National Socialist Worker’s Party, begin to make their way into Oscar’s everyday life in Prešov, as the new Slovak government curtails democratic freedoms and pursues an anti-Jewish agenda.