My Nitra: A Family's Struggle to Survive in Slovakia

Hani (Helenka) Kraus was five years old when Slovakia became a client state of Nazi Germany and eleven when it was liberated by the Red Army. In her memoirs, she recalls the gripping story of her family intertwined with the fate of the entire community. She describes the family’s escape from the Nazis and the Guardsmen of the Slovakian Fascist regime, and their miraculous survival in hiding thanks to the assistance of their Slovak rescuers. More than once, the Krauses narrowly escaped capture and deportation. When Hani, her brother Benjamin and their parents returned to Nitra, they had to learn that most of the members of the once-thriving community had been murdered. With the help of the Zionist youth movement, they reconnected with other survivors and in 1949, she and her brother immigrated to Israel. She was fifteen at the time. Hani’s account is the story of a family that, under the threat of persecution and murder, formed an inseparable bond. It is also a testament to the good deeds of their Slovak rescuers who risked their own families’ lives to help a family they barely knew.