The Community

February 1942.

Survivors are printed in green color.

 About some families.
The center square in Giraltovce was the place where the monthly market was set up in tents and the peasants from G.and the surrounding area gathered there to buy and sell goods starting with candies and ending with horse trading.
This was the site where an occasional visiting circus erected their huge tent.
Around this square lived about 20 Jewish families. Four of them had common family roots:

1. Gruenwald - They owned a two story building. They rented parts of it to 4 tenants: (Wahrman, Kepf, Blitz and Zajac). They ran a grocery store. The head of the family Elchanan devoted himself to studies of the Talmud. His brother Abraham Moshe wrote a book "The Uncle" about the family and the Jewish life between 1910 and 1950. I had the privilege to translate this valuable book from Hungarian into Hebrew.

2. Stark - had a pub. Their house included a big room. This served for gymnastics and other activities of the Sokol organization. Occasionally, that hall was used for dance balls, theater plays ("purimspiels") etc. There was a bowling
alley behind the main building. There was a small building where they used to bottle beer.
     
3. Lichtenstein - Built a flour mill, a saw mill and an electric plant, which supplied electricity to the town.
They ran also a farm. 
The elder son, Izidor Lichtenstein -Ivan Lana, my father, also owned a flour mill, a saw mill and an electric plant in nearby Marhan. The family offered work and housing to 14 families. The property was taken by the Fascist and later by the communist regime. Until today all claims for restitution were refused.

 4. Lichtig - had a grocery and  small farming.

In the houses of an abandoned farm situated on a hill called "The Mayer" lived several Jewish families, mainly workmen. Between them was the bakery of  Mendlovic. The housewifes used to send there  their "cholent" on Fridays. Saturday before noon the kids brought the hot pots with this aromatic dish home for a main dish on Shabat. Mendlovic attended meetings of Talmud studies and kept also a "cheder" for the youth. Another "cheder" on the Mayer was managed by Yidl Deutsch.

Deutsch - was the cantor and the ritual slaughterer of the community. The only survivor of this family was Jankel, who fought with the partisan troops. He was the only Jew who stayed in G. after the war until his death.
Two of his sons Jozef, a physician and Mirko, a veterinarian live and work in G. until today.




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