At the end of 1944, dramatic events occurred in the village Skalna. You are standing in a place where there used to be a farm belonging to the family of Pavol and Anna Imrich who had five children at the time. The Imrich family risked their lives by hiding a Jewish family about to be transported to a concentration camp. These were some members of the Honig family from the nearby Malý Lipník village. In this place, Jety and Emanuel and their two sons, Moritz and Simon were hiding. Both sons and their brothers Ernest and Josef, were members of the local resistance movement. However, somebody reported their hiding place and as a result, an SS commando arrived at the farm. During the raid, the SS surrounded the farm and searched it. Moritz and Simon Honig were hiding in a hayloft down the hill from the house, in a special wooden crate buried under a heap of hay (their parents, Jety and Emanuel were not at the farm at the time). You can listen to Moritz and Simon talking about their experiences in the following video:
The SS commando set fire to the main barn and the sheds suspecting that the Jews they were looking for were hiding there. The barn filled with straw caught fire immediately and burned to the foundations. In spite of the threats to the whole family and the following arrest of Pavol Imrich, the Honig brothers were not discovered. „Miracles happen“. As the fire was burning, a strong wind from the east blew and diverted the flames away from the house and the hayloft. The fire was extinguished not only by the brave local citizens but also, mainly by „The Vertical“ that stepped into the story and intervened in the form of a strong wind.
This information board was installed here in 2019, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the event. A public meeting took place at the castle in Stará L’ubovňa under the title „The Eastern Wind Vertical“, where descendants of the Honig and Imrich families as well as other participants of the story met.
The Museum of L’ubovňa – The Castle in Stará L’ubovňa, deserve the highest gratitude for this memorial act.
Photo: The Imrich farm 2001
Photo: The Imrich family in 1949
Photo: Moritz and Simon Honig’s hiding place
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múzeum
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