AVIVA PAZ- (origin name- Goldberg)
AVIVA PAZ (origin name- Goldberg)
Father name - Moshe Goldberg
Mother name - Elena Goldberg
Sister name - Hava Goldberg
Origin: Slovakia
Husband: Yossi Paz
Places where Aviva was
Vidrnik (only her family, before Aviva was born)
Dolna Zdana
Kalishte
Spisska Nova Ves
Immigrant Camp ,Shaar Alia
Beit Lid
Haifa
Eilat
Nahariya
Ra’anana
Yavneh
Kfar Saba (until today, 2018)
Backround- Slovakia
After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1939, an independent Slovak state was established under the leadership of Catholic priest Jozef Tiso. Slovakia worked in full cooperation with Nazi Germany and was the first member of the Axis countries to agree to the deportation of Jews from its territory. Between March and October 1942, the Slovakian authorities concentrated 58,000 Jews in concentration and labor camps and from there deported the prisoners to death camps in Poland. The deportations ceased temporarily in the autumn of 1942, after more than 34,000 Jews had already been deported to their deaths.
At the end of August 1944, with the approach of the Red Army, the Slovak underground rebelled against Tiso's regine and the Germans intervened to suppress the revolt. The Germans renewed the deportations and another 12,600 Jews were deported to the death camps. Some 69,500 of the nearly 90,000 Slovakian Jews perished in the Holocaust.
Aviva Paz was born in 1944 in Dolna Zdana, Slovakia. Her story is the story of her family since she was only a year old when World War II ended.
Before the war
Aviva's family lived in Vidrnik, Hrabusice. Her father, Moshe Goldberger, was a bookkeeper in a sawmill and her mother, Elena, was a housewife.
The sawmill in Vidrnik
Her sister, Hava, three years her senior, attended a non-Jewish pre-school. When Aviva's mother became pregnant with her, she wanted to have an abortion but decided not to. It was necessary to find a hiding place for the baby which ended up saving the whole family. The townspeople where they resided were anti-semitic. They knew the family was Jewish so they demanded that Aviva's father wear a yellow patch when he came to work. As a result they moved to Dolna Zdana in the same area where no one knew they were Jewish. He became the owner of a sawmill, was a partisan and ran a radio station.
During the war
On the eve of Yom Kippur 1944, a policeman from the town of Dolna Zdana told Hava that the Germans were about to reach the town and blow up the bridge that was the only exit. That evening the family took a horse and cart and wandered north to the Tatras mountains, facing the town of Kalishte - a partisan stronghold. The family arrived at Kalishta around October 44 and hid in the forest above the town, in the bunkers they dug in the ground covered with leaves, from where they would go down to the village center to buy groceries.
Reconstruction of a bunker in kaliste
Aviva's father was with the partisans while Aviva and her grandmother, mother and sister stayed together. The Fascists came through the town from time to time. When they were not there, Aviva's family would go down and spend time with a 55-year-old widowed grocer who supplied food to the village. One day, four of Aviva's family members sat in the woman's basement and suddenly announced that there was a surprise raid by the Germans. Aviva's sister and grandmother looked like gentiles so the grocer dressed them up like the villagers so that they would not look Jewish. Aviva and her mother hid in a hayloft on the second floor. When the Germans arrived, they asked Hava where her parents were and she replied that her mother had died and her father was in the army as she had been taught so she would not be suspected of being a Jew. The Germans did not believe her and although they searched the second floor did not find Aviva and her mother who covered her mouth so she would not cry and tremble.
they spent about half a year In Kalishta from October 44 until the end of the war. On March 18, 1945, when the partisan stronghold of 42 houses was burned down by the Fascists Aviva’s family were hiding in the mountains and were saved. On 25.3.45 Russians and Romanians arrived and liberated the village - there was not much to save because everything had been burnt.
After the war
After the village was liberated by the Russians, Aviva's family set out to Dolna Zdana. The villagers who had known they were Jews sent them a horse and cart which brought them back quickly and safely. When they reached the village the townspeople asked them why they had not said they were Jews so they could hide them.
The family continued on their journey to Spisska Nova Ves, where they lived for 3 years while Aviva's father worked in a sawmill for three and a half years until '49. Aviva’s family decided to immigrate to Israel after Chava asked her parents what a Zeed (a Jew in Slovak) was. They realized that Chava's being Jewish had become a topic of conversation at school. They immigrated to Israel on the “Transylvania” ship that left from Romania (it is unknown how they reached Romania). Aviva remembers that they boarded the ship through a door in the side through a wooden bridge.
Life in israel
When the family arrived in Israel, they reached the port of Haifa and were taken to the Immigrant Camp ,Shaar Alia, where they were registered. At Shaar Alia, they lived in a tent. Aviva remembers that one day a tank entered Shaar Alia, an unusual event. Later, they moved to a hut (still at Shaar Alia), apparently because Aviva had hepatitis and they wanted to isolate her so she would not infect others. They lived there for six months. Aviva's family moved to Beit Lid.
Aviva met Yossi, Hava’s classmate, when she was 18. They started dating and married a year later. They have been married ever since - 56 years. After they married, they bought an apartment in Haifa in Ramat Shaul. Their eldest daughter, Deganit, was born a year later in 1963-4, and Sigalit was born around 1966. When Sigalit was six months old Yossi was stationed in Eilat on behalf of the army. They lived there for a while with Aviva's mother.
Aviva's first experience in Eilat was not very positive - Yossi had to report to the military base so Aviva was alone with a little girl and a baby. They lived in Eilat for two years, from 1967-70 (August) and then returned to Nahariya where they lived from 1970-1975. They then moved to Ra'anana because Yossi was stationed at the Kirya, 75-77. They then returned to Eilat for another two years, 75-79. then back to Nahariya from 79-87. Their name before the wedding was Goldberger, Yossi translated his family name,Pozner, to Paz because at the time, all the soldiers were required to translate their family names.
In 1987, the Paz family moved to Yavneh was known for its good educational system. They finally moved to Kfar Saba in 2006 Dganit, who lives in Kfar Saba, has a 24 year old son. Sigalit lives in Gitit and her third daughter lives in Givatayim.
Today, Aviva does not observe the customs of religion besides the Seder and Rosh Hashana.
Aviva and Yossi,went on two long roots trips to the area where Aviva grew up, each time with different members of the family. To their surprise, many of the townspeople remembered their family. They found birth records for Aviva’s entire family. In addition, they visited the houses in which Aviva lived and found that they had not changed at all. Even the sawmill where Aviva's father worked is still in operation. Aviva is still in contact with people her parents knew before the war. Aviva and Yossi support a school project in Slovakia where every year another class tends the Jewish cemetery in Kalishta as part of Holocaust remembrance.
Aviva and Yossi have 8 grandchildren aged 6-24, live in Kfar Saba and have the best relationship anyone could wish for.
After they immigrated to Israel, Aviva's grandparents continued to observe Jewish tradition - Aviva's grandmother fasted on Yom Kippur, lit candles, observed the Sabbath and held a Passover Seder. Aviva's mother continued to observe the tradition but less religiously - lit candles on Fridays held a Passover seder and Rosh Hashana and went to the synagogue from time to time.
