They Lived Among Us III (2024)

The exhibition “Žili medzi nami III / They Lived Among Us III” was presented in the Cultural House in Namestovo from 22 September to 3 November 2024. It was the third exhibition in a series through which the civic association Pamätaj (Remember) returns the history of the Jewish community of Upper Orava to public memory. Several years of research were summarised in 18 banners presenting the histories of important families, personalities and rabbis – approximately four rabbinic families and five families murdered by the Gestapo in 1944/1945. The exhibition did not show only victims: using photographs, archival documents, family trees, letters, maps, testimonies and cemetery research it reconstructed wider family histories – relatives, descendants, homes, graves, places and personal stories. Admission was free of charge.

The exhibition was opened by Karol Kurtulík, chair of Pamätaj, and Richard Duda, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Slovakia. Speeches were also given by guests from Switzerland, England, the Netherlands and Israel – among the main speakers was Dr. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, a direct descendant of the eminent rabbi Duschinsky. Visitors could also view a publication about the last rabbi of Namestovo, Jozef Reich, by Karol Kurtulík and Lucia Zuštiaková. The opening featured a small chamber trio, followed by a concert of opera singers and the Kaschaer Klezmer Band.

Symposium

The exhibition continued with a symposium. Historians Ivan Kamenec and Madelaine Vadkerty presented their topics, and the closing lecture was given by Prof. Johanan Friedman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, joined online by his students and followers from England and America. His story shows the human meaning of the project: as the grandson of murdered members of the Klein family, he was able – after decades in which the burial place was unknown to the family – to place a stone at the grave of his grandparents, and he saw photographs of relatives whom the family believed had left no surviving images.

Concerts

The exhibition closed with a performance by the Neuschl chamber orchestra conducted by Daniel Simandl, together with the Banská Bystrica madrigalists and soloists Ivana Kurtulíková (soprano), Karol Kurtulík (tenor), Andrea Nemcová (alto) and Jaroslav Pehal (bass). In the evening, Mozart’s Requiem in D minor was performed in the Namestovo church.

Lecture by Dr. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky – 4 November 2024

Dr. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, whose great-grandfather Bernard Duschinsky was rabbi in Namestovo between 1867 and 1918 and whose grandfather was born there, had never visited Slovakia and did not plan to do so – yet he accepted Pamätaj’s invitation. He is an academic, analyst and political consultant who survived the Holocaust as a small child by fleeing this region, and a graduate of the City of London School and the University of Oxford. He arrived accompanied by the consul of the United Kingdom, and the visit took place in the year of the United Kingdom’s presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). At the Anton Bernolák Grammar School he gave a lecture to around 100 students on “Memory, hope and youth at a time of crisis” – at the students’ request entirely in English. After returning home he published an article about his impressions of Slovakia and Namestovo in The Jewish Chronicle.

Visit of 5 November 2024 – Orava, Žilina and Bratislava

At the invitation of Pamätaj, Dr. Pinto-Duschinsky visited the restored Jewish cemetery in Namestovo נאמעסטאווא and the exhibition They Lived Among Us III, which maps the history of the former Jewish community, including his ancestors. In Namestovo he met mayor Ján Kader and other town representatives, viewed several Stolpersteine memorial stones and visited the Anton Bernolák Grammar School, where he shared his story with the students. In Trstená, where his great-grandfather also served, he met mayor Magdaléna Zmarzláková and her team and visited the former synagogue. In the New Synagogue in Žilina he met Pavel Frankl, chair of the local Jewish community, and together they visited the Vrba–Wetzler memorial room. His journey continued to Bratislava, where he met leading political figures.

Impact and follow-up

Through the They Lived Among Us exhibition series, Pamätaj has established contacts with more than 50 descendants of Jewish families from Upper Orava now living in Australia, Israel, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and the United States. Many remain in contact, visit, and contribute family archives and photographs. School discussions connected with the project – including talks by Dr. Pinto-Duschinsky and Prof. Friedman – reached approximately 200 students. The project also led to cross-border cooperation: Pamätaj helped the Polish project "Ludzie, nie liczby" (People, Not Numbers), led by Dariusz Popiela, with the names of victims, and took part in the unveiling of the memorial to the Jews of Upper Orava, victims of the Holocaust, at the Podwilk Jewish cemetery on 28 May 2025.

In the media:
The Jewish Chronicle – Visiting my ancestral home of Slovakia has given me hope amid post-Holocaust desolation
MY Orava (SME) – the story of a family commemorated through a Stolperstein (in Slovak)