Anna Világiová

* 1956

  • "In the summer of 1968, I was on vacation with my aunt in Liptovský Mikuláš. That morning, my aunt turned on the radio, where they were already talking about the fact that we had been attacked and that there would be a war. We all jumped out of bed, shaking and wondering what was going on. My parents, who were in Bratislava at the time, did not know what to do with me. There were no mobile phones at that time, so my mother called my aunt on a landline to get me on the train. Put me – 12 years old on the train? Apparently, nothing else can be done, because nobody travels to Bratislava. So they put me on a full train, which was definitely packed, and I went alone to Bratislava. The train was so full that I stood on one leg in it – everything was running away. After that, my mother was waiting for me at the station in Bratislava. I remember sticking my head out of the window and waving to her that I'm here, I'm here. We were very afraid that there would be a war, I still remember that day."

  • "Recently, I read an article that a certain Adam Fiačan – that was my grandfather's name, also helped the Jews. I don't know exactly which one it was, because there are several Fiačan families in Galovany. My mother mentioned to me that they also helped and hid – I don't know if Jewish families or partisans, but they helped a lot. She also told me how she used to carry bread up the mountain – she had acquaintances everywhere – at the offices, she also knew the policemen, because she worked at the Kriváň Hotel, and they used to meet at the stamp shop there, so she had everyone caught up in that way." "The help you mentioned was probably a partisan, because you said she carried bread to the mountain." "Yes, they baked bread at night and mom got a permit because there was a night-to-morning curfew. She took a bottle to the office – she always knew how to arrange something like this, and she did it often when she was young. She was given permission to move outside during the ban, they took a wagon and loaded it with bread, which they took to the partisans in the forest."

  • "When we stopped at the border in Berg, they were already checking us. We had to open our suitcases, they looked for money somewhere and asked us why we were traveling and where. When we were coming back, the same thing again – we opened our suitcases and looked at what we were bringing. I once brought five pullovers from Italy. They let me off the train with my suitcase and took me to customs, where they cleared two sweaters for me, saying that I had extra. So I paid customs there, I don't remember how much it was, for two extra pullovers. It was horrible. And then, when we arrived with the train at the main station in Bratislava – it was dark everywhere, everything was gloomy and unlit, no illuminated advertisements, bars closed, but simply terrible. And when you went to the store, they had almost nothing in it. I remember standing in line with a bag full of glass bottles and there were empty shelves everywhere - nothing compared to what's available in stores these days. It was horrible."

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    Bratislava, 10.10.2023

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    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the 20th century
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As editors working in the period of normalization, we felt what could be published and what could not

Anna Világiová, née Benediková, was born on February 11, 1956 in Liptovský Mikuláš. Both of her parents - mother Anna, unmarried Fiačanová, and father Dezider worked in the field of gastronomy and hotel management in the well-known Liptov hotels Hotel Kriváň and Hotel Európa. Until the age of 12, Anna lived with her family in Liptovský Mikuláš, where she also attended elementary school in Palúdzka. In 1967, she and her family moved to Bratislava, where she continued her studies at Thelmanova Elementary School. After failing to get into the prestigious Metodova gymnasium in Bratislava due to a bad staff report and lack of free capacity, she started studying at the gymnasium in Pezinok, where she commuted daily. As a high school student, she spent summer vacations with her sister in the south of Italy during the socialist era. After completing her high school studies, she completed a two-year additional study at the Central Library School in the years 1975 – 1977, where she studied archival science. She found her first job in the editorial office of the weekly newspaper Express, where she took up the position of archivist-documentarian. As a researcher and editor of foreign news, she regularly encountered censorship in the editorial office during the period of normalization. In 1988, she married Attila Világi, with whom she has two children – son Lukáš and daughter Simona. As a result of the post-revolutionary reorganization of the weekly newspaper Express, she had to end her maternity leave early and join the newly formed editorial office of International Express. After the demise of the weekly International Express, she worked for a while as an interpreter in the private sector. In 2007, she started a business specializing in the import of designer resin flower pots from Italy. He is still engaged in this activity today.