A MEMOIR BY EMIL A. FISH

This book is a memoir of my life and the execution of a promise to preserve the Jewish heritage of my hometown Bardejov in Slovakia. Every Holocaust survivor thinks about the Holocaust, every single day, for the rest of their lives, even if only for a few minutes. I am no exception. When I left my childhood home of Bardejov, Slovakia, in 1949, I vowed I would never return to my native land. As a child survivor of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, with luck, my parents’ perseverance, and G-d’s blessing I lived to enjoy a prosperous, fulfilling life in the post-Holocaust world. In 2005, however, my children’s insistence to visit the places I had lived, studied, and prayed and connect with their vibrant Bardejov heritage convinced me to reconsider my vow. And so it was that after fifty-six years, I reluctantly returned to my hometown. I was shocked to find almost no viable evidence of Bardejov’s once-flourishing, centuries-old Jewish culture. Eighty percent of its prewar Jewish population had been killed during the Holocaust. The last words of many Holocaust victims of the Nazis before being murdered were “Do not forget us.” Following my visit in 2005 to my hometown Bardejov, Slovakia, I vowed to fulfill their request. Now I’m spending a big portion of my time educating the world about the Jewish Heritage in Europe, especially in Bardejov, prior to the holocaust.