Items from the 1940s, allegedly belonging to a Jewish family that was deported to a Nazi concentration camp during the World War II Holocaust, have recently been discovered in the attic of a Slovakian home, more than 70 years later.

The dust-encrusted, visibly aged stash, which contained items like jewelry boxes, documents, old newspaper clippings, cutlery, letters, a Jewish songbook, etc. were recovered from a damp attic by handyman, Imrich Girasek, while trying to help his neighbours fix their leaky roof.

The discovered items are believed to belong to the family of Samuel Gottschall, a Jewish prayer leader, who together with his family was deported to a concentration camp in 1942.

“We have gone through the material and compared the photographs with historic photos from our archives, It would appear that the items belonged to the family of Jewish Neolog cantor (prayer leader) Samuel Gottschall,” said Gita Eckhausová, head of Presov's Jewish Religious Community, who Girasek turned to for assistance.

“According to our research, the people pictured in the photographs are Gottschall and his family, but we can't be 100 percent certain.”

Mr Girasek sought the help of the city's Museum of Jewish Culture, hoping that the family can be identified, and the items handed over to their present day relatives, after the homeowners of the attic in which the items were found indicated no interest in taking possession of them.

“The owners of the house weren't interested in the things, but I couldn't bring myself to simply throw them away,” Girasek told the Daily Mail.

'It would make me happy to know that the things had been passed on to people close to the family who used to own them,' he added.

Among the collection were wedding pictures and family portraits, all in black and white color.

Samuel Gottschall can be seen in one of the family portraits standing next to 5 kids, who appear to belong to him, together with a middle-aged lady flanking them at the far left, who is most likely his wife.

Another of the photo features a row of 6 men standing at the back, while the man believed to be Mr. Gottschall sat at the front, with 3 ladies flanking him by the side.

Among the documents found, is one containing photos and names of college graduates, that also featured Gottschall’s name and picture within.

“Other documents found in the attic are written in German, Hungarian, Yiddish and Hebrew, and several bear the surname Gottschall, including newspaper clippings and a songbook and musical scores signed by Samuel Gottschall,” as Daily Mail published.

Girasek, who found the items lying around open suitcases in the attic, believes that the stash was tampered with, with the precious jewelry and valuable artifacts among the lot looted.

"I believe the things were initially stored in the suitcases and then hidden in the attic, but that somebody searching for valuables must have taken them out and left them lying about," Mr Girasek said.

"The jewelry boxes were all empty. Somebody must have stolen the jewelry years ago."

As it has been reported, back in 1942, in the wake of the deportation of the city's Jews, several families stowed away their personal items in secret locations, perhaps just as Samuel Gottschall did, with hopes that they will return back home to their collections however, sadly, most of them never did.

Lubica Tatranska, a female worker at the City’s museum who is in charge of the restoration of historic items, said: 'Everything is dirty and dusty. The Jews used to hide their personal and valuable things before they were deported.

'Most of them thought they were going to labour camps and would eventually return.'

Being an ally of Nazi Germany, Slovakia used to supply the Nazi with workforce, but at the point when they could not reach their promised supply numbers, they resorted to augmenting with 10,000 to 20,000 deported Slovak Jews.

It is very likely that the family of Mr. Gottschall, as well as several other Jewish families, were sent off and never to return in this manner.

The Jewish population in present day in Slovakia is severely small, standing at a mere 4,000, as compared to the over 136,000 Jews scattered over the country back then.

In Presov, the third largest city in Slovakia, some 6,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps between 1942 and 1945.

Only 800 people returned to the city after the war and many of them later emigrated, often to the US, Australia, Israel and the UK, a Daily Mail report tells.

Resource

• Daily Mail

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