Verona Giňová
Verona Giňová (born 1899, Kurima, Bardejov district – died 1992, Rokycany), mother of Andrej Giňa.[1] His father was Giňová’s second husband who brought her from her birthplace in the parish of Kurima to Šarišské Sokolovce, formerly known as Tolčemeš. Verona Giňová had a son Karol with her first husband, who became father of the writer Ilona Ferková, and two sons with her second husband.
[1] See his testimony in the database.
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Testimony abstract
Verona Giňová’s husband was a blacksmith and a musician. She helped him in the forge – working up the bellows, pounding with a hammer. There were five or six houses in Tolčemeš, all inhabited by Roma. They all made their living as musicians. Verona Giňová remembered the new house, built of unfired bricks and furnished, the only Roma house to have a wooden floor. She described how the priest who, amazingly, spoke the Roma language, came to sit with them.
Giňová remembered that when the war started, the Slovaks mocked them: “The Germans will murder you! The Germans don’t like gypsies!” The Giňas, like all the other Roma families, had to demolish their house on the order of the gendarmes and move three kilometres away from their parish, where they survived to the end of the war in emergency shelters. Verona Giňová’s husband continued to work there as a blacksmith, Slovaks coming to him from the parishes of Jakubovany and Hubovce.
Verona Giňová soon left with her family for Bohemia, first for Prague where her son Karol lived, and then for Rokycany, where they settled. Before they left, her husband gave his blacksmith’s tools to Ema, his daughter by his first marriage. But after a while Ema sold the tools and went to join them.
How to cite abstract
Abstract of testimony from: HÜBSCHMANNOVÁ, Milena, ed. “Po židoch cigáni.” Svědectví Romů ze Slovenska 1939–1945.: I. díl (1939–srpen 1944). 1. Praha: Triáda, 2005. ISBN 80-86138-14-3, 114-116 (ces), 117-119 (rom). Testimonies of the Roma and Sinti. Project of the Prague Forum for Romani Histories (Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences), https://www.romatestimonies.com/testimony/verona-ginova (accessed 5/8/2024) -
Origin of Testimony
Verona Giňová was already ill when interviewed for the last time in 1987; her hearing was bad, and her state of health did not allow more detailed questioning into her memories of the war.
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Where to find this testimony
