Anna Hindl Strelinger

Anna, the wife of my great-grandfather Kalman Strelinger, lived after the early death of her husband in Mala Stiavica, in a long wooden house next lo what was then the distillery, on the path next to the stream. She lived in abject poverty, but she did raise her nine children, which then grew to form an impressive, but also a respected family in Liptau. She died of cholera in 1830 and was buried in the vicinity, up in the valley on the mountain slope, since she died of a contagious disease and thus could not be transported to [the Jewish cemetery in Svaty MikuIas. I had her grave and her headstone fixed up and everything remained well kept. After her burial, this area began to be used as a Jewish cemetery. As a child, I remember seeing there 40-50 Mazewas [gravestones] . The transport of the dead to Svaty Mikulas really was quite a laborious undertaking, because of the distance, and so Jews were buried at this location instead. The headstones began to list after awhile though, since they were set on a slope to begin with, or they began to break because they were made of such cheap material - these pieces then slid down the slope to the wet base and then disappeared into it over the decades. Of all the Mazevas, now only the oldest one stands — that of my great-grandmother, which I had had anchored in the cement mound over the grave. According to my blessed father, in 1851 when this Mazeva fell just as the others had, her children got together and redug the entire gravesite themselves. The traces of this grave can still be seen today.

by Dr. samuel Strelinger, Budapest, 1948.

Jewish cemetary could not be found in Liptovska Stiavnica, June 2009. (Daniel Zur)