Pollak family papers

Vera Pollak Markbreit was born on March 19, 1932 in Liptovsky Svaty Mikulaš, Czechoslovakia. She is the youngest daughter of Valeria Kuffler Pollak and Albert (Bela Vojtech) Pollak. The oldest of the Pollak children is Rudolf Pollak, b. 1923, Albert’s son from his first marriage to Ilona Farkas, the second son: Pavel Uri Pollak was born in October 1934. Albert Pollak owned a hardware and sports store in town. On March 14, 1939 Slovakia became a separate state under the leadership of Jozef Tiso. In the summer of 1941anti-Jewish legislation was introduced and Jews were not allowed to own businesses. Albert Pollak found an “Aryanizer” who became the official storeowner, but in fact Albert continued to manage his store. The Pollak family lived in relative comfort until the “Slovak National Uprising” and the German occupation of the region. Albert prepared a hiding place in the forest for his wife and two younger children. The hopes for a quick liberation by the Soviets were not realized and as winter approached, Albert rented a room in a nearby village. Albert was arrested and Valeria Pollak sent her two children Paul, who was 9 years old and Vera, who was 11 years old, to a hiding place together with their older half-brother Rudolf. Valeria herself hid in the mountains. Liptovsky Svaty Mikulaš was liberated in April 1945 and the children were reunited with their mother, who in the meantime reopened the family store. Albert Pollak survived Sachsenhausen concentration camp and a two-week long death march to Lübeck and returned to his hometown. The communists won the elections in 1948 and the Pollak business was confiscated. The family decided to immigrate to Israel and settled in Azor. Albert opened a store, which is till today in the family. Albert Pollak died in 1961; his wife Valeria died in 1992. Vera Pollak married Istvan Moshe Markbreit; they have two sons: Eitan and Dani and six grandchildren: Hadas, Ayelet, Tami, Oren, David and Yael. Moshe Markbreit died in 1998; Vera Markbreit resides in Azor, Israel.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Vera Markbreit

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Vera Markbreit donated the Pollak family papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2000.