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[Page 28]
Toman's Background
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| Street in Sobrance, Slovakia |
The village is called Sobranz in German, Szobranc in Hungarian and Sobrance in Slovak; the hamlet is an old historic site located in the eastern part of Slovakia near Kosice and Uzhhorod that is now attached to Ukraine. The city is predominantly Slovak and Catholic. The first recorded presence of a Jew in the hamlet is in 1739. He was a distiller and named Marko Joseffovics. In 1746 another Jew moved into Sobrance by the name of Hersko Abrahamovics. The number of Jews increased with the Austro–Hungarian Empire seizing large parts of Poland notably Galicia. Galician Jews moved to Sobrance in large numbers. In 1780, the “Hevra Kadisha” was established in Sobrance. The synagogue was built in 1800, and by 1875 there were 345 Jews in Sobrance. The Jewish population grew rapidly and reached about 1500 people between the wars or about 25% of the population[1]. Most of the Jews were small traders, artisans and shopkeepers. The Jewish community was well organized and provided the religious and spiritual needs of the local Jews and those of the district. They also had many voluntary associations, namely a burial society, a relief society and a first aid society. The community of Sobrance was basically orthodox and had a synagogue, a mikvah or ritual bath, a Talmud Torah, a cemetery, and a rabbi. The language of instruction in the Talmud Torah was Hungarian. Following World War One, a Zionist movement emerged led by the Mizrahi or religious Zionist movement. The Aguda or very Orthodox anti–Zionist party dominated Jewish life. There was a sizable following of the Communist ideology amongst the educated Jewish youth. Life in Sobrance continued to flow at a leisurely rural pace and so did Jewish life. Events suddenly reached an explosive point when Germany demanded the Sudeten areas inhabited mostly by Czechs of German descent. Hitler made himself spokesman of the Sudeten residents. First he claimed that they were mistreated and then demanded autonomy for the Sudeten inhabitants[2]. He then demanded total independence for these areas. Hitler's demands knew no bounds.
Of course, Czechoslovakia refused to commit suicide and rejected the German demands. Hitler then threatened military action. England, France and Italy appeased Germany by granting Germany's wishes. On September 30, 1938, these four countries signed an agreement called the “Munich Agreement” whereby Czechoslovakia was forced to surrender the Sudeten areas to Germany. Czechoslovakia was totally bewildered and confused by the behavior of her so–called Allies and friends. Hitler barely digested his new territorial acquisition when he ordered the Wehrmacht or German Army to occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia on March 14, 1939. He was determined
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| Map of eastern Slovakia with Sobrance marked in yellow. The city is east of Presov, Kosice and Michalovce. It is on the border with Ukraine |
to obliterate the state of Czechoslovakia, and divided the country into three small states: the provinces of Moravia and Bohemia formed the Czech State ruled by Emil Hocha under German supervision, a Slovakian state under the leadership of Father Jozef Tiszo and a Carpatho–Ruthenia state in Eastern Czechoslovakia. Sobrance was now in Hungary.
The Hungarians immediately began a policy of harassing local Jews. They started to check Jewish identity papers; non– citizens and people without proper papers were deported to the Ukraine where the Germans killed them. The young Jews were drafted to work battalions where they perished in large numbers on the eastern front. The Hungarians officially closed all Jewish commercial establishments by refusing to issue commercial licenses that were required by every business venture. Jewish professionals were barred from practicing their professions. Hungary slowly adopted all the German anti–Jewish laws and made Jewish life extremely difficult. Then the Germans occupied Hungary. The remaining 321 Jews of Sobrance were rounded up by the Hungarians on March 17, 1944, and sent to the ghetto of Uzhhorod[3]. On May 17, 1944, most of the Jews of Sobrance were sent to Auschwitz–Birkenau death camp where most of them perished including most of the Goldbergers except for Aranka Goldberger and a few others, notably Gisele née Hershkovic Berman and Anna Neufeld.
The Jews of Sobrance provided the surrounding farming population with all their services and goods. Most of the stores and shops belonged to Jews, for example David and Rosalia née Thomann–Goldberger owned a grocery store, where they also served alcoholic beverages[4]. David Goldberger was very religious, had a beard and side curls. According to Toman, the family was related to a known rabbinical family. The family struggled to maintain itself. The Goldbergers had eight children; Armin was the oldest child and he was a good student. He graduated as an engineer and left Czechoslovakia. Bossi was the next child followed by Baruch. Asher Zelig was the fourth child. Bella followed and then came Lenke who was sent to Germany where Rosa had a sister named Fanny Dahlen–Thomann. She was followed by Esther and Aranka. Asher was bright and ambitious. He was exposed early in life to brutal rural anti–Semitism that expressed itself in non–Jewish kids beating him up on the way home from public school. He needed medical attention following one of the beatings[5]. He loathed the treatment but had to accept it for this was the fate of the Jewish child in rural Slovakia. Of course, he was not an exception; Jewish children daily experienced the anti–Semitic abuses of the Catholic Slovak population. Asher read a great deal and slowly saw a solution to his Jewish problem, namely Communism. Communism will treat everybody the same way and all petty differences of religion, color and physical attributes will disappear. The more Marxist literature he read, the more convinced he became that Communism was the solution to his Jewish problem.
Asher Goldberger finished elementary school in Sobrance and continued his secondary education in the city of Uzhhorod. He then left for Bratislava where he started to work. He also continued his education at night and received a teacher's certificate. In 1926 he joined the legal Communist Party in Czechoslovakia[6]. He then returned to Sobrance where he devoted his time to political recruitment of members for the party. He was very convincing and managed to attract many young people especially Jews to the party.
After a successful run as a communist organizer and recruiter, Zoltan left Sobrance for Prague with the intention of studying medicine at Charles University[7]. Housing was a problem. He was essentially penniless, in a strange city, and should have qualified for cheaper university–sponsored housing. But Zoltan couldn't dodge his Jewish background. Anti–Semitism kept getting in the way. Zoltan was denied entry into the student dormitories because he was Jewish[8].
Money problems plagued him. Eventually Zoltan was forced to give up his study of medicine since that discipline required attendance at all sessions, every lecture, every class – something Zoltan could not do since he had to work to pay his expenses. Zoltan was forced to a discipline with a more flexible attendance requirement. He found his place in the Faculty of Law where attendance was lax and the overriding requirement was passing the final exams. This elastic attendance prerequisite enabled him to take a teaching position in an outlying village, earning enough money to pay for his studies. While at university Zoltan was active in the student Communist organization and in the youth division of the party[9]. He also began to frequent Communist party headquarters, becoming involved in party politics. Zoltan moved up the ranks, meeting many important leaders of the Czechoslovakian Communist party along the way, like Klement Gottwald, leader of the Czech Communist Party; Rudolf Slansky, secretary of the Czech Communist Party; Vladimir Clementis, an important author; and Vaclav Nosek, Communist labor leader. He also met Pesla Gutman, daughter of Mendel Gutman born in Konske Poland on December 22, 1912. She studied pharmacology at the Charles University of Prague. Asher graduated in 1933 as an attorney[10].
We take liberty in translating and transcribing the circulated secret Czech police biographical sketch of Zdenek Toman after he escaped from the Czech prison in 1948.
Toman Zdenek JUDr dr. Zoltan Goldberger
Born……….
Slovak Nationality
Former ministerial adviser in the Ministry of Interior
Last address…….
Present address, Caracas, Venezuela
His wife; Pesla née Gutman
Born…….
Son, Ivan
Born….
Zdenek Toman, formerly Zoltan Goldberger is of Jewish origin. He graduated preparatory school in Uzhhorod. He then attended the Karl's University in Prague and graduated in 1933 as a Doctor of Law.
As a student he was very active in the “Komsomol”or Communist Youth Organization from 1926–1936. He was also chairman of the 2nd district of the youth organization in Prague and used the code name of Vasil. During this period he met and married Pesla Gutman in 1936. Following his marriage he worked as an attorney in Slovakia until Germany occupied Czechoslovakia. Being a Jew, he was afraid of the Germans. He managed to get false papers and left the town of Skalica in Slovakia for Berlin where his uncle Thomann lived. He soon left Germany for Poland where he was directed to visit the office of the Czechoslovak Refugee Trust Fund.
The above document was circulated amongst the Czech police forces in pursuit of Toman. Notice the anti–Semitic reference namely that Toman was Jewish. He was also demoted to a mere adviser. No details of the family were included. The document lacked a picture of Toman.
Asher played around with his names until he settled on Zoltan Toman in 1936 according to a CIA secret document[11]. Zoltan was a popular Hungarian first name in Sobrance where many Jewish people spoke Hungarian at home and Slovakian in the street. Toman was derived from his mother's family name of Thomann. Friends called him Zoli for short. The Tomans began to enjoy life and visited the Goldbergers in Sobrance during vacations according to Anna Neufeld, a neighbor of the Goldberger family in Sobrance. The young couple settled in a small provincial city of Skalica near Bratislava. Toman joined a law firm and began to work. The couple began to enjoy life when Hitler decided to dismantle Czechoslovakia. Things changed drastically with the rise of Hitler to power in Germany. We already mentioned that in 1938 Hitler demanded the Sudeten areas along the German border with Czechoslovakia. All sides: France, England, Italy and Germany met in Munich, Germany and on Sept 30, 1938 drafted an agreement whereby Germany received control over the Sudeten areas. Czechoslovakia was not invited to the meeting nor was she asked for her opinion. Britain's Neville Chamberlain, France's Edouard Daladier and Italy's Benito Mussolini signed away Czechoslovakia.
The Sudeten areas were handed over to the Germans. Several months later Hitler ordered the German army to occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia. Hitler broke his own promise and assurances that he would respect Czechoslovakia's independence once he received the Sudeten areas. Czechoslovakia was totally bewildered and confused by the behavior of her so–called allies and friends. But Hitler was determined to obliterate the state of Czechoslovakia; he had barely digested his new territorial acquisition when he ordered the German army to occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia on March 14, 1939. Sobrance was now in Hungary.
Hungary was a pro–Fascist state by the late 1930s. The Kingdom of Hungary relied heavily on trade with Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Fascist Italy to pull Hungary out of depression. In exchange, Germany gave Hungary areas of Czechoslovakia notably in Slovakia. Hungary officially joined the Axis powers in 1940. The Hungarians immediately began apply their anti–Jewish laws in the newly acquired Slovak areas. They started to check Jewish identity papers and used the slightest pretext to expel Jews from the territory by sending them across the border to the German–controlled areas where they were usually killed, notably near the city of Kamenets Podolsky. Hungary adopted all of the crippling German anti–Jewish laws, making life for these former Czech Jews living near the border nearly impossible. Hungary, pressured by Germany, became involved in the war, participating in the invasions of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.
The young Hungarian Jews were soon drafted and forced to join labor battalions. It is estimated that about 40,000 young Hungarian Jews were in these formations commanded by rabid anti–Semitic officers and non–commissioned officers. They were sent to the Eastern front and mercilessly treated by their superiors. Only 5,000 survived the war and returned home.
The Communist Party was closed throughout the former Czechoslovakia and the members were being rounded up and arrested, especially the leadership. The Czech political leaders like Eduard Benes, President of Czechoslovakia, resigned following the Munich agreement and left the country. He went to the USA but soon returned to France where he formed the Czech National Liberation Committee. He was soon joined by Jan Masaryk, the son of Thomas Masaryk, father of the Czech Republic. He was followed by many other political figures. Communist leaders like Klement Gottwald and Rudolf Slansky managed to reach Russia while others like Vaclav Nosek and Vladimir Clementis managed to reach England. Pesla Toman was a Polish citizen by birth and returned to Poland. Zdenek Toman could not enter Poland since he was a Czech citizen. He was also a Communist and a Jew and had to hide from the Gestapo. Toman managed to get false identity papers and left Czechoslovakia for Berlin, Germany. He reached the home of his aunt Fanny Thomann. There he was informed that there was a way to reach England[12]. He managed to get a visa to enter Poland where he met his wife. They both went to the Katowice office of the Czech Refugee Trust Fund that helped Czech political refugees to reach Britain. The organization was funded by the British government. The office helped them enter England as domestic workers[13]. The Tomans were employed by Austrian Jewish refugees in England. Zoltan Toman later became a bookkeeper for the Lyons tearoom chain. The Tomans joined the Communist Czech Party in exile in England and became involved in party politics amongst the sizable Czech refugee community in Britain that included Czech military units, which were fighting alongside British troops, notably Czech pilots. Pesla Toman joined the Czech Red Cross organization in England.
The driving force behind the Czech National Liberation Committee was Eduard Benes the former president of Czechoslovakia. The committee comprised many Czech exiles that represented former Czech political parties who were determined to fight to liberate their occupied homeland. Jan Masaryk, former Czech foreign minister, was ably assisted by Eduard Benes. The committee soon sought refuge in England with the collapse of France. The committee was first located in London and then moved to Aston Abbots in Buckinghamshire. Although England provided a home for the committee it still adhered to the Munich Agreement that destroyed the Czech state. On July 7, 1940, Britain elevated the status of the committee and in 1942 annulled the Munich Agreement that Hitler never observed. Then Britain recognized the Czech National Liberation Committee as the Czech provisional government in exile. The USA and Russia also recognized the Czech government. The Czech provisional government maintained friendly relations with the Soviet Union where there were large Czech military formations led by General Ludwig Swoboda who fought alongside the Russian armies One of his assistants was Bedrich Reicin formerly Reinzinger. He would be shot in 1952. Some Czechoslovak leading communists were in Russia, notably Gottwald and Slansky. The Czech Communist Party was invited to join the government–in–exile following an agreement with Russia in 1943. Vaclav Nosek was named Minister of Interior of the government–in–exile. The latter appointed Zoltan Toman to head the Czech repatriation office[14]. This position was attached to the British Welfare Ministry. The bureau prepared the repatriation of Czech refugees to their homeland and essentially established the infrastructure of liberated Czechoslovakia. Toman placed many Czech communists within the right places of the future administration of Free Czechoslovakia. Toman did an excellent job and became very popular amongst the Czech exile community.
The Soviet armies advanced rapidly throughout Eastern Europe towards the beginning of 1944 and soon approached the 1937 borders of Czechoslovakia. The Czech government–in–exile in London began preparations to move to the liberated areas. Vaclav Nosek then appointed Toman to organize and head military intelligence in the Ministry of Interior[15] in addition to his post as head of the repatriation commission of Czechoslovakia[16]. All Czech ministers flew to Russia in anticipation of entering their liberated homeland. Amongst them was Toman who met Gottwald in Russia. The actual prime minister was Zdenek Freilinger, a left wing social democrat[17]. Gottwald was promoted by Benes to the position of deputy prime minister. Gottwald told Toman that Stalin decided that he (Toman) will be the head of the security forces in liberated Czechoslovakia[18]. According to Professor and later member of the Israeli parliament, Avishay Braverman, Zoltan Toman told him that he met Stalin.[19] The Author Tad Szulc alludes to this meeting having taken place[20]. The meeting must have been one of the highlights in the life of Zoltan Toman to meet face to face the leader of world Communism. It certainly made an impression on the Czech leadership. Toman was one of the first to enter the liberated city of Kosice with the Russian liberating troops. The city was freed in March of 1944. He immediately began to organize the security forces and the workers' militia units. His security apparatus followed the Russian and Czech armies as they advanced throughout the country. The city of Prague revolted prior to the arrival of the Russian forces[21]. The German forces left the city and the Russians were received as heroes.
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| Meeting of the Czechoslovak Central Committee of the Communist Party Toman is seated in the second row, second from left |
On May 25, 1945, Vaclav Nosek, Czech Minister of the Interior created a secret service organization known as Rozvedka[22]. This was the fourth secret service organization in Czechoslovakia. The Rozvedka was supposed to collect foreign intelligence but it soon penetrated every aspect of Czech life. It owed its allegiance to the Czech Communist Party It was headed from its inception by Zdenek Toman[23]. This service will undergo many name changes and will become known as Section VII. The organization would grow and Toman became a very powerful man. According to the CIA, Toman was also a member of the Russian secret service[24]. He officially changed his name to Zdenek Toman; Zoltan was too Hungarian and Hungarians were not popular in Czechoslovakia immediately after the war. The repatriation commission[25] headed by Toman dealt with thousands of refugees who moved through the country. Assembly points, rest places, special trains and border crossings were organized throughout the country to ship home all non–Czechs. Great efforts were also made to return most Czechs to their homes and families within the country and to absorb returning Czechs from labor camps, concentration camps and foreign countries. Many of these returnees were Jewish survivors who headed home but some were already disappointed with their liberated homeland and began to look for new safe places to live[26]. The returning Shoah survivors encountered mostly hostility and felt ill at ease. They soon began to think about new and safe places. Toman being the head of the security and repatriation in Czechoslovakia, made it possible for the surviving Jews to cross Czechoslovakia to safety. Even Sobrance did not accept the surviving Jews. Sobrance was returned to Czechoslovakia but there were no Jews in town.
A new Jewish community started to function with the help of the Czech Joint Organization. Some of the Jewish survivors of Sobrance returned to the
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| A typical round up of Jews in Slovakia prior to their deportation to the gas chambers in Poland |
city to seek survivors and rest from their ordeal. Aranka Goldberger, born as Aurelie Goldberger on April 8, 1918 in Sobrance, returned from the death camps but found no survivors. She survived Sipa Riga camp and Stutthof concentration camp[27]. She was liberated by the Russian armies in Eastern Prussia and reached Sobrance but nobody of her family was there. She moved to Uzhhorod where there were a few Jews, to recuperate. Also Gizele Berman returned to Sobrance but soon left it for Uzhhorod for similar reasons. Gisele Berman soon received the sad news that her husband Nicholas Berman survived the Shoah but was gravely ill in a hospital[28]. She began desperately to search for transportation to reach Prague but none was available. She then met Aranka and told her the problem. Aranka informed Gisele that her brother Zdenek Toman was sending a car to bring her to Prague. She offered Gisele a ride that was immediately accepted. The two women drove to the hospital and located Nicholas. He needed medications that the hospital did not have. The medications were obtained with the help of Toman and his sister. Nicholas slowly recovered and the couple settled in the city of Decin in Czechoslovakia near the German border[29]. The city attracted many Jews from the Uzhhorod area that was now Russian territory. Life was pleasant but there were terrible food shortages. Gisele returned to visit Sobrance where Jews from the area moved to the city and established a Jewish community that would reach about 200 members[30]. The great majority of the Jewish survivors were from the surrounding area and not from the city proper according to Anna Neufeld[31]. Most of the Jews left the city in 1949 and settled in Israel. Presently there are no Jews in Sobrance, Slovakia.
The Czech government in exile installed itself in the liberated Czech capital of Prague. The first act was to change the title of the government to that of the Provisional Czech Government. Several important acts were immediately adopted namely, political parties were permitted to resume their activities, heavy industry was to be nationalized, elections for parliament to be scheduled as soon as feasible, all German residents in Czechoslovakia were to be sent to Germany, all Hungarian citizens in Slovakia were to be sent to Hungary regardless of how long they had lived in Czechoslovakia. The Czech government also passed regulations to help all refugees to reach their former homes. Of course, all Czech citizens including Jewish citizens were invited by President Benes to return home and help rebuild the country and themselves. Masses of liberated people from the labor camps, concentration camps and Displaced Persons camps of Europe availed themselves of these centers where they were fed, rested and provided with transportation home.
Many of these returnees were Jewish Holocaust survivors. But, already, some were quickly disappointed with the cold, hostile, sometimes violent reception they received in their newly liberated homeland, notably in Slovakia where a pogrom took place in Topocany on September 24, 1945. Some Jews had no alternative but to look for a new home in a safe place outside Czechoslovakia where they could finally live in peace[32]. The Czech government did not stop Jews from leaving Slovakian areas and settling in other areas of Czechoslovakia. The Czech government, especially Jan Masaryk and Eduard Benes were very sympathetic to the plight of Jewish survivors in Europe, especially Czech Jews[33]. There was plenty of empty space since the Czech government deported most Czechs of German descent to Germany. The Czech government, primarily the Minister of Interior permitted all Jewish organizations including JDC or the American Joint Distribution Committee that helped feed and maintain the Jewish Holocaust survivors throughout Europe, or HIAS that helped Jews to emigrate to the USA, or ORT that established technical and vocational training centers to provide the Jewish survivors with technical skills. The Vaad Hatzala helped orthodox Jewish survivors and rabbis to maintain their life style. The OSE health organization provided medical help, the Jewish Agency was mainly interested in promoting Zionist ideas among the survivors. The Zionist movements and Zionist youth groups were interested in organizing the survivors into coherent groups that would eventually proceed to Palestine. The Brichah organization helped Jews move closer to Palestine. The Mossad organized the illegal transportation of Jews to Palestine, while the Hagana recruited Jews to fight in Palestine. We listed the major Jewish organizations but there were other smaller groups that began to function in Prague. The city became the center of Jewish activities in Eastern and Central Europe. The Czech secret police was of course aware of all these activities but kept a distance.
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| The Jewish community building in Prague where most of the Jewish organizations had offices following World War II |
Footnotes
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