Names Not Numbers

Dagmar Green

Humenne, Slovakia

In Hiding

1943

Dagmar Green

Humenne, Slovakia

1943

Dagmar was born on October 3, 1943, in Humenne, now part of Slovakia. Her mother, Irene, worked as a milliner, and her father, Zoltan, was an accountant for a lumber yard. She has an older sister named Monica and a younger brother named George.

In 1944, the Nazis came to Humenne. Both sets of Dagmar’s grandparents were taken and put on a train bound for concentration camps.

Zoltan convinced the Nazis to let them stay temporarily, claiming they were essential workers. This strategy worked for only a few months. Eventually, her grandparents were taken again and sent to Auschwitz, where they were murdered. Zoltan joined the Czech partisans to fight against the Nazis. Meanwhile, Irene fled into the forest with Dagmar and Monica.

They eventually found a non-Jewish woman willing to hide them in her house, provided Irene continued paying her. Dagmar, Monica, and Irene all had blonde hair and blue eyes, which helped them blend in. Irene wore a cross and learned Christian prayers to avoid detection. The family planned that whoever survived would return to Humenne.

Zoltan came from a family of nine siblings, five of whom survived. Irene had six siblings, with all but one surviving. During the war, food was scarce. Dagmar remembers drinking tea from a bottle, which turned her teeth black. After the war, her parents wanted to leave Europe and start fresh. They eventually arrived in Canada, first landing in Halifax by boat and then settling in Montreal.

Irene opened a millinery shop, and the family lived in the back of the store due to limited resources. Over time, Zoltan returned to accounting and became successful. In 1967, Dagmar married her husband, Issur. They moved to Far Rockaway, New York, then to Bayswater, and finally to Woodmere, New York, where she still resides today. Dagmar has three children, two grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Names Not Numbers

Dagmar Green

Dagmar Green

The End