Vojtech Kolenka worked in a grocery store in Poprad, Slovakia. The store was owned by the Jewish brothers Gejza and Pavel Spitzer, who were friends of Kolenka’s. When the brothers were expropriated in 1941, Kolenka took over the business pro forma. The Spitzers continued to work in the store. Kolenka also turned to the Greek Catholic bishop Pavol Gojdič for help. Gojdič obtained “presidential exceptions” for the Spitzers, which initially protected them from deportation. Additionally, the bishop issued false baptism certificates for their children.
After the failed Slovak National Uprising in 1944, the Spitzers had to go underground. Kolenka helped them by finding a series of hiding places and providing them with food. After the war, the Spitzers and Kolenka went on running the grocery store together.
In 2008 the Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem honored Vojtech Kolenka as Righteous Among the Nations.
Vojtech Kolenka with Marianna Spitzerová, Pavel Spitzer’s daughter, Poprad, 1936. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Vojtech Kolenka (left) and Pavel Spitzer, Poprad, 1940. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Janka, Pavel, and Marianna Spitzer with Vojtech Kolenka (left to right), on a bathing excursion to the Vyšné Ružbachy spa, 1938. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
