"You Cease to be a Child": Benjamin's Struggle in his Hometown Stores began to be Aryanized Jews were forced to give up jewelry, radios, and furs but, "the Jews were hoping they would survive." At this time, Jewish people were being dehumanized and removed from civil services. In "1940 or 41" Ben Wayne recalls going to school one day and not being allowed to enter The Gymnasium because of his Jewish Heritage. He began to notice changes in his own neighborhood one woman was an outspoken anti-Semite and had her two sons enlist in the SS. This group would eventually become the first Slovakian SS group known as the Hlinka Guard.Ī patrol of the paramilitary Hlinka Guards in the streets. There was a rise of Slovakian nationalism that had the same anti-Semitic foundations of the Nazis. In 1939, Slovakia broke away from the Czech Republic, and became a protectorate of the Reich and ally of Hitler. This ultimately led to him being removed from his Jewish culture by the local Rabbis, who claimed he was a bad influence. He passed the exam, and began taking classes 6 days a week, forcing him to work on the Sabbath. In 1937, at the age of 10, he took an entrance exam for an institution called "The Gymnasium." The Gymnasium allowed European students to gain 8 years of education with two years of college credit deemed acceptable in America. The death of his father at the age of seven did not stop him from pushing on. Benjamin noted a strong anti-Antisemitism that existed where he grew up before the Nazi influence came into Slovakia. In his words, he was "easily identified as a Jew." On his way to school, he would often encounter other kids throwing stones at him. Because of his Hasidic Jewish heritage, he wore a cap and had his hair styled as a crew cut with the traditional sideburns hanging down.
Nonetheless his education continued, and he started Hebrew school at the age of five.
In his home, they had only a well, but no electricity or running water. "I do not blame any generation of today for what happened." - Benjamin Wayneīenjamin Wayne, was born on July 6th 1927 as Vojtech Weinberger, in Michalovce, Czechoslovakia.
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