George Vasley (born Vasilevsky 1902-1977) was a civil engineer born in the Ukraine. He served in the Ukrainian National Army as a cavalry officer. He fled to Czechoslovakia in 1923 after the Russian Revolution. He married Elizabeth Buazdil (b. 1909) in 1933 in Slovakia. They had three children: Emma (b. 1934), George (b. 1936), and Helen (b. 1943). George was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Poland from which he escaped after 30 months. He emigrated to the United States from Regensburg, Germany in 1947; his wife and children joined him two years later in 1949. The family settled in Harrisburg, PA. George Vasley was a bridge designer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
Summertime leisure; paying a visit to the cemetery
Jirka (George) and Emma Vasilevsky at home in late summer. Together, they ride an adult bicycle. They swim in a shallow pool. 00:03:18 Emma accompanies George to the school for registration in first class. INT, mother Elizabeth eats at the table with the children. George flips the pages of a photo album with Emma and George. MS, George poses for the camera on his first day of school. George and a younger boy play on a rocking horse in the garden (probably"Strakova with her bo" according to the canister). Emma and George share a lounge chair and play in the sand while the mothers rest in the shade. The children in costume perform a play in the yard. 00:07:48 In town of Spišská Nová Ves, a woman approaches the camera. Herd of cows. Pan, LS, Spišská Nová Ves. George Vasilevsky slowly walks towards the camera with others. CUs, toddler. 00:09:45 MS, square in the city, camera focuses on a family of three. CU Emma with glasses. A couple laughs. CUs, baby (probably with"A. Persidsky and Anna with the baby Pete", according to the canister). Elizabeth with a bouquet of flowers at the cemetery. CU, headstone:"Mikulas Udut hrdinsky padol za slobodu Slovenska vr 1939. Cest jeho pamiatke! Na straz!Hlinkova Gard" The children and many others examine graves at the cemetery.
Notes inside canister:"No. 9.1942 Spišská Nová Ves. Jirka and Emma at home. Emma accompanying Jirka to the school for registration in first class. Strakova with her boy. On the cemetery: Mom, Stracelsky, A. Persidsky and Anna with the baby Peter. At the same time as this movie was taken, the Holocaust in Slovakia and in Spisska Nova Ves had already started.