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We set out for Zilina. My colleague, a Jewish teacher, was still in Zilina. At that time there were still two, three such Jews in Zilina, ones that I knew. One Jewish boy, a friend of his, was an electrician. That electrician was employed, I don’t know if secretly or officially, in Hlinkova Street, by a businessman that had an electrical workshop and was named Malik. He was a Czech, and his wife was Slovak. That electrician told Malik who we were, what we were. He employed me as an accountant on my false papers. I objected: “I’m not an accountant.” “That doesn’t matter.” He got me an accounting textbook, and for one or two days I studied accounting day and night. I started and began working. Eventually I began wondering how to save Malik some money in taxes. For me the state was the enemy. I remember that I also got a very good salary. We lived in Borik [Borik: currently a neighborhood of Zilina – Editor’s note]. The owner of the building where we were renting a room was named Adamov, and knew that we were regularly employed. We made friends in Borik. We made them by noticing that Adamov occasionally listened to Moscow, or London, and then also other neighbors. When the Germans invaded Zilina because of the uprising [Slovak National Uprising], it was possible to escape from Borik across a hill. The Zilina barracks also rose up, and joined the uprising. Soldiers and officers were handing out weapons to the rebels. Whoever came got one. We also got rifles. But we didn’t know how to use them. We didn’t wait around to see how it would end up in Zilina, and over the hills we got to the other side. In the morning, when I was washing after the night and after many hardships in the mountains, someone stole, as I’ve already mentioned, my backpack where I also had my mother’s letters and family relics.
My wife was still with me. She was a partisan as well. We volunteered in Sklabina [Zilina region]. The commander was named Velicko. Our brigade was named the Milan Rastislav Stefanik [20] Brigade, and our partisan column was named the Sovorov column. They deployed us into battle, and though I didn’t know how to use a weapon, I got a machine gun. A Russian partisan, who was teaching us how to shoot, told us that we have to save the ammunition for the enemy. They sent us to fight by Drazkovce [Zilina region]. They were bloody battles, because the Germans were firing mortars at us from the Martinske Hole [Martinske Hole: mountains in the Mala Fatra mountain range, rising above the town of Martin (Zilina region) – Editor’s note]. Then we made it to Vrutky [Zilina region]. I remember that my wife was saving people as a Red Cross nurse. The experiences that I had there I recorded and published in the rebel Pravda [21]. I published under the name V.B. Later the then editor-in-chief of the rebel Pravda, Miroslav Hysky, testified that it really was I who brought him that manuscript.
My wife was still with me. She was a partisan as well. We volunteered in Sklabina [Zilina region]. The commander was named Velicko. Our brigade was named the Milan Rastislav Stefanik [20] Brigade, and our partisan column was named the Sovorov column. They deployed us into battle, and though I didn’t know how to use a weapon, I got a machine gun. A Russian partisan, who was teaching us how to shoot, told us that we have to save the ammunition for the enemy. They sent us to fight by Drazkovce [Zilina region]. They were bloody battles, because the Germans were firing mortars at us from the Martinske Hole [Martinske Hole: mountains in the Mala Fatra mountain range, rising above the town of Martin (Zilina region) – Editor’s note]. Then we made it to Vrutky [Zilina region]. I remember that my wife was saving people as a Red Cross nurse. The experiences that I had there I recorded and published in the rebel Pravda [21]. I published under the name V.B. Later the then editor-in-chief of the rebel Pravda, Miroslav Hysky, testified that it really was I who brought him that manuscript.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Jozef W.