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About two weeks before the uprising’s end, I got to Banska Bystrica [Banska Bystrica region]. I was supposed to work there as a writer for the Nove Slovo weekly [22]. Gustav Husak [23], who was at that time the representative of the Interior on rebel territory needed someone for this paper. I worked in Nove Slovo up until the uprising was suppressed. Gustav Husak was the managing editor at Nove Slovo, and the editor-in-chief was I think Lubomir Linhart. He was a Czech member of the resistance, who had a Slovak wife and used the pseudonym Ftorek [and also the pseudonym Blodek – Editor’s note]. I remember how the Germans were bombing Banska Bystrica, and one bomb fell in the courtyard of the Nove Slovo offices. It knocked us to the ground, and to this day I have this smaller scar from glass, but it wasn’t anything serious.
British paratroopers came to Banska Bystrica as part of assistance to the uprising, and among them were four paratroopers from the Palestine. Three men and one woman. She later died in Kremnicka, they killed her. Her name was Chaviva Reich [24]. We had known each other from the time I had been in Hashomer Hatzair. I got in touch with her in Banska Bystrica right before the Germans were drawing near the town.
When the Germans were already close to Bystrica, these paratroopers said that we had to disappear into the mountains. One lieutenant, or second lieutenant, from Svoboda’s Army also joined us. A Slovak from Myjava [Trenciany region] who had been dropped into Sliac [Banska Bystrica region]. We went through Slovenska Lupca [Banska Bystrica region]. There the locals gave us some potatoes and food. We got to the top of a hill above the village of Pohronsky Bukovec [Banska Bystrica region]. There we built some zemljankas [zemljanka: underground shelter, usually military – Editor’s note]. There was also a shepherd’s shed, and closer to the town also an abandoned gamekeeper’s lodge. We hid in the zemljankas. The lieutenant said that he had information that the rebel army would be retreating to Chabenec [Chabenec (1955 m): a large mountain massif in the Nizke Tatry (Low Tatras) mountains – Editor’s note], and that we should attempt to get to the retreating Czechoslovak army. It was at the beginning of November 1944. Of course, in that freezing cold, we warmed ourselves by a fire at night. But we were tired and sleepy, and went into the zemljanka. Lying first from the edge was Sano Wollner, I was second, and third was the lieutenant. Only the lieutenant was armed, he had a revolver and a grenade. We weren’t armed; after all, I had just come from the newspaper office. My wife, Anicka, had stayed behind with some group by the fire. Just before morning we were attacked by Vlasovites [25]. Suddenly we heard explosions. They killed the guards. The lieutenant grabbed me, that you’re quickly coming with me! I wanted to shout to my wife Anicka, but he clapped a hand over my mouth. “Don’t yell, or they’ll shoot you, and her as well, when she answers you.” So we made off down in the direction of the gamekeeper’s lodge. There we stopped, and he said: “We’re going towards Chabenec.”
He gave me the grenade, and kept the revolver. When we reached some scrub bush, we heard someone speaking Russian. We didn’t know, however, whether they were Russian partisans or Vlasov’s men. We hid behind the scrub and watched them. We saw that they had equipment that they had taken from us during that attack. We knew that we had to be careful of them, and that it would be better to avoid them. In Brezno and Podbrezova [both in the Banska Bystrica region] there were steelworks that the Germans had taken over and renamed to the Hermann Göring Werke. Because they needed people who could communicate with the Slovak workers, they had installed Czech engineers there. When we were walking in the direction of Chabenec, we heard some voices in the distance. It seemed to us to be the Czech language. They were Czech engineers with their wives and children. They were afraid of German reprisals, and so were running away from there. They were loaded down with food and cakes. As we didn’t have any bags, the father of one of the families asked us to grab a rucksack. We led the way and they followed us. They asked us where we were going, and we told them to Chabenec. The hilltops were covered in snow, and I saw something suspicious. Something was moving. Suddenly the lieutenant tells me: “Quick, throw that grenade over there in that direction!” I threw the grenade and machine-gun fire started! We could feel the bullets whizzing around us, and what’s interesting is that apparently they didn’t hit anyone, because there was no screaming or crying to be heard. When the shooting stopped, we hid behind some bushes. And this I’ll never forget, that in extreme situations, when it’s a matter of life and death, a person is capable of overcoming terrible shocks. We overcame it by sitting down behind a bush, opened that rucksack, and both of us ate with great relish everything that it contained. Up till then we hadn’t had anything proper to eat. We’d been living on berries that we found in the forest. It also happened that people from the surrounding villages would be running away from the Germans. When we’d meet them, they’d give us something to eat. It sometimes happened that we ate only raw meat. As soon as I had finished enjoying the cakes in that rucksack, I got dysentery, but not from the cakes [dysentery; a serious infectious intestinal illness. Its symptoms are severe diarrhea mixed with blood and fever that is accompanied by stomach pains – Editor’s note]. That’s a horrible disease. Instead of a stool I bled. The disease was accompanied by severe pain. The lieutenant was a real pal. He said: “We’ll go downhill, as there’s a village near here.” So we aimed for that village. Near the village we approached the first person we met: “I’m seriously ill. We need to get to a hospital.” That person said to me: “Don’t worry. I’m the chairman of the revolutionary National Committee. I’ll drive you to the station and you’ll get to the hospital in Brezno.” I said my goodbyes to the lieutenant, who had saved my life, and whom I never saw again.
British paratroopers came to Banska Bystrica as part of assistance to the uprising, and among them were four paratroopers from the Palestine. Three men and one woman. She later died in Kremnicka, they killed her. Her name was Chaviva Reich [24]. We had known each other from the time I had been in Hashomer Hatzair. I got in touch with her in Banska Bystrica right before the Germans were drawing near the town.
When the Germans were already close to Bystrica, these paratroopers said that we had to disappear into the mountains. One lieutenant, or second lieutenant, from Svoboda’s Army also joined us. A Slovak from Myjava [Trenciany region] who had been dropped into Sliac [Banska Bystrica region]. We went through Slovenska Lupca [Banska Bystrica region]. There the locals gave us some potatoes and food. We got to the top of a hill above the village of Pohronsky Bukovec [Banska Bystrica region]. There we built some zemljankas [zemljanka: underground shelter, usually military – Editor’s note]. There was also a shepherd’s shed, and closer to the town also an abandoned gamekeeper’s lodge. We hid in the zemljankas. The lieutenant said that he had information that the rebel army would be retreating to Chabenec [Chabenec (1955 m): a large mountain massif in the Nizke Tatry (Low Tatras) mountains – Editor’s note], and that we should attempt to get to the retreating Czechoslovak army. It was at the beginning of November 1944. Of course, in that freezing cold, we warmed ourselves by a fire at night. But we were tired and sleepy, and went into the zemljanka. Lying first from the edge was Sano Wollner, I was second, and third was the lieutenant. Only the lieutenant was armed, he had a revolver and a grenade. We weren’t armed; after all, I had just come from the newspaper office. My wife, Anicka, had stayed behind with some group by the fire. Just before morning we were attacked by Vlasovites [25]. Suddenly we heard explosions. They killed the guards. The lieutenant grabbed me, that you’re quickly coming with me! I wanted to shout to my wife Anicka, but he clapped a hand over my mouth. “Don’t yell, or they’ll shoot you, and her as well, when she answers you.” So we made off down in the direction of the gamekeeper’s lodge. There we stopped, and he said: “We’re going towards Chabenec.”
He gave me the grenade, and kept the revolver. When we reached some scrub bush, we heard someone speaking Russian. We didn’t know, however, whether they were Russian partisans or Vlasov’s men. We hid behind the scrub and watched them. We saw that they had equipment that they had taken from us during that attack. We knew that we had to be careful of them, and that it would be better to avoid them. In Brezno and Podbrezova [both in the Banska Bystrica region] there were steelworks that the Germans had taken over and renamed to the Hermann Göring Werke. Because they needed people who could communicate with the Slovak workers, they had installed Czech engineers there. When we were walking in the direction of Chabenec, we heard some voices in the distance. It seemed to us to be the Czech language. They were Czech engineers with their wives and children. They were afraid of German reprisals, and so were running away from there. They were loaded down with food and cakes. As we didn’t have any bags, the father of one of the families asked us to grab a rucksack. We led the way and they followed us. They asked us where we were going, and we told them to Chabenec. The hilltops were covered in snow, and I saw something suspicious. Something was moving. Suddenly the lieutenant tells me: “Quick, throw that grenade over there in that direction!” I threw the grenade and machine-gun fire started! We could feel the bullets whizzing around us, and what’s interesting is that apparently they didn’t hit anyone, because there was no screaming or crying to be heard. When the shooting stopped, we hid behind some bushes. And this I’ll never forget, that in extreme situations, when it’s a matter of life and death, a person is capable of overcoming terrible shocks. We overcame it by sitting down behind a bush, opened that rucksack, and both of us ate with great relish everything that it contained. Up till then we hadn’t had anything proper to eat. We’d been living on berries that we found in the forest. It also happened that people from the surrounding villages would be running away from the Germans. When we’d meet them, they’d give us something to eat. It sometimes happened that we ate only raw meat. As soon as I had finished enjoying the cakes in that rucksack, I got dysentery, but not from the cakes [dysentery; a serious infectious intestinal illness. Its symptoms are severe diarrhea mixed with blood and fever that is accompanied by stomach pains – Editor’s note]. That’s a horrible disease. Instead of a stool I bled. The disease was accompanied by severe pain. The lieutenant was a real pal. He said: “We’ll go downhill, as there’s a village near here.” So we aimed for that village. Near the village we approached the first person we met: “I’m seriously ill. We need to get to a hospital.” That person said to me: “Don’t worry. I’m the chairman of the revolutionary National Committee. I’ll drive you to the station and you’ll get to the hospital in Brezno.” I said my goodbyes to the lieutenant, who had saved my life, and whom I never saw again.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Jozef W.