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They didn't recommend me for university, because in my cadre assessment I had: imprisoned in a concentration camp, which was a synonym for Jew. But in high school I had a teacher, Mr. Emil Zahoransky, the former principal of the council school. He was from around Brezna. He was a Slovak, and my father's trusted friend, and in the end also our neighbor at our cottage. Dr. Valach lived on the other side. Professor Emil Zahoransky went with me to the entrance exams, and made a fuss there. He walked right up to the commission in front of which I was supposed to do my exams and said: "Now Laco Urban is going to come, a person who's been in a concentration camp, and there's no way you won't take him!" I picked civil engineering. I started school in 1952. Originally my father had wanted me to attend textile college, because he'd been planning to build a small textile plant. The factory owners from Brno that used to sell him goods were persuading him to prepare a young person from the textile trade. He even took some steps, and had some property reserved. The property had to be by some water, so there'd be a place for the water from the textile factory to flow into. In the end nothing came of it. The textile trade was taught in Liberec, from where the state each year sent two people to Poland to study. It was unthinkable to push through that they send me.
During my studies they were building hydro stations, so I said to myself that I'll take hydro engineering. I had this notion that they'd build a whole bunch more hydro stations on the Vah, and that I'd have work for the rest of my life. I was excellent at school. In second year, Professor Potiagin and his wife invited me for a special lunch at the Hotel Devin. He was an 85-year-old granddad. Once during a lecture of his, we were calculating a very complex example. There were at least 200 students sitting in the lecture hall, listening to his lecture. I was writing it down, word for word. As I was calculating, I found a mistake. Because I knew about the mistake, I calculated it for myself, and came to a certain conclusion that couldn't be the same as his result. Well, and when he asked where he'd made a mistake, I got up and showed him. He asked me: "What's your name?" I told him my name, and after that his assistants began paying attention to me. Every class I was asked to come up to the blackboard, and they dreaded it terribly. We had this one Xantippe, now she's already a professor. She's this bearded virago. She was very good in math, and kept on calling on me. She gave me a hard time, but that helped me, because I passed my exams without any problems. There was one assistant there from Piestany, and his hand shook when I picked up the chalk and went to the board, that I'd show him something. I always made things up, and when he said one thing, I tried to say another. I was good; I finished hydro engineering with honors.
During my studies they were building hydro stations, so I said to myself that I'll take hydro engineering. I had this notion that they'd build a whole bunch more hydro stations on the Vah, and that I'd have work for the rest of my life. I was excellent at school. In second year, Professor Potiagin and his wife invited me for a special lunch at the Hotel Devin. He was an 85-year-old granddad. Once during a lecture of his, we were calculating a very complex example. There were at least 200 students sitting in the lecture hall, listening to his lecture. I was writing it down, word for word. As I was calculating, I found a mistake. Because I knew about the mistake, I calculated it for myself, and came to a certain conclusion that couldn't be the same as his result. Well, and when he asked where he'd made a mistake, I got up and showed him. He asked me: "What's your name?" I told him my name, and after that his assistants began paying attention to me. Every class I was asked to come up to the blackboard, and they dreaded it terribly. We had this one Xantippe, now she's already a professor. She's this bearded virago. She was very good in math, and kept on calling on me. She gave me a hard time, but that helped me, because I passed my exams without any problems. There was one assistant there from Piestany, and his hand shook when I picked up the chalk and went to the board, that I'd show him something. I always made things up, and when he said one thing, I tried to say another. I was good; I finished hydro engineering with honors.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Ladislav Urban