Jozef Habovštiak

“Then they came in 1950, what was exactly on All Saints Day, the people were at home already, it was fall. The priest’s house is near the cemetery. Suddenly, a car parked there. The people noticed, police came to take the priest away, so they gathered together and freed the priest. There was also some shooting. For our people, who returned from the war such vagabonds meant nothing. They hit their hands and shooting was over. These people drove the policemen out of the village. However, yet later that night, they came again as they had informers among the locals. They told on everyone defending the priest. So they came on trucks and busses, the whole village was surrounded by police and militia, they passed the curfew, expelled people from the church and arrested the priest right from the confessional. Back then, they arrested 40 people, tried them and sentenced those, who participated in this action to several months up to one year. They took them to Ružomberok prison, where they were treated harshly.”

“Then I was also a member of the National Council of the SR, when during the November meeting [meeting at night of November 3 – 4, 1994, so called Night of the Long Knives, noted Roland Valko] I was present as a member there. It was very clear how they kept everything tight for three months. They prepared the changeover very precisely and during that one night they changed all the laws to their benefit. Privatization was to be done not by choice, but to a pre-determined customer. Simply, they passed crookery. And we shouted there, screamed: ‘What a crookery, group of jerks!’ Sure, they didn’t mind, just made fun of us!”