Ľubomír Hatala

“There was a man who slept there and was drunk. It was already daybreak, when he ran out and boasted to Germans how well they fired, how well they drove the partisans away. He boasted there were many, although supposedly, there was just one trying to reach them. I told him in German, so that he understood, he was a coward and not to talk big. And he replied, ‘What have you just said?’ He ran away and returned with a submachine gun, with the German one, he pointed it at me and pushed me to the wooden fence behind me. He wanted to shoot me, to kill me. When the fellows saw it, two of them started running. There was a hillside, a little stream, and a street, where commander Otto Mock stayed at his friend’s house, who was also a commander. They shouted, ‘Mr. Mock, Mr. Mock, come, please, come and save him.’ He ran out hearing they needed him to come with, because some German wanted to ‘schiessen’ shoot me dead. Thus, he dashed in and wrenched the gun from his hand. He asked him, whether the soldier wanted to start shooting kids or what. Moreover, he sent him to report what happened to some higher commander in the morning.”

“Then the judge told me, it was obvious I did not change for the better, that the judgement didn’t break me. I asked him about the fairness of the trial, since I wasn’t allowed to have any defense lawyer, even though he was paid. My father sent hundred crowns. They sent him back eighty and said that the trial was not held. But the lawyer didn’t even know when the proceedings were. No one let him know that I was calling him, although I had the right to talk to him, to receive advice, but I got nothing. Then I thought to myself that it’s all right and when they shall offer me a lawyer ex officio, I would refuse him and defend myself. ‘I have a mouth to defend myself, I have never killed or robbed anybody, thus they can judge me as they want.’ They stared at me, thought how sassy and arrogant I was, and probably I influenced them somehow, as they sentenced me to 18 months.”