Ladislav Kafka

“I could see that everywhere I came. Not right on the next day, but gradually. One mate from Lúčky, his name was Papan, was among them as well. I noticed that when they talked to one another, they stopped immediately as I entered the room. And it was silence. I knew they had to plot something against me. I realized it later, that I being an assistant of the commissar was very suspicious for them. They thought I was a traitor employed to be among them. I realized I had to solve this, so I told them: ‘Are you insane? I can see you stop talking when I come. I am not any spy or rat, or anything else. I am the same PTP soldier like you are. Politically unreliable, dismissed from studies, arrested, and so on.’ And then it stopped.”

“I remember, once my mother came. Women were talking about aryanization in the store. It was quite hot topic back then. She asked my father why couldn´t we do that too. She mentioned the Arco (a therapeutic centre in Trenčianske Teplice, note ed.). I have never seen my father so angry like at that moment; completely mad he was. He told her: ʻStop it! And I tell you, it was the last time you mentioned aryanization in front of me! It´s a larceny!” That was his attitude towards it. Then he said: ‘It´s not normal to do such things. What if they evicted you just because of being a Catholic?’ That was my father´s stand.”