„I came to Košice for the fourth department of the State Security. I sat down and he asked me if I knew why I came here. I said that I couldn't remember anything I would do to this state to be prosecuted. And he laid out the leaflet. And I immediately recognized him and said it is my leaflet. I worked on it. And I told him one more sentence that I agree with the contents of the leaflet also now. Those were the three sentences I told him, and the investigation was over. He wrote the protocol and I signed it. He shook my hand and told me: 'It will be a great pity for you!'. He told me that. Well, he had some truth.”
„And what I want to say, I was supposed to guard my fellow prisoners. I was a brigadier. Those commanders were desperate, because every week we had a different commander. I buried myself in that groove or where we were. I was in the front and digging with the guys who were imprisoned there with me. Because I was sorry for these boys and I didn't want to exalt myself by guarding them. It's against logic, isn't it? So that's how I punished the guards, by working with the boys. When I went home, I was holding my pants in my hand, which could not be fastened by the belts or anything else.”
"That much have you lost weight?"
“I've lost such good 18-20 kilograms in those few months. But I was young.”
“We were two co-authors of that unfortunate leaflet. One of the ways how to inform citizens about what is happening also in Eastern Slovakia, was to make some solid flyer. Because there were many people misinformed. I also remember the title of this leaflet: ´Brothers Slovaks!´ There we informed people about the state of the Republic, that it was occupied. We didn't want people to be misinformed. Because many people were in Eastern Slovakia, especially Rusyns who tended to Russian nationality. We described all the events there and that we would like to establish resistance groups. Then we put on the pillory, as collaborators, those of the Party District Committee and those of the district's top officials.”
Ladislav Kmetík was born on August 1, 1944 and comes from Žilinská Lehota. After finishing the High School of General Education, he continued his studies at the Agricultural University in Nitra in the field of Melioration. Later he worked at the Water Management Project Institute in Žilina, and after that he lived together with his wife in Trebišov, where he worked in the Agricultural Structures in Sečovce. During the hectic period of the Warsaw Pact troops invasion in 1968, his anti-regime views fully manifested themselves when he joined leaflets actions and he was involved in and forming a secret revolt activity. After the onset of normalization in December 1970 he was arrested and convicted of a problematic leaflet campaign. He served his sentence in Želiezovce, where he was conditionally released in May 1971 for good behaviour. Personally, and career persecuted in later years, as a result of which he left with his family in 1972 to Žilina. In 1977 he suffered a severe car accident, the consequences of which he was health-marked for the rest of his life. From 1980 he worked in the Slovak Fishermen‘s Association, where he held the position of an investment officer and later a deputy manager until his early retirement in 1991. At present, Ing. Ladislav Kmetík retired in Kysucké Nové Mesto, along with his wife, who has been a loyal support to him throughout his life.
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