Pavel Lacko

"In 1945 on Christmas Eve, suddenly - it was very peaceful before - there was no shooting, nothing - and suddenly there was shouting in the village, voice: ʻRussians are here, Russians are here,ʼ so we went outside of course, it was around lunch time, everyone was cooking, as you do on Christmas Eve. Around 20 - 30 Russian soldiers with machine guns and one chariot – there was a Russian captain inside. Allegedly they came as a patrol to Pokoradz from Rimavská Sobota. Well, it was a joy, a terrible joy, everyone was shouting at soldiers, 'Come in for lunch,' we understood each other, so about 20 households invited those boy soldiers. In about an hour - a scream, a terrible cry: ‘the Germans are coming, the Germans are coming,ʼ and yet at the top end of the village were Germans. Machine guns, automatics, what a shooting it was, it was something awful. And just imagine, those Russians, those boys, how they disappeared, you can’t even imagine, not a single one died, because we would have kniwn, if any did; and the captain, just horses with the carriage remained in the village frightened by the shooting. The Germans then searched each house with bayonets, and came to us as well... ʻWhere Russians, where Russians?ʼ they looked under the beds and so. And within few hours, the village was occupied. I know that they had three tanks. We had - and still have – an orchard in Vyšná Pokoradz and just imagine it, through the three trees - not that they would go alongside them, but through those trees they went. Then the Germans stayed with us for the whole 14 days. Of course, they furthermore attacked Nižná Pokoradz too, however, people there were already prepared for them; there were machine guns, automatics in the windows. Thus the Germans didn’t take over Nižná Pokoradz, but they returned and remained in Vyšná Pokoradz. Obviously the Russian cannons, Russian mortars. We had such bad luck that a mine fell down just in front of our house. I [was] in the room at the centre of the house, where we had a stove made of clay, and next to me shrapnel from the mine [fell] into the stove; even today there is a hole. However, it smashed the windows, all windows got broken and glaziers didn’t exist at that time. Well then we all were sleeping in the basement. We had - that basement is still there - about eight steps deep under the house, it wasn’t cold there. At the front of the basement door, from the entrance, we put some massive beams in, in case of mine being dropped. We lived by a tower and the Russians fired at that tower, because one could have a view from that tower.”

“And one German got the accommodation at our home, he was called Rudo, from Berlin, he explained to us that he had cows too, they had 20 cows at home ... I sensed he disliked the war. He was 18 years old, so when he was called up, he could be 16 or 17. He was tasked to take arms every day in direction of Zacharovce, somewhere there was a frontline. In maybe third house from ours they were killing cattle. I always used to watch him walk, he would always have four - five dead on the cart; their feet were hanging out of it. I guess he carried them to Teriakovce because he walked that direction. There weren’t many who died, but about 40 - 50 Germans for sure. However, one thing he did was weird – he took their shoes off and brought them to the back of our house, where we had a granary and he kept them there. As he was leaving, he suddenly said: ʻIvan, Ivan, katyusha, katyusha, (the rocket launcher, ed. note)ʼ and he continued that they had to go away. So they quickly packed up and left with carts towards Horné Zahorany.”