Radomír Žingor

“So we went to the village of Pohronský Bukovec, back then it was only named Bukovec, and there were the Germans already. Firstly they questioned us who we were and everything. We were lucky our mother went to school to Český Těšín for two or three years and she spoke a bit German. We had in our IDs names after her maiden name Vilimová, what probably saved us. I was the eldest from all boys and my sister was even two years older, so they set us apart immediately. I don’t know what those Germans wanted to do with us. I remember they threw my sister on the horse and wanted to take her somewhere, but my mom started crying and screaming. She went to the commander, who helped and even found us a place to stay in Bukovec. There we were for 3 – 4 days living in a barn, literally, and you know, my brother still needed some milk. Those were terrible situations. On the next day, a drummer came; there were drummers in villages, since there wasn’t PA system, yet. We as boys were very curious about what were they going to announce. Suddenly, they said there were three partisans killed. And those were these our three mentioned men.”

“Well, I don’t know through what connections again, but my mom arranged two waggoners with horses. There were two big wagons and one morning we got on them and wanted to leave Bukovec. My family, as well as my father’s whole family, was leaving even by trains, because all of us didn’t fit onto those wagons. On the wagons we travelled through Šturec to Turčianske Teplice, however, we were really lucky! It was raining during the whole night, and even though we were covered by military blankets, we were completely soaked. There was German control at each of the curves, but since we had those IDs, they let us go. It was so huge luck! We came to Turčianske Teplice through villages Horná and Dolná Štubňa and Malá Vieska. There the waggoners brought us all safely and I hope, they also managed to luckily return back home. We haven’t heard about them anymore. We stayed in Turčianske Teplice, and again, some new people helped us with lodging; we were divided into different houses. There we were for about two weeks and we left before Christmas. They fed us, dried us.”

“Approximately two weeks before Christmas, one sir from Bystrička came on a horse. Only few of us remained there, because my father’s family had already left to Martin and Bystrička by train. They got safely there and we waited for this waggoner to take us to Bystrička, where my mother had her natal home. The house was big, a mansion of 4 – 5 rooms. It was a big homestead, which stands there until today. The first surprise was that we, being two small boys, ran into the kitchen and there were two German officers! They asked us who we were and what did we want, but we didn’t speak German. We actually didn’t understand them at all. Then our mom came and began talking with them. They were quite calm, absolutely non-aggressive and they didn’t ask us anything. They used to sleep in the best room. Then we left from grandma’s house to our aunts’ house, who lived a bit further.”