Cyril Ďurica

“I had tough time in the village Staré, because when I was in the fourth grade, my stepmother sent me from May till October to shepherd cattle for a farmer. I was 8 years old and I had to repeat that year in school. The next year, the same thing happened, and I didn’t go to school again. I finished in my sixth grade. My godmother and I went to see my brother in hospital in Prešov, he had tuberculosis. Godmother told him my story. How I was victimized by my stepmother and how I wasn't allowed to finish school because of work. My brother arranged for me that I could finish the school and afterwards I was able to complete an evening school as well. Then I started to work in former “Krížik” (Industrial Automation Works in Dukla Prešov).”

“We were friends with Ďurkota because nobody wanted to be friends with him. He was imprisoned for six months for a very silly thing, for a drawing. We decided that before a military service we'd go for a visit. I had a brother living in Karlové Vary and his brother worked on Lipno Dam. So we travelled by train from Prešov to Budějovice, Certlov to visit his brother in Lipno. The border guards entered the train, but everything was fine. However, at the train station Certlov we were asked to come to an office for personal inspection. We traveled from as far as Prešov and according to them we were too far from home. We were not supposed to do that. Mom was sending cans to her son, made in Netherland, and bought in Tuzex. They weren’t Slovak, they were foreign. My friend’s dad was a teacher in Čaklov and his mom wrapped the cans for her son living by the Dam. My friend had many cans made in Netherland which were from Tuzex and were sent by his mom for her other son, Ďurkota’s brother. Those cans gave them the proof that we were connected with the West. Even though, they truly were for my friend’s brother at the Dam. Afterwards they transported us to the district, to the county and to Palace of Justice in Prešov, where we were detained for a month practically for nothing.”