Ján Janok

Later, they tried to persuade us to enter the newly established seminaries. They dissolved all the monastic seminaries as well as the diocesan ones by summer and established only two new. In Bratislava for the Slovaks and in Prague for the Czechs. And they tried to persuade us to enrol. Of course, our superiors told us, ‘You mustn’t enter it, it hasn’t been approved by Rome,’ and therefore we refused it. Maybe about the three men offered to enter; however, later they decided to leave it and started working in secular professions. ‘Well, if you don’t want to enter the seminary, you will go to the Auxiliary Technical Battalions.’ Then, on September 16, 1950, I enlisted in Komárno. They taught us right face, left face, marches, and songs for the first two weeks. Then they divided us into two companies. One was supposed to go to Podbořany near Karlovy Vary and the other one to Hájniky, where the barracks for the air units were located as well as the airport Tri duby, Sliač – spa. There were such quarters; however there were not enough places for so many people as they had been built very quickly. We used to live really primitively there. The washrooms were in one building, there were such racks, where we washed, of course only with cold water. However, even worse was that we didn’t have any toilets there. There were latrines, which were quite distant from the quarters. We were about 100 or 130 men from various monastic orders. And few diocesan priests. There was even one of a different religion and from time to time some layman appeared there accidentally. However, there were mainly priestly or religious companies. The reason was that this way we were separated and thus we couldn’t spoil our military, our boys. And it was good for us that we were with our priests, sometime with our superiors. They could teach us, of course in secret. If the chief of the room, some instructor, was good, we even could celebrate the mass. We worked at various building sites. Some also gained a sort of vocational education such as bricklaying, joinery and the like. On December 31, 1953, we all were released after forty months of the military service.