"When we were going to the attack for the first time, my friend who was by head higher than me - handsome boy - was going on my right side. And now everyone to attack! You really don’t want to leave the dugout. Well - let’s go. We got out and he got shot straight into his forehead. He fell back in. But what could I have done? Nothing. You just have to keep going forward. The ambulance men were picking up the injured ones. Later then I found out that he was really death. It was only a tiny little hole and a trickle of blood on his head. But as we were going further it was even worse. And the worst part - for me personally - was in Dukla Pass. You know...The Germans have had very good fort works there. My cousin with whom I met just before the battle died there. He was a tank commander. He even has a little monument there today. Just where the big monument in Dukla stands. There are the names of six or eight boys who died there. And Joseph is there too."
Mr. Kohutič: " And that’s how we got to the Soviet army. They caught us and..."
Collector: " They caught you in that forest? "
Mr. Kohutič: "No, on the front. Or right behind the front. We had to pass through the Hungarian front, then the German front and then it was the Soviet front. "
Collector: " So you actually crossed the Hungary -German side of the front, right? "
Mr. Kohutič: " No, no it wasn’t the Hungary- German. As a matter of fact it was Romania, Bessarabia territory etc. That’s where they caught us. We had no idea where we were. Only when the Soviet soldiers spoke in Russian, we spoke Ruthann to them, they said: ´Fritz.´ Like if we are Germans. But we told them: ´ We are not Germans. ´ ´ And who are you? ´ We are Czechs. ´ ´ No, you are Germans. ´ So they have separated us there. There was already many of the captives there... "
Mr. Kohutič: " (???) what did we listen to?... My middle brother made this - how do you call it - ah, the radio...so he made a small radio and that’s what we were listening to. But the he got - I don’t remember if it was my middle brother or the oldest one - the regular radio. I watched him to set up the London station there. And then we heard the key signature, that typical sound of the London station. And they were talking in Czech, right. "
Collector: " Have you been interested in it at all at that time? "
Mr. Kohutič: " Yes, I was. I enjoyed it very much. "
Collector: "The labor camps enrollment considered all the young people your age?"
Mr. Kohutič: "Yes, I guess so. And specially all of us who graduated on gymnasium. As far as I know."
Collector: "And why they want particularly these people? "
Mr. Kohutič: " They didn’t want them...Because it were the students who started the rebellion most of the times. Ever. But you know this from our history. They just wanted to put aside this so called future intelligence. "
Collector: "What was it like? Did you get some letter by mail or...? "
Mr. Kohutič: " Yes, we had to go get the letter to some office and then they transported us. "
Collector: "Have you been allowed to take anything at all with you? "
Mr. Kohutič: "Almost nothing. The clothes that we wore and that was about it. Some towel and soap. "
"We’ve had few drinks and were singing. That was in some school as far as I remember. Then we went from the school to the village where we were accommodated. The village was all empty though. Only elderly people, mainly old women stayed there. And there - I change the subject a little here. We stayed in some small house with some old lady and the expecting mother. They only had clay floor with some hay on it - but it was warm enough. Well, warm...And then one night we got back from the guard the old lady said: ´ Boys, there is a hay barn outside, you have to go to sleep there. ´ ´ But why? ´ We didn’t understand it. ´ We are going to have a labour here ´ she said. So we went outside to that hay barn. It was so cold outside and we could hear the young girl screaming and crying almost the whole night. It was almost the morning when it got quiet and we fell asleep. But it was a wake up time in a little while anyway."
Mr. Michal Kohutič was born on December 21st 1924 in Uzhhorod, Carpathian Ruthenia. He has been taken off the gymnasium and transported to the labor camp in Romania in 1943. He ran away from the camp through a front on the Soviet side of war. There he was captured, but once again he managed escape — this time from Soviet captivity. Unfortunately he was caught by the Cossacks. In 1944 he steeped into the army troop commanded by Lt. Svoboda and served as a submachine gunner. He participated in the Dukla pass battle and fought in Slovakia. After the end of the war he began to study at the University of Medicine. After 1948 he was persecuted by communist regime and was forced to work in a factory. He was fully rehabilitated again in 1989 and in 1991 successfully graduated from medical school.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
