Ján Križan

“I have to say that none of our animals dropped dead. We had Germans in our room; they lived with us as they were the front soldiers delivering provisions to the front. They came during Advent and every morning they got up early, returned late at night, but never wanted anything from us. We used to go to Bzovík for Advent morning mass, which was at 6 am. So we left at 5 am to Bzovík and they fed our pigs and cows, the whole farm. They helped us with everything, saying: ‘Just go, don’t worry, we will take care of it.’ They really did everything and it was very nice of them. I cannot say anything bad about them. However, when the Russians came, or by us particularly there were the Romanians, there was screaming and riot in the village. They spread around and robbed, stole everything around them, even the henhouses.”

“Well, we already knew we were defrauded. They prepared us: ‘Oh, you will be great. There you get also salary and everything.’ They promised us anything, but two weeks later, they were transporting us by cars to Mimoň and from there by freight cars to Ostrava – Orlová. In Orlová we were also only for two weeks and then they divided us into pits. I got to a mine pit, where was a huge explosion half a year before. And it was me, who got into that spot, where the explosion happened. Oh, my God! When I saw it, those tunnels, traverses, it all was messed up. It seemed like it was just about to fall down and I was so close to giving up the ghost like never before. But then we got to the place it all ended, where the next passage was being mined and there was three meters high layer of coal to be mined. Such thick wooden columns, three meters tall, were placed on each squared meter, however, when the pressure arose, it all was cracking. There I worked for about a week, but really, that was the worst experience for me there.”