Zoltán Kukula

“Once when I shared a cell with Laci Šterbinský we heard the dinner was coming, because some prisoners were carrying pots and they started to ladle up food. We had to push our plates outside by our legs and I still remember that they ladled up beans and a slice of bread. Well, a lot of little stones were in the food, because they usually didn’t clean the ingredients before cooking in the prison. When we finished our food, the warden opened the cell and said: ‘Boys, do you want another portion? There is some food left.’ We agreed and suddenly Laci started to skip. The warden asked him: ‘Why are you skipping?’ ‘Because I'm trying to make more space in my stomach for the food,’ he answered. The warden smiled and gave us the food. But after a while he started to shout at us: ‘Why are you bothering me?’ We really didn’t understand what was going on. After a while he opened the cell and told us: ‘Those bastards came here to investigate.’ Then we understood that some of the wardens were human and they did not lose their humaneness in spite of the jobs they had. We understood that they were watched and they were afraid of their supervisors, too.”

“Nemec worked here only for a year, but I really liked him, because he was open-minded and friendly. He taught at a business school in Trenčín later and he was also sent there to help with the management of the school. The students liked him, too. However, they later denied it. He moved to Trenčín, because he didn’t get a flat here. A school caretaker called Antalová made a deal with Libant and sent him all the letters Nemec wrote to me by a bus driver to Dobšiná. Once Nemec wrote me: ‘Zolo, listen to the Radio Free Europe, you’ll laugh at it.’ This letter was a reason for my apprehension. As a result, I was accused of an active membership in the White Legion resistance movement, of the high treason and subverting of the Republic. Moreover, I was accused of undermining of the Youth Association, etc.”

“My wife’s father was abducted to Russia. My wife always says he was abducted by the Russians, but the Russians were only executors. The tragedy is that our people were those who sold out their own fellow citizens to the Russians. Even in Veľká some of the betrayers are still alive. His best friend betrayed him, because my wife’s father was a chairman of the Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party (HSĽS) and his best friend was a passionate guardsman. Since he wanted to save himself, he betrayed my wife’s father. Consequently, he was taken to Russia. When two men came back from there, one of them was called Hlásny, firstly they didn’t say a word, but later, after some period of time, they told us the father was still alive waving with his hand when a bulldozer was pouring soil on him burying him alive. People told me he was a very good man. He worked in sawmill and when the bridge to Veľká exploded, he offered people boards for free to cover their broken windows, because they didn’t have glass. People called him Miško; they always say he was very helpful. He never did anything bad to anybody in his life.”

“Now I’ll come back to talking about the first Slovak State. I really cannot imagine a better state. It was small, but the Germans took it under their wings and they protected it. People used to say the Germans had claimed that if we stood on their side, we would have a good life. Especially in political matters nobody could do anything against such a strong power as Germany was. In the Slovak State, there we had the things which you couldn’t have found anywhere in the Europe then: Swiss chocolate and English fabric. Shops were loaded with goods we’d never seen before.”