Petra Mendrošová

“They planned it so they overtook us in the meantime. They swooped in on us at night. The police came and it all happened again. Before midnight, the sisters had just come home from the factory. Suddenly one nun rang the bell placed near the gate. We quickly woke up; we were being occupied. Banging and demanding us to open the gate began. Meanwhile the National Security Corps members were already positioned in empty houses surrounding us from all sides, so they could see us getting dressed in a panic. They invaded the camp and wanted to search through the building to see if we had weapons, leaflets or anti-state materials. The nuns said they wouldn´t let them walk into the rooms alone, thus they accompanied them, to ensure they didn´t plant any false evidence. Because, that´s what they typically did, planting evidence to provide a reason for them to act. Back then several sisters were arrested too.”

“Yet before the front´s crossing, even before the Uprising began, prisoners of war were walking through our village. The Germans rushed them. I remember how they drove them into one yard, where was a huge dunghill. Even though they tried to drive us away, as children we saw those poor people, truly ragged, half naked, wearing clogs, being on the dunghill, which emitted at least a bit of warmth.”

“The secret ones were everywhere. I went to Ružomberok and saw they monitored where I was going.” (Interviewer: “Were they so transparent?”) “Yes, it was easy to notice. So I walked into one store. I parked the car in the parking lot and saw him following me. Well, I went on, bought some threads there and carried them. I looked at him to let him know I knew he was there. We had some secretly ordained sisters in Ružomberok as well.”

“In the evening the sister provincial came and in the morning we were already being occupied; it was on August 28. – 29. The militiamen came to the port with their guns and bayonets. They stood in each doorway and ordered us to pack quickly, because we were supposed to leave at 9:00 am. Then the sisters asked to postpone the departure time to 11:00 am, as it was impossible to pack everything in an hour. We didn´t know where we were going. We were very young; we were saying to each other, ‘why did we even have to pack if they were about to deprive us of everything anyway?’. We thought they would take us to Siberia, and we kind of expected it. But then the busses as well as trucks came. We boarded, but didn´t know the way. They drove us to Kláštor pod Znievom. It was a concentration convent there.”