Alfonz Petreje

“As I mentioned before, my parents owned a small pub, shop, and about 17 acres of land in a small village. Once an officer of the district committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia came to our house and asked my father to use the pub for their meeting. It was summer and some young men came and wanted beer. After a longer consideration I decided I couldn't have done any wrong if I tapped few glasses of beer. However, the district comrade didn't like what I had done. I heard him say: 'We shall get even with him, Bánovce, that's the nest of Tiso!'”

“After we got back from work, we used to have lunch around 2 pm. Then we were getting ready for a square drill, marching, marching with singing, making turns at the position or during the march. Eventually we had political training, where they clearly told us: 'We cannot equip you with arms, since you might use them against us!' Sometimes after the hard work we would have alarm training, or other times just line-ups with full combat gear, so to say it. Sometimes we had to march about two or three kilometers away from the barracks, and then in the morning, of course, continue working in mine again.”