“All of a sudden a German jumped from behind the telephone pole in the corner of the garden a German soldier:”Halt!” Good that he didn’t lean his rifle on me, but he probably he touched me. A stupid thing to scream from such small distance. And as he shouted, I was prepared, I threw the rifle away with my left hand, but he fired. But he fired across my arm and didn’t hit me. But my machine gun immediately responded. After shooting, the Germans immediately jumped out of the surrounding houses. We started to run, Dusan and me. Dusan was ahead of me, while I was delayed by that German, he ran around 50 m. When the Germans came out, they started to fire- at first they tried to save that one yelling there, and then they started to fire! I was so witty I didn’t run down the road, but I’ve jumped into the stream.”
"We reached Vah, but we couldn’t use the bridges. Maybe if we can shoot our way through, but we’d need to kill the guards, and they’d hear the shooting. We won’t win anything, they would kill us. There’s no help, we can go through Vah. We were searching for a shallow place, and the night fell, when we were passing, I don’t know what time it was, maybe 10, for sure, maybe even more, when we reached Vah. Fortunately, the Moon periodically shone through the clouds- so we could see, oi, there’s an abyss, but we found a shallow place in the end. We undressed, tucked the dry clothes into backpacks, machine gun in left hand, pack on the back. We had to find same stick to support ourselves, and to check for the abysses. And when we entered the river, we noticed hoarfrost floating on the river. But if you want to save your life, you’ll do anything, it’s alles egal, you just have to. We found a very good spot to pass, the water wasn’t that deep, the rocks didn’t scratch our legs. We passed just fine, it must have been some ford used by the farmers."
“Betrayal and betrayal! It was revealed, it was such a trap. The Germans occupied Korytnica. The spa town was also occupied with machine-gun nests and the streets were surrounded by soldiers. They let us come to Korytnica, it was done deliberately, and we didn't even get any food. And suddenly shooting! But bloody shooting! That was one of the worst battles I've ever had. It was good that we had those machines. And yet the machine gun has only 72 rounds, but there were many deaths. Because we got into close proximity as the streets were occupied. But what now? We have seen that it is not good,the only think being to escape as soon as possible.”
Jaroslav Prokop was born on September 1, 1925 in Dolný Kubín in the family of veterinarian Jaroslav and Maria, the daughter of a peasant. The Prokop family, in which another son Milos was born, did not find it easy in the second half of the 1930s. The father, who came from Šumava, was Czech and married a Protestant. After his father‘s unexpected death in early 1939, the family’s situation deteriorated. As a young grammar school student, Jaroslav joined a group of students who in the war years tore down government posters and wrote slogans against the regime. In 1944 he graduated and immediately after the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising enrolled in the barracks in Dolny Kubin. He spent the first month of the Uprising in Orava, where he fought as a machine gunner‘s assistant. After the Germans suppressed resistance, Jaroslav decided to go to the rear of the rebel territory with his comrades. He fought around Banská Bystrica, later on Donovaly and on both foothills of the Low Tatras. He returned to Orava through Liptov and joined the Signal group, where he worked until the liberation in April 1945. After the war he became a veterinarian and was active in the regional political and anti-fascist movement.
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!
