Jozef Sollár

“I was in the military service for one year and yet afterwards my father had been liquidated. He managed to harvest by himself, the granary was full when the police came. One of the state security members talked to my father and said: ʻLet´s go on the road, on the street.’ They came there, the first car coming stopped, my father got on and was arrested. And the workers of the cooperative were already waiting there, since they were arranged to feed the horses and cows. They took the whole harvest. The corn and mangel-wurzel were still on the field when they began to crop it. As the first car stopped, the policeman came, took my father and said: ʻLet´s go to the prosecutor.’ And there they arrested him.”

“It was yet before the war. More people from the village were interested in that horse. My father said: ʻI won´t sell him, since if someone beats him, he will run back home.’ And he wouldn´t bear it, since he had that horse for twenty years. I rode that horse when we went to a fair in Lipany, where they bought him. He didn´t want to drag, so they leashed him. My dad told them: ʻI don´t want any money if the horse doesn´t drag, but try to tie the collar like this and he will. He either takes the collar off, or the carriage moves.’ However, since they roped him behind the carriage where more people sat, when they were passing the turn to Lužianky, the horse knocked the carriage and toppled it over. He already knew, he wasn´t on his way home.”