We had nowhere to return. In the Valley of Death, not a single stone was left standing.
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Vilma Görnerová, née Patlevičová, was born on 12 May 1931 in Nižná Pisaná in the eastern Slovak district of Svidník. In the autumn of 1944, the village became the scene of the heaviest fighting of the Carpatho-Dukla Operation. Soldiers of the Red Army, who tried to break through here to help the Slovak National Uprising, encountered a secured Nazi defence. Up to 11,000 soldiers were killed on both sides in the valley of the Kapišovka stream, which the Soviets renamed the Valley of Death, and the fighting took a heavy toll on the local population. Vilma and her family spent three weeks in the cellar. After a Soviet shell hit the house above them, they managed to escape and spent the winter with friends. When they returned to Nižná Pisaná in May 1945, they found their home completely destroyed. They had to bury dead soldiers, clean up rotting wells and streams, and rebuild their houses. While Vilma’s younger sister Emilia went to Olomouc as part of the post-war aid organized by two Czech students, Vilma spent several months recovering in the Tatras thanks to the support of UNRRA. After her marriage she lived in nearby Svidník and in the 1960s she left her husband and settled with her four children in Liberec.
