Karol Hetteš

“I have never been anywhere in my life, only at home and at military training. And when we came to Libavá, I cried: ,Where are we?´ Such a situation... . I thought we were coming to the barracks and we were soldiers. And here some: ,E classification!´ What is it? What classification? And we had training without a weapon! Because they did not believe us and could not give us weapons. They didn´t consider us like normal people! And even if Stalin hadn´t died, we might have found ourselves in Kamchatka, in the Gulag.”

“I have never been anywhere in my life, only at home and at military training. And when we came to Libavá, I cried: 'Where are we?' Such a situation... . I thought we were coming to the barracks and we would be soldiers. And they gave us some 'E' classification! What is it? What classification? And we had training without a weapon! Because they did not believe us and could not give us weapons. They didn't consider us like normal people! And even if Stalin hadn't died, we might have found ourselves in Kamchatka, in the Gulag.”

„That political officer too! He told me: 'And what about your father? He did anti-state activity and disagrees with this regime!' I said to him: 'Leave him alone! He died and why he died I didn't tell you!' That was terrible as we were persecuted. Especially me, because I stayed at home.”

„We were in the mountains when the front passed, beyond the village, in the mountains. We were there on horses. We took something with us for eating, especially bread, and the whole village was moved there. We were there for four days when the front passed and then the Russians came. My father stayed at home, but we were all there. We had bread baked in the oven, we also cooked and made the shelters there, I remember that very well.”