„They were in charge of the supplies, nothing more. They did not take part in any action, only caring about the supplies. We had horses with belts and two kettles on them. Those horses were very strong. These were two regularly-sized military kettles. In the morning, the guys would prepare tea for the boys and later for instance some goulash. There were five people in charge of the supplies and nothing else. Not joining any action.“
“After that I served as a scout. The others with me were: Adam Nicár, he’s already dead, Ondrej Baník, I don’t know where he is. We had this group of scouts, and we reported to our section, we were say twenty kilometres from the group, then we returned and reported what was going on in the area, so that they’d know at HQ whether some attack was being prepared or the likes. [Q: How were you armed?] We were armed with sub-machine guns and grenades, we had our Model 24 light machine gun, but we only had about four clips with twenty rounds each, so we used them sparingly. Then one time they were attacked by Hungarians, so I took down I don’t know how many, we killed about twenty Hungarians, by machine gun, those were superb machine guns, twenty-round machine guns they were called, that was the best infantry weapon at the time. [Q: Did you kill a lot of people?] I don’t want to think of that; when I did the hit-and-run in Ondava, with a grenade, I left some twenty people there. It was a meeting of Hungarians, Germans, and Slovaks, there was a kind of hill there, about thirty metres high, so I threw a grenade there. Some nine people were dead on the spot, then I threw in more grenades; I can’t remember how many [died], but it was a lot, it made me sick afterwards when I saw the bodies all ripped up. That was the biggest mission I had during the war. If they had caught me, I don’t know what they’d have done to me.”
“I was a member of the military police which was responsible for the Germans’ expulsion. When some German wanted to carry away a hundred kilos of stuff I let them. These were their things, not mine.”
“I was in Rakovník with a platoon in 1945, checking up on the gold-diggers who were looting in the border area. We were searching the trains near Rakovník and confiscated stuff. Whoever could not prove their ownership would get their things confiscated. We would even confiscate watches, there was this jeweler who stole a watch in a jewellery in Mariánské Lázně, Karlovy Vary or wherever. A beautiful, big, golden watch. We would submit all of it at the fourth department in Dejvice, near to Sparta’s stadium. Next to it were the civilians of the fifth department. Bedřich Reicin was the head of the fifth department. At that time, he was not yet a colonel, he was promoted later, but they hung him eventually anyway. We were submitting all of it, so I wrote a protocol on it. I was a serviceman responsible for bringing the mail from Rakovník to Prague. And Capt. Jelínek told me: ‘Honza, I have a sister in Prague, I haven’t seen her for a long time, I will take the mail and go there.’ I said okay. I had to take the post to the headquarters. Reicin walked against me, I did like this and he told me: ‘Don’t you know how to salute properly?’”
“I had a wounded friend slung across my back, Ondrej Baník, he had an injured hand, I dressed it up and he got out of it fine. There were whole detachments looking for us, I was ready, if they caught us, that I’d shoot myself; I had a small 635 pistol in my boot, tied to a string, if they’d have caught me, I’d have shot myself to prevent them from getting me; but I got out of it all. I hated them terribly, I still can’t forget the atrocities they died, I can’t forget; I was without mercy, I didn’t take mercy on a single Hungarian, a single German, I’ll say that openly, because the atrocities they did to people and children, they can’t be described.”
„Shukaev’s unit was under the command of the Fouth Ukrainian Front who were watching our steps, telling us where to go. Vasil, I cannot now remember his surname, served as his aide. We would undertake reconnaissance watches, being the best of scouts. At times, we would be gone from the unit for five full days, searching for Germans‘ and Hungarians‘ positions and all. I made use of my knowledge of the mountains where I grew up. That served me well, knowing that we can take this path, not this one, and what is where.“
“I came across to the partisans but they initially did not trust me because I was wearing a Slovak uniform. So I had to simply capture a bridge guard… I don’t even want to recall that. He was German. I took my knife and stabbed him in the neck. Then I put him down, took his rifle and shoot the other guard.”
„I came with cigarettes. I understood only a few words in German so I gave him cigarettes – even though I have been a non-smoker, I have had some – and as he reached for one, I pulled out a knife and slit his throat. I was not sure that I would kill him if I aimed for his heart. I let go of him while the other German was alredy shooting at me. So I took his rifle and shot the German dead. Then I ran off the bridge, the Russians undermined it and the bridge blew up.“
„Tarp on the ground, and simply lie on it. We would make a campfire so that from one side it was burning and from the other one freezing. We did not just fight the Germans, we fought the Romanians as well. But the Romanian troops were scared. As soon as we started firing at them, they would run away. They had no intention to fight for their tzar or whatever he was called back then.“
“I had to murder people. I was driving Hungarian units out of the Dukla Pass. I killed people and that is why I feel bad about myself. But had I not done it they would have killed me. I had to defend myself.”
Lieutenant colonel in retirement Ondrej Hiadlovský was born on 24 September 1922 in Ľubietová in central Slovakia. He attended elementary school in his village, later studying agricultural school. He did not graduate, however, and was expelled. In 1941 he joined to Slovak army, serving as a driver with the car battalion. In July 1942 as a member of the so-called fast division he took part in the offensive against the Soviet Union. He served in the Caucasus area and following the unsuccessful German attack on Stalingrad, was transferred to Crimea. Many soldiers were deserting to Soviet troops and so did Ondrej Hiadlovský. Near the Isthmus of Perekop which connects Crimea to the Ukrainian mainland he deserted to join the Soviet partisans. In order to gain their trust, he had to kill two German soldiers. He travelled with the Soviet partisan group “Stalin” of Mikhail Illarionovich Shukaev across Ukraine, Romania, Poland, all the way to Slovakia where he took part in the Slovak National Uprising. In February 1945 at Liptovský Hrádek, Ondrej joined the First Czechoslovak Army, later serving in the third brigade as a driver. Via Ružomberok, Vrútky and Žilina he got to Moravia where he lived to see the end of the war. Later, he was stationed in the Rakovník area where he guarded against the so-called gold-diggers who were taking the German properties from the border area into the inland. After a conflict with Bedřich Reicin, Ondrej left the army, found employment in a bank and later begun working as a truck-driver. As of 2012, Ondrej Hiadlovský had lived in Prague-Kamýk and as of 2014 in a retirement home in Prague’s Krč quarter. He died on November 1, 2020.
