SDB Jozef Hrdý

“I would call those times on Miletičova Street the golden era of my life. The altar servers, girls, Hlinková, youth mass, or Jožko Luscoň, or all those masses. It was really enviable, such well organised it was. Now, I don’t know, it is in other people’s hands. They do their best as we did in the past, but I thank God that I was able to do something. Especially I thank people, who contributed in some way to us, so as we could make it work and develop on Miletičova Street. We wanted to prove that our youth, our people, Christians really fancy doing the good; they have joy and real love in them. I saw the peace in their hearts; I saw their enjoyment of life. They openly expressed their enjoyment. It gave me the biggest satisfaction. And I would wish all people who contributed somehow to be blessed by God with all the gifts and favours they need in their everyday life.”

“When Russians came. You know, they had their own extremes, it is well known as ‘Take away times!’ People were stealing, but Russians respected us as priests and monks, really respected and they were even ordered to behave fairly to us, right? They did various things in public, disturbances, mainly in Pezinok and its neighbourhood, where people made that delicious wine. However, they were very polite to us, we couldn’t complain. Only later, though I don’t think it was their but some of our enemies initiative, they ran us out of the institute. Then, we all had move to Kopánka overnight. The Russians came later and established their secret service there. We witnessed it later as we saw the names of offices written on the doors in those Russian letters. When we came back later, it was a disaster. They left there.” “Havoc.” “It took a week until we cleaned everything after them, particularly toilets and halls; everything was dirty and written all over. It was a disaster indeed.”

“It was three thousand kilometres away, so we travelled the whole day. We arrived in Punta Arenas. It was in May, I remember such a strong wind that I even didn’t want to get off the plane. Really strong wind, at that time I didn’t know it, but later I came to know that those winds usually blow with a speed of 80 to 150 kilometres per hour. I didn’t see any buildings covered with roofing tiles or the like. There was sheet metal screwed on the roofs of all houses, churches, and all buildings. I came to the presbytery of Cristo Obrero, Christ the Worker. The manse was all made of wood. It swayed in the wind. I only said myself that it wasn’t a good beginning, but it wasn’t important at all. As soon as we arrived we went to check in. In the neighbourhood, actually very close to us, there was the Salesian Institute of Don Bosco, so we usually went for breakfast, lunch, and dinner there. I pursued sports there. Of course, I didn’t speak Spanish at all. We lived right opposite the school. And pupils often came to help me or to play football instead of going to school, either in the morning or in the afternoon, so we became friends. In a month a built up such a luxurious youth centre of all interests, sports, everything was well organised. We made playrooms there and an area manager bought us a ping-pong table, table football, and the like. Playground, basketball.”

“We left house on December 22, 1949 at half past seven. I wasn’t alone, there was also… The fiancée of Hinduliak, the notable player, went with us, then an astronomer, an advocate from the eastern Slovakia, we were seven altogether. Of course, there was also Jožo and a girl, they worked together, and one young boy. Actually, we were ten. We came to the river at about twelve, or it was half past twelve at night when we arrived there. From there we headed for Vienna. We walked; we went on foot on both sides of the river. Mud was everywhere, it was raining and then it started to freeze, so when I came to Vienna, it was cold and snowy at Christmas.”

“It was Saturday, so they came to christen. The christening was very interesting, because a mother came with cry. She was with my friend, Kristínka. She was only seven years old and she was going there every day, she was there in the morning, in the afternoon, she was helping me there. She also taught me Spanish. All right. Then, I came and I saw a newborn baby, who was totally blue. Not blue, the baby was almost black. And Kristínka came to ask me to christen the baby. So I went and dressed myself, christened the baby and suddenly I recalled something. I was christening, all in Latin, of course. And then… Wait! ‘Wait here!’ I remembered that once I was present in Rome at beatification of Dominic Savio. I had pictures with Dominic Savio’s photo. I put the pictures there and said myself that I had to cure the baby. As soon as I brought the pictures there, the baby started to smile. You know, the baby was losing the colour and his/her father had already gone to buy a coffin. And do you know what happened? Can you imagine it? I was canonised there right the next day. Then, all the sick children were visiting me. And everything turned out well.”

“It was dark, absolute dark. It was in winter and there was a lot of mud. It means, you know, it was raining when we came to the border, to the Morava River. There we had a rest, but Jožo went a bit further, they had a boat hidden there, such inflatable one. They had to inflate it, right? They did it, but it took a long time as it was a bigger boat, so that we all could get on in. However, everyone had his own stuff. They worked there and in the meantime we were watching everything and we were really tired because we had to walk from half past seven to twelve, half past twelve at night. Then the boat was prepared. On one side, we also waited for the police or something like that, border guards probably, but nobody appeared. We were hidden everywhere there, but not in groups of two or three, everyone had to be alone. Later, when he came for us, only then we met and went for it. After coming to the other bank of the river, we could finally rest. But do you know what happened? It was a Russian zone, which was much worse than being in Slovakia. Then Jožo told us, ‘Now it will be the worst. It means that Russians are here, so you have to be really careful.’”

“Then I started with the modern masses. I even have my songs here. So I started with the youth masses, very nice, fantastic. And when all those old women saw that it was electronic, everything was moving there, they were offended. And then… I had to close the church door and also the old women started attending the youth masses. Then, I let them sit in the back seats near the door, but not in the front part of the church. Later, in the state television learnt about my masses and asked me for permission to broadcast it on television at least once a month. Of course, the catholic television was a bit better than the state one, so I wondered why they didn’t asked me as well. Then, every month at least two of our masses were broadcasted on television.”

“Ludvík Macák came to me and said: ‘My brother and I made a decision. You are so roguish, cunning, and tricky in all your ways and that’s why we have chosen you. We want to organize an escape abroad.’ But what happened? I saw that it was all going to the dogs, because policemen have already taken our one floor on Miletičová street. The police was there already.”

“What was the issue? How to get from Innsbruck to Italy. We were advised to apply for visa from Switzerland. So we wrote, signed and waited in Innsbruck for visa to Italy. Well, they told us: ‘You won’t have any problem, just wait until it is done.’ Missionaries had it in their hands now. However, this time we didn’t have any money.”

“Ludvík Macák says: ‘These theology students, who will start their studies now, won’t be able to finish them.’ We knew it all would be here just like in Russia. ‘So it will be better if those freshmen will go and study in Italy.’ There were about eighteen of us. I was among them as well. So he said it would be better. I began to prepare with my friend, his name was Janko Halo. We started to combine all those things as we were supposed to leave in August 1949. We had everything prepared, but no one knew about that, not even our superiors. Only these two men; at least that’s what they said. Ernest Macák says: ‘I will organize it here in Slovakia and you will organize it all abroad.’ ‘All right, it is not a problem.’ But then we found out that the man who was supposed to guide us over the Morava River through Moravský Svätý Ján, was already being monitored by the Border Guard. They even found the boat in which we were about to cross the river, and so we didn’t go anywhere. When we saw how this all ended up, in September (I wasn’t a theology student yet) I went to study to Svätý Kríž, today it is Žiar nad Hronom, where we had the Faculty of Theology. Although, we knew the time would come for us to leave, when everything will be ready. It had to remain secret, so I didn’t say a word to anyone. Well, so I went to Svätý Kríž, began my theology and philosophy studies. And what happened next? On 21st December, 1949 my friend Janko Halo received a telegram: ‘Come home, your mother is dying because of cancer.’ Ernest Macák sent this to me as well, to Svätý Kríž. And now the nice part – everyone knows what follows already. What was it all about? He got his telegram at nine-thirty and I did at ten-thirty saying: ‘Your father lies with many fractures in Bratislava hospital. Come and visit him immediately.’ And it was all false, you see? We arranged it all. My friend didn’t have a problem, but the people knew me from Bratislava. They knew I was quite roguish and tricky. ‘You will not go anywhere! We know that you want to spend Christmas among your friends. No, you can’t go anywhere!’ ‘Well, we shall keep the record of what you just said and you shall sign under it.’ I said to my director. He agreed. What happened then? I was ready; my things were already at the station as I had one young friend there, and the train was leaving in the afternoon. Then my superior, named Valábek, says: ‘We thought it through. You can go to Bratislava. Here is Horniak, the economist, who will give you money. And you will buy fish in Bratislava and bring them here, ok?’ This is how they wanted to know I won’t deceive them. They knew me very well. So there was no problem, they gave me money and I could catch the train.”

“We came there at half past twelve and we gathered at one streamside. They had a boat, but not a wooden one, but an inflatable dinghy. So we waited and at half past one we already were in Austria, on the other side.”

“The greatest stupidity which we did was that we got on the first car. And those trains used to go one in the morning and one in the evening. It was like this after the war, you know. So we waited for the Russians to come and see how we would end up. If they caught us, we would definitely go to Russia. Others were also sent there. But we had a plan. The Russians came two hours later, inspected us one by one, looked everything through, I gave them my ID… ‘Očeň, charašo.’ ‘Očeň, charašo.’ (Meaning: A student, all right.) I was completely exhausted and when we arrived to the middle of river Inn, there was a blood running from my nose. It was all that stress. But there were such nice ladies; when they saw me, they gave me napkins and helped me to stop bleeding and cleaned me.”