Second Lieutenant (ret.) Ladislav Kostovič
* 1927 †︎ 2016
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„Then I attended the technical school and they wanted us, the Carpathian Ruthenia was already occupied by the Soviet Army, they wanted to take us [to the Red´– editor´s note] Army. So I went home, as I was in Vinogradov, as they call it today and hurried to Poland. I was searching for my brother, as I heard, that he´s around there. So I enlisted in the Poland army and got to the artillery.“
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„When they occupied the territory [Czechoslovakia – editor´s note], so it all crashed down here. The Germans occupied the republic and the Slovaks were kind of independent. I don’t know, Hlinka men and who else was there. And my brother came back. [Did he, really?] From the army, as they disbanded the Czech army.“
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„If I remember well as a boy, in the 1930s there was a big unemployment. My stepfather worked as a mason, so when there was work, it was good, and when there was none, he stayed at home. My brother was already at the military academy [in Hranice]. I don’t remember exactly, probably in 1936 already. We didn’t see each other much, as he was in Hranice, and when he came back on holidays, it was all. And also there was a big age gap between us. [How much?] Fourteen years.“
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Full recordings
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Javorka u Seče, 06.03.2013
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The mobilisation came, so I went home and straight to the army in Poland
A retired sub lieutenant Ladislav Kostovič was born on 13 January, 1927 in Uzhgorod in Carpathian Ruthenia in a former Czechoslovakia. He attended an elementary school here and then started a technical metalworking school. At the time there was a Hungarian occupation of the Carpathian Ruthenia and his fifteen years older brother left for the Soviet Union, was imprisoned in Soviet gulags and at the time of the witness´ studies he fought in the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Brigade. So Ladislav Kostovič decided to follow his brother. On 22 January, 1945 he entered the 1sr Army Troop in Humenné and joined the 5th artillery troop. Being a part of it, he participated in liberation of Czechoslovakia and also experienced fights for Liptovský Mikuláš, Vrútky or Žilina. After war he settled down in Czechoslovakia, studied the Secondary Forestry School in Trutnov and then began working in a hájovny in Prochody near Vysoké Mýto, in Strašov near Přelouče and flowing a short employment as a manipulator at a railway station he got employed again in a lodge in Ždírec and Bory. He lived with his wife in a lodge U tří dubů near Seč, passed away on April, 5th, 2016.