Dionýz Kurča

* 1928

PTP (Auxiliary Technical Battalions)
25. 2. 1948 - Communist coup d‘état in ČSR, 1948 - 1955 - Politic lawsuit in the Stalin age
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    Anyone could get to the PTP

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    “One guy hinted he wanted me to also attend the officer training school. It was preferred if someone applied there after graduation, although they accepted others as well. It wasn't supposed to happen. If I only had thought about it back then, I could have rejected it as if not being interested. Maybe I would have stayed in the army. However, our personal evaluations came yet after being drafted. Those, who went to school, needed to hand the evaluations in. I probably had a bad personal evaluation record, as it was listed there I belonged to the group of children of businessmen, of factory owners, among children of those who have relatives abroad, and so on. There were 8 or 9 groups, so accordingly, I am sure that any person could have ended up in the PTP.”

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    Welcoming in the PTP

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    “And then we had a line up there and a Captain Žížala welcomed us. It was a former soldier of Svoboda's Army. I will mention something more to this later, but now I want to say, he had the welcoming speech. Well, he simply didn't treat us as people. He was so vulgar that his speech was just full of swearing. He called us various names; for him we were people who didn’t want to work, gougers, spies, Vatican enemies of the Soviet Union, of the working class! He threatened they would show us what the working class was about, that they would teach us to work. Each word expressed we were enemies.”

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    The aim of PTP was to intimidate

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    “The PTP was a stupidity of sick minds. It was […] completely unnecessary to establish the PTP. We weren't like that. Was it necessary to have so many political prisoners in this country? What for? There were 90% of just innocent people. They fabricated things about them as they needed to threaten and intimidate people, to evoke fear. They needed political prisoners and people realized that they did nothing wrong, but were enemies of Socialism, thus they speculated. How many people did they evict?! Only because they wanted others to be afraid. This was the same with PTP.”

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    Nitra, 19.05.2017

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Be hardworking and honest, that’s the best way to live

Dionýz Kurča
Dionýz Kurča

Dionýz Kurča was born on December 13, 1928 in the village of Veľký Cetín in Nitra district. After the sixth grade of elementary school in Veľký Cetín he continued his studies at the grammar school in Nové Zámky, where he witnessed bombing of the city. He later graduated at the grammar school in Zlaté Moravce. On October 1, 1950 he was drafted to the Air Force Reserve 1 in Vysoké Mýto. From there he was transferred to the Auxiliary Technical Battalion (PTP) in Hvězdov. As a PTP member he had to move to various places; he worked at the Hradčany Airport, in Šternberg in Moravia, at the road construction near Lešany, etc. On December 5, 1953 he was released and since being a former PTP member, he received a negative personal evaluation record. Thus, despite of his handiness and hard work he wasn’t allowed to hold any higher job position. During the communist regime he still lived in fear and worries of other people’s fabrications. At present he takes care of a member base OK-VTNP (District Club - Military Forced Labor Camp) in Nitra - Zlaté Moravce.

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