Emil Letko

"November 30, 1944 came. It was on Thursday. Gloomy weather. I was out fishing trouts with my neighbor that day. It was half past four and we went home to feed the animals. Once I got home, I witnessed intense shooting. The village was full of Germans and they were forcing us all out. The guys in front of the church, the kids, the old men, the babies and the women into the upper school. All, no one was allowed to stay in the cottage.I was only eleven years old, I didn't know how I got between the men in front of the church. We were standing there in column of fours. In about half an hour in the upper school, the old men and women and friends two years older passed me, they were going home. We were turned back to the church and there was a lot of weapons and I thought they would start to shoot. When the night arrived, it grew darker, a German passed around with a flashlight and shone in our eyes. He grabbed me by the collar, swore at me in German and swept me out. So I ran home crying, I came home and found the cottage full of Germans. They were already cookimg potatoes and preparing the dinner. "

"We did not really perceive the beginnings of the Second World War, I helped my father on the farm, and I was not really interested. Only when the period of August 29, 1944 arrived, I it very well, the beginning of the Slovak National Uprising. We had huge agricultural parcels, so the thresher was placed there and it was running all day. As a eleven-year- old, I was carrying sacks. At that time, people started to talk about it. They started to mention partisans. But I had my work on father's land."