Štefan Maďar

“As we walked along the Danube, I told my friend not to get further from the water, to keep it in sight. This way we walked through the night, slept in the hay and in the morning, we continued towards Bruck. We didn't know where exactly we were going and we were surprised when the Austrians detained us. Suddenly, someone just screamed: 'Halt! Legitimation!' and there we were. They put us in their cars and drove us to some town. We stayed there for three days and then they told us they would take us to Bratislava. 'Holy Mother of God!' I was so beaten in Bratislava! Every evening when it got dark, the investigation began. The window was open and three men interrogated me. They handed me over from one another and kept beating me. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I even thought about jumping out of the window. I rethought it and didn't jump out, but every single day I was beaten, mostly at nights.”

“In Jáchymov I was in Rovnost and Svornost mines. When we went working to the pit, we all had to hold a rope and hands. It was about 220 yards from the camp. The one that didn't want to hold on to the rope or who attempted to run away, was immediately threatened to be shot down. So no one could do anything about it.”