The prison guard welcomed us with words, “You shall work here, until you drop dead like shabby dogs!”
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Jozef Melek was born on August 17, 1932. He comes from Námestovo, where he grew up in a family of poor farmers. He was a witness of the local war events during the Slovak National Uprising, of arrival of the liberating armies and their passing through Námestovo. In times of the communist takeover in Czechoslovakia, he more and more perceived consequences of the forced collectivization, which greatly burdened the locals of Námestovo. Meanwhile he studied at the secondary school in Tvrdošín to become an electrician, he also employed at the building construction of Orava dam. There he met similarly anti-communist thinking colleagues through which he got to a membership in secret resistance organization called White Legion. After this fact was revealed, in 1952 Jozef was arrested and sentenced in Ružomberok for high treason to 15 years of imprisonment. He served his sentence in notorious Jáchymov, where he had to work in the pit with radioactive uranium mine. Due to worsened health he underwent treatment in Karlové Vary, later in prison hospital Pilsen-Bory, where he was diagnosed a serious bone tuberculosis. During the transport from Pilsen he attempted to escape. He was not successful, moreover, he became a target of aggression and tyranny of the prison guards. After the amnesty of President Antonín Novotný, many political prisoners along with Jozef Melek were released in 1960. Even as a free citizen he was still being monitored by State Security organs and their agents. In 1963 he married Mária Trabalíková and together they had 4 children. He spent his working life as an electrician at the municipal office in Námestovo. After the fall of the communism he founded a company for rewinding the electric motors. Currently he lives retired in Námestovo.
