„The father was one of the commanders of the national uprising in Liptovský Mikuláš; he played a big role there. He came back very late from the uprising, he came with frozen ears after crossing some mountains in the Low Tatras. And look, there were six of them coming back. They threw the crown in Demänová. Three went to Ploštín, three went to Iľanovo. Father's party went to Iľanovo. Those who went to Ploštin were caught by the Germans, executed on the spot, and they now have a monument there. These three, Mikuláš, Žufa, Ilavský, have a monument there. My father's group went to Iľanov and spent some time there. And suddenly a partisan liaison came to my mother and said that they had to come for my father and bring him to Mikuláš, because it might happen that the Germans would raze Iľanovo to the ground, that they would simply burn them down. My father had a lot of friends there in Mikuláš. And the postman, Petrán, was a friend of my father's who had a carriage and horses. And we went with my mother and that gentleman to Iľanov for my father. At that, imagine how it worked together there. We used to live in the third house from the Vrbicke bridge, which was also blown up. And we asked our neighbor to invite the Germans at such and such a time for a drink or something to eat. They really liked the pudding. Fortunately, the weather was bad, it was already freezing in November. That was at the end of November. Well, it succeeded.“
„He didn't like to talk after that because they didn't treat him the way they should have. People who were not involved in the uprising were rewarded there. My father has a professional soldier in the Slovak Army on his ID card. I will quote to you what is written there. In red writing in that ID – the owner of this card served in the Czecho-Slovak Army from X to X and so on. And where? And lieutenant colonel Černek, signed. I remember that because I was proud of my father. When it was assessed who was in the rebellion and when it ended. There were people in the rebellion who gave themselves stars and promoted themselves to certain ranks and were not in the rebellion at all. Although they were invited to participate. Certain functions the insurgents needed certain expertise to be there. So that's how it was.“
„The truth that we noticed, many Jews were normal, kind people, they helped us. I remember, I was treated by a dentist, I had something with a tooth, excellent. We also had classmates, etc. People lived there, I don't want to say it as brothers, but they lived in harmony. It didn't matter there that you are a Catholic, you are an evangelical, you are a Jew. That wasn't there. We knew that the Jews were suffering. Because there was a lot of good and poor Jews who were reveling. From the beginning, during the Slovak state, they got along very well with the Jews. And they also came from the former Czechoslovak Republic. They were mostly people who were educated, who helped. Some were professions where our Christians did not have the professions that the Jews had and helped our people.“
Ján Michalko was born on December 10, 1936 in Košice. His father Michal Michalko was a soldier by profession and his mother Paulína Michalková, born Imrich’s nurse. Ján’s family survived World War II in Liptovský Mikuláš. His father took part in the Slovak National Uprising, where he played an important role. After the war, the family moved back to Košice, where Ján attended grammar school. After graduating in 1954, he continued to study medicine at the UPJŠ Faculty of Medicine, where he was actively involved in sports (he was a member of the Slávia Košice Athletic Club). The Military Hospital in Košice was the place where Ján Michalko completed his postgraduate studies between 1960 and 1962. During this period, he met his wife Elena, an excellent pianist and doctor. Their family was marked by tragedy when their first son died. Despite this, two daughters and a son were born to them, all children excelled in sports and education. Later, he became the chief doctor in the Fighter Aviation Regiment in Líně near Plzeň, where he worked from 1962 to 1965. After this period, he returned to Košice, where he began working at the Higher Aviation Academy, where he performed various functions in the field of health services from 1965 until 1998. Among his important positions was the position of head of the health service and polyclinic at the Polyclinic of the Military Aviation Academy, where he worked from 1984 until his retirement. In this role, he provided comprehensive health care for soldiers and their families and managed the medical team. In 1994, he was appointed as the first chief expert for aviation medicine of the army of the Slovak Republic, thus becoming a key player in the development and implementation of aviation medicine in the army. During the normalization period, Ján Michalko also became a sports doctor. Between 1965 and 1967, he was the doctor of the Dukla Košice hockey team and VSŽ Košice. After ending his career in hockey, in 1967 he became a doctor for the soccer players of the Lokomotiva Košice team. He worked in this position until 1994, while during his many years of practice he followed and treated a number of talented football players, thereby contributing to their sports development and performances. One of the highlights of his career was working as a doctor for the Czechoslovakian football players at the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980, where he provided medical care for the Czechoslovak football team. Since 2002, the witness has been enjoying a carefree retired life.
