Ján Okoličáni

“Strangely enough, since I worked in the factory Nový domov (New Home) I was probably some record-breaker or what because I was always decorated for a good work. They always declared me a model worker, till today I have all those honours, but they are put somewhere, I don’t know where because I don’t use them. This way I came to the fore. Not only management of that enterprise and workers engaged in politics, but also party officials put their faith in me and then I could start working calmly.”

“I was fortunate that I knew mountains. You know, hunting helped me a lot in this case. Well, I headed to Korytnica. The weather was horrible, cloudburst, snow, rain, everything possible. I wore leather jacket because I thought it would be waterproof. But it wasn’t. It was pretty heavy; however, I didn’t throw it away. I came to Korytnica and thought what I would do next, because I was sure that they would occupy Korytnica as well. I was one hundred percent sure. They took Ružomberok. And they would certainly reach Korytnica. So I went up the valley called Korytnická dolina to the crest of Prašivá. On Prašivá I was totally exhausted. I was at the end of my tether. I was tired, hungry, exhausted and the like. And I met some helpless soldiers there. ‘What are we going to do, lieutenant?’ But they also asked me: ‘You aren’t wearing your rank, are you? Throw it away, cut it off or otherwise Germans will kill you.’ I agreed with them, threw it away but then also other men tagged along me as they saw that I knew a lot about mountains.”

“[A military doctor] wrote that letter right after the medical examination and gave it to me. It was sealed. He told me: ‘Here is your medical report, hand it to the Military Administration in Liptovský Mikuláš.’ I knew that he found me fit for military service, at least I assumed it. And I was curious. I managed to unglue that letter and read the report. He vindicated all the findings of civilian röntgenologist such as duodenal ulcer and the like. However, he also wrote there that he found no obstacle as for enlisting the military service. I didn’t know what I should do. I was really desperate, so I ventured to do something for what I could have been shot dead. I took the military report out of the envelope and threw it to sewer because this way I wanted to avoid changing my mind and going in search of it. Well, I took the civilian doctor’s report out and put it to the envelope instead of the military papers.”

“I didn’t have enough time to say anything to my mother who was at home, as I remember. It was on the railway station in Okoličné. I had some acquaintances there. I knew the watchmen. I packed a slip of paper into a small brick and threw it from the moving train. I told the watchman, whose name was Mr. Baran, actually, I shouted at him: ‘Mr. Baran, I threw a slip of paper on the ground, please, find it and deliver it to its addressee.’ Only then my mother came to know, well, it’s hard to speak about it, only then my mother came to know what had happened, where I had gone, you know, pardon me, but I am close to tears when I recall it. My mother stayed alone.”

“I came home; and actually, I came to jail. I was labelled as partisan, no partisan, the SS man. I was labelled as the SS man, somebody informed on me. And then it took about one month that I was detained. Sister of Braňo Rapoš used to bring me some food to the former District Court. It went this way until I grew weary of it and told that police officer the name of a man who should they refer to. They contacted the Armoured Regiment (PÚV), the lieutenant colonel. I think it was lieutenant colonel Kuchta, the instigator of the Uprising in Martin. You know, I was also indirectly engaged in the preparation of the Uprising and thus he asked them: ‘Which one of you had arrested him?’ He came to Okoličné to lick the situation into shape.”

“You know, there were various episodes, for example, at a stack of straw that was more than one hundred meters long. On one side there were Russians who warmed themselves and we sat on the other side. We weren’t forced to fight against each other or something like that at all. Moreover, sometime in the morning a man went out of the trench and said: ‘Ivan, give me a mouth harp.’ We could hear it because we weren’t too far from them. And he jumped up and played just like nothing had happened. We experienced days like this one, too. Yes, we did. But other days were really hard. Once, our mates went to do a field research. It didn’t end up well. I don’t know what they found out, but in front of our military positions there was a man lying on the ground unable to move. The most probably he was badly hurt. He had penetration wound of stomach. At least as I found it out. Nobody wanted to go to save him. So I went there along with my friend Fero Zámita. Oh no, Fero Zalán was his name. He is no more in the land of living. Well, we dragged that man to our trenches. I don’t know how or where it had happened; I simply put him on my back and dragged him. I wanted to take him to our trenches for treatment. I saw that he was bleeding from his stomach, but I also found out that his arm was shot through somewhere above the wrist. I hadn’t seen it before. I don’t know when it had happened to him. His back was probably wounded, too. Who knows? And, unfortunately, I witnessed there a really strange attitude of military doctors. I don’t know the doctor’s name, but in my opinion that man wasn’t hurt so badly, they should only treat him in a proper way. But the doctor, who was the most probably under the influence of alcohol, refused doing anything. ‘What are you bringing to me?’ he said. I was really shocked. Maybe I even said a swear word there at the aid station.”

“Once, it was the time of haymaking, I came home and I wanted to prepare a straw blower, to put it a bit further to fill up our sheds. When I did so, a local servant Janko came: ‘Some men came and call you to come there.’ I was a friend of everyone in the village. I went there and I saw Mašlonka, brother of former football reporter. He stood there along with a committee of comrades. ‘We came here because we had decided or rather the Party had decided that you are not capable of keeping your homestead, and socialist husbandry needs sustenance. It needs to keep homesteads trim to the state’s profit. And you are not capable to ensure it. Thus we are here to nationalise your property.’ It took only two hours and then I became a beggar.”