PTP’s health and life meant nothing. We were just helpful slaves
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Štefan Ondirko was born on January 24, 1928, in Spišský Štiavnik. He comes from a family with 9 children. Father Štefan Ondirko worked as a worker in a mill, later in a sawmill. Mother Mária Ondirková nee Gajanová took care of the children in the household. The family initially sympathized with the ideas of the war Slovak State, the father was a member of the HSĽS, but later resigned from the party due to disagreement with its policy. After the war, he was sentenced due to his membership in the party for half a year in imprisonment in Leopoldov. During the passage of the frontline, the family witnessed many local war events, and his father had to hide during the forced deportations of the local population to the Soviet Union. After the war, Štefan Ondirko trained as an electrician and worked for the state-owned company SEZ Krompachy. In 1951, he received a call-up order to complete compulsory military service, initially with a tank regiment in the village of Dědice. He was later without explanation transferred to the criminal military service in the PTP military unit. He completed his criminal service in Orlova, in mine Zofia, where he suffered a serious leg injury, the consequences of which he bears for the rest of his life. Later he was transferred to the PTP construction platoon, where he performed the most difficult construction work throughout whole Slovakia. After completing a three-year extended criminal military service, he worked for the state-owned company Kovohuty Krompachy and married Veronika Kapralčíková, with whom he had three children. Later, he lived in Spišská Nová Ves and worked until his retirement as an expert in the field of construction and repair of electrical switchboards throughout the region. Štefan Ondirko currently lives with his wife in retirement in Spišská Nová Ves.
