Viliam Otiepka

"I was in the military service at the time. I arrived on vacation and my father said: 'I have been summoned to Miške Dedinka to the cultural center, I have to go there to discuss joining the cooperative, the JZD.' I took the motorbike, took my father there and stayed there. Of course, in the uniform, I wasn't allowed to go in civilian clothes. I got there, we sat down. There were three comrades and they asked: 'How many children do you have? Sons? Where are they, what are they doing and so on.' - 'Well, the two of them.' Ján, he lived with his wife in a house and Adam was already living in a tenement on Stará Tura, and I, of course, I was in the military service. And the one says: 'How many fields do you have?' - 'Well, so much and so much.'- 'Are you filling the quotas?'- 'Well, we fill as much as possible.' - 'And do you want to join the cooperative?' - 'No, No. And why?'—'Well, listen. You have that brother Ján. How many children does he have?' - 'Three.' - 'And Adam, how many children does he have?' - 'Four.' 'When we fire them from the factory, will you support them with that field? Those sons, daughters-in-law and children? Everyone?' - 'Well, yes, it would be possible.' - 'I don't know, but it would be best for you to sign it and join the cooperative. If you don't sign it, we'll fire them from that factory.' And I couldn't stand it and said: 'Comrades, excuse me, and how is it to join the cooperative? Voluntarily or by force?' And they jumped at me: 'Hey, you keep quiet, so we don't make it worse for you in the military service.' And that's how it ended. My father then signed.”

"I was in Bulgaria at that time, in Ruschuk, and we were listening to the radio there. And there they said how the Czechoslovak working people welcomed the new monetary reform. I had my identity card and the money I had, left at my cousin´s place. That was my aunt's daughter from my father's side. She then changed my money for my identity card, because we weren't allowed to have those identity cards with us, only the passport, livre de batterie. She also exchanged the money for me. And she said that back then, it was Stalin Square in Bratislava, that there was so much money on the ground as in autumn when the leaves fall from the trees. That it was so terrible." - "The money was no longer worth anything." - "Yes, yes. That was a 1:50 exchange, and then I don't even know. They didn't even give any more. It depends on how much money someone had. Well, simply, they impoverished the people."