Jozef Roth

* 1930

  • “I came there, to higher ranked officers, who let me sit down. One of them asked me whether I knew why I was in PTP. I said: ‘No, I don’t know. I have always thought I’ve suffered just because of my German descent.’ ‘No!’ ‘Is it because my sister ran away to Canada?’ ‘No!’ ‘Then because my brother lives in West Germany?’ ‘No!’ You know, the communists used to punish a person for any little trifle. But then I said: ‘I don’t know, I have never done anything against the republic, or I have never been disciplined for anything!’ ‘Well, then we are going to read you your cadre evaluation then!’ I said: ‘Yes, please, do so, since I don’t feel guilty in any way.’ And they started to read: ‘His father was a great Nazi adherent and together with his brother they were shot down by partisans!’ I screamed: ‘That is impossible! My father’s been still alive and lives in Kremnica!’ And when they asked me where my brother was, I said: ‘That’s him, in the West Germany!’ They stared at me and wondered if I didn’t have a step father. I told them: ‘I guess I would have known that, don’t you think so? My goodness, that is just plain lie what you have written here!’ Then I found out, that those who wrote the cadre evaluation in Kremnica, had thought that I was a son of the grammar school’s director, whose name was Rott, spelled with double ‘T’. This one was shot dead. I only wanted to know names of the elaborators of my cadre evaluation, but of course, they couldn’t provide me with such information. I just thought to myself without saying aloud: ‘What a band of bastards, you are!’”

  • “If you only saw the inspections! When we were returning, they opened our suitcases. Soldiers walking with Alsatian dogs were checking and searching through completely everything when we went there and back as well. Back then, it was jeans fabric popular there, my kids wanted jeans which weren’t here yet; I bought binoculars, some calculators, and all of this they took out, since it was strictly prohibited. They took me to the customs office and wrote a report with me. They didn’t seize it, but I had to pay a duty from it within 14 days. My wife thought I was going to be arrested. They even wanted to impound my blue suit; however, as they turned it over, they saw a Slovak tag Makyta Púchov!”

  • “After the partisans began to maneuver, we ran away just like today the refugees run from Afghanistan or elsewhere. We survived the Second World War thanks to moving to Austria, because the partisans began to liquidate German villages as for example village of Sklené. We were afraid, since they planned to liquidate all the German villages. We stayed in Austria until the war ended. There we were lodged like those today’s refugees – at schools.”

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    Kopernica, Slovensko, 10.03.2018

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    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th century
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“We don’t need Germans, get out!” That’s how they drove us off

At a mature age
At a mature age
photo: archív pamätníka

Jozef Roth was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Lúčky near Kremnica. He was born as the sixth of twelve children. His parents were of German nationality. In 1944 his family fled to Austria because they were afraid of partisan reprisals against the German citizens. After the war, they returned to their home village, where they had to face hostile attitudes of their co-citizens, confiscation of property, as well as potential eviction. Due to these circumstances, the whole family was for some time gathered at internment camp in Kremnické Bane. Later, Jozef and his father got employed in forest administration in Kremnica. Local director Macko vouched for them, helped them with temporary accommodation, and in the end, they didn’t have to move out. In April 1951 he enlisted in the Auxiliary Technical Battalions (PTP) only due to confusion of names (Roth and Rott). He had to stay there almost until the end of 1953 and gradually he worked in Mimoň, Podbořany, Líně near Dobřany, Bechyně near České Budějovice and the last two weeks he spent in Kolín. When he returned from PTP back to Lúčky, he had various jobs, and before his retirement in 1990 he worked at the Slovak Energy Enterprise Eletrovod. In 1955 he got married and with his wife Hildegarda they have lived together in village of Kopernica until present.