"I only remember the sentence when the confiscation took place, because it was so humiliating that my father actually had to go to that office. They sent an Essenbock for him when the confiscation was announced, to make it as humiliating as possible. Well, I know, when he was coming back from there, and I happened to be there by the house, she said, "Well, I don't have anything anymore." Well, I remember that sentence.
1:03:23 – 1:04:04 Michal remembers his father's words when they confiscated the family Salaš
"I don't remember those years exactly, but as my wife says, I had to leave the factory in Tatrovka, just because I was from where Dubček was from. But it was in the fact that simply when you find an ortel... But it was like that, because it's another thing that it's not something to praise, but I did a distance college and it was like that I he somehow stood out from the workers. Because it's true that when you come to the factory and you know something about the black crafts, I mean from the mechanical engineering - that's what I call it - then you are a good cadre for them. Well, that was my case, that's a fact, I remember it. When I entered Tatrovka, I know that the first thing was that I was for those - because it was all the raw material of the people and mostly those who were in that factory. So I know that I immediately did some courses as an industrialist. So then I did the university. But that university was such that there were a lot of people interested in studying at that university. But I was the only one who succeeded. So I kind of had to stand out."
1:14:00 - 1:15:40 - Michal was first a promising staff member, later he became uncomfortable
"Because I still remember that conversation with the director. It was simply the top of the heavy engineering from Martin. Well, if I know, but a week or two after that acceptance of mine, when he sat down with me and spent the whole eight hours there, and the conclusion of it was when he said that he who has worn off his shoes on the cleats cannot be bad. Well, that was me. Well, those are the memories.'
1:18:13 - 1:18:50 – Michal remembers how the top boss of the engineering industry expressed his human appreciation
Michal Šebeň was born on March 25, 1931 in Salaš near Uhrovec as the 13th child of Michal Šebeň and Mária, née Sečánská. The parents came from Závada pod Čierny vrchom, in 1928 the father bought Salaš near Uhrovec from Count Zay, where the whole family moved a year later and started farming on a large scale. Michal and his siblings attended schools in Uhrovec and nearby Bánovce nad Bebravou. After the outbreak of the SNP, partisans began to appear in Salaš. Brother Adam was supposed to be drafted into the army on the Eastern Front, but he joined the partisans. A bunker was dug at Salaš in the foothills, where Adam and two others hid from the German attack on the partisan bunkers in Ratajé. Uhrovská dolina was liberated at the beginning of April on Easter, Michal experienced the withdrawal of German soldiers from the front. After the war, the family had to send away large contingents, they did not want to join the cooperative. Penal assessments and fines were imposed on them, and later they had to enter involuntarily. The entire property was forfeited to the cooperative, the parents remained living in Salaš as employees of the cooperative, the other siblings had to find other jobs. Michal studied at the mechanical engineering school in Bratislava. He got married and built a house with his wife Marta in Bánovce, they had two children. He got a job in Tatrovka in Bánovce, where he graduated from university via distance learning. After August 1968, he had problems with the representatives of the regime, they fired him from his job, he got a job in Bratislava, where the whole family moved. Salaš was abandoned and in 1982 the team razed it to the ground. After the revolution in 1989 and retirement, they returned to Bánoviec and restored it, and today the whole family meets at the place where the cottage once stood. Witness wrote a book about the family and Salaš. Michal Šebeň died on March 4, 2023.
