Ladislav Zošák

“I got a thrashing, because I ran to the hills with other boys and we carried stuff. When he placed a mortar shell on my shoulder, I didn't even know it was a mortar shell. He placed one and then another one on me and said in Russian that approximately 220 yards away was a partisan group. I should have carried it there. So about six of us went there and I thought to myself that if we had encountered Germans on our way, we would get shot right away. When we arrived there, one man said: 'Those are our boys!' He took the mortar shell from me and pointed: 'Look over there.' There were Germans in a trench preparing food. The Russians began shooting at them as they had three mortars. There were also our soldiers and I guess, one was French. So they prepared it and fired the mortars. The cook place as well as Germans were gone.” “Did you directly see it?” “Yes, I did. The firing was horrible. That was the first time I saw what a grenade can do.”

“Only one man from our village was such a fanatic member of the Hlinka Guard. He got into a German car, pointing back and forth. The German soldiers jumped out of the truck and immediately threw the Jews being nearby into the car as if being a wood, including even little children.” “He sold the Jews out”. The Jews used to be nice. For example, when you asked them to make you a winter coat and the work would have cost about 100 crowns, they would tell you to pay it in quarters. He would have such a book and take a note of it. But they took him away and we never saw him again. They burned him.”