Slovakia, Autumn 1944 - p.15: Homeward Bound
November 7, 1944
It was a sunny morning in Kalištie as we started on our climb south toward Banská Bystrica. I do not remember my companion's name. We did not talk much but watched our surroundings and avoided the nearby villages. For me it was just another routine day without food and water. Early afternoon we passed our highest point west of the mountain called Panský Diel. From there it was all downhill, with Bystrica in view. We skirted the village of Sásova and reached the familiar brickworks (tehelňa) on the outskirts of the city. There we parted.
I crossed the railroad tracks on the ridge of a hill (Jasenský Vršok) where years earlier I used to ride my sled and to ski. At the bottom of the hill I hesitated. It was getting dark and I did not want get caught in a curfew. I climbed over a fence and dropped into a garden which led to the local Protestant church. A dark area under the staircase of the presbytery building was a good hiding place to spend the night. My plan for the next day was to get help from Mr. Ján Bakoss, the senior minister of the church, or his two sons.
It did not work out that way. I was just settling down for the night on the hard cement floor when in walked Mr. Holčik, the other pastor of the congregation. He found for me a better place in the laundry room. The next day the older Bakoss son, disregarding the risks, escorted me to the house where I lived before I joined the partisans in mid-September. That is how I wound up back at the address Mestsky Park 12. --- More about the events in that house during the winter of 1944-45 is in the narrative "Staring Down The Barrel".
Jan Bakoss, a known supporter of the SNP Uprising, was forced to go into hiding in the town of Martin. There he was found and shot by the Germans in February 1945.
It was a sunny morning in Kalištie as we started on our climb south toward Banská Bystrica. I do not remember my companion's name. We did not talk much but watched our surroundings and avoided the nearby villages. For me it was just another routine day without food and water. Early afternoon we passed our highest point west of the mountain called Panský Diel. From there it was all downhill, with Bystrica in view. We skirted the village of Sásova and reached the familiar brickworks (tehelňa) on the outskirts of the city. There we parted.
I crossed the railroad tracks on the ridge of a hill (Jasenský Vršok) where years earlier I used to ride my sled and to ski. At the bottom of the hill I hesitated. It was getting dark and I did not want get caught in a curfew. I climbed over a fence and dropped into a garden which led to the local Protestant church. A dark area under the staircase of the presbytery building was a good hiding place to spend the night. My plan for the next day was to get help from Mr. Ján Bakoss, the senior minister of the church, or his two sons.
It did not work out that way. I was just settling down for the night on the hard cement floor when in walked Mr. Holčik, the other pastor of the congregation. He found for me a better place in the laundry room. The next day the older Bakoss son, disregarding the risks, escorted me to the house where I lived before I joined the partisans in mid-September. That is how I wound up back at the address Mestsky Park 12. --- More about the events in that house during the winter of 1944-45 is in the narrative "Staring Down The Barrel".
Jan Bakoss, a known supporter of the SNP Uprising, was forced to go into hiding in the town of Martin. There he was found and shot by the Germans in February 1945.
posted by Observer at 11:25 PM
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