Karol Maník

“So I said to myself: ‘I will start to cooperate with Palkovič.’ Then he came to the feast and told me that when he had come to change transmission in Cemjatá, he found himself being persecuted and suspected of having a transmitter there. But agents weren’t sure because the transmission from Cemjatá lasted only a few minutes and then the place of transmission was changed. So he told me: ‘Karolko, we have already been connected, I would like to transmit from this village wired to the battery.’ Since it was August, the weather was nice and the day was longer, so he walked about in our garden, which was quite large. While we were walking down the garden, he noticed doors of the cellar. I told him: ‘There’s a cellar.’ ‘Can we look inside?’ ‘Yes, of course.’ So we went inside and he told me: ‘Karolko, it’s perfect. We can transmit from here wired to the battery. They won’t be able to trace us here.’”

“I don’t know what the strongest reason was, which led me to agree with it, I don’t remember which year it was. I think it was after the war, in 1946 or maybe in 1945… Because then there were debates how to eliminate priests. There was a discussion how to eliminate the manse and the priest and to establish a collective farm; how to put all the church property and church fields under state ownership and how it all should look like. The future, it was communism. So I thought it was the right time to start to fight against communism. ‘Let’s do it, young boy, from the very outset!’ I couldn’t agree with it.”

“So I told him when he was there that I had found good and glossy furniture made of hard wood, but I hadn’t had enough money. And he generously said: ‘I will help you with that.’ And he gave me ten thousand crowns to buy it. So when I came back from the vacation, I went to the shop and paid for the furniture. As I have already mentioned, the soldiers willingly helped me to get a car and put all the furniture inside. All the wardrobes were dismantled and I sent the furniture home. But when it came home, it was taken by the State Security agents. My wife brought it home, but they took it away, so she had to buy the furniture for ten thousand crowns again. Therefore, I got under suspicion. I was working the shift when they arrested me.”