Jozef Roth

“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!”