Juraj Ružbaský

“But I had already been excluded three times from the train. They did not want to let me on due to the letter “R“. By the time they got to ”R”, the first letter of my surname, the wagons were full and we had to go back. One man from Veľká hung himself there since his name also started with ”R”. He hung himself because he cracked.”

“They took me because they thought I was German. People from Pohronie region didn’t know where I do come from. But no one ever asked me.”

“After a while I let the torch shine on my face. Matis came and said: “Mom, it’s dad.“ The boy was 5 years old, jumped on me because he recognized me. She said: “Do you know what you look like?“ I answered back: “Like a beggar.“”

“I worked as an interpreter for many hours. I was translating from German to Russian. That was my job. It lasted sometimes till midnight or later. Quite often a man was removed from the building and shot to death. They threw him on a pile. There, in front of my bunker, about twenty yards away in the shrubs, there were 50-60 people daily shot down. But not dressed... naked. Twisted variously, hands this way, or that way…”