Viera Šagátová

„Nemci prepadli Miezgovce zavčas rána, keď ešte ľudia spali. Najskôr začali rabovať. Náš dom bol postavený nový, prvý dom. Rabovali, vypúšťali hydinu, brali kravy, brali ošípané. Ľudia sa už predtým báli, už tých Nemcov čakali, tak partizáni postavili bunkre za dedinou a ľudia sa utekali schovať do tých bunkrov." - „Aj vy ste tak utekali?" - „Áno. Báli sme sa už dlho, lebo sme boli prvý dom od Bánoviec, tak sme spávali u rodiny na konci dediny pod hájom. A keď prišli, hneď začali rabovať a zapaľovať domy. V Miezgovciach bolo vyhorených 40 domov, medzi nimi aj náš. Mali sme postavený pekný nový domček. Oni tie domy polievali nejakou tekutinou, neviem, čo to bolo a potom zapaľovali. Bolo to niečo hrozné, keď toľko domov horelo, strašné niečo. Ľudia utekali do hôr, aby sa poschovávali."

“So, then the Germans came and took our aunt. She had one daughter. One German hit her really hard. Prior to that, my father as well as her husband were at home, they used to come from the mountains down to the village to wash themselves. They lived in the bunkers and from time to time they needed to change clothes and wash themselves. Then the Germans drove us out of the beds. In the cellar, the walls shimmered as they were so wet, the water dropped on our heads. Due to that I got sick and my face was full of furuncles. When they burst into that cellar and drove me out of the bed, my mom showed them my face to see how sick I was, to let me alone. But no. They drove us out, out and out. And they asked my aunt, ‘Where is your husband?’ She replied they were separated and that she didn’t know where he was. He was a partisan, my father’s brother, also living in the hills. She kept saying, they didn’t live together anymore, that she didn’t know where he was. However, the German hit her on her face so hard, I remember it as if it was today, that she fell away and cried. They told her to get dressed and go with them. She also wanted to take her child, the little girl was 10 years old, but they didn’t let her take the girl along. They took her with other people to district office in Bánovce. They also took one boy, who worked at notary’s office; he was apprenticed in Uhrovec. The Germans took them away and they never returned. They just got lost and we never found out where.”

“When the Germans came to Miezgovce, they started to plunder the village and then they called out all the young men to muster in the village. ‘The one who doesn’t obey, will be executed.’ So, the boys came there, all so young, and the Germans chose just those being 16 – 17 years old. Those they wanted and then they rushed them to Bánovce. Many didn’t come back. Later on, from Bánovce and Trenčín people were deported to concentration camps.”

“The Germans raided Miezgovce early in the morning, when the people were asleep. At first, they started to plunder. Our first house was built brand new. They plundered all, letting out chickens, taking cows and pigs. Yet before that people worried the Germans would come, they expected them, and thus the partisans had built bunkers behind the village, where people could run and hide. - “Did you also run to hide there?” - “Yes. We were afraid for long, because our house was the first on the way from Bánovce, so we were sleeping in our relatives’ house at the end of the village under the hills. And when they came, at once they started to plunder and burn houses. They burned 40 houses in Miezgovce, including that ours. It was a very nice and new house. They poured some liquid on those houses, I don’t know what exactly it was, and afterwards they set it on fire. It was something horrible to see so many houses burning. Something terrible. People were running into the mountains to hide.”