“For burning, the Germans used phosphorus, a burning-in-air substance. They had such small boxes just like the match ones which they used to put, for instance, on a duvet and it started burning immediately. Of course, they firstly searched house if there were no partisans who could probably shoot them dead. You know, they made up such tactic that no German was killed and no partisan fired when the village was being burnt down. No matter they stayed at school and in the neighbouring building, nobody fired at the Germans.”
“It happed on Christmas Eve, in a full daylight. Partisans were putting an explosive charge under the railway that day, but exactly at that time the passenger train was supposed to pass (of course, partisans were not aware of it - editor’s note). However, the Germans who were patrolling saw them and heard them clattering, so they shouted: ‘Halt, halt, partisan!’ Then, in the evening, the partisans were killed by hanging. On Christmas Day, gallows was built near the evangelic church, chairs were put under it and partisans were roped there. I remember that both evangelic and catholic priests asked the Germans not to do that as it was Christmas time. It didn’t matter. Partisans were hanged there anyway. The next day, people who went to church had to look at it...”
“As for my memories of how socialization started in the village, I recall that my father even didn’t want to hear about joining cooperative. The cooperative in Priechod was established when I was teaching in the village of Baláže. Then, they tried to persuade my father to sign registration, but he told them, ‘Get out, you hecklers! Now I have a cow and a sheep, I can have a glass of milk whenever I want, but then, when I join the cooperative I will only be able to get a glass of cold water. I won’t talk to you about it!’ Then, I suffered for it, because as a socialist teacher who wasn't able to persuade own father to join the cooperative, I had a negative statement in my personal record.”
Jaroslav Homola was born on December 13, 1932 in the village of Priechod near Banská Bystrica. He experienced burning down of his native village by the Nazis in February 1945 and only thanks to his young age he avoided being transported to Germany to the forced labour camp. After the war, Jaroslav attended grammar school in Banská Bystrica and passed the leaving examination in 1952. Subsequently, he studied extramurally at the Faculty of Education in Banská Bystrica. It the late 1950s he became a director of the national school in Baláže, but when he expressed his dissenting attitude to socialization of the village and to the establishment of cooperative in Priechod, he was dismissed. Then, he worked as a teacher at a primary school in Baláže, in Selce, in Staré Hory and in Banská Bystrica for more than thirty years. He retired in 1992 and since then he has written a chronicle of his native village in the 20th century.
