Radislav Wagner

“Back then, my mom had already three children. The little ones were Dušan, Miro, Svatka and Jožo, who was on his way. Well, somehow she ended up without money and my father hadn’t realized that. She didn’t have any means for living and it was only me earning money as the PTP worker. Every month I used to send her thousand crowns I earned. Then the year 1953 came and the monetary reform caused that the money at our bankbook were reduced in ratio 1:50. So even though having there thousands of crowns before, there wasn’t much left afterwards. When I completed the military service, it sufficed me to buy my wife a sewing machine. It was all I labored for over two years in mines as the PTP worker. They paid us always, but then the salaries became very low and the military levies remained. So at the end we earned much less than at the beginning. We weren’t such cavaliers anymore.”

“I was a witness of one interesting case. During the mining works, there was such regime that the new shift went down the pit and the finishing one went up. Gradually according the levels people moved. I went always at the end. As they were leaving the pit, I guess this could be somewhere in the middle, at about seventh or eighth level, some people were already going up. Suddenly, there was shouting and shooting. Even though I didn’t see them, I knew there were three men trying to escape from the afternoon shift. The night shift followed. So from the afternoon shift, the men tried to use turmoil along with even slight inattention of the guards and in the meantime others were lining up in chains, they managed to launch their escape. However, great shooting began and I know they were killed back then. I cannot surely claim this, but I heard that one of the men reached a house on the next day, where he tried to knock so that the people let him in and helped. Those people were afraid to help, in case he would have been an informer, so when the guard caught him, he shot him down, even though the escapee surrendered.”