Anton Gajdošík

“There was one very sad story that happened. One citizen had helped partisans. We were at school and about 200 partisans came to our village. He accommodated some of them and they asked him for civil clothes. Those were Czech citizens. He helped them and they left uniforms and guns at his house. His name was Matej Paulec. Everything was all right, when suddenly some bastard informed the Gestapo in Prečín about it. I saw how about 15 or 20 German soldiers came and went to his house. They detained him and took him to the Gestapo office in Prečín.”

“He was a surveyor here during the land enclosure. He worked as an engineer and geodesist, however, when the partisans came to the village, he joined them. You probably don’t know the surroundings here, but towards the Mojtín there is the Hluchá Valley, Zliechov and then Pružina. There the Germans attacked them and it was only by miracle that the Jew, Ing. Ľudovít Berkovič, survived. He said he was licking dew from the trees and that’s how he saved himself. He knew this area well, it was only about four or five kilometers from Tŕstie through Riedke. He came to my father, who was drawing water for the cattle in the evening and he asked him for help. My dad let him hide in our hayloft and there he stayed.”