Emil Letko

* 1933

  • "Selec is surrounded by Inovec mountains and they were full of partisans at that time. The Germans learned that. On November 1, 1944," on the "all saints day" they started the shooting on Selec from Trencinske Stankovce. Luckily, there was no backfire. Gestapo had an office in Hamre, in the cottage of farmer Mahrik. My sister Anna was married to Hamre, and her brother-in-law knew German. They heard them talking to each other that they would come to Selec and burn it down. If there were any missiles back, they would really burn the village down."

  • "November 30, 1944 came. It was on Thursday. Gloomy weather. I was out fishing trouts with my neighbor that day. It was half past four and we went home to feed the animals. Once I got home, I witnessed intense shooting. The village was full of Germans and they were forcing us all out. The guys in front of the church, the kids, the old men, the babies and the women into the upper school. All, no one was allowed to stay in the cottage.I was only eleven years old, I didn't know how I got between the men in front of the church. We were standing there in column of fours. In about half an hour in the upper school, the old men and women and friends two years older passed me, they were going home. We were turned back to the church and there was a lot of weapons and I thought they would start to shoot. When the night arrived, it grew darker, a German passed around with a flashlight and shone in our eyes. He grabbed me by the collar, swore at me in German and swept me out. So I ran home crying, I came home and found the cottage full of Germans. They were already cookimg potatoes and preparing the dinner. "

  • "We did not really perceive the beginnings of the Second World War, I helped my father on the farm, and I was not really interested. Only when the period of August 29, 1944 arrived, I it very well, the beginning of the Slovak National Uprising. We had huge agricultural parcels, so the thresher was placed there and it was running all day. As a eleven-year- old, I was carrying sacks. At that time, people started to talk about it. They started to mention partisans. But I had my work on father's land."

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    Selec, 19.12.2019

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Despite the horrors I try to find something nice in everything

witness Emil Letko just after the end of II. World War II, photographed before the memorial to the victims of World War I in Selce
witness Emil Letko just after the end of II. World War II, photographed before the memorial to the victims of World War I in Selce
photo: súkromný archív Emila Letka

Emil Letko was born on March 11, 1933 in Selec. As an 11-year-old boy, he experienced the Slovak National Uprising, hiding partisans in his village, and invasions of German soldiers. On November 30, 1944 he experienced the arrival of all the villagers, standing with the guys in a group, which was later dragged away for interrogation to Beckov and then to the concentration camp in Sered. A total of 48 men were deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. After the liberation of the camp and the death march, only nine men returned home. Others were killed in German, Austrian, Ukrainian camps or were taken to Russian gulags. At the end of the war, he was twelve years old, two of the men who survived Selec tragedy with him later became his brothers-in-law. He dedicated his whole life to agriculture, for that reason he also joined the communist party. He has one son and lives with his family in Selec.