Petra Mendrošová

* 1933

  • “In the evening the sister provincial came and in the morning we were already being occupied; it was on August 28. – 29. The militiamen came to the port with their guns and bayonets. They stood in each doorway and ordered us to pack quickly, because we were supposed to leave at 9:00 am. Then the sisters asked to postpone the departure time to 11:00 am, as it was impossible to pack everything in an hour. We didn´t know where we were going. We were very young; we were saying to each other, ‘why did we even have to pack if they were about to deprive us of everything anyway?’. We thought they would take us to Siberia, and we kind of expected it. But then the busses as well as trucks came. We boarded, but didn´t know the way. They drove us to Kláštor pod Znievom. It was a concentration convent there.”

  • “They wanted to send us away from Slovakia, as we were ‘personnel of a bad quality’. Thus they took us to a factory in Šumperk. Located next to this building was a former labor camp or a German concentration camp. It was in the field surrounded by wires. The buildings were similar to those in Auschwitz, long barracks.”

  • “They planned it so they overtook us in the meantime. They swooped in on us at night. The police came and it all happened again. Before midnight, the sisters had just come home from the factory. Suddenly one nun rang the bell placed near the gate. We quickly woke up; we were being occupied. Banging and demanding us to open the gate began. Meanwhile the National Security Corps members were already positioned in empty houses surrounding us from all sides, so they could see us getting dressed in a panic. They invaded the camp and wanted to search through the building to see if we had weapons, leaflets or anti-state materials. The nuns said they wouldn´t let them walk into the rooms alone, thus they accompanied them, to ensure they didn´t plant any false evidence. Because, that´s what they typically did, planting evidence to provide a reason for them to act. Back then several sisters were arrested too.”

  • “Yet before the front´s crossing, even before the Uprising began, prisoners of war were walking through our village. The Germans rushed them. I remember how they drove them into one yard, where was a huge dunghill. Even though they tried to drive us away, as children we saw those poor people, truly ragged, half naked, wearing clogs, being on the dunghill, which emitted at least a bit of warmth.”

  • “The secret ones were everywhere. I went to Ružomberok and saw they monitored where I was going.” (Interviewer: “Were they so transparent?”) “Yes, it was easy to notice. So I walked into one store. I parked the car in the parking lot and saw him following me. Well, I went on, bought some threads there and carried them. I looked at him to let him know I knew he was there. We had some secretly ordained sisters in Ružomberok as well.”

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    Žilina, 11.09.2016

    (audio)
    duration: 01:50:25
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th century
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This nation shall never lose its faith. Only faith can help to live through pitfalls of each era!

sr. Petra Mendrošová - vintage photo (50´s)
sr. Petra Mendrošová - vintage photo (50´s)
photo: z archívu pamätníčky

Petra Mendrošová was born as Mária Mendrošová on March 26, 1933. She grew up in a modest farming family in Lučivná. She was one of five children the family had. As a child she witnessed the local events of the Slovak National Uprising and crossing of the front at the end of the 2nd World War. She attended elementary school in Lučivná and the municipal school in Svit. During a Marian pilgrimage in Levoča she made a decision to devote her life to religious ministry. In September 1948 she enrolled at the municipal school in Žilina as a candidate for entering the Congregation of School Sisters of St. Francis. During the intervention of state power against the women’s religious orders, known as Action “R” (Rehole - orders), she was, along with others sisters, detained on August 29, 1950 and deported to the concentration camp in Kláštor pod Znievom. Here she secretly made her vows and accepted the religious name Petra. In October 1950 she was transferred to a Bohemian town of Šumperk, where she lived in former German camp for prisoners of war. She was assigned to forced labour for the state factory Moravolen, which pursued washing and processing of flax and cotton. In 1954 she was moved into a social work position at a senior house in Mnichov village, in district Vrbno pod Pradědem. Since 1961 she worked with handicapped children in a social care institute in Hlučín, where she stayed until her retirement in 1990. After the change of the regime, she helped to restore operations of the Congregation of School Sisters of St. Francis on the premises of the convent in Žilina. She also took part in establishing the Grammar School of St. Francis of Assisi in Žilina. Until today Sr. Petra Mendrošová lives her religious life in retirement.