Mária Šidová, rod. Almássyová

„So they put me in the field, where they drove us in draisine to Esterházy's properties, which were thirty kilometers long. And we had to do three things, whether it was hoeing something or picking corn or tobacco. And the endless heat there. That was devastating. We were not in control, we were thirsty, I'm not even talking about hunger. The sun was burning. That was the hardest slave labor that exists in our territory. - "And you were still working there with that strip in such conditions?" - Yes, the lane was such that I no longer had to lift up the hills with shovels. to throw manure on those huge hills, but this was suffering. And then they drove us in the same way manure was sometimes exported to the cooperative. Such a tank. And in that, it was as if they brought us water, because women were dropping out on those lines. Endless plains. Well, water. But the water was hot in that cistern. And they let it be carried in a bucket, a dirty Roma woman picked it up and used to pester our beds. You couldn't even drink that.“

„I was arrested. Because in the meantime it happened that someone delivered the letters to the nurses. Correspondence, as it was done for those five years. Pater had contact with them, they gave him. But the nurses forgot the suitcase somewhere, whether it's the bus or I don't know where. They simply forgot the suitcase with the correspondence and the correspondence was lying there unclaimed. Then they searched to see who the letter or the envelope belonged to. And they discovered that it was the handwriting of Father Hutyra, whom they thought had emigrated. And he was hiding for five years. But how to find out where? That's how they found out“

„It was very difficult all these experiences and fear even in the village. Murders were also found in the village, some citizens were burned, there were accidents. We celebrated end of the war with grandfather. When we couldn't feed the farm, we went to our meadows to graze it. So we were cows grazing on the mountain. That was one such hill. And then the plane went and my grandfather and I were there, but that was a beautiful experience. And suddenly the plane went and there was a headline saying that the war is over. Well, grandfather and I were happy, we gathered the herd and came home nicely. And there was joy and peace and contentment. Because it was difficult. He survived his. Uncle then sons and everything. It was such a very strange and difficult time. And tragic for many people.“

“I was telling them only what I had to. What I didn’t have to, I didn’t say. I can’t say they would have been physically attacking me or hurting me. But investigations at night were really tough, because the sleep was afflicted. Besides that, we didn’t sleep at all. I was on an iron plank-bed that was dropped from the ceiling. On this I had only a thin sheet and a blanket. I had to sleep on my back and there was a 100W bulb glowing above my head. Of course I wanted to turn around during the sleep, but as soon as I tried, the guard began banging on the iron-bar door with his boot. The halls there were huge. Ruzyně was a huge building. It was resounding everywhere. As they banged with boots on one side of the hall, it was quite loud on the other end, too. Thus the waking up was really painful, we were very tired. The light was even worse. If you try to narrow your eyes and look directly to the sun, it’s just about to burn your eyes. I was half-blind and lacking sleep. I consider this to be the most difficult era.”

“All of these women were criminals. Sole catastrophe. We lived in old reconstructed sheep barns; they placed there 17 double beds and these ‘vermin’, the women.” “Did you have any incidents with them?” “Well, I was like a little mouse, but they tried to seek after me. One of them threatened me. Some of them became mad, mainly the murderers. They knew everything about everyone. They called me ‘a nun’. This one murderer used to come to me every night; she would just stand above me while I was sleeping. As soon as I woke up, she would ask me, where I had hidden her child. She killed her own child and I was supposed to tell her, where she buried him. I was terrified and with great fear I used to wake up because of what was going on there. What an awful company!”

“Well, the sisters [nuns, Ed.] forgot contents of the suitcase with the letter somewhere. They were afraid to pick it up. After certain time it was revealed that Father Hutyra didn’t emigrate, but was hiding in Czechoslovakia. However, they didn’t know where. Thus they arrested his brother in law and forced him to disclose some facts. He was interrogated for three days and he died afterwards. There were three orphans left behind. They gave us echo of what had happened and that he informed the ŠtB about Fr. Ján being hidden in Ružomberok. In the meantime, we found him a new place to stay. Unfortunately, we were monitored and he got arrested. Our family was being detained in turns. My dad, mom, me. One was released, another one was taken and this took some time. One day they came to me to the post office, where I worked, and told me to go with them for some interview. I didn’t know, what was it supposed to be about. However, they drove me directly to Prague – Ruzyně through Banská Bystrica in Tatraplan [vehicle Tatra 600, Ed.].”