Vlasta Tarábková

* 1936

  • "At that time on December 21, 1944, they were coming down from that hill and they were still shining. Well, now the Germans were in Frivald, they saw that the light was going down the hill. So they got together and went here to Trstená. It must have been some patrol bigger or something. At first we didn't know anything was happening. Only they were passing this way and probably looking where the lights were. And when they saw peace somewhere, they kept going down until they came to the penultimate house near the Uhláriks. That's where they saw the light, that's where the shooting started. They started shooting at each other. This German on that Russian. So they shot each other. They then took that German to that corner to that house. Around that corner there is still a piece of Trstená. That was only in the penultimate house. So they carried him to the best house, which is the strongest, and there he lay on the ground. They asked them there who would treat him. Well, everyone recognized my mother and father and said - Mrs. Pečeňová, Mrs. Pečeňová. And my mother, she was so afraid of everything, when even my father had some inspections at the mill or something, when they went. So she was afraid. Well, soldiers came here for her, German soldiers.. Well, when the shooting started, we had a bedroom in that house on the edge, so he looked out the window and there were already soldiers and Halt standing under the window! So they already had all the houses occupied and were waiting to see what would happen next." 0:18:40 – 0:20:57 - On the night of December 21, 1944, partisans came to Trstená, the Germans spotted them and occupied the settlement

  • "The Germans came after that and built a field hospital here. They were lying on the floor in the kitchen, and in the bedroom there, father had a desk, so when we were here as children, they left us at that desk. As children, we used to put what we had in the drawers of the sideboard, we took all kinds of pencils there. When we were up, we came down here. And the Germans were here, our field hospital was built. That was the case a few times, but then they said that - in those days, he just beat the drum when he wanted to announce something - so here they were drumming that he should come down from those mountains. At that time, my mother and I, the children, went downstairs and stayed with Peter Biely. Because the hospital was here in our house. They were stored side by side in that kitchen. I don't know how many there might have been, ten or more.' 0:36:36 – 0:38:00 - The Germans occupied the house of Pečeňovci and set up a field hospital in it

  • "We used to go out to play and the Russians were already shelling the Germans from above and the mines were falling all over the meadow. And we, as children, when we were having fun, it was just noises like that - whoops and bangs and whoops! So we threw ourselves on the ground. Well, it always banged somewhere, blew out. So they were already shooting at them. And then later, when they were already moving away from here before the war. The Germans were already leaving. I still know that the German said something to my father that "the Ivani are already going" to the Russians. So that they are already packing and that Ivan is going. So they went away, and here is the guy from us, I told you. That one was probably more seriously wounded that he probably couldn't walk, so they buried him here in our garden. That was one of the wounded, he was probably more serious, so they buried him here in the garden. Not very deep, they probably just dug somehow and at night these neighbors heard moaning and I don't know what. And then when they left, so did the father and that Peter Biely, that his father was also here and they found the German with his hands as if he was digging. They still pulled him out of that land and then transferred him here to Sucha under the trees. There are such coniferous trees and they buried him there. He also had the sticker that soldiers have with that name, indicating who he is. So they nailed it to his tree. No one was looking for him after that. He was already dead by then, they buried him there.' 0:41:20 – 0:43:17 – Trstená was shelled, German soldiers were leaving and buried a dying soldier in the garden

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    Trstená - Rajecká Lesná, 24.04.2021

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They buried him alive in our garden, we heard moans and screams at night

Vlasta Tarábková as a young woman
Vlasta Tarábková as a young woman
photo: Witnesses archive

Vlasta Tarábková was born on January 8, 1936 in Trstená to František and Rozália Pečeňa. The father was a respected miller, he also operated a saw and a scrubbing board for cloth. During the SNP, the Trstená settlement in Rajecká dolina was often visited by partisans and asked for food. Partisans confiscated their car and bicycle. Three days before Christmas, on the night of December 21, 1944, they were coming down from the forest to the settlement and were spotted by German soldiers stationed in nearby Frivald (now Rajecká Lesná). They occupied the settlement, shot their neighbor Uhlárik and took three people to concentration camps. One German soldier and a Russian partisan were also killed in the shootout. The Germans drove people out of the settlement, set houses and outbuildings on fire, took the men to Frivald for questioning, and looted the settlement. Before the arrival of the front, the locals built bunkers in the mountain, where Vlasta and her parents and siblings hid in the spring of 1945. German soldiers occupied their house and set up a hospital there. After returning from the bunkers, they lived with neighbors where the Germans were in command. In the Pečeňa garden, the fleeing Germans buried a dying soldier alive. During the liberation by the Soviet and Romanian armies, the Trstená settlement was shelled and several houses were damaged. After the war, Vlasta studied at gymnasiums in Rajec and Žilina. During her studies, as the daughter of a private businessman, she had problems with the regime. Later, the father’s mill was nationalized and closed. She worked in a chemical factory in Žilina, she was not involved in politics. She married and gave birth to four sons. Today retired, lives in Trstená.