Jan Nikerle

* 1922

  • “As a religious man, it must have been quite hard for you from a moral point of view to join the army. How did you feel about it when you were a young man?” “I felt the same way about it as every other young cadet. As all the other protestants or Catholics that went to the army and to war. Of course, I 'm against killing your fellow men. But in war, you can't get around it. In war, you don't have to necessarily kill people directly. If you become a baker or a logistical officer – you're just delivering the ammunition – but at the same time, you're indirectly participating in the killings. You are a part of the whole killing machine.”

  • “We were more in jeopardy from the mortar and artillery fire. But as we were approaching the trenches, we also got under fire from the machine guns. We usually went to Liptovský Mikuláš in the night. It was practically impossible to get there during daytime as the Germans had the town in focus permanently.”

  • “What happened was that the army that stood on the ground simply fell apart. It totally disintegrated and whoever had the possibility to go back home did so. A lot of it's former members joined the partisans or Svoboda's army. Some were also caught and detained by the Germans. Our unit basically ceased to exist.”

  • “Our unit was called 'the skiing machine-gunners battalion'. However, gradually, we were fever and fever. The officers and the rank and file soldiers were being killed off on a daily basis and it became harder and harder to replace the dead with fresh reinforcements to keep this 150-men unit going. Eventually, we were barely able to fight and to hold the line. Then they sent in massive reinforcements – reservists from Turčanský Svätý Martin. They were some thirty or forty men strong and they spent two nights with us. Then, the first night of battle, when the artillery fire started, these freshmen were so scared they just fled head over heels. They retreated. Afterwards, our unit had to be discarded and I was assigned to one of the machine-gun companies of the 4th brigade.”

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    Zábřeh na Moravě, 21.07.2010

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You simply had to go to war – regardless of whether you wanted it or not.

Jan Nikerle - in the Slovak army
Jan Nikerle - in the Slovak army
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Jan Nikerle was born in 1922 in the village of Gerlachov in the foothills of the High Tatra Mountains in Slovakia. In the autumn of 1944, he was forced to enroll in the Slovak army together with other cadets. After their training, the original mission was to fight in Ukraine. However, the Slovak units in Ukraine were notoriously prone to frequent desertions to the Soviet army. Therefore, he was eventually sent to Poland and stationed in Sanok, where he served in a guard unit until the Slovak national uprising. In the wake of the uprising, the Slovak army disintegrated and Jan joined the Czechoslovak extraterritorial army corps. The Czechoslovak army fought over Slovak territory and Jan served as a logistical officer for the skiing machine-gun battalion. He participated in the battles for Liptovský Mikuláš and Malá and Velká Fatra. He continued his army service even after the end of the war till 1946. After the termination of his army service, he continued in civilian life as a driver. He first worked for a hospital and later at construction works. In 1986 he and his wife Marie moved to their son to Zábřeh na Moravě, where he lives till today.