Štefan Maďar

* 1932

  • “As we walked along the Danube, I told my friend not to get further from the water, to keep it in sight. This way we walked through the night, slept in the hay and in the morning, we continued towards Bruck. We didn't know where exactly we were going and we were surprised when the Austrians detained us. Suddenly, someone just screamed: 'Halt! Legitimation!' and there we were. They put us in their cars and drove us to some town. We stayed there for three days and then they told us they would take us to Bratislava. 'Holy Mother of God!' I was so beaten in Bratislava! Every evening when it got dark, the investigation began. The window was open and three men interrogated me. They handed me over from one another and kept beating me. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I even thought about jumping out of the window. I rethought it and didn't jump out, but every single day I was beaten, mostly at nights.”

  • “I experienced the solitary confinement as well. For eleven days. When a man was there, there was nothing, just planks, where one lay. That was the solitary cell. They shoved you in, even without committing anything.”

  • “In Jáchymov I was in Rovnost and Svornost mines. When we went working to the pit, we all had to hold a rope and hands. It was about 220 yards from the camp. The one that didn't want to hold on to the rope or who attempted to run away, was immediately threatened to be shot down. So no one could do anything about it.”

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Ten years of imprisonment for fabricated espionage

Maďar dobová foto.jpg (historic)
Štefan Maďar
zdroj: dobová foto - archív pamätníka

Štefan Maďar was born on July 31, 1932 in a small village of Borský Svätý Jur near the Austrian borders. Shortly after the communist takeover he attempted to emigrate and he managed to almost get to Vienna. There he was identified by the Austrian police and deported back to Czechoslovakia. Probably because of his young age, there was no trial held against him and after few months, Štefan was released to freedom. However, the State Security didn‘t forget this incident and approximately one year later he was, unaware of anything, detained. In the following political trial he was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment and majority of this time he spent in Jáchymov. In July 1957 he was released, but even afterwards he had been monitored by the State Security for a long time. After the fall of the communist regime he was engaged in founding the Confederation of Political Prisoners. Nowadays he lives retired in Borský Svätý Jur.