Jozef Horváth

* 1949

  • “Well, at work my superiors told me: 'You are young and perspective expert. You should join the party!' We were sitting together at some kind of committee, when I told them: 'Comrades, I am not so politically aware to be worthy of joining such people as yourselves.' They understood back then why I didn't explain my reasons to them. I simply told them I don't consider myself to be mature enough. This occurred when they wanted to nominate me as a party candidate, I think. It took place at the city Institute of the National Health, sometime in the beginning of 1980s.”

  • “Well, the shooting began on Main Street, but I think it was the day after the August 21, 1968. He wasn't in Slovakia; he studied playing the trumpet somewhere abroad. I met him near the Zlatý Dukát hotel and I told him: 'Laci, don't go, because they are shooting there.' In the meantime, we spoke together about how he was and where he studied… 'Come back.' Because some shots were fired 'for fun' into the air. I don't know whether you know where Zlatý Dukát is, but he walked that way and when he happened to be at the place, they began shooting on the Main Street. He wanted to hide in the premises near Tuzex, in the yard. He was about to run in and hide, but he didn't make it. I just saw how he got shot a few times. I can still see it today, how he was struck and fell down. I think he didn't die immediately, but later, after the ambulance came. You know, then such a chaos erupted, the people were falling to the ground, running away after what had happened. Everyone was trying to run away to not be shot.”

  • “I used to serve at the altar as a Franciscan. We had a group named Young Franciscans. We were wearing Franciscan robes, but only in the church, up by the altar. Once the policemen took our abbot, it was sometime in 1956 – 1957. They took him and we never saw him again. We had to take off our Franciscan clothes and that's when I became the biggest anticommunist. But you don't know why. When I undressed, they took me in front of the church's gate and I was scared to death. They dragged me there, I fell on the sidewalk, scratched my hands and everything. That's when I began to hate the society I grew up in. We were attending also religious education until the 9th grade as kids, but our father had many troubles because of that. He was even investigated by the State Security as a man saddled with religion and the whole family as well.”

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    Strojárenská 3, Košice , 08.12.2017

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I told him: “Laci, don‘t go to the Main Street, because the shooting has begun.”

Mlady Jozef Horvath
Mlady Jozef Horvath
zdroj: archív pamätníka

Jozef Horváth was born in 1949 into an old-bourgeois Košice family. His father was a fashion designer, owning a salon on Main Street, which was later confiscated by the communists. Jozef received musical as well as ballet education and during his early childhood he performed at the State Theatre. His family was very religious. Because of the political situation he was unable to finish the conservatory studies, thus he attended the Secondary Technical School of Metallurgy. After completing his studies, he started to work at the East Slovakian Ironworks. In 1968, when the Warsaw Pact Troops invaded our territory, he was a witness to the shooting of Ladislav Martoník.  During the normalization he was active at the Košice music scene and he performed in various music groups. After 1989 he was also politically active and together with Mr. and Mrs. Komárec he founded Forum of Justice. Today he lives happily with his wife in Košice and performs in amateur theatre.