Július Bruckner

* 1934

  • "We slept in no one's garden for two nights. Luckily it was warm. But then my aunt, my father's sister took us in, however, she only had a single room apartment. My father put a mattress on the ground, where he slept with my mother, the three of us, children slept in two beds. It wasn't the best, but so much better than having no roof over your head. And I'll tell you, it took years."

  • "For example, during those turbulent Hungarian events we guarded the ammunition, we went always in a group of 2. Other times we took turns one by one, now we went two. The man with the dog didn't come every two hours, but every hour. The safety was very high. The tanks were heated from beneath, they had to be ready to go immediately. We had to have the cars ready so that we could immediately move off when required. They were loaded. Everything was 100% ready at that time. But thank God, nothing happened, we didn't have to go to the border. But I know what a mob psychosis looks like. Because every soldier there was prepared to jump into a tank and go. "

  • "And I guess a week after the crossing of the frontline, we got on the train and went to Olomouc. The train was there. And then, it started from Olomouc. Those painful journeys. It was interesting that when we got to Bratislava, it was by a miracle. Because there was if I can say that, a kind-hearted soldier. He guarded the ammunition. And coincidentally, even though I was 12 years old, I still remember it clearly, he was that Mongolian type. My father had tobacco wrapped in a leather case and gave it to him. The Mongolian allowed us to get into that small house. You know how a freight train looks like, he allowed us to get in. Otherwise, there were shooting people there. It wasn't possible, they would shoot us without asking if anybody was seen there."

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    Bruckner Július

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In the war, the innocent always suffer the most on both sides

Július Bruckner was born on August 1, 1934, in Bratislava, he grew up in Prievoz. He comes from a German minority family that has lived in Bratislava for many generations. At the end of World War II, he and his family survived the period of the crossing of the frontline in Prostějov, where their father worked. Her, he saw with his own eyes the hectic events related to the repression of the Czech population against the German minority, the victims of which were many innocent civilians. After a difficult return to Bratislava in 1947, their house was confiscated and as ethnic Germans, they were deprived of their citizenship. Since 1950, he trained as an electro-mechanic, later he studied highschool of electrical engineering part-time and completed the final exams. He completed his basic military service with the Tank Regiment in Pardubice, where he also experienced an exceptional emergency in connection with the outbreak of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956. Upon his return, he worked in the investment department at the Radiocommunications Administration in Bratislava. In later years, he also worked in the investment department of Slovak Radio, where he was also caught by the events of the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Currently, Július Bruckner is retired and lives in Bratislava.