Vladimír Rafaj

* 1931

  • “We used to go to the shop in old part of Valaská, where was also a bakery back then. There we used to go and bake our bread. However, it was quite a problem during the war. As soon as we stepped on the road, shrapnel whistled above our heads, thus we had to do so only in the evenings. So, we went to the shop and to the bakery only when it was dark. Otherwise it was really dangerous. For seven weeks we were under fire. There, in the hill the Germans were deployed and they kept shooting towards Brezno. The front was dispersed from Brezno to Valaská for five weeks. Then the Germans retreated to Podbrezová, where the foundry is today, in Čiklov they dragged the slag. There was such a shelter on the hill, and on the top the Germans had their watchtower. Thus, they could see everything from there. As I said, once I just stepped on the road, they opened the fire. This situation lasted another two weeks. During the whole seven weeks we were under fire.”

  • “We had arranged jobs in the States, there was also another family from Valaská, which died already. They prepared a farm for us there. Always, when a family wanted to emigrate to America, there was a commissar, who had to come and meet the family to grant his signature as a permission. Afterwards the family could leave. However, the commissar didn’t manage to come to our house, because as he was in Bratislava, the war broke out. So, all our plans were foiled and we had to stay here.”

  • “Well, he didn’t look like that bad. Back then everyone knew what Jáchymov was all about, that it was such a place where people didn’t want to stay and work. That’s why the prisoners were sent there, so we counted on that it wouldn’t be a normal place. We knew the workplace and conditions there were really tough. When I talked with him, though, he didn’t look like that bad, he wasn’t too down or starved out.”

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    Valaská, 19.06.2018

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Those were the times when people learned not to work

Like a 7 years boy
Like a 7 years boy
zdroj: Archív pamätníka

Vladimír Rafaj was born on February 8, 1931 in Valaská near Brezno. His parents were farming on a small homestead and at the same time worked in a metallurgical plant. Within ten years they had four sons and the family decided to use opportunity to emigrate to the United States of America. To receive the permission, they only lacked one signature from the US government, which they didn’t obtain due to the outbreak of the Second World War. Quite vividly Vladimír remembers the fights that took place in the surroundings of his village, when many times his life was in danger as well. However, it didn’t take long and one totality was exchanged for another, which affected his wider family. After an unsuccessful attempt to emigrate abroad, his younger brother Július was imprisoned for 14 years. Július was allowed to write letters only to his brother Vladimír and only he could visit him once in Jáchymov. Luckily, he could live without any bigger turbulences. Only after November 1989, as a member of the village government, he observed with great misunderstanding, how then the already former regime administered common property, which were his parents forcibly deprived of four decades ago.