Marián Sklenka

* 1930

  • “On that day when I was planning to run away, since I was a responsible man, I brought money for war veterans to our savings bank, what used to be paid out back then. I took the money there in a bag and right that night I left. If I were a vagrant, I would have run away with that money, but I handed them in, kept only the bag, which my dad had to bring me to jail later on.”

  • “We used to perform theatre plays in Jastrabá, because we moved from Pitelová to Jastrabá. Then I had to go to the guardhouse. There were all kinds of people in the recruiting station, and they asked me, ‘What were you doing?’ I said, ‘We used to act in plays.’ – ‘That is great, so we assign you to the army theatre ensemble!’ However, there was one communist named Weiss and he showed them the paper – Attempt to cross the borders. This way I ended up in PTP. But I was glad, because I found there many great friends. We got along together very well.”

  • “There was one conference, where we – the editors – used to be invited. I always wanted to be everywhere, be well informed and there one man gave me a picture, ‘Mr. Editor, don’t be afraid! Just write it! I am supporting your articles! Just show the communists!’ I agreed and I also published the photograph with Andrej Hlinka being carried by students on their shoulders in front of the tribune. There were the celebrations of Pribina’s millennium or so. Thus I published this picture in Roľnícke noviny. God, what a turmoil it caused! Poor Dubček was just returning from Moscow, I think, and those fleabags waited him on the airport just to show him the newspaper. He said, ‘Calm down and do nothing.’ There was one Slovak general in Prague banging with his soldierly hat on the table in Parliament, ‘Again, we have here the fascists, Hlinkas’ people!’ Then the managing editor called me, ‘Maroš, what an idiot you are! What have you done?!’”

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    Banská Bystrica, Slovensko, 16.05.2018

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Do not be afraid of life!

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zdroj: archív pamätníka

Marián Sklenka was born on April 22, 1930 in Pitelová. He attended middle school in his home village, then studied at Business Academy in Martin, and he graduated in Bratislava. After the communist takeover he attempted to emigrate through town of Železná Ruda in Bohemia to the West Germany, however, few kilometers behind the borders he was detained and imprisoned for a short time. In April 1951 he enlisted in the Auxiliary Technical Battalions (PTP). After the training in Mimoň, he was transferred to the 60th PTP Regiment in Děčín, where he was building the airport Plzeň - Líně. Few months later he was redeployed to Pardubice airport, from where he was released to civilian life in November 1953. He worked in editorial offices of Ľud (People) and Roľnícke noviny (Farming Newspaper) in Bratislava. Externally he studied law at the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in Bratislava and he graduated in 1968. During the normalization he was fired from the editorial office of Roľnícke noviny. Further ten years, until the 1989, he was a worker at the State Property in Hubice (Hung. Gomba). Nowadays he lives retired in Banská Bystrica.