The Priory of North and Centre Slovakia of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta, Federation of the Autonomous Priories (KMFAP) decided to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Slovakia and the Victory Day Over Fascism (the end of World War II in Europe) in the cities, where our dames and knights live.

During the one-week period, we visited numerous monuments of liberation and placed wreaths. In this symbolic way, we expressed our gratitude to the tens of thousands of Czechoslovak and Soviet soldiers, and civilian heroes, who gave their lives in the fight against fascism and Nazism in the five years of the most devastating war in human history.

On the 8th of May 2020, a group of Slovak members of KMFAP placed a wreath at the Slavín memorial, in the largest military cemetery in Bratislava. It was opened in 1960 to mark the 15th anniversary of the liberation of Czechoslovakia, where 6845 Soviet soldiers, who died during the liberation of Bratislava and the entire country, are buried in six mass graves and 278 individual graves. At this place of reverence, we paid tribute to the heroic soldiers of the Red Army, among whom were many young, and even very young people, who had lost the chance for their own future, for love and children, thousands of kilometres away from their homes. They deserve our eternal thanks for their sacrifice.

This event was very emotional for every knight. Approaching the monument, a big applause by the surrounding people was dedicated to our members, confirming the respect to humanity and the charity of the knighthood.

Knights and dames present:

Sir Branislav Ondrus, Sir Ján Gramata, Sir Hüseyin Kösetürk, Sir Pavol Zachar, Lady Valéria Kubalová, Sir Samuel Baláž, Sir Michal Nemec

CALL – FLOWER FOR LIBERATORS

The Priory of North and Centre Slovakia of KMFAP has published the following call on the Facebook page of our Order:

„Dear friends on Facebook. Whether you regularly visit our site, or you are here for the first time, whether someone has invited you, or you found us by accident – please accept the challenge of our Priory: if you spend the next two days anywhere in our beautiful Slovakia, please stop and express your thanks to the liberators at the nearest monument.

Tomorrow, resp. on Saturday it will be 75 years since Europe was liberated from the rule of fascism and Nazism. This terrible war claimed the lives of 50-70 million people worldwide, of which about 45-47 million were civilians. The Soviet Union suffered the biggest losses – almost 27 million people died. Thousands of Soviet soldiers lost their lives on Slovak territory. No need to buy a wreath, just come with a little flower. Respect with us and the peaceful people of Slovakia the memory of the dead so that we can live in peace. And send us a photo and contact address and we will send you a book.”

We are very proud that many people accepted the call, who sent us their photos with flowers brought to many monuments.

Sir Jan Pavlis visited a monument in Trencin and commemorated this event as the son of an active partisan.

Our knights: Sir Karol Schäfer, Sir Samuel Baláž, Sir Pavol Zachar and Sir Ján Gramata expressed their respect and thanks to the victims of World War II by placing a bouquet of flowers at the memorial of the fallen heroes of the liberation of Myjava.

At the end of the Victory Day - 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and defeat of Hitler's Germany - expressing our thanks to the Soviet liberators we placed a wreath at the memorial in Dubnica upon Váh with the participation of the deputy mayor Mr. Tomáš Truchlý, representatives of the local basic organization of the Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters, the Matica Slovenská and the Pensioners' Union. The wreath was placed by the following knights of our Order: Sir Ján Gramata, Sir Robert Jendrol, Sir Pavol Zachar, Sir Robert Christov and Sir Yonghai Yan.

In Považská Bystrica, Sir Róbert Jendrol, Sir Pavol Zachar, Sir František Zaťko, Sir Yonghai Yan and Sir Ján Gramata placed a wreath at the monument to the liberators. WE THANK YOU.

Another informal memory of the heroes of World War II in the village of Klin, Orava took place on a pilgrimage site on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation, where participants – together with our knight Sir Ľubos Modranský – prayed for all heroes and all civilian victims of the war.

20th May 2020