“I survived, I endured. And what have they done to me? Nothing. They could not break me, because I didn´t let them.”
Viliam Kasperkevič was born on January 1, 1929 in Stará Ľubovňa. His father was a carpenter who had his own workshop and a big farm. In years 1930 and 1932 Viliam´s two brothers were born, however their mother died when they were little. Shortly after her death their father remarried. Viliam finished an elementary school and got trained by his father´s friend to become a house painter. Both of his brothers studied at a university and Viliam also desired to do so. Therefore he left to Bratislava and while he worked at municipal service of the capital, he also attended evening classes of a grammar school. His family had some relatives living in America and Viliam always longed to visit them. When in 1951 his friend named Krajger invited him to run to the West with him, he though this might had been an opportunity to see a different world. The escape was not successful. Viliam got caught and arrested, and as Krajger wanted to run away across the corn field, he was shot down by the border guard. The State Security Police started to investigate Viliam and the State Court sentenced him to 11 years of imprisonment for consorting with an agent of the British Secret Service. He went through many different prisons in Znojmo, Mikulov, Prague, Ilava and he got also to the uranium mines in Jáchymov. After eight years of hard work and illness he was released and began working as a house painter. He got married and with his wife they had four children. In 1969 he applied for rehabilitation, but he wasn´t rehabilitated until the year 1990. Even though the communist regime deprived Viliam of eight years of life, he has still a feeling he won. They did not break him.
