A hail of mines and grenades

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When the unit of Bedřich Seliger managed to fight its way into the Dukla Pass, an unpleasant reception was waiting for them. “Right on the first day we received a blow. We got to the village Machnówka, where we were showered with mines and grenades. I was lucky that no-one from my company had fallen, and our weapons didn’t suffer any damage either. But many people had died there before they even started fighting.” During the fighting in Dukla and in Slovakia, Bedřich Seliger was wounded three times. The first time was when his hand was hit by shrapnel at an observation post in Dukla. At the time he refused to be treated in a hospital and with his hand in a splint he continued to conduct the mortar fire of his company. The second time, again in Dukla, a grenade from a German mortar had killed three telephone operators in a trench. Bedřich Seliger who was lying nearby was hit by several pieces of shrapnel in his upper back. This time he had to go to hospital and he spent about two weeks there. When he returned to his unit, it was already positioned above the Slovak village Komárník. After heavy fighting for the hill Obšár, the unit could advance to the West. Bedřich Seliger sustained his third injury on 30th January 1945 near Štrba in Slovakia. “I was walking alongside our carriage which carried mines, and suddenly the horse rode onto a landmine. A terrible fire broke out. At the time it was all a question of a few millimetres. I was wearing a military coat, the coat was ripped into pieces and I was bleeding heavily. At the time it was serious. They stopped the bleeding, bandaged me and an ambulance took me to a sanatorium in Vyšné Hagy. There they took out all kinds of shrapnel that I had in my body.” A forgotten piece of shrapnel under his chin was taken out as late as 1965.

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Bedřich Seliger

Bedřich Seliger was born on June 19, 1920, in Prostějov in Moravia in a Jewish family. After Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, Bedřich's parents tried to get him out of the Protectorate at any cost. That's why he enrolled in an intensive English course in the summer of 1939. However, soon thereafter he was arrested by the Gestapo for his activities in one of the cells of the underground resistance movement. He was sent to a concentration camp in the Polish city of Nisk nad Sanem where he arrived on November 10, 1939. This was an interim camp without any enclosures and guarded only during the day. Therefore it was relatively easy for Mr. Seliger to flee from the camp. He crossed the border to the Ukraine and obtained a working permit there which enabled him to work in a bakery in Bolechov, Ukraine. After the German invasion in 1941 he managed to escape to Uzbekistan where he worked in one of the Sovchozs (a forced association of farmers - note by the translator). With the help of the Czechoslovak consulate in Kujbyšev he was able to get out of Uzbekistan and be one of the first Czechoslovaks to appear in Buzuluk, where the Czechoslovak army corps was being formed. Bedřich Seliger participated in all the major battles of the Czechoslovak army corps in the Soviet Union. He started as a commander of a mortar contingent and later platoon at Sokolovo, Kiev, Rudá and other places in the Soviet Union and later during the liberation of Czechoslovakia. In the battle for the Dukla pass he commanded a mortar company. He suffered three injuries during the whole campaign. After his return to his native town of Prostějov his worst fears were confirmed - his parents and his two sisters were murdered after the transport to the Belarusian town of Baranoviči. After the war Mr. Seliger served until 1947 at the headquarters in Olomouc. Bedřich Seliger is the holder of three Czechoslovak war crosses and a Crimson Star of the USSR. In June 1945 he got married for the first time with Jitka Lamplotová. His first son George was born in 1948, the second son Vladimír in 1950. after leaving the army in 1947 Mr. Seliger worked in leading positions in the textile and glassmaking industry. In 1956 he got married for the second time with Jarmila Bínová, a pharmacist. He didn't have any more children with her. In retirement he vigorously played chess and participated in chess tournaments. He also helped out in the gym. He accomplished a course for coaches and referees. He loved to travel frequently.

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Dukla Pass

Available in: English | Česky | Slovensky

The pass (saddle), located in the northern part of the Laborecké Highlands, between the Kýčera hill (579 m above sea level) and the Porubské saddle, through which runs the Slovak-Polish state border, became the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of WWII: the Carpathian-Dukla operation. The offensive of the Soviet and Czechoslovak troops in northeastern Slovakia in the autumn of 1944 was supposed to combine the insurgent forces of the Slovak National Uprising with the Soviet armies. After the suppression of the uprising by German troops and after the insurgents changed to the partisan way of fighting, the operation became redundant and was terminated. The operation was conducted in a ruthless manner by the Soviet command which resulted in extremely heavy losses of Czechoslovak and Soviet troops.