Ján Lacko was imprisoned several times under the Slovak State, fought as a partisan and suffered the loss of his family in a war crime committed by German and Slovak units.
Lacko was born on 18 July 1901 in Dolný Turček in central Slovakia. This was a predominantly German-speaking community with a total of 797 inhabitants, including approximately 23 Roma. Lacko earned his living by selling textiles and playing music; he played the double bass, cello and violin.
Deportation to Forced Labour and Resistance
On 12 September 1942, Ján Lacko was deported to Dubnica nad Váhom for forced labour. He managed to escape on 11 January 1943, but was recaptured on 8 March and imprisoned again in Dubnica nad Váhom.
Lacko’s imprisonment left his wife and children in great material distress. Ján Lacko had worked for the forestry administration in Kremnica in the autumn of 1941 and for the Macička forestry company in Dolný Kubín in 1942, earning an average of 50 crowns per day.
In contrast, Rozália Lacková (1909–1944) received only around 180 crowns in December 1942 to cover her living expenses for the entire month.1Slovak National Archives, Ministerstvo vnútra fonds, box no. 558, file no. E 2714/43.
Rozália Lacková and Ján Lacko himself submitted several applications for release from custody. These were also supported by the forestry administration, a local doctor, the government commissioner in Dolný Turček and the parish priest in Piargy [German: Johannesberg]. The administration of the camp in Dubnica nad Váhom, however, opposed the release of Ján Lacko because he had been punished several times for desertion and minor offences before his marriage in 1935.
Nevertheless, Ján Lacko was able to return home on 4 June 1943; the interventions of the various authorities and the poverty of his family seem to have been the deciding factors.
After his release, Lacko decided to join the armed resistance and joined the partisan units ‘Kremnická jednotka Gejza Lacka’ [Kremnica Unit Group by Gejza Lacka (1907–1977)], ‘Jegorovova skupina in Kremnice’ [Jegorov’s group in Kremnica] and the ‘I. and II. partizánska brigáda M. R. Štefánika’ [I. and II. Partisan Brigade Milan Rastislav Štefánik (1880–1919)].
Because of his resistance activities, he was arrested again in the autumn of 1944 and sent first to Ilava and then back to Dubnica nad Váhom.
Loss of His Family
When Ján Lacko returned to Dolný Turček in the spring of 1945, he learned that his family had been murdered. His mother Mária Lacková (1875/1876–1944), his wife Rozália Lacková, and his daughters Margita (1928–1944), Gabriela (1929/1930–1944), Rozália (1942–1944) and two-month-old Valéria Lacková (1944–1944) had been hiding from German troops in the woods near Banská Bystrica.2The sources indicate that the couple had another son named Ernest Lacko (born around 1936/1937), who suffered from rickets and died in 1943 or 1944. When they returned to Dolný Turček in November 1944, they were immediately arrested and interrogated. Under the pretext of being given accommodation, they were eventually taken to the woods near the mountain of Puš and shot there on 3 November 1944. The perpetrators are believed to have been members of the German Gestapo and the Slovak Home Guard.3Lacková, “Rómski partizáni.”
Later Life
After the war, Ján Lacko had his wife, four children and mother buried in the cemetery in Dolný Turček. He continued to live in the community and later started a family with Anna Goralová (biographical data unknown), who had lost her husband in World War II.
In July 1947, Ján Lacko’s name was on a list of Roma whom the public security authorities considered to be ‘idlers’. The plan was to send him to a labour camp. However, as Ján Lacko was seriously ill at the time, he escaped imprisonment.
Ján Lacko also publicly criticised former members of the Home Guard who became powerful members of the Communist Party after the Second World War. As a result, he received death threats.
Ján Lacko died in 1967. In 2021, his great-granddaughter Vera Lacková (born 1989) made the documentary film ‘Ako som sa stala partizánkou’ [How I Became a Partisan],4See https://www.filmpartizanka.eu/en/about-film/ [accessed on 14/10/2026]. in which she recounts the life of her great-grandfather and the resistance of other Roma who fought as partisans, using interviews and archive material, thus making the history known to a wide audience.
