A memorial of Jozef Gabčík, a Slovak soldier of the Czechoslovak exile army in the WWII, who was involved in the assassination of acting Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, was unveiled in his native village of Poluvsie (Žilina region) on Saturday.
Poluvsie is now part of the spa town of Rajecké Teplice. The project was approved by the local town council, which also announced a public fund-raising campaign to cover the cost of the memorial, which should reach €12,500. The bust of the memorial was made by Peter Repka, a native of Poluvsie. “The bust will be looking at the site where Jozef Gabčík spent his childhood, on the courtyard, where he used to play with his siblings and his mother. I conjured up a nice smile on his face, therefore,” said Repka. In June of 1942, three weeks after the lethal attack on the Reichsprotektor Heydrich, Gabčík and his comrades committed suicide at an Orthodox church in Prague after their situation became hopeless in a gun battle with German troops. The village of Gabčíkovo (Trnava region) and the adjacent waterworks on the Danube River, as well as the Slovak Armed Forces' Jozef Gabčík's Fifth Special Task Force Regiment in Žilina are named after Gabčík.
