Rudolf Viest
Rudolf Michal Viest (born September 24, 1890 in Nagyrőce , Austria-Hungary , † 1945 in the Flossenbürg concentration camp , Greater German Empire ) was a Czechoslovak and Slovak general. During the entire period of the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938), he was the only Slovak within the Czechoslovak army who managed to obtain the rank of general.
During the Slovak national uprising, Viest took over the supreme command of the Slovak insurgent army from October 7, 1944, after the previous commander in chief Ján Golian had resigned in Viests's favor.
Life
Rudolf Viest was born on September 24, 1890, the fourth of five children to the craftsman Gustáv Viest and his wife Jana Viestová (née Grnáčová), who came from a tailor's family. His older siblings were Ivan (* 1882), Oľga (* 1884) and Anna (* 1886), his younger brother was called Dušan (* 1892). Young Rudolf first attended the local Protestant primary school and from 1910 the four-year middle school in Revúca.
From 1920 to 1939 he served as an officer in various positions and functions. In 1933 he was promoted to brigadier general and in 1938 to division general .
In 1939 he belonged to a group of anti-fascist officers in the Slovak Army , which opposed the division of Czechoslovakia into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and Slovakia . He kept in contact with the Czechoslovak government in exile in London. On August 29, 1939, he emigrated to France via Hungary, where he became a member of the Czechoslovak National Committee in Paris and Commander-in-Chief of the Czechoslovak Army in exile . From January 1, 1940, he was in command of the 1st Czechoslovak Division in France. After the occupation of France in June 1940, he went to England and became a minister in the Czechoslovak government in exile. Viest was an admirer of Edvard Beneš .
In August 1944 Viest flew to the Soviet Union with a Czechoslovak government delegation. From Moscow he reached Banská Bystrica on October 6, 1944 and took over the supreme command of the insurgent units for the last few weeks from Ján Golian , with whom he continued to work trustfully as his adjutant. He was also President of the Council for the Defense of Slovakia. However, the military situation of the rebel army had already started to deteriorate.
On the night of October 27th to 28th, 1944, in view of the final defeat, Viest in Donovaly called on the remaining scattered troops: “Boj za slobodu Česko-Slovenska sa nekončí, bude pokračovať v horách” - freely translated: “The fight for the freedom of Czechoslovakia is not over, it will be continued in the mountains. "
Viest and Golian were captured by the German Special Operations Command 14 on November 3 in Pohronský Bukovec in Okres Banská Bystrica . After they were brought via Berlin to the Flossenbürg concentration camp in the Upper Palatinate , both were executed after torture in 1945.
literature
- Peter Jašek, Branislav Kinčok, Martin Lacko: Slovenskí generáli 1939–1945 [Slovak generals 1939–1945]. Ottovo Nakladatelství, 2013, ISBN 978-80-7451-246-9 .
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Jašek, et al .: Slovenskí generáli 1939–1945 , pp. 10–11.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Viest, Rudolf |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Viest, Rudolf Michal (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Slovak general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 24, 1890 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nagyrőce , Kingdom of Hungary |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1945 |
| Place of death | Flossenbürg |