Liberation80: Sunday 125th Anniversary of General Peknik's Birth

Pezinok/Bratislava, April 19 (TASR) - General Karol Peknik, renowned for his tactics and strategy acumen, significantly contributed to the command of combat operations of the insurgent army against fascist troops during the WW2 Slovak National Uprising (SNP). On Sunday, April 20, Slovakia will commemorate the 125th anniversary of the birth of this leading figure of the anti-fascist resistance. Karol Peknik was born on April 20, 1900, in Pezinok. After finishing elementary school in 1915, he first attended the military school with German as the language of instruction in Bratislava. Between 1917 and 1918, he continued his military education at the Artillery Academy in Vienna and the Ludovica Military Academy in Budapest. In September 1918, he graduated from the state school with Hungarian as the language of instruction in Sopron. Karol Peknik's storied military career in the Czechoslovak army, where he went from the rank of cadet to senior staff positions at the Ministry of Defense, began on August 16, 1920. "After successfully passing the entrance exams, he became a cadet of the Military Academy in Hranice na Morave in October 1920, graduating on August 13, 1922. In September 1922, he was promoted to infantry lieutenant and assigned to the 39th Infantry Regiment in Bratislava," Miloslav Caplovic, director of the Military History Institute (VHU), told TASR. In January 1928, Peknik was promoted to first lieutenant of infantry (retroactively from December 1926), and in October 1930 to infantry captain. "In the spring of 1935, he successfully passed the entrance exams for the War College (VSV) in Prague. In October 1936, he was promoted to staff captain of infantry. From April 19, 1938, he was assigned to the headquarters of the 6th Division in Brno, where he remained until January 31, 1939, serving as the head of the 4th Logistics Department of the division staff. During the general mobilization of the Czechoslovak armed forces, he was assigned to the operational group of the 3rd operations department of the staff of the II Army (code name Jirasek) in Olomouc. From February 1939 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in mid-March 1939, Peknik served as an officer of the 3rd operations department at the headquarters of the VII Corps in Banska Bystrica," Caplovic further explained. After the establishment of the Slovak State, he continued in active service as head of the 4th department of the Regional Military Command (from May 1, 1939, the Main Military Command) in Bratislava. At the end of March 1939, he participated in a meeting in Bratislava with General Inspector of the Slovak Army, Divisional General Rudolf Viest, commander of the VI Corps Augustin Malar, and other Slovak officers. "In early November 1940, he was appointed chief of staff of the Bratislava Military Administration. In addition to his high-ranking staff role, he also worked as a professor at the Armed Forces Academy in Bratislava," he told TASR. After Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, he participated in the campaign of the Slovak army on the Eastern Front. In early March 1942, he was appointed commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment in Bratislava, and from May, he served as a deputy chief of staff to the Minister of National Defense. In August 1942, he again assumed the position of chief of staff of the Military Administration in Bratislava, temporarily performing the duties of the head of the Military Administration. In the summer of 1943, based on an order from Minister of National Defense Ferdinand Catlos, he was deployed to the Eastern Front, where he served from August to October 1943. Upon returning to Slovakia, he established contact with Jan Golian and other representatives of the illegal Military Center. Together with them, he joined the preparations for the armed uprising. Immediately after the outbreak of the SNP, he arrived in Banska Bystrica and on September 4, 1944, took over from Julius Nosko the position of head of the 3rd operations department of the 1st Czechoslovak Army in Slovakia. "Under his leadership, members of the department played a significant role in the preparation and execution of the reorganization of the 1st CSA," he clarified. Six tactical groups were established, one air group, and additional smaller support units directly under the command of the 1st CSA. In very complex conditions, Peknik played a key role in directing the combat operations of the insurgent army, coordinating the cooperation of various military branches, and securing forces and means for operational execution. After the suppression of the uprising and the retreat into the mountains, Peknik, along with other representatives of the 1st CSA command, moved to Donovaly, from where they tried to break through the German encirclement. On November 1, 1944, however, near Svaty Ondrej nad Hronom (today part of the village Pohronsky Bukovec, Banska Bystrica district), he was captured by members of Einsatzkommando 14 and was shot in the back of the head the same day while attempting to escape. After liberation, his remains were exhumed and buried in his hometown of Pezinok. Karol Peknik was posthumously awarded the Czechoslovak Medal for Bravery, the Order of the SNP 1st Class, and the Stefanik Memorial Badge 1st Degree in 1945. In 1946, he was also awarded the Czechoslovak War Cross 1939 and posthumously promoted to the rank of brigadier general. "President Peter Pellegrini in January awarded Peknik, on the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of the founding of the Republic, with the state decoration Order of Ludovit Stur 1st Class, military division, in memoriam, for his extraordinary merit in the defense and security of Slovakia," added the director of the VHU. In the Bratislava district of Dubravka and in Pezinok, streets are named after Peknik. Memorial plaques bearing his name are located on the building of the military command headquarters of the 1st Czechoslovak Army in Banska Bystrica, in Pezinok at the site of his birth house on Moyzesova Street, and in Pohronsky Bukovec on the memorial to the victims of the Second World War. mf