The last Slovak freedom fighter who fought against the regime of Benito Mussolini alongside the Italian resistance in WW2, Frantisek Marek, died on April 7 in Zilina at the age of 103. The Defence Ministry press department announced in its post on social media. During WW2, Frantisek Marek was conscripted as a soldier of the war-time Slovak state and assigned to the eastern front. "In Belarus, together with his fellow soldiers, he witnessed with his own eyes the horrors committed by the fascists, alongside whom he was supposed to fight," stated the ministry. The moral state of the units took a nosedive, Germans perceived them as useless and reassigned them to Italy, where they were ordered to carry out fortification works. Marek deserted from his unit together with four other Slovaks and joined the Italian resistance instead. He was imprisoned three times and even received a death sentence. "However, he managed to stage an almost miraculous escape and continue the resistance effort," added the text.
Source: TASR
