Rudolf Viest

Rudolf Viest (* September 24 1890 in Revúca, Slovakia (then Austria - Hungary), † 1945 Flossenbiirg ) was a Czechoslovakian division general of Slovak ethnicity. He was commander of the guerrilla army in the Slovak National Uprising and the only Slovak general ethnicity in the army of the First Czechoslovak Republic ( 1918-1938 ).

1920 to 1939 he served as an officer in various positions and functions. To brigadier general, he was promoted in 1933 to Division General, a rank designation in Central and Eastern European armies comparable to the former general colonel or a modern four- star general, in 1938.

In 1939, he was among a group of anti-fascist officers in the Slovak army, which rejected the splitting of Czechoslovakia into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and Slovakia. He stayed in contact with the Czechoslovak government in exile in London. On 29 August 1939, he emigrated to Hungary to France, where he became a member of the Czechoslovak National Committee in Paris and commander of the Czechoslovak army in exile. Since 1 January 1940 he was commander 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 with a Czechoslovak government delegation to the Soviet Union. From Moscow, he reached on October 6, 1944 Banská Bystrica and took over from Ján Golian, with whom he collaborated on with confidence as his adjutant, the next day for the last few weeks the supreme command of the insurgent units. He was also President of the Council for the Defence of Slovakia. However, the military situation of the rebel army had already begun to deteriorate.

In the night from 27 to 28 October 1944 in view of the final defeat, Viest called in Donovaly remaining troops scattered remnants on: " Boj za Slobodu Česko - Slovenská sa nekončí, bude v Pokračovať horach " - loosely translated: "The fight for the freedom of Czechoslovakia is not over, he continues in the mountains. "

Viest and Golian were captured by the German SWAT 14 on November 3 in Pohronský Bukovec Okres in Banská Bystrica. About Berlin spent the Flossenbiirg in the Upper Palatinate, both were executed after being tortured in 1945.