Soldier - Hero - Leader - Humanitarian - Author - Engineer - Artist - Husband - Father
RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS
Kto za pravdu horí
Kto za pravdu horí v svätej obeti,
kto za ľudstva právo život posvätí,
kto nad krivdou biednych slzu vyroní:
tomu moja pieseň slávou zazvoní.
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Who burns for truth in holy sacrifice,
Who dedicates his life to human rights,
Who sheds a tear for those whom wrongs have bound:
For him my song with glory shall resound.
(By ThDr. Karol Kuzmány, Sláva šľachetným, 1848,
translated by Reverend Dr. Jaroslav J. Vajda)
Kto za pravdu horí v svätej obeti,
kto za ľudstva právo život posvätí,
kto nad krivdou biednych slzu vyroní:
tomu moja pieseň slávou zazvoní.
____________________
Who burns for truth in holy sacrifice,
Who dedicates his life to human rights,
Who sheds a tear for those whom wrongs have bound:
For him my song with glory shall resound.
(By ThDr. Karol Kuzmány, Sláva šľachetným, 1848,
translated by Reverend Dr. Jaroslav J. Vajda)
General Peter Emilius Vlčko (pronounced Vulch-kō) was born on 28 May 1912, in the central-southern Slovak village of Brehy, district of Nová Baňa, once part of Austro-Hungary. His father, also Peter Vlčko, was born on 12 February 1889 in Brehy, as well. General Vlčko's grandfather Ján Vlčko was born on 28 January 1857 in the village of Tekovské Nemce (15 km southwest of Brehy). Sometime after 10 June 1871, Ján Vlčko moved from Tekovské Nemce to Brehy. Ján Vlčko eventually married and the two raised their family in Brehy. Ján's son, Peter (General Vlčko's father), met Anna Jakubíkova (see Jakubík family tree, below) in Brehy and eventually married her. From the outbreak of the First World War, Peter (General Vlcko's father) fought in Russia as a conscript of the Austro-Hungarian Army. He was captured by imperial Russian forces and became a prisoner of war in Ivangorod, Russia (160 km west of St. Petersburg) from October 26, 1914, until June 27, 1918. After his release in 1918, he volunteered to join the Czechoslovak Legion and fought alongside the Entente Powers and the White Russians linked with Admiral Alexander Kolchak against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution until 1920. Out of concern that former soldiers of the Central Powers would rejoin their previous units, he and the rest of the Legionnaires were not permitted to return home via western routes. Instead, they were forced on an infamous, treacherous journey via the Trans-Siberian Railway to the far eastern Russian port of Vladivostok. The Legionnaires eventually captured and took control of the Trans-Siberian railway. However, the White Army collapsed. With the anti-Bolshevik movement in chaos and no clear remaining objectives, the Legionnaires declared neutrality. In exchange for safe passage, the Legionnaires signed an armistice with the Red Army and agreed to surrender Admiral Kolchak and 285 tonnes of Imperial Russian gold bullion captured from Kazan. In Vladivostok, the Legionnaires finally boarded transport ships for transpacific voyage to America.
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Peter's father's journey home had to proceed through the American continent via railway to the eastern seaboard where he again boarded a ship to Europe and back to his home in the newly established and independent Czechoslovakia. He did not reach home until 1921. During Peter’s father’s seven-year absence, Peter’s mother, Adela, moved in with her mother, Anna Jakubíkova, in the village of Brehy and, as the oldest child among five, she had to travel to work in the crop fields of Hungarian landed gentry to help the family survive the war and the uncertain fate of her husband. During his parents’ absence, Peter was in the care of his maternal grandmother Anna Jakubíkova (née Medveďová) and aunt Ulla (Julia) Laco.
When Peter was nine years old, he first came to know his father. General Vlčko was the first-born and only male child of five children. At the age of 12-years, he was sent to live with an unrelated family in Levice, a city 30 km south of his native village, in order to attend gymnázium (college preparatory high school). Later, his parents and younger sisters also moved to Levice, when his father was hired to work there for the state-owned railroad. In Levice, Vlčko completed his secondary education in gymnázium in 1931 at the age of 19-years. Shortly thereafter, Peter Vlčko volunteered for the Czechoslovak Army and soon entered the Reserve Cavalry Officer’s School in Pardubice, present-day Czech Republic. Vlčko’s first military assignment was with the Third Cavalry Regiment in Nové Zámky, in southern Slovakia. After basic training, he advanced to reserve cavalry officers school located in Pardubice, in Bohemia. In October 1932, he enrolled in the Military Academy in Hranice, in Moravia. After two years of rigorous training and studies, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant of the Cavalry and assigned to the Fifth Dragoon Regiment in Košíce, in eastern Slovakia. There, at the age of 22-years he commanded a cavalry squad of thirty men, thirty-two horses, two light machine guns, twenty-eight rifles, thirty sabers, and six pistols. |
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Shortly thereafter, Vlčko was sent to National Military Equestrian School in Pardubice (modern day Czech Republic). After graduation, he rejoined his regiment, which during his schooling had moved to Stará Boleslav, about 30 km north of Prague. Soon Vlčko was promoted to First Lieutenant and made commander of an anti-tank cannon squad. In January 1935, he again was sent to Pardubice, this time as an anti-tank cannon instructor at the Reserve Cavalry Officer’s School.
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Within one year he was given the position of Platoon Commander of the Cavalry. On 15 March 1939, German armed forces invaded Czechoslovakia. Bohemia and Moravia became occupied Protectorate of Germany. Slovakia declared itself independent and allied to Nazi Germany. The Czechoslovak Army was disbanded and all Slovak soldiers had to return to their home country for further assignment. By the second half of 1939, Peter was Adjutant to the Regiment Commander of the Cavalry in Nitra, Slovakia. At this time, he was promoted to Captain of the Cavalry. Six months later, he was reassigned to Bratislava, the capital of the newly-independent Slovakia, where he entered the Slovak National War College (Vysoká vojenná škola) in 1940. During his tenure in War College, Peter Vlčko served a tour of duty with the Slovak Army rapid motorized division on the bloody Russian Front in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa and the German Army’s blitzkrieg toward Moscow. In the Ukraine, while exposed on the front lines and under heavy mortar fire he suffered shrapnel wounds and an injury to his left leg after laying down his horse. He managed to retreat to safety after delivering important secret documents from field headquarters to the front line commander.
In January 1941 before leaving Bratislava for the Russian front, Captain Vlčko met a pretty, young woman at the Luxor Café where he asked her to dance. Thereafter, they continued to see each other and eventually fell in love. In 1942, Peter Vlčko graduated from War College and was assigned to the Matériel Department in the Slovak Ministry of Defense in Bratislava. Through his position in the Ministry of Defense during the years 1942 through 1944, Captain Vlčko risked his own life and arranged false work papers for 20 Jews, designating them as essential personnel, thereby saving them from certain deportation and death. In March 1944, despite discovering his attractive, young lover was of Jewish ancestry, and despite the strictly enforced Nüremburg laws prohibiting any relations with Jews, Peter Vlčko risked severe punishment and death when he secretly married Georgina Reichsfeld.
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In the face of the ever-growing danger that his young Jewish bride and her family were going to be arrested and deported to concentration camps, Captain Vlčko hid them and arranged for false identification papers giving them a new, gentile identity. He even had to arrange a risky false marriage between his wife and a Bulgarian acquaintance to hide her in Sofia, Bulgaria for nearly one year.
By 1944, events in Europe were evolving rapidly. Many leading figures of the Slovak Army and outlawed democratic Slovak political parties, whose leadership under former Czechoslovak President Dr. Edvard Beneš was exiled in London, were becoming disillusioned with the fascist leadership under Slovak President Jozef Tiso and their collaboration with Hitler’s Nazi regime. In 1943, a group of brave and determined Slovak military and political leaders began to make secret plans to resist German occupation and overthrow the puppet fascist Slovak government via a military coup and uprising. General Ján Golian and Captain Peter Vlčko were among the brave, new revolutionaries.
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As early as November 1943, efforts were underway to gain the support of the British, United States, and Soviet Union for the uprising and military coup. This was a critical time for the Allies in the war against Hitler’s powerful military machine. Several fronts had developed by spring 1944, and the Allies were spread desperately thin. In June 1941, Hitler breached the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement thereby betraying Stalin. The Soviets were determined to get their revenge. In doing so and given the green light by Western powers, particularly President Roosevelt, Stalin planned to exploit the opportunity and bring under Soviet domination as much territory in Central and Eastern Europe that he could (see The Soviet Union's Role in the Slovak National Uprising).
The London-exiled democratic Czechoslovak government under President Beneš and military leaders of the uprising in Slovakia tried to convince Stalin and the Soviet STAVKA that the revolting Slovak Army would under the guise of cooperating with their Nazi overlords prepare for the Soviet Red Army an easy entry into Slovakia through the Carpathian Mountains while simultaneously commencing the Slovak uprising.
Over the previous six to twelve months, the French, Americans, and Soviets promised assistance and participation in the planned Slovak uprising. As a matter of fact, the Soviets were fervently pushing the revolutionary Slovak leadership to accelerate the commencement of the uprising in mid summer 1944.
Against General Golian’s expressed complaints, Soviet partisan activities in northeastern Slovakia were deliberately prematurely agitating German military positions and drawing Hitler's attention to a possible uprising. Several divisions of the German Wehrmacht and SS were mobilized from Southern Poland to disarm any possible resisting Slovak units. Tens of thousands of Slovak revolutionary army regulars, armed and ready to fight, were quickly disarmed in northeastern Slovakia before a single shot of the uprising was fired.
Organized as hurriedly as possible, the Slovak National Uprising prematurely exploded on August 29, 1944, and Captain Peter Vlčko made certain he was among the participants. The Nazi-loyal fascist leadership in Bratislava quickly got wind of the uprising and called for immediate deployment of several German SS Panzer divisions to crush it. The Soviet resolve to provide manpower support for the uprising was quickly marred by confusion and conflicting agendas between the revolutionary Slovak Army and the independently-operating Soviet-led partisans.
Evidence suggests the Soviets deliberately disengaged from sending troops to support the uprising for future political aspirations in Czechoslovakia (see The Soviet Union's Role in the Slovak National Uprising). Nonetheless, the Soviets did manage, along with the valiant effort of the American Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the CIA), to airlift thousands of tons of equipment to the Slovak revolutionaries. Unfortunately, most of it was light arms and was confiscated by Soviet-led partisans. Eighteen thousand partisans from countries all over the globe fought along with what began as some 60,000 Slovak regular army soldiers. It was the largest anti-Nazi military operation during the Second World War that was independent of the Allied forces.
On August 30, 1944, Captain Vlčko and his two divisions were arrested in Prešov (eastern Slovakia) and disarmed by German SS Panzer troops. The following day, he managed to escape from captivity and liberate his orderly. They jumped aboard a cargo transport train and made their way to the headquarters of the revolutionary Slovak Army in Banská Bystrica (central Slovakia).
In Banská Bystrica, General Golian commissioned Captain Vlčko Chief of Staff of the Fourth Battalion (Muráň) and commanded him to help defend the Nitra Valley, including the cities of Handlova, Prievidza, Kremnica, and Banská Bystrica in central Slovakia, against the rapidly advancing German SS Panzer divisions. It was during this time that Captain Vlčko and a platoon of soldiers under his command attacked a hilltop nest of SS machine gun posts. Under heavy fire, the platoon abandoned him and his subordinate NCO leaving the two to capture the machine gun nest. After their success, Captain Vlčko ordered the arrest of the mutinous members of the platoon and forced them to face a firing squad for execution.
Unfortunately for Captain Vlčko and the entire revolutionary Slovak Army, the veteran elite German SS divisions were too strong and the uprising met overwhelming resistance. No foreign powers came to their rescue. Several foreign military advisers caught in the cross-fire, including Americans, were hunted, captured and executed. Facing near encirclement and to avoid complete decimation, Captain Vlčko executed an order from General Golian for his troops to abandon their positions and retreat to the Tatra Mountains for guerrilla warfare. During their escape, a German sniper shot at and missed Captain Vlčko and his orderly three times. Heavy casualties were suffered by the revolting Slovak Army.
During the campaign, General Golian promoted Captain Vlčko to the rank of Major for his bravery in the field while under fire. Dressed as a shoe maker under the name of Pavel Kunitz and attempting to board a passenger train in Ružomberok (north-central Slovakia), Major Vlčko was arrested by German military police on October 30, 1944. He was subjected to several days of brutal interrogation by the German Gestapo because he was suspected of being a Russian spy. Fluent in German, Major Vlčko narrowly evaded certain execution by persuading his captors he was a common shoe maker and strongly supported the Nazi cause. He was released and issued an official travel pass.
Unfortunately, by November 1944, the Slovak National Uprising was completely crushed. General Golian, General Viest, and several other military participants in the uprising were captured, transported to the German prison Mauthausen in Austria, tortured and summarily executed by direct order of Hitler. Major Vlčko managed to avoid capture and remained in hiding with his wife, Georgina, and five-month old son, Miroslav. In March 1945, Major Vlčko crossed the German-Russian front and slipped into the eastern city of Košíce, the new seat of the deposed democratic Czechoslovak government where President Dr. Edvard Beneš now operated.
The London-exiled democratic Czechoslovak government under President Beneš and military leaders of the uprising in Slovakia tried to convince Stalin and the Soviet STAVKA that the revolting Slovak Army would under the guise of cooperating with their Nazi overlords prepare for the Soviet Red Army an easy entry into Slovakia through the Carpathian Mountains while simultaneously commencing the Slovak uprising.
Over the previous six to twelve months, the French, Americans, and Soviets promised assistance and participation in the planned Slovak uprising. As a matter of fact, the Soviets were fervently pushing the revolutionary Slovak leadership to accelerate the commencement of the uprising in mid summer 1944.
Against General Golian’s expressed complaints, Soviet partisan activities in northeastern Slovakia were deliberately prematurely agitating German military positions and drawing Hitler's attention to a possible uprising. Several divisions of the German Wehrmacht and SS were mobilized from Southern Poland to disarm any possible resisting Slovak units. Tens of thousands of Slovak revolutionary army regulars, armed and ready to fight, were quickly disarmed in northeastern Slovakia before a single shot of the uprising was fired.
Organized as hurriedly as possible, the Slovak National Uprising prematurely exploded on August 29, 1944, and Captain Peter Vlčko made certain he was among the participants. The Nazi-loyal fascist leadership in Bratislava quickly got wind of the uprising and called for immediate deployment of several German SS Panzer divisions to crush it. The Soviet resolve to provide manpower support for the uprising was quickly marred by confusion and conflicting agendas between the revolutionary Slovak Army and the independently-operating Soviet-led partisans.
Evidence suggests the Soviets deliberately disengaged from sending troops to support the uprising for future political aspirations in Czechoslovakia (see The Soviet Union's Role in the Slovak National Uprising). Nonetheless, the Soviets did manage, along with the valiant effort of the American Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the CIA), to airlift thousands of tons of equipment to the Slovak revolutionaries. Unfortunately, most of it was light arms and was confiscated by Soviet-led partisans. Eighteen thousand partisans from countries all over the globe fought along with what began as some 60,000 Slovak regular army soldiers. It was the largest anti-Nazi military operation during the Second World War that was independent of the Allied forces.
On August 30, 1944, Captain Vlčko and his two divisions were arrested in Prešov (eastern Slovakia) and disarmed by German SS Panzer troops. The following day, he managed to escape from captivity and liberate his orderly. They jumped aboard a cargo transport train and made their way to the headquarters of the revolutionary Slovak Army in Banská Bystrica (central Slovakia).
In Banská Bystrica, General Golian commissioned Captain Vlčko Chief of Staff of the Fourth Battalion (Muráň) and commanded him to help defend the Nitra Valley, including the cities of Handlova, Prievidza, Kremnica, and Banská Bystrica in central Slovakia, against the rapidly advancing German SS Panzer divisions. It was during this time that Captain Vlčko and a platoon of soldiers under his command attacked a hilltop nest of SS machine gun posts. Under heavy fire, the platoon abandoned him and his subordinate NCO leaving the two to capture the machine gun nest. After their success, Captain Vlčko ordered the arrest of the mutinous members of the platoon and forced them to face a firing squad for execution.
Unfortunately for Captain Vlčko and the entire revolutionary Slovak Army, the veteran elite German SS divisions were too strong and the uprising met overwhelming resistance. No foreign powers came to their rescue. Several foreign military advisers caught in the cross-fire, including Americans, were hunted, captured and executed. Facing near encirclement and to avoid complete decimation, Captain Vlčko executed an order from General Golian for his troops to abandon their positions and retreat to the Tatra Mountains for guerrilla warfare. During their escape, a German sniper shot at and missed Captain Vlčko and his orderly three times. Heavy casualties were suffered by the revolting Slovak Army.
During the campaign, General Golian promoted Captain Vlčko to the rank of Major for his bravery in the field while under fire. Dressed as a shoe maker under the name of Pavel Kunitz and attempting to board a passenger train in Ružomberok (north-central Slovakia), Major Vlčko was arrested by German military police on October 30, 1944. He was subjected to several days of brutal interrogation by the German Gestapo because he was suspected of being a Russian spy. Fluent in German, Major Vlčko narrowly evaded certain execution by persuading his captors he was a common shoe maker and strongly supported the Nazi cause. He was released and issued an official travel pass.
Unfortunately, by November 1944, the Slovak National Uprising was completely crushed. General Golian, General Viest, and several other military participants in the uprising were captured, transported to the German prison Mauthausen in Austria, tortured and summarily executed by direct order of Hitler. Major Vlčko managed to avoid capture and remained in hiding with his wife, Georgina, and five-month old son, Miroslav. In March 1945, Major Vlčko crossed the German-Russian front and slipped into the eastern city of Košíce, the new seat of the deposed democratic Czechoslovak government where President Dr. Edvard Beneš now operated.
Major Vlčko was assigned by General Ludvik Svodoba to the Military Office of the deposed President of the Republic temporarily seated in the eastern Slovak city of Košíce. There, he frequently met with high-ranking diplomatic staff from Moscow regarding the liberation of Czechoslovakia by advancing troops from Russia.
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In June 1945, Major Vlčko was assigned Deputy Chief of Personnel in the Ministry of Defense in Prague (the capital of the liberated, restored, and free Czechoslovak Republic). Vlčko's office resided in the capital’s 13th-century castle fortification (Hradčany) immediately next to the office of Czechoslovak President Beneš. There, shortly after the conclusion of the war, Major Vlčko assisted President Beneš honor Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower in a medal ceremony. General Eisenhower received the Order of the White Lion and other medals. In November 1945, Peter and his wife, Georgina, had a second son, Vladimír Josef.
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Upon defeat of the Nazi occupiers, the fascist regime in Bratislava under puppet Slovak President Jozef Tiso quickly collapsed. Tiso and his fellow cronies were arrested in Austria by the Americans, transported back to Bratislava and tried by the Czechoslovak National Tribunal in 1947. They were all found guilty and many were executed by hanging while others were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
In 1947, Vlčko was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned Chief of American Section, 2nd Military Intelligence Division of the General Staff. There, he learned to speak English and was being groomed for the position of military attaché to Washington, D.C. |
In February 1948, it was becoming increasingly evident Soviet Communist influences were strangling the fledgling Czechoslovak democratic establishment. In a classic Soviet-styled putsch, Soviet tanks entered Czechoslovakia and the local communists took control of the government, ousted President Beneš and installed Moscow-trained Klement Gottwald as the new President. All officers had to swear allegiance to Moscow or face court-martial, public humiliation, imprisonment, a life of poverty, and even death.
On June 15, 1948, while volunteering for a border brigade assignment, unbeknownst to his wife and family, Peter escaped across the southwestern border into Haidmühle, Bavaria. He made his way through the Bavarian Forest and 486 km to a displaced persons camp in the United States Occupation Zone in Ludwigsburg, West Germany.
On June 15, 1948, while volunteering for a border brigade assignment, unbeknownst to his wife and family, Peter escaped across the southwestern border into Haidmühle, Bavaria. He made his way through the Bavarian Forest and 486 km to a displaced persons camp in the United States Occupation Zone in Ludwigsburg, West Germany.
One year later, and after several attempts to extricate her and Mirko from Communist Czechoslovakia, Georgina and their two sons made an equally daring escape to the West. Finally, after much struggle and uncertainty with the American authorities (Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organization [PCIRO]), he was reunited with his wife, Georgina, and two sons on August 15, 1949. On November 9, 1949, Peter, Georgina, Miroslav, and Vladimír arrived in New York harbor after a long transoceanic voyage.
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The family struggled to carve out an existence in their new, free homeland. Peter returned to college to obtain a degree as a draftsman and went to work for Ford Motor Company as a testing design engineer. In 1973, after seven long years of writing, Peter published his 860-page memoir, In the Shadow of Tyranny. He crossed the United States and Canada on the lecture circuit speaking about the ills of Communism, Fascism, and anti-Semitism and always longed for a free Democratic Czechoslovakia.
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In 1981, Peter Vlčko was honored by the state of Israel and Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem as Righteous Among the Nations. A tree was planted with a plaque in his honor on the Avenue of the Righteous at the Yad Vashem Memorial on a hilltop overlooking Jerusalem. During a state-sponsored trip to Israel, Peter Vlčko was also honored by the Mayor of Tel Aviv with the city’s bronze medal.
In 1989, the Czechoslovak Ministry of Defense promoted Peter Vlčko to the rank of Colonel, in retirement. In 1991, Peter and Georgina regained their Czechoslovak citizenship. In November 1991, the State of Israel through the Knesset awarded Peter Israeli citizenship and lifetime pension in Israel. Peter’s name is engraved next to the name of Oscar Schindler in a large granite relief in the Garden of the Righteous at the Holocaust Museum in Farmington, Michigan. |
In January 1993, Peter Vlčko’s dream came true when Slovakia gained its independence as a free and democratic state for the first time in more than 1,000 years. In August 1994, Colonel Vlčko was invited as guest of the first Slovak President Michal Kováč to the 50th anniversary ceremony of the Slovak National Uprising and to honor Vlčko’s activities during the war. During that ceremony in the Bratislava Castle he was promoted to the rank of Major General of the Slovak Army, in retirement.
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He and his wife were granted Slovak citizenship in 1998 after laws were passed by the Slovak Parliament permitting dual citizenship with the United States for expatriate Slovaks.
Peter was honored by the Czech President and Czech Minister of Defense. On numerous occasions Peter was the guest of honor of the Czech and Slovak Ambassadors to the United States in Washington, D.C. Peter has been the subject of several documentary interviews on radio, television, and in print. Furthermore, Peter received honors from the Wayne County Commissioner’s Office and the City of Lincoln Park for his wartime activities. In 1998, he and his wife were the subjects of a six-hour documentary by film producer and director Steven Spielberg of the Shoah Foundation. His and his wife’s story are eternally memorialized in Holocaust museums, and private and national museums throughout the world.
Peter was honored by the Czech President and Czech Minister of Defense. On numerous occasions Peter was the guest of honor of the Czech and Slovak Ambassadors to the United States in Washington, D.C. Peter has been the subject of several documentary interviews on radio, television, and in print. Furthermore, Peter received honors from the Wayne County Commissioner’s Office and the City of Lincoln Park for his wartime activities. In 1998, he and his wife were the subjects of a six-hour documentary by film producer and director Steven Spielberg of the Shoah Foundation. His and his wife’s story are eternally memorialized in Holocaust museums, and private and national museums throughout the world.
On 11 January 2004, at the age of 91-years Peter Vlčko quietly passed away while holding his wife’s hand and looking into her eyes. On 19 February 2004, the United States Congress honored Peter Vlčko and wrote about his life and contributions to humanity into its permanent record. On 9 September 2004, Peter Vlčko was buried with full military honors by the Slovak Ministry of Defense in the village of his birth, Brehy, Slovakia on a hillside overlooking the village and church where he grew up. Honorable Ronald Weiser, U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia, spoke at his funeral (see speech) and numerous dignitaries and military representatives from European countries were in attendance.
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