A moment of silence was observed on Monday in memory of the 331 soldiers and prisoners of war of nine ethnic groups who died in World War I and are buried in the military cemetery in the Bratislava borough of Petržalka, the TASR newswire reported.
The soldiers laid to rest at the cemetery near the Slovak-Austrian border fought for both sides in the conflict. In addition to speeches by Catholic priest Peter Mášik and Evangelical priest Vladimír Kmošena, an address was given by the Czech Republic's Military Attaché to Slovakia Major General Jiří Jančík.
"When you come to a cemetery you always realise how short our lives are," he told TASR. "The lives of the soldiers who were buried here were even shorter. They usually died young; they could have lived longer had it not been for war," he noted. Among others attending the ceremony were the candidate for the post of Bratislava mayor, Magdalena Vášáryová, and Bratislava regional governor Pavol Frešo.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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