Jan Palovsky

	Slovakia's Oldest Living Man Titleholders (V • E)
	Stefan Novotny • Michal Kruzic • Anton Dobrota • Jozef Daniska • Rudolf Kosa • Jozef Lukovic • Juraj Gabura • Frantisek Bohacik • Jan Palovsky • Jozef Krizek • Frantisek Marek • Jan Slavik

	Jan Palovsky
	; Jan Palovsky at the age of 100
Birth:	29 September 1919; Rimavská Baňa, Banská Bystrica, Austria-Hungary (present-day Slovakia)
Death:	5 December 2022; Bratislava, Slovakia
Age:	103 years, 67 days
Country:	SVK
	Centenarian

Jan Palovsky (Slovakian: Ján Paľovský] (29 September 1919 – 5 December 2022) was a Slovakian centenarian who was the oldest known living man in Slovakia at the time of his death.

Biography[]

Jan Palovsky was born as Ján Pál into a peasant family in the village Rimavská Baňa, Banská Bystrica Region, Austria-Hungary (present-day Slovakia) on 29 September 1919. He completed five classes of the folk school in his native village, later he attended the eight-year high school in Rimavská Sobota. After graduating in May 1938, he applied to the Technical College in Košice. After the first Vienna Arbitration and the cession of southern Slovakia to Hungary, he was finally unable to enter the school in Košice.

He went to work in Tisovec as a postal assistant. He got a job at the post office easily, because most postmen enlisted. He became a student rather quickly and earned quite a lot of money for that time. Later, however, the Slovak state authorities called on all civil servants who had Hungarian-sounding names to change their names. Otherwise, they would lose their jobs. A family council was held at the Pálov family and they adopted the last name Paľovský.

Palovsky knew the French language, so in 1940 he came to Bratislava to the department of international relations at the Ministry of Transport, Posts, Telecommunications and Public Works, where he was in charge, among other things, of correspondence with Bern. At the same time, he started a five-month operational course to improve his qualifications. However, his career progress was stopped by the war. On 1 October 1941, he was taken to Turčianske Svätý Martin to the liaison battalion 11 to the radio company.

"After basic military training lasting half a year, he, along with six other soldiers, got eight weeks of training with German instructors. That way he was able to become an instructor for other enlisted soldiers myself," recalls Ján, who acted as a novice instructor for half a year.

Subsequently, he had to join the school of reserve officers for five months. After its completion, the aspirant received the title of deputy officer - after two years he became a lieutenant.

End of military training He completed his military training under German leadership in May 1943, when he was assigned to the Eastern Front. Specifically to the Crimea, where with a corps composed of Slovak, German and Romanian infantry divisions, he was supposed to defend the peninsula against the landing of allies from the Black Sea. In October 1943, however, the Soviet army broke through the front near Dnepropetrovsk, and the Slovak division was subsequently assigned various tasks and scattered.

After returning to his native village, he was appointed commander of the militia. They prevented people from being taken away or repaired a damaged railway line. In January 1945, the village of Rimavská Baňa was liberated. He became the government representative of the post office for the Rimavská Sobota district. He had 50 employees under him. In April 1945, he restored the postal connection between Košice and Rimavská Sobota. He deregistered from the army at the District Military Headquarters in Rimavská Sobota. In 1946, he became the youngest inspector in Košice, he was only 26 years old.

In 1948, however, there was a communist coup. If he wanted to become the deputy director of the post office in Rimavská Sobota, he had to join the KSS, where he finally sent an application. In 1952, during the release of fixed deposits, the original director of the post office committed embezzlement, and Paľovský was entrusted with managing the post office. He was the director of the post office in Rimavská Sobota until 1960, when it was reorganized. Later, he got to Banská Bystrica for the District Communications Administration (1963–1969). In the meantime, the monument took a refresher course in the Czech Republic - the pedagogical minimum and began teaching at a racing school and later also at secondary vocational schools.

In 1969, Paľovský became the director of the postal department at the Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications. However, after centralization measures, the ministry was abolished after two years. From 1971, he was the head of the communications department at the Central Directorate of Communications until his retirement in 1983. The fact that Ján Paľovský was still looking for work even after retirement is evidenced by the eleven years he worked at the exchange station of the Czechoslovak Television in Bratislava.

He became the oldest known living man in Slovakia, following the death of 104-year-old Frantisek Bohacik on 2 October 2021.

Palovsky died in Bratislava, Slovakia on 5 December 2022 at the age 103 years, 67 days.