Ondrej Sobola


Ondrej Sobola was an Austro-Hungarian Army soldier. His death, in an unknown place during the First World War, inspired the Tree of Peace project.

Biography

Ondrej was born on August 7, 1880, in Lalinok into a farmer family. Sobola family have lived in Lalinok since about 1512. Ondrej was taken to the army in 1901. Ondrej and his older brother Štefan travelled to the United States in around 1906 and their place of residence was a borough Clifton Heights in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Ondrej returned to Lalinok between 1907–1910 and went back to the United States on November 30, 1910. Because of his stay in Pennsylvania he did not take part in the military manoeuvres in 1912. He definitely returned to Lalinok before 1914 and after the outbreak of the First World War he was enlisted in the 15th Military Infantry Regiment. Ondrej Sobola was missing since about 1915 on the Russian battlefield. In the Czechoslovakia, he was officially pronounced dead in 1930, with the official date of death: December 31, 1918. Ondrej's name was written on a Memorial dedicated to WWI victims from Lalinok village in a local cemetery on November 11, 2018. His portrait made by sculptor Michal Janiga is also incorporated on a Memorial. His name is on a Memorial pillar in the Emperor's park of Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl.
in Bad Ischl. At the front there is a Memorial Plaque of Ondrej Sobola

Tree of Peace

The Tree of Peace is an international project that originated in Slovakia. The project, created on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I, was initiated by landscape architect Marek Sobola, Ondrej's great-grandson. The grave of Ondrej has not been found after many years of historical searching in Military archives across Europe. The story like this was repeated millions of times during the WWI, WWII and also during the other global military conflicts. The story of his family inspired Sobola to memorialize the soldiers who died in WWI in unknown places without their names or identities. The main goal of the project was to promote a message of peace by planting "Trees of Peace" on every continent within 4 years.