The Red Army advanced westwards at the beginning of 1945, which also led to the gradual liberation of the individual concentration camps. In their retreat, the Germans adopted a scorched-earth tactic and began the gradual liquidation and evacuation of the concentration camps.
They tried to get rid of as much evidence as possible - they blew up gas chambers, crematoria, dismantled the camps' barracks, filled in ash pits with the ashes of burnt bodies and destroyed written records. At the same time, the Nazis tried to kill as many prisoners as possible until the Allied troops arrived. Those they did not manage to kill were herded on so-called death marches.
From the labour concentration camp in Petržalka, Bratislava, the last 1,000 prisoners were forced to march towards the Mauthausen extermination camp on Maundy Thursday, 29 March 1945. Those who could not make it were murdered on the spot by the guards. According to witnesses, the road around today's Matadorka was littered with corpses at the time. Few of them lived to see the liberation of the camp by the American army on 3 May.
According to witnesses, the road around today's Matadorka was littered with corpses at the time.
My husband asked this one boy (...) and gave him a letter for me. "Hold on, you are so strong, you must come back, because I will be waiting for you." And finally I came back, I waited and he didn't come. He was killed 24 hours before the American army liberated those prisoners. (...) Eventually there were some witnesses who said they were on that hunger march. And they were barely dragging themselves, whoever couldn't go on was shot on the spot. And they were still dragging and they were barely standing. And one of the three Moravians, that is my husband, said: "We won't get any further anyway. Why should we wait? Let's sit down." And so they were thinking, and then the man says to the cousin, "Well, I have no reason to go back, because my wife was deported with a one-year-old infant and a four-year-old daughter, so they're guaranteed not to live anymore." And my husband says, "You're right, my wife was pregnant." And so the three of them sat there and got shot. And exactly 24 hours later, the Americans caught up with them. If they had gone on one more day...
It lasted until January 19, 1945. The news came that the camp was going to be evacuated. (...) On January 19, our march began, which was later called the Death March. It was very cold. We were lightly dressed. We had only trousers and a long shirt. (...) My brother and I always stayed at the front. In the second and third row. Two kids between the adults. The adults around us were desperate, but we decided to go through with it! When they separated us, Dad said: "After the war we will meet at 11 Šulekova Street in Bratislava. Everyone must come!" Our father's order gave us strength and gave us guts. We could not afford to give up. It must be said that the march showed our desire, our determination to survive. To stand back and get shot was much easier. After three days we reached the station in Gleiwitz. We hoped to meet my father there. It didn't happen. There they loaded us into iron wagons that were open from above. There was about a metre of snow in the wagon. We were hungry, wet and miserable. Then the train moved. You will never understand what we experienced there. If you haven't experienced it, you can't even believe it. You can't imagine how cold it is in January when you are wet, hungry, exhausted, scantily clad, and traveling at night on an open-top train. It's unbelievable.
Approximately 10,000 Jews were also saved thanks to the help of the Slovak population.
The non-Jews, the individuals who selflessly helped to the Jews, were themselves in great danger. The forms of assistance were various. Some priests issued false baptismal certificates, others rescued Jews by hiding them, providing them with food or hiding their hiding place.
Each year, non-Jews who helped Jews during the war are awarded the "Righteous Among the Nations" award. More than 27,000 people have been awarded the title, 570 of them from Slovakia.
The war ended on 9 May 1945 with the surrender of German troops. Returning the survivors home was a long-term process. Those who hid or joined the partisans got home earlier. Those who were in concentration camps were often very sick and malnourished, and it took several months before they were able to make the long journey.
Often on their return they found that much of their family had been murdered and that someone else had already lived in their houses.
Their return to their hometown, however, may not have been a happy event. Often on their return they found that much of their family had been murdered and that someone else had already lived in their houses. For those who participated in the destruction, theft and murder, the surviving Jews were a permanent reproach. At the same time, they feared that they would have to return to the Jews the possessions that had been stolen from them during the war years.
When Budapest was liberated on January 15, I went back to Slovakia. I arrived at my house and there was a guy who took over our shop and our house and all our things. And he looked at me and he said 'Are you still alive?' He was shocked because he was afraid that I would want him to give something back. (...) He wouldn't even let me go home. (...) I sold the house to my neighbours who had been polite to us during the war, I asked a Leica camera, a typewriter and a watch for it. And I was terribly glad to get rid of it. (...) But none of the family came back alive."
The first years after the war, moreover, were not a place of longed-for peace and tranquillity, but a period of incredible chaos and uncertainty. From today's perspective, we look back on this period as the beginning of a long peace in Europe, but the situation was not so clear then. In the Allied-occupied part of Europe alone, there were 8 million people who had been driven from their homes.
The worst physical attack, the so-called pogrom, took place in Topoľčany in September 1945.
Confusion and fear, compounded by food shortages, continued to stir up anti-Semitic sentiment in society, resulting in many anti-Jewish pogroms, physical attacks, in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.The worst physical attack, the so-called pogrom, took place in Topoľčany in September 1945. Before the war, approximately one third of the population of Topoľčany was Jewish. A rumour that a Jewish doctor was inoculating Christian children with poison became a trigger in the tense social situation. People beat the doctor savagely and a hunt for Jews broke out throughout the town. Police and soldiers were often called in to join the frenzied crowd. Fifteen people were seriously injured, dozens lightly. In all, there were 14 anti-Jewish attacks in Slovakia after the war.
Roma men and women have long been victims of persecution and mass murder. Between 1936 and 1945, the Nazis exterminated more than half of Europe's Roma, with estimates ranging from 220,000 to 1,500,000. Slovak Roma faced discrimination and harsh treatment.
They were driven away from their villages to remote plots of land in what we now know as settlements. Later, they were placed in labour camps, hundreds of them were murdered in mass executions. Their deportation from Slovakia did not materialise. Towards the end of the war, the Roma were also targeted for their active role among the partisans.
The situation after the end of the war was not favourable for LGBT people either. In the concentration camps, mainly men were imprisoned because of their homosexual orientation; female homosexuality was not criminalised. Nazi Germany imprisoned between 5,000 and 15,000 thousand homosexuals in concentration camps, but the true number will probably never be known.
The liberation of the concentration camps in 1945 and the defeat of Nazism did not necessarily mean the desired liberation, because male homosexuality was a criminal offence even after the defeat of Nazism. Many of the LGBT prisoners remained in prison after the war. Homosexuality was decriminalized in Czechoslovakia in 1961, in England in 1967, and in some U.S. states as recently as 2003.
all chapters
Remembering the HolocaustHungary
Return and emigrationHungary
LMBTQHungary
History of the HolocaustHungary
Fascist ideologyHungary
The HolocaustHungary
The HolocaustSlovakia
Slovak StateSlovakia
IdeologySlovakia
PersecutionSlovakia
AntisemitismSlovakia
AryanisationSlovakia
PorajmosSlovakia
PorajmosHungary
LGBT minoritySlovakia
First transportSlovakia
DeportationsSlovakia
Life in the campSlovakia
Slovak National UprisingSlovakia
HomecomingSlovakia
EmigrationSlovakia
