At the beginning of the war in 1939, a time when Nazi Germany was thriving in its expansionist foreign policy, Slovak society did not see too many risks in allying with Hitler. Compared to other European countries, Slovakia did not experience direct fighting and its territory was relatively calm. This security of the population (but not of the ruling HSĽS) was gradually eroded from 1943 onwards.
The defeat of Hitler in the USSR and the overthrow of Mussolini's fascist regime in Italy signalled a change in political developments in Europe. Slovak soldiers increasingly ran to the other side and more and more resistance groups were formed, in which not only communists and Jews were active, but also social democrats, agrarians (political party of the first Czechoslovak republic), Czechs, Roma, evangelicals and even Catholics.
So I joined the 9th Liptov partisan detachment, where there were five Jews with me. I will never forget that moment. Years later, I became free and equal again. I was given, rifle in hand, into a society that accepted me as a human being, and moreover, I could fight against those who had imprisoned me and my family. That was an overwhelming feeling. In Vitálišovce near Liptovský Mikuláš, two of our boys in civilian clothes caught a German SS member and brought him to our unit in the Žiarska valley. After interrogation, it was found out that he was an SS man, and that he was, moreover, a guard in the concentration camp in Dachau. It is hard to understand today, but the rule among the partisans was that they did not take prisoners with them. Especially in a detachment with a Soviet commander like ours. The war sentence was clear. Execution.
The political commissar of our detachment designated himself, me and one other Jew as the three members of the firing squad. Apparently he considered it some sort of gesture of satisfaction. We took that SS man out of the hut where we were holding him and stripped him of his uniform, because we needed it. It was clear to him what was going to happen. He stood outside, just like that, in his underwear. Since I knew German, I tried to explain to him why he had to die. At that moment he showed himself to be a loyal Hitlerite. He told me that he had no regrets about what he had done, that he was proud to have been a guard at Dachau, and that the Jews had to be exterminated.
You know, he was maybe a twenty-five-year-old boy, victorious at what the Nazis were telling them as members of the elite units. When you see a defenceless man in front of you and you're ordered to shoot him, it's not easy. In combat, it's different. That's when you shoot and you don't actually know who you're going to hit. But when he showed himself like that, when he repeated how loyal he was to Hitler and how he had no regrets, the shot from my rifle went more easily.
At first I tried to justify the legitimacy of that shot by saying that it was an order. It was war, there was no other way out than to obey the order. But - after all, even the Nazis justified themselves by saying that they were just following orders. But I imagined what that man might have done as a guard at Dachau, where my brother might have perished. That helped me at least a little to come to terms with what I had done. But throughout my life it has remained as a thing I have to think about all the time.
However, the Third Reich's much better armed and organised forces managed to suppress the SNP. By the time the Uprising was declared, Rome and Paris had already been liberated, and people were convinced that the war was coming to an end. But there were still a few months to go before the liberation of Bratislava. In these not even 6 months Hitler had established terror in Slovakia. In the autumn of 1944, German troops occupied Slovakia and forcibly removed various goods and raw materials from the country. German troops further systematically destroyed local roads and means of transport, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
By the time the Uprising was declared, Rome and Paris had already been liberated, and people were convinced that the war was coming to an end.
While President Jozef Tiso thanked Hitler for the suppression of the SNP, deportations to concentration and extermination camps were resumed. All Jews were deported indiscriminately; the exemptions for economically important Jews granted in 1942 no longer played any role. In total, more than 13,000 people were deported. While the first stage of the deportations was organized by the representatives of the Slovak state, this one was directed by German troops and was accompanied by killings on the territory of Slovakia.
The difference between our first and second stay in Sereď was great. In 1942, we were in constant fear of being put on a transport. In October, when the transports stopped, the situation normalized. The transports did not leave, and it was like that until we escaped from the camp. The second period after the suppression of the uprising was terrible. There was no more work. Everything was set up so that we would all be murdered. There was great despair and the fear was stronger than at the time of the 'first Sereď'
During this period, however, the Nazis murdered everyone who joined the Uprising - not just the racially persecuted. Towns were raided and 95 Slovak villages were burned.
Along with the Nazis, members of the Emergency Troops of the Hlinka Guard executed the people.
The massacre in Kremnička became a symbol of the atrocities. The largest part of the victims in Kremnička were the inhabitants of Jewish origin, more than 450 of whom were found in mass graves. In addition to them, dozens of Slovak civilians suspected of involvement in the SNP were murdered there, as well as many Roma, rebel soldiers and partisans. Among the murdered were also several downed members of the British and American air forces and 58 children. Along with the Nazis, members of the Emergency Troops of the Hlinka Guard executed the people. After the war, 211 mass graves were exhumed in Slovakia, containing approximately 5,000 people.
Chaviva Reikova, a paratrooper who grew up in Banská Bystrica and emigrated to Palestine in 1939, was also executed in Kremnička. She returned to Slovakia to join the anti-fascist resistance. She was trained by the British in an elite group of paratroopers and was dropped in Slovakia in 1944 to rescue Allied pilots. She returned to Slovakia with the words, "I am returning to Europe as a mother throws herself into a burning house to get her children".
Although the Slovak National Uprising was militarily suppressed by the Nazi occupiers, the efforts that had to be made then, along with the movement of Nazi troops into Slovakia from other areas, were instrumental in the Allied victory. Also thanks to the SNP, after the war we were ranked among the victorious powers and did not have to pay war reparations.
You can find out more about the SNP on a virtual tour of the SNP Museum here or on the web https://oslobodenieslovenska.sk/
Among those seized were men, women and children, and also mothers who had their infants in swaddling clothes. Even as they began to put away their personal belongings, there was a great wailing among them and they began to cry out for help.
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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
