A monument and a documentation centre in the town of Nemecká, not far from Banská Bystrica, commemorate those killed in the aftermath of the suppression of the Slovak National Uprising.
The Slovak National Uprising began on August 29, 1944. Launched in the central Slovak town of Banská Bystrica, its aim was to overthrow the dictatorial regime of Jozef Tiso. Resistance fighters from within the Slovak army and partisans jointly fought both against the troops loyal to the regime and the advancing German Wehrmacht and SS units. The Uprising ended when the rebel forces were defeated on October 27, 1944. Between January 5 and 11, 1945, members of Einsatzkommando 14 (subordinate to SS-Einsatzgruppe H) and members of the Slovak Hlinka Guard conducted a series of mass shootings in the vicinity of Nemecká. They murdered up to 900 people at the local lime works. The victims had to kneel down in front of a burning lime kiln after which they were shot in the back of the neck. Their bodies were burned in the lime kilns and the ashes scattered into the Hron river. Members of the Einsatzkommando and the Hlinka Guard aimed their retaliation measures first and foremost against supporters of the uprising, partisans, Jews and Sinti and Roma.
The exact number of people murdered in Nemecká in the aftermath of the Slovak National Uprising can no longer be accurately established - historians estimate the number at between 500 and 900. It is known that there were at least 26 insurgents among those murdered, as well as 205 Jews, Sinti and Roma. Among the murdered resistance fighters were also Frenchmen, Americans, Soviet citizens and a Romanian woman. The Hlinka Guard and SS-Einsatzgruppen members murdered a total of about 5,300 people, including 1,000 Jews, after the suppression of the Slovak National Uprising.
A monument designed by Klára Pataki was unveiled in 1959. In 1962, a memorial centre on the Slovak National Uprising and the mass murder following its suppression was opened. The memorial site has been administered by the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising in Banská Bystrica since 2002.
- Name
- Pamätník SNP Nemecká
- Web
- http://www.muzeumsnp.sk
- muzeumsnp@muzeumsnp.sk
- Open
- The monument is accessible at all times.
Memorial centre: Tuesday to Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Possibilities
- Permanent exhibition, monument