• Memorial Plaque to the Victims of the Nováky Forced Labour and Concentration Camp
A memorial plaque at the entrance of the former forced labour and transit camp Nováky honours the fate of the Jewish prisoners who were incarcerated there.
Image: Nováky, 1942, Guard in fornt of the work camp, Múzeum SNP
Nováky, 1942, Guard in fornt of the work camp, Múzeum SNP

Image: Nováky, 2004, Memorial plaque at Nováky station, Stiftung Denkmal
Nováky, 2004, Memorial plaque at Nováky station, Stiftung Denkmal
Next to Sered’ and Vyhne, Nováky was one of the most important forced labour camps for Jews run by Slovak authorities, which were at the time closely allied with the German Reich. The camp was located just outside of the small town of Nováky, about 50 km to the west of Banská Bystrica. It was established at the end of 1941 after the Slovak government had decreed a system of forced labour for Jews. From the spring of 1942 on, when the Slovak authorities began mass deportations, the camp was used both as a point of departure and as a transit camp for the deportation of Slovak Jews to ghettos and concentration camps in occupied Poland. The camp was guarded by members of the Hlinka Guard.
After the deportations came to a temporary halt in 1942, the Nováky camp continued to exist as a forced labour camp. With 1,600 prisoners, most of them skilled workers, it was the largest camp in Slovakia. In 1943, the living conditions in the camp improved. Leisure activities and cultural events were permitted; at the same time, a resistance movement began to form.
The camp was liberated during the Slovak National Uprising ─ which was launched in the nearby town of Banská Bystrica ─ in August 1944. Over 200 Jewish prisoners joined forces with the insurgents; 35 of them died in action.
Image: Nováky, 1942, Guard in fornt of the work camp, Múzeum SNP
Nováky, 1942, Guard in fornt of the work camp, Múzeum SNP

Image: Nováky, 2004, Memorial plaque at Nováky station, Stiftung Denkmal
Nováky, 2004, Memorial plaque at Nováky station, Stiftung Denkmal
Slovak authorities deported about 5,000 Jews from Nováky to occupied Poland. Most of them were murdered by the SS in extermination camps.
Image: Nováky, 1942/1943, Jewish forced labourers during a meal, Múzeum SNP
Nováky, 1942/1943, Jewish forced labourers during a meal, Múzeum SNP

The camp continued to be operated after the war. Members of Tiso's regime and collaborators were held captive here, and many German civilians were interned here before being expelled to Germany. In 1948, the communists took power in Czechoslovakia; between 1948 and 1952, political opponents of the Stalinist Regime had to conduct forced labour at Nováky. The barracks were torn down in the 1960s. In 1998, a memorial plaque in honour of the Jewish victims was set up at the Nováky railway station from which the deportation trains departed to Poland.
Image: Nováky, 2012, Memorial plaque at the train station, Stiftung Denkmal
Nováky, 2012, Memorial plaque at the train station, Stiftung Denkmal

Image: Nováky, 2012, Memorial plaque at the train station, Stiftung Denkmal
Nováky, 2012, Memorial plaque at the train station, Stiftung Denkmal
Name
Pamätník pro obetí pracovného a koncentračního tábora Nováky
Phone
+421 2 59 34 91 42
Fax
+421 2 59 34 91 45
Web
http://www.muzeum.sk/?obj=muzeum&ix=mzk_snm
E-Mail
mzk@snm.sk
Open
The memorial plaque is accessible at all times.