Slovakia 1944: Biggest uprising against Hitler's regime

display

At the end of August 1944 a group of 22 German officers made a stop in Sv.

Martin in Slovakia.

The men came from Romania, where a few days earlier a coup d'état by the king had overthrown Marshal Ion Antonescu's regime, allied with Hitler.

At the station of Sv.

Martin saw the officers unexpectedly confronted with soldiers from Hitler's Slovak satellite regime, who disarmed them and took them prisoner.

The next morning the Germans were shot.

The massacre sparked an uprising that, within a few days, took hold of large parts of the so-called Slovak Republic, which had formed in 1939 as a split from Czechoslovakia occupied by Germany.

The Catholic priest Jozef Tiso established as “leader and president” a dictatorship based on the fascist model, which with Hungary, Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria belonged to the allies of the Third Reich and supported it in its war of annihilation against the Soviet Union.

As the Wehrmacht's wavering eastern front neared the Slovakian border in the summer of 1944, the bourgeois and socialist opposition intensified its preparations for an uprising.

Under the leadership of the so-called National Council, supply stores were set up and plans for a military approach were drawn up.

The decisive factor was that an entire army corps - 24,000 men with military equipment - joined the opposition.

display

The aim was to occupy the passes over the Beskids in the north-east of the country at the moment when the Soviet troops would have pushed the Wehrmacht back to the foot of the mountains.

At the same time, an uprising in the center of the country was supposed to bind the German defense until the Red Army had made a breakthrough.

The wrong day

The “Slovak National Uprising”, which broke out on August 29, had two important advantages over the uprising of the Polish Home Army in Warsaw.

For one, it relied on regular military units with proper logistics and equipment.

On the other hand, it was prepared in coordination with the Red Army and not - as in Poland - as a symbolic action against a future dominance of Stalin.

But August 29th was the wrong day.

For some time, German agencies in the country and loyal authorities of the Tiso government in Bratislava had registered the activities of the opposition and partisan groups.

Because the Wehrmacht expected problems with the Slovak army after their occupation of Hungary and Romania's change of side, “advance departments” had been formed near the border.

The execution of the 22 German officers in Sv.

Martin provoked their immediate intervention.

display

This was made possible because Army Group Northern Ukraine, after months of retreat fighting, profited from the exhaustion of the Red Army and was able to stabilize the front north of the Carpathian Mountains.

This eliminated a central calculation of the insurgents.

Within two days, the German reserves were able to disarm and intern the insurgent Slovak army corps.

The rapid success tempted SS General Gottlob Berger, who was tasked with suppressing the uprising in central Slovakia, to “solve the 'problem' with a few improvised combat groups in a kind of 'atonement' within a few days,” writes historian Klaus Schönherr.

Berger neither made an exact assessment of the situation nor did he ensure that a coherent front was built up.

On the other hand, the insurgents were brought in by numerous volunteers and partisans, who by mid-September managed to bring almost half of the country under their control.

Rift through society

“At that time there were numerous camps for prisoners of war in Slovakia.

When the uprising began, these camps were opened and many of the prisoners joined the uprising.

And fighters were flown in from the Soviet Union as well as from the West, some of whom landed on the insurgents' airfield and some of them jumped off with parachutes, ”says the historian Stanislav Micev, who heads the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising in the Banská Bystrica center of the uprising.

Up to 50,000 men finally fought on the side of the insurgents.

display

Only the change in the high command and the significant increase in the forces deployed turned the tide.

Only in mid-October did the offensive of several SS units, including the notorious Dirlewanger Brigade, lead to the collapse of the uprising.

On October 28, its leaders had to surrender, they later died in German concentration camps, the number of victims is estimated at up to 25,000.

Some of the rebels continued to fight partisans against the occupiers until the end of the war.

The whole ambivalence of the uprising only became part of official historiography after the turn of the year 1990: There were numerous attacks and even massacres against members of the German minority, although many Carpathian Germans also supported the uprising.

Parts of the Slovak authorities and troops in turn remained loyal to the Tiso regime.

The Germans, in turn, burned down over 100 Slovak villages and murdered their male population when the villagers were suspected of hiding insurgents.

"If our uprising in Germany is not as well known as the Warsaw uprising, that is our fault alone," says Stanislav Micev.

“We want to present it more in Germany, for example with an exhibition in Berlin in 2015.

Although it took place almost simultaneously with the Warsaw Uprising and more people fought and the liberated area was much larger, the Slovak National Uprising is an internationally largely forgotten uprising. "

Controversial to this day

In the present day Slovak Republic, August 29 is a national holiday.

Representatives from more than 30 countries will take part in the anniversary celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the uprising in Banská Bystrica on Friday.

Instead of Vladimir Putin, the Russian Defense Minister has announced himself.

The uprising is not entirely undisputed in the Slovak culture of remembrance.

In 1990 the Czech historian and colleague of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Anton Spiesz wrote: “Basically it was neither a Slovak nor a national uprising, which was not supported by the majority of the Slovak population, but only by a minority, namely communists, Czechoslovakists and People ... The bulk of the Slovak population stood behind the Slovak government and its President Jozef Tiso. "

Little has changed in the ambivalent interpretation.

In the regional capital of Banská Bystrica, of all places, the right-wing extremist Marián Kotleba has ruled as regional president since the elections in November 2013.

He worships the dictator Tiso at the time and describes insurgents and partisans as "bandits who fought against their own state".

This article was first published in 2014.