Museum of the Slovak National Uprising

Múzeum Slovenského národného povstania

In August 1944, the Slovak National Uprising was launched in central Slovak town of Banská Bystrica. Its aim was to overthrow the dictatorial regime of Jozef Tiso. Several monuments and a museum, established in the 1950s, commemorate the resistance fights.

History

The Slovak state, established in 1939, participated at Germany's side in the war against the Soviet Union. When the course of the war turned negative, the authoritarian regime of Jozef Tiso was met with widespread discontent among the population. In 1943, communists and anti-fascist forces set up a secret National Council. Though their political concepts about the future differed greatly, all of those involved strove for the re-establishment of Czechoslovakia. The National Council began preparing an uprising to overthrow the regime with the help of the Czechoslovak London-based government-in-exile, partisans and Soviet contact men. The strategic aim was to overthrow Tiso and to make way for the Red Army to cross the Carpathian mountains. Slovak general Jan Golian took on the task of organising a revolt in the army in central Slovakia around Banská Bystrica. When German troops entered Slovakia on August 29, 1944 in order to crush the partisan movement, Golian felt compelled to begin the uprising prematurely. About 18,000 mutinous soldiers fought against the invading German units. After broader mobilisation, there were as many as 47,000 soldiers fighting, joined by partisan groups. The government-in-exile proclaimed the insurgent troops part of the Czechoslovak army. The Germans, however, having summoned German troops from Hungary as reinforcements, were able to prevent the Slovak troops and the Soviet Army from joining forces in the Carpathian mountains. The surrounded insurgents continued fighting against the SS, the Wehrmacht and the Slovak Hlinka Guard for another two months. The uprising was defeated on October 27, 1944. German troops remained in the country until April 1945.

Banská Bystrica, 1944, View of the city centre during the Slovak National Uprising, Archív Múzea SNP

Banská Bystrica, 2004, Monument in the museum complex, Stiftung Denkmal

Victims

About 10,000 insurgent soldiers and partisans fell in the fight against the Wehrmacht and troops of the Slovak government. About 10,000 were taken captive and deported to concentration camps. German and Slovak units introduced harsh retaliation measures in the region following the suppression of the uprising. Many villages were annihilated, about 5,000 civilians, including many Jews, were murdered. Deportations of Slovak Jews – halted in 1942 – were resumed.

Following the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918, Slovakia and the Czech regions of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia merged to form Czechoslovakia. By spring 1939, Czechoslovakia had been broken up as the result of a number of campaigns by neighbouring Nazi Germany. In autumn 1938 Slovakia became an autonomous state with a government of its own but lost border territories to Hungary at around the same time. In March 1939 it declared independence and became a satellite state of the Third Reich led by the nationalist Hlinka party and President Jozef Tiso (1887–1947), a Catholic priest. The military arm of the party served as the police force and took action against Jews, Czechs, the political left and other opponents. The regime introduced a forced labour system that also affected many Roma. In autumn 1941, the government in Bratislava became the first Nazi-allied administration to vote in favour of the German plan to deport Jews to Eastern Europe. In 1942 alone 60,000 Jews were deported from Slovakia to German extermination camps. A total of around 75,000 Slovakian Jews died in the Holocaust. The imminent arrival of the Red Army led to a national rebellion against the regime of the Hlinka party in the late summer of 1944. The German army and SS units crushed this rebellion, with the loss of some 20,000 lives. After the war Slovakia again became part of Czechoslovakia, which was a communist state from 1948. The national rebellion was the main feature of collective memory. It was depicted as an act of resistance that had allowed a socialist society to emerge. In 1947 a site of memory was established at Banská Bystrica, which had been at the centre of the national rebellion. The site was extended on a number of occasions. Responsibility for collaboration with Germany was attributed solely to supporters of the Hlinka party. 1993 saw the Czech and Slovak parts of the country split into two separate republics. Slovakia had no state tradition of its own beyond the period 1939 to 1945. This is apparent in the culture of remembrance in the country today. Both socialists and civilian forces now refer to the Slovakian national rebellion. They associate it with the hope for a democratic state based on western values, a hope that was bitterly disappointed after 1948. Nationalist groups in Slovakia pursue a different approach. They identify themselves with the state’s independence from 1939–1945, view the rebellion that led to the occupation of the country as a betrayal and honour Tiso. These groups are unwilling to remember the deported Jews. Some view Slovakian collaboration as the result of having to relent to pressure from Germany to avoid endangering the country. Liberal intellectuals aim to defuse these tendencies, referring to Slovakian involvement in the deportations and the persecution of the Roma. Small plaques to the persecuted and murdered Jews have been put up at a number of locations since the 1990s. However, some of these are in the region occupied by Hungary after 1938, from which German SS units deported Jews following the invasion of the Wehrmacht in March 1944. The most important site of memory to the Jews deported from Slovakia is the Holocaust Museum which was opened on the premises of the former forced labour and transit camp Sered’ in 2016.

Remembrance

Already in 1947, an institute for research on the Slovak National Uprising was set up in Banská Bystrica. In 1955, the institute established a museum which was at first housed in the local town hall. The museum moved to a new monumental museum complex in 1969. Until today, this building is home to the museum's collection on the uprising, war equipment and a monument. Under communist rule, the museum underlined the role Czechoslovak communists played in the uprising as well as help provided by the Soviet Union. Since the end of the communist dictatorship, the museum has also dealt with other topics such as, apart from the Slovak National Uprising, the life of Slovak society between 1938 and 1945 and the Holocaust in Slovakia.

Banská Bystrica, 2004, Memorial wall to the victims of National Socialism at the museum, Múzeum SNP

Banská Bystrica, 2004, View of the exhibition, Múzeum SNP

Possibilities

Permanent exhibition, library, educational projects, newsletter, publications and monographs

Open

May to September: 9.00 a.m.-6.00 p.m.
October to April: 9.00 a.m.-4.00 p.m.

Contact

http://www.muzeumsnp.sk

muzeumsnp@muzeumsnp.sk

+421 (0)48 245 1124

Kapitulská 23
975 59 Banská Bystrica

Banská Bystrica, 2004, Arms display on the museum grounds, Múzeum SNP

Banská Bystrica 2004, The museum building from 1969, Stiftung Denkmal

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