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When on 29th August 1944 the uprising broke out, the Novaky camp commander wasn't Polhora any more, but his deputy officer, Gabcan. He was one immensely decent person. During his command, the conditions in Novaky greatly improved in all respects, and when the uprising broke out, we assembled in front of the gendarme headquarters in the camp, already along with our weapons. He came out, and addressed us in the following way, I can quote him exactly: 'Boys - he didn't say prisoners any longer - I knew that you had weapons, but that you had so many weapons, that I didn't know.' Well, and then he joined the uprising and fought on the side of the rebels. After the war I myself gave him a positive evaluation based on this, so I think that he even got an attestation regarding his participation in the uprising.
I was in the uprising as a partisan until the end of the war. The interesting thing is mainly that we were basically one compact Jewish unit with 250 members. It was an exclusively Jewish unit, made up of precisely those guys from Novaky. Right in the first days it was deployed at a strategically important place on the so-called Batovia front, right at the beginning. Most of the boys were holding a rifle in their hands for the first time in their lives. Before that they had only picks and shovels. Right in the first days we were resisting the German onslaught from the direction of Topolcany, on Prievidza, on Upper Nitra. The first twelve even fell there. At that time I was a platoon commander there. Our group took part in battles on several fronts. We were at the front at Turciansky Svaty Martin, then for five weeks in the Garderska Dolina [Gaderska Valley], then we were pushed back to Krizna, that was a mountain 1600 meters high. There our group was split up. The larger portion went with one Soviet unit. The second group, under my command, went back in the direction of Vtacnik, so to Upper Nitra. At Novaky this group of mine joined up with one Soviet partisan group. It continued on within this group until the end of the war.
I was in the uprising as a partisan until the end of the war. The interesting thing is mainly that we were basically one compact Jewish unit with 250 members. It was an exclusively Jewish unit, made up of precisely those guys from Novaky. Right in the first days it was deployed at a strategically important place on the so-called Batovia front, right at the beginning. Most of the boys were holding a rifle in their hands for the first time in their lives. Before that they had only picks and shovels. Right in the first days we were resisting the German onslaught from the direction of Topolcany, on Prievidza, on Upper Nitra. The first twelve even fell there. At that time I was a platoon commander there. Our group took part in battles on several fronts. We were at the front at Turciansky Svaty Martin, then for five weeks in the Garderska Dolina [Gaderska Valley], then we were pushed back to Krizna, that was a mountain 1600 meters high. There our group was split up. The larger portion went with one Soviet unit. The second group, under my command, went back in the direction of Vtacnik, so to Upper Nitra. At Novaky this group of mine joined up with one Soviet partisan group. It continued on within this group until the end of the war.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Alexander Bachnar