Kremnička [German: Altkremmnitz] is part of the city of Banská Bystrica in central Slovakia, lying 207 kilometres northeast of Bratislava. It belonged to the territory of the Slovak State during World War II. After the suppression of the Slovak National Uprising in October 1944, it became the scene of several massacres. Banská Bystrica was the headquarters of Einsatzkommando 14 of Einsatzgruppe H, led by Kurt Herbert Deffner (1916–1945),1Archive of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising, Fond IX, Box No. 6, No. S2/78. Deffner has been missing in the Nitra area since 3 April 1945, see https://www.volksbund.de/erinnern-gedenken/graebersuche-online/detail/6ab4521c09016fb79c3ec369f96bc7cb [accessed on 12 November 2024]. which had been relocated there after the German occupation of the area. Mass shootings took place there between 5 November 1944 and 17 March 1945.
The Events
The mass murder with the largest number of victims took place near Banská Bystrica. Tank trenches were chosen as the place of execution, to which prisoners from the Banská Bystrica regional prison were brought in successive transports. At the beginning of November 1944, more than 2,000 people were concentrated in the prison, where they were cruelly mistreated by the German guards. The victims were transported by truck, bus or car to Kremnička and the surrounding area. They were then driven to the tank trenches and killed with a shot to the back of the head; those who were still moving were shot again. The murders usually took place in the early hours of the morning, with the perpetrators generally attempting to burn the victims’ clothing and personal belongings.2Archive of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising, Fond IX, Box No. 5, No. 104/65.
The Einsatzkommando 14 worked together with the 5th Field Company of the Hlinka Guard under the leadership of Jozef Nemsila (1913–1997). On 20 November 1944, members of the 5th Field Company of the Hlinka Guard took part in the shootings.3Hurboň,5. Poľná rota Hlinkovej gardy, 41–43. On that day alone, at least 47 Roma from the Banská Bystrica and Krupina areas were murdered in Kremnička.4Baranová, Pred bránami pekla, 37–40. A further 109 Roma from the village of Ilija in the district of Banská Štiavnica were also deported to Kremnička and killed there. Among those detained were 21 women and 69 children. The only survivor of the raid in Ilija was Mária Kalajová, as she was outside the settlement with her child at the time.5Nečas, “Pronásledovaní Cikánů v období slovenského státu”, 44; Nečas, Českoslovenští Romové v letech 1938–1945, 162. The dates of birth and death of Mária Kalajová and her child are not documented. According to the prison register of Banská Bystrica, a total of 747 victims were murdered in Kremnička, including more than 150 Roma.6Šindelářová, Einsatzgruppe H, 126; Baranová, Pred bránami pekla, 57; Mičev et.al., Fašistické represálie na Slovensku, 34.
Exhumation and Trials
The exhumation of the mass graves took place about a month after the end of the murders in April 1945. A total of 536 bodies were found in several mass graves, and some of them could be identified, including several Roma.7Archive of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising, Fond IX, Box No. 5, No. 104/65. A number of bodies remained in the mass graves.
The commander of Einsatzkommando 14, Kurt Herbert Deffner, was tried in absentia before a people’s court in 1946. The proceedings were discontinued on the grounds that he was a citizen of the German Reich awaiting extradition.8Šindelářová, Einsatzgruppe H, 284. From 1945 to 1947, a series of trials of members of the 5th Field Company of the Hlinka Guard were also held. The defendants received sentences ranging from several years’ imprisonment to acquittal, many of them notably lenient.
In 1958, the trials were reopened. Twelve former members of the company were sentenced to death or long prison terms. However, their former commander, Jozef Nemsila, escaped punishment because he managed to flee to Canada.9Hruboň,5. Poľná rota Hlinkovej gardy, 51–56. The most important testimony in both trials, which was decisive for the convictions, came from Jewish survivor Alexander Breuer (1927–2012).10Breuer, Vojak č. 151, 35–36.
Memorial
Today, a memorial to the ‘Victims of Fascism’ commemorates the people who were murdered in Kremnička. It was erected in 1949 on the site of the crime, based on a design by the famous Slovak architect Dušan Jurkovič (1868–1947), and was declared a national cultural monument in 1963. In 1995, a memorial in the form of a menorah was added to commemorate the murdered Jews.11Memorial to the Victims of Fascism in Kremnička. To this day, Roma are not explicitly mentioned as a victim group.
