The village of Čierny Balog [German: Schwarzwasser] in the district of Brezno lies in central Slovakia, about four kilometres from Brezno, and belonged to the territory of the Slovak State during World War II. After the occupation of Čierny Balog by units of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS at the end of October 1944, armed operations against partisans took place. Members of the 18th Panzergrenadier Division ‘Horst Wessel’ of the Schutzstaffel (SS) captured about 40 Slovak soldiers who had participated in the Slovak National Uprising and handed them over to the Security Service and Security Police for execution.1Mičev et al., Fašistické represálie na Slovensku, 42. At the time of the crime, SS Brigadeführer Wilhelm Trabandt (1891–1968) was the commander of the Panzergrenadier Division.
Murder of Roma
In November 1944, members of the 18th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Horst Wessel’ once again carried out arrests and killings, this time targeting Roma. On 14 November 1944, near Čierny Balog, they rounded up a group of Vlach Roma who were fleeing from Neresnica near Zvolen towards the east and had stopped for a short rest.2Vodička, “‘Juden, Zigeunern und Hunden Zutritt verboten!‘”, 25; Mičev et al., Fašistické represálie na Slovensku, 42. According to witnesses, there were 120 people. On the same day, the women and children were taken to the Jegrovo Valley, where they were locked in a wooden hut and burned alive. The next day, the men were taken to the Vydrovo Valley and all shot to death.
In addition, the Romani settlement in Pustom was burned down.3Ibid. The SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Horst Wessel’ rounded up a total of 60 victims and murdered them.4Archive of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising, Banská Bystrica, Fond IX, Karton 5, No. 231/65.
Investigation
Between 10 and 14 June 1968, a Czechoslovakian commission of inquiry carried out an exhumation. It investigated two sites that were reported to be mass graves. In the first grave, it found the remains of 26 people, and in the second, it found the remains of 21 people. At the same time, witnesses to the crime were interviewed.
In September 1968, Kornel (also Cornel) Líška (1921–unknown) was arrested, and on 20 May 1969 he was charged before the District Court in Banska Bystrica with involvement in the murder of an unknown Czechoslovakian female partisan and the massacre of 80 civilians (including Roma) in the Slovakian towns of Čierny Balog, Vydrovo, Jergov and Dobroc. Líška, who had been granted Austrian citizenship after 1945, had been a member of the SS unit ‘Panzergrenadier Regiment Schill’. The proceedings were discontinued in early 1970.5Ruling of the Landgericht Wien [Vienna Regional Court], 27e VR 3878/70, copy in United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, RG-17 003M_05.
In 1969, a memorial was erected in the village of Vydrovo. The inscription reads: ‘On this spot, German fascists brutally murdered citizens of Gypsy origin on 14 November 1944. Honour their memory.’ On 15 July 1999, a memorial with the following inscription was unveiled in the settlement of Jergov: ‘The citizens of Čierny Balog dedicate themselves to the memory of the Roma citizens burned to death on 14 November 1944.’
