Kľak ( hu, Madarasalja) is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the

Žarnovica District Žarnovica District () is a district in the Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia. Until 1918, the district was mostly part of the county of Kingdom of Hungary of Tekov, only a part of Hodruša-Hámre, namely Banská Hodruša in the east ...

Banská Bystrica Region The Banská Bystrica Region ( sk, Banskobystrický kraj, ; hu, Besztercebányai kerület, ) is one of the eight regions of Slovakia. It is the largest region by area, and has a lower population density than any other region. The Banská Bystric ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

History

On January 21, 1945 the village was burned by

Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...

anti-partisan unit

Edelweiss EDELWEISS (Expérience pour DEtecter Les WIMPs En Site Souterrain) is a dark matter search experiment located at the Modane Underground Laboratory in France. The experiment uses cryogenic detectors, measuring both the phonon and ionization signal ...

with help of

Heimatschutz ''Heimatschutz'' is a German word that literally translated means 'homeland protection'. The ''Heimatschutz'' movement arose in the late 19th century in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and had a focus on nature and landscape conservation as ...

unit. There were 84 inhabitants of the village killed (including 36 children), and all of 132 houses and buildings were destroyed. Numerous victims were burned alive in their own houses. Nazi soldiers raided the village and expelled the rest of the inhabitants from the village, they also shot all of the cattle. Considering the method of accomplishment, not the number of casualties, this was one of the most brutal war crimes committed on the Slovak territory during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Genealogical resources

The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Statny Archiv in Banska Bystrica, Nitra, Slovakia" * Roman Catholic church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1759-1920 (parish A)

References

Villages and municipalities in Žarnovica District {{BanskáBystrica-geo-stub

History

Genealogical resources

See also

References