World War II - page 2 - The Slovak Spectator

Canadian author recounts parents' experience with the Holocaust in Slovakia

THOUGH she was born in Toronto, Kathy Kacer regularly returns to Slovakia -- the place where her parents survived the Holocaust. Much more than that though, Kacer has turned their life stories into a series of books for children and taken to traveling the world debate the topics with young readers.

Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská

Black flags mark the SNP anniversary in Banská Bystrica.

SNP anniversary in Banská Bystrica featured black flags

SLOVAKIA commemorates the 71st anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP), one of the key moments in Slovakia’s World War II history, when rebels in the Nazi-allied Slovak state stood up to the oppressive regime.

Compiled by Spectator staff

Auschwitz-Birkenau, illustrative stock photo

Memorial march culminates with international seminar exploring Holocaust

THE VRBA-WETZLER memorial march that follows in the footsteps of the famous Auschwitz refugees who informed the world about the Jewish genocide during World War II will end in Žilina, where experts on holocaust history and intellectuals from Slovakia and the Czech Republic will meet at an international conference and seminar on August 26.

Compiled by Spectator staff

Stolpersteine put in plac ein Bratislava

More “Stolpersteine” have been placed into pavements in Banská Bystrica, Bratislava

THE INTERNATIONAL “Stolperstein” (Stumbling Block) project featuring the placing of commemorative stones into pavements before erstwhile homes of victims of Nazi persecution came to Banská Bystrica for the fourth time on August 8.

Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská

Memorial march will commemorate the feat of Vrba and Wetzler

IN ONE WEEK'S TIME, the first anniversary of the Vrba-Wetzler Memorial March will commemorate Walter Rosenberg (aka Rudolf Vrba) and Alfred Wetzler, the two Slovaks who brought clear evidence about the Nazi atrocities at Auschwitz to the outside world.

Compiled by Spectator staff

Concentration camp: unknown part of Petržalka history

THE JEWISH Community Museum in Bratislava has been offering different exhibitions each summer season, while being closed in winter. This year, the exhibition on a so-far unknown, or less-known concentration camp in Petržalka will be its focus.

Compiled by Spectator staff

Underground space below Slavín memorial may hold WWII museum in the future.

Photo

Slavín proposed to hold WWII museum

THE DEFENCE Ministry is slated to create a working group along with Bratislava City Hall that will draw up a project of building a museum dedicated to the memories of WWII victims at Bratislava’s Slavín memorial and military cemetery.

Compiled by Spectator staff

Fico’s balancing act

ANNIVERSARIES are much more about the present than the past, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to use the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II to bolster patriotism at home as Russia and its separatist allies remain at war in Ukraine.

Benjamin Cunningham

Slovakia commemorated WWII's end

REMEMBERING the victims of World War II and what they fought for was among the main messages spread during events held across Slovakia in early May to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Radka Minarechová

Ukraine prepares for WWII end celebration with a military parade, too.

Fico will not participate in Ukraine WWII commemoration

PRIME Minister Robert Fico will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II only in the Polish city of Gdansk, the Slovak city of Liptovský Mikuláš and Moscow.

Compiled by Spectator staff

WWII: History often blends with the present

“History always mingles with politics and the present,” Ivan Kamenec of the Institute of History at the Slovak Academy of Sciences said.

Radka Minarechová

The SNP Museum in Banská Bystrica offers some unusual exhibits

Debunking some of the SNP myths

HISTORICAL events of great importance are often connected with myths and the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) is no exception. Many seek to depict the uprising negatively as a communist coup that led to unnecessary war-related damages for Slovak citizens. Historians point out that people spreading such myths lack information and tend to apply partially bad experiences of eyewitnesses to the whole uprising.

Roman Cuprik

One of many monuments marking the Slovak National Uprising (SNP).

Events not for idealising nor demonising

PEOPLE should try to avoid both idealising and demonising the Slovak National Uprising (SNP), one of the most significant events of Slovakia’s history, says Ivan Kamenec, a historian with the Slovak Academy of Sciences, who authored several books focusing on Slovakia’s modern history including that of the wartime Slovak state, a satellite of Nazi Germany.

Beata Balogová