Liberation80: Victims of Killings Buried in Brezina Cemetery in Trencin

Trencin, April 20 (TASR) - The cemetery by the memorial in the Brezina forest park in Trencin commemorates the brutal murders of 69 soldiers, partisans and civilians who were killed by the fascist occupiers between the suppression of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) and April 1945, TASR has been told by Trencin spokeswoman Erika Sagova. "After the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising as of the beginning of September 1944, the whole of public life in Trencin was significantly influenced by the German occupying forces. They occupied public and private buildings, including schools and halls of residence, for their own use. Trencin was also the headquarters of a rapid-response unit of the German 13th Security Service (Einsatzkomando)," said the spokesperson. The cruelty of the interrogations, she said, was evidenced by the bloody traces found in the cellars of the Gestapo and security police headquarters. Between October 25, 1944 and April 3, 1945, a total of 69 people, including civilians, domestic and foreign soldiers and partisans, were taken from the prison of the Regional Court in Trencin to the forest at Brezina, where they were brutally murdered and buried in several graves. After the liberation of the city as of May 18, 1945 onwards, seven graves with 69 victims (65 men and four women) were discovered and exhumed in the Brezina area. All of the bodies were barefoot, naked or only slightly clothed, and they bore traces of torture. am/df/mf