Slatina (district Levice)

Historical background

At the end of 1944, the fighting for the village of Slatina, which lay on the demarcation line, lasted for several days. On December 23 retreating German soldiers accused the Roma of stealing military property and shot all people gathered at the house of Koloman Fizik. Then they locked the remaining Roma in the house and they threw grenades inside. Those who tried to escape from the burning house were shot. A total of 56 people were killed on that day, half of them children. Three people survived: Gizela Morvavá, Margita Ďurčiková and Elemír Baláž. The victims were buried in a collective, marked grave at the local parish cemetery.

Description of commemoration

During the Ma bisteren! project, a plaque with the names of the victims was added to the memorial tombstone.

 

Inscriptions

Ins Slovak and Hungarian:

1. The bigger rock: Front side: „Masovy hrob / 56 obeti / bestiality nemeckych fasistov / v decembri 1944” (Mass grave of 56 victims of the brutality of German fascists in December 1944); reverse side: (names of victims)
2. The smaller rock: „Ma bisteren! Pamiatke / rómskeho holocaustu” (Ma bisteren! In memory of the Romani Holocaust)

Date of the unveiling

2006

Author

Sculptor Norbert Kalecsény – the plaque, he used blacksmith elements from the workshop of Ladislav Šarkőzy from Dunajská Lužná (inscription: „Ma bisteren!”)

Initiator

In Minorita – projekt Ma bisteren!

Address

Location

48°08’48.4″N 18°53’52.7″E

Materials

Zuza Kumanová, Arne B. Mann, Ma bisteren! Pripomínanie rómskeho holocaustu, Bratislava 2014, s. 40.

Zuza Kumanová, Arne B. Mann, Ma bisteren, Nové poznatky o holocauste Rómov na Slovensku, Bratislava 2015, s. 25, 29.

Gallery