HEŠTEROVÁ, Zdenka: Frenchmen in the Dubnica armoury and their participation in the Slovak National Uprising

In the Slovak National Uprising, 35 nations and nationalities fought alongside Slovak soldiers and partisans against Nazi Germany and its collaborators. 400 French citizens also took part in these battles, a significant part of whom were young Frenchmen interned as forced labourers in the Dubnica armaments factory. The French were put to forced labour under the Compulsory Labour Service Act of the STO and formed one of the strongest labour representations in the Nazi military factories. A total of 495 Frenchmen were relocated to Dubnica by the German authorities in the summer months of 1944, along with the production of DB 603 aircraft engine parts from the Flugmotorenwerke Ostmark Wien (FOW) plant in Wiener Neudorf following the bombing of the Vienna area by Allied air raids. The Revolutionary National Committee, which was established in Dubnica nad Váhom at the beginning of August 1944, also counted on the involvement of the French in the upcoming uprising. In the very first days after the declaration of the SNP, 55 Frenchmen left the Dubnica armoury and joined the French unit of Capt. Georges de Lannurien. The French unit was part of the 1st Czechoslovak Partisan Brigade of M. R. Štefánik, commanded by Colonel Piotr Alexejevič Veličko. The Frenchmen from the Dubnica armoury were first deployed in combat at Svatý Kříž and Jánova Lehota. Other groups were unable to leave the plant and join the French unit, as the armoury fell into German hands in the very first days of the occupation. After the occupation of Banská Bystrica by German troops on 27 October 1944, the resistance of the insurgent army as an organized unit ended, it was disbanded and the resistance was continued by guerrilla warfare. Members of the French unit were divided into smaller partisan groups in the mountains in November and attempted to cross to the Russian front in the east. Before the imminent threat of evacuation to Germany, a large group consisting of up to 186 Frenchmen fled from the Dubnica armoury into the surrounding mountains on the night of 5-6 February 1945. They joined the Jan Žižek Partisan Detachment in Valaska Bela. The French interned at forced labour in the Dubnica armaments factory, despite the fact that they were not soldiers and often entered combat after only a few days of training, fought alongside experienced soldiers and partisans. On our territory, 107 French citizens gave their lives in combat or became victims of Nazi repression.