Holocaust in Slovakia
As part of a Year 6 Independent History project, Laura Kostaskova focused on the persecution of the Jewish race in the Slovak Republic leading up to and during World War II.
The goal of her project was to utilize her understanding on the “telling” of history to tell a story of her own through research and interviews of those who experienced and survived this horrific time in history.
It’s one thing to study the war, it’s completely other to experience it through the personal stories of those who survived it.
Students for years to come will now use Laura’s work to understand history. Well done.
My understanding is that the Slovak gov’t under Hlinka paid the Germans something like 50 marks (I have forgotten the exact amount) for each Jewish person that was handed over to them to be sent to Auschwitz and other camps. Some Slovaks had paid Hlinka for letters of security, which worked until after the uprising, when the Germans invaded, seized any Jews they could find and killed them on the spot.
Also, the picture at the 5-minute mark was one taken in Poland, or at least that has usually been its attribution.
Attaching a story of one of the many thousands of Slovak victims – my first English teacher.