The city of Sabinov in eastern Slovakia is experiencing a scandal of direct historical proportions: a poster showing motorcyclists from an elite unit of the Nazi SS, also notorious for war crimes, invites celebrations of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) against the collaborator regime and the Nazi Occupation regime, wrote the Pluska.sk website. “Sabinov may have been liberated by the Nazis,” commented one Slovak blogger.
“Nazis featured on posters promoting SNP celebrations. This is evidenced by the uniform, weapons and SS insignia on the motorcycle license plate,” wrote the Slovak racer. websitewhich historians describe the actions of the Sabino cultural center as a “major misstep”.
“Anything possible is acceptable – partisans, Soviet soldiers or paratroopers. But this is a slap in the face for any SNP witness,” said an angry resident of the city, Gabriel Huraj. In his opinion, the city should drop the “Nazi advertising”.
But cultural center director Lucia Mihoková sees nothing wrong with the poster. “The SNP was directed against the German army, and that’s how the poster was understood. We did not put the winner of the uprising on the poster. Our intention was to show who the SNP was fighting,” the journalist was surprised by his argument.
However, historian Eduard Chmelár found it completely inappropriate and insulting for SNP veterans. “You have to realize that the poster is promoting an event and what is most interesting about it. If they were German soldiers then it was of no value,” he told the server.
He considered the argument that if there were no German soldiers, there would be no uprising, terrible. Historian and political scientist Tomáš Koziak agrees: “It is absurd that the anniversary of the SNP be named after a poster showing German soldiers.”
According to the website, Katarína Závacká of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Institute of State and Law was also surprised. Even veteran Emil Chlapeček (89) took the poster as an insult. “I fought in the SNP as an 18-year-old boy and the cruelties and horrors of war haunt me to this day,” he said.
Military History Club
Mihoková clarified to the Topky.sk server that the poster is not a real SS soldier, but a member of a local military history club during the May battle reconstruction of the end of World War II.
Today, the incriminating poster no longer appears on the downtown website. But poster from last year’s festivities also depict German soldiers. The SNP ranks among the most significant events in Slovak history, the day the uprising broke out, 29 August, is a public holiday. Militarily, however, it ended in the defeat of the rebels.
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