Ján Golian (26 January 1906, Dombóvár,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

– 1945,

Flossenbürg concentration camp Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Unlike other concentration camps, it was located in a remote area, in the Fichtel Mountains of Bavaria, adjacent to the town of Flo ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

) was a Slovak Brigade General who became famous as one of the main organizers and the commander of the resistance '' 1st Czechoslovak Army in Slovakia'' during the

Slovak National Uprising The Slovak National Uprising ( sk, Slovenské národné povstanie, abbreviated SNP) was a military uprising organized by the Slovak resistance movement during World War II. This resistance movement was represented mainly by the members of the ...

Biography

He was born on 26 January 1906 in Dombóvár in today's territory of

. His parents were native Slovaks who came from Nagysurány. He studied at the Military Academy in Hranice, in 1927 received the rank of

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

of artillery. In 1937 he received the rank of captain. He served as a staff officer in

Trenčín Trenčín (, also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia of the central Váh River valley near the Czech border, around from Bratislava. It has a population of more than 55,000, which makes it the eighth largest muni ...

. Belonged to a group of an anti-Nazi oriented officers. Since January 1944 he was appointed chief of staff of the Slovak Ground Forces in Banská Bystrica, where he gathered a group of influential anti-Nazi oriented officers sustaining contact with the

Czechoslovak government-in-exile The Czechoslovak government-in-exile, sometimes styled officially as the Provisional Government of Czechoslovakia ( cz, Prozatímní vláda Československa, sk, Dočasná vláda Československa), was an informal title conferred upon the Czechos ...

in London. He was the supreme military leader of the uprising from 27 April 1944 (while the uprising was still in preparation) until the arrival of Division General Rudolf Viest on 7 October 1944. After the start of the Slovak National Uprising on 29 August 1944 Golian took command of the Slovak forces in central Slovakia, from the headquarters in Banská Bystrica. His units should serve only as a support for two Slovak divisions in eastern Slovakia which should secure connection with Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

. However, organization of the resistance army in the eastern Slovakia failed and German forces disarmed both Slovak divisions without resistance. From the beginning of September Golian along with his staff organized the defence of the Slovak units encircled in central Slovakia. According to the testimony of his Chief of staff Major Július Nosko, Golian assumed that the resistance defence against the German attacks could not last more than 14 days. On 7 October 1944 Golian was replaced in command of the resistance army forces by general Viest. Afterwards, General Ján Golian served as Viest's deputy. Despite fierce fighting, the outnumbered and surrounded resistance army could not resist the well-equipped and better trained German forces. When Viest and Golian ordered their remaining units to start a guerrilla war on 27 October 1944, they did not know that it would be the last order they issued. Both Generals were captured by German special forces on 3 November 1944 in Pohronský Bukovec. He was detained in the

, but all information about what happened to him in the last days of the war vanished.Jablonický, J., 2004, Samizdat o odboji. Štúdie a články. 1. (Samizdat about resistance. Articles and studies. 1) Kalligram, Bratislava, 528 pp. (in Slovak) It is believed that he was tortured and then murdered in Flossenbürg together with General Viest. Golian was officially listed as missing for 2 years after the war.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golian, Jan 1906 births 1940s missing person cases 1945 deaths Czechoslovak military personnel killed in World War II People from Dombóvár Czechoslovak soldiers Slovak people of World War II Slovak military personnel of World War II Slovak National Uprising People who died in Flossenbürg concentration camp Executed Czechoslovak people Czechoslovak prisoners of war Military personnel who died in Nazi concentration camps Missing in action of World War II Executed military leaders Recipients of the Milan Rastislav Stefanik Order Slovak people executed by Nazi Germany

Biography

See also

References