SNP80: Women Played Significant and Essential Role in SNP

Bratislava, August 26 (TASR) - Women played an important and essential role in the Slovak National Uprising (SNP), but this fact was neglected for many decades, which is why the topic of women in the SNP and in the resistance is relatively little known in society. "When we talk about the Slovak National Uprising, we're not talking only about the activities of men fighting with weapons in their hands; an equally relevant part of the Uprising was the involvement of women, who were engaged in intelligence or supporting activities. Without these activities, armed combat would be, if not unrealistic, definitely much more difficult," Martin Posch of the History Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences has told TASR. Despite the threat of death, murders, purges and persecution, the involvement of women in the resistance was quite diverse and the spectrum of their activities very wide. In addition to participating in combat, they were engaged in supplying partisans with the necessary materials, treating the wounded, or such a basic activities as washing. "Whether the men had clean bandages in the mountains or not was a matter of life and death, preventing them from getting gangrene," said the historian. Posch also highlighted women's role as liaisons in obtaining and passing on information to the resistance. Women were much more clever in this than men, as they could pass through occupying units or enemy units more easily. One of the frequent ways in which they were able to get around was with a pram. They smuggled food to partisans in this way as well," said Posch. Concerning intelligence activities, Posch pointed to the role of Chaviva Reikova, who was born near the town of Roznava (Kosice region) and later moved with her parents to Banska Bystrica. In 1939, she decided to emigrate with her husband to the mandated territory of Palestine, which was under British administration at the time, and later she began to cooperate with the British intelligence services. In the summer of 1944 she became a member of the Amsterdam operation and joined the SNP. She returned to Slovak territory with two missions. "One of them, the official one, was to create so-called rescue routes for downed British and American allied airmen to get to safety. The unofficial one was to gather as much information about the Jewish community in Slovakia as possible and help them if she could," said Posch. When the Uprising was suppressed, her group switched to a partisan method of fighting. Reikova was captured by the Nazis in November 1944, brutally interrogated and tortured. Along with another 250 Jews she was murdered near the village of Kremnicka (Banska Bystrica region) on November 20, 1944. The list of female representatives of the anti-Nazi struggle also includes Beatrix Pospisilova Celkova, nicknamed Trixi, Hela Volanska, Bozena Palackova, Viera Stehlikova and many others. ko/df