Monument Details

OSS & SOE Slovak Uprising Plaque

Details:

On a column of the hotel; outside front. Plaque

A metallic inscribed plaque attached to a marble fronted column.

The plaque remembers US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and British Special Operation Executive (SOE) that operated in Slovakia during WW2. The OSS Team was known as Team "Dawes".

From the US Embassy in Slovakia website:

In August 1944, teams from the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and British Special Operations Executive (SOE) personnel arrived in central Slovakia to work with Slovak resistance fighters in liberating Slovakia from Nazi occupation. As the uprising faltered, Tri Duby airfield was lost and Banska Bystrica was bombed, forcing the U.S. teams to flee toward Soviet lines. The OSS personnel separated into three small groups, one of which took refuge in Polomka, where they met up with their SOE counterparts. They found shelter in a small cabin on a hill above the town where they celebrated Christmas with their Slovak colleagues. The next day the cabin was overrun by a force of 300 Nazi troops including Slovak collaborators. The entire team at the cabin was captured and sent to Mauthausen concentration camp. Fourteen Americans and three British agents were shot after long interrogations and torture. War Correspondent for Associated Press Joe Morton was among the victims.

This memorial was dedicated in 2024.

A memorial in Polomka, Slovakia remembers the OSS and SOE teams that fought here in 1944. See site Polomka for my information on this topic.

Monument Text:

The plaque is written in English and Slovakian. The English reads:

This plaque honors those of the British Special Operation Executive (SOE)

and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

and their Slovak Allies who fought in Banská Bystrica in 1944

in support of the Slovak National uprising.

They lived and worked in this building.

Commemorates:

People:

Edward Victor Baranski