77 years since the Bloody Sunday in Ostrý Grúň and Kľak

Slovakia commemorates the 77th anniversary of the fascist reprisals in the villages of Ostrý Grúň and Kľak in the Žarnovica district. The villages were burnt down by soldiers of the German Edelweiss unit, killing 148 people. The victims of the so-called Bloody Sunday were honoured on Sunday 23 January in Ostrý Grúň in a traditional ceremony. Ostrý Grúň was the first of the settlements in the Kľak valley that in 1945 felt the repressions of the German troops for their help to the partisans in the Slovak National Uprising. The ambush of Ostrý Grúň and Kľak was planned by the headquarters of the special anti-partisan unit Edelweiss for 21 January 1945, in the early morning hours. A few days later 112 houses were burnt down. The tragic events and victims of the repressions are commemorated by memorials.