Ján Golian

Ján Golian (January 26, 1906, Dombóvár, Hungary – 1945, Flossenbürg concentration camp, Germany) was a Slovak Brigadier General who became famous as one of the main organizers and the commander of the insurrectionist 1st Czechoslovak Army in Slovakia during the Slovak National Uprising against the Nazis. He was the supreme military leader of the uprising from April 27, 1944 (while the uprising was still in preparation) until the arrival of Division General Rudolf Viest on October 7, 1944. Afterwards, General Ján Golian served as Viest's deputy. Despite fierce fighting, the outnumbered and surrounded insurrectionist army could not resist well-equipped German forces. When Viest and Golian ordered their remaining units to start a guerrilla war on October 27, 1944, they did not know that it would be the last order they issued. Both Generals were captured by German special forces on November 3, 1944 in Pohronský Bukovec. In violation of international law, they were tortured and executed in a German concentration camp (1945).