Kľak is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 and municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in the Žarnovica District

Žarnovica District

Žarnovica District is a district inthe Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia. Until 1918, the district was mostly part of the Hungarian county of Tekov, only a part of Hodruša-Hámre, namely Banská Hodruša in the east was part of Banská Štiavnica, an urban county on the territory of Hont...

, Banská Bystrica Region

Banská Bystrica Region

The Banská Bystrica Region is one of the Slovak regions in the country of Slovakia in Europe.-Geography:It is located in the central part of Slovakia and has an area of 9,455 km². The region is prevailingly mountains, with several ranges within the area. The highest of them are the Low Tatras...

 in Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

.

History

On January 21, 1945 the village was burned by Waffen-SS

Waffen-SS

The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...

 special unit Edelweiss with help of Heimatschutz

Heimatschutz

Heimatschutz is a German word which literally translated means, "homeland protection."In 1916, Austrian Max Dvorak's Katechismus der DenkmalpfIege appeared...

 unit. 84 inhabitants of the village were killed (including 36 children), all of 132 houses and buildings were destroyed. Numerous victims were burned alive in their own houses. Nazi soldiers raided the village and expelled rest of the inhabitants out of the village, they also shot all or the cattle. Considering the way of accomplishing, not the amount of casualties, this was one of the most brutal war crimes committed on the Slovak

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

 territory during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

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External links

• http://www.statistics.sk/mosmis/eng/run.html