Driven by political opposition to the Tiso regime, war fatigue, and the advancing Soviet Army, the Slovak National Uprising symbolized a significant struggle for national liberation and democratic governance.
On the evening of 29 August 1944, General Čatloš was forced to greet the German army in a radio address. Lieutenant Colonel Golian issued the password ‘Start the evacuation,’ which signalled the beginning of organised military resistance against the occupying German army. The town of Banská Bystrica became the uprising’s centre, being the base of the Slovak National Council that assumed all power in the uprising area. On 1 September 1944, the Slovak National Council declared the restoration of the Czechoslovak Republic and cancelled all discrimination laws of the first Slovak Republic.