ÚTEK MINISTRA NÁRODNEJ OBRANY GEN. ČATLOŠA Z BRATISLAVY NA POVSTALECKÉ ÚZEMIE NA ZAČIATKU SEPTEMBRA 1944

The role of Slovak Minister of National Defence, 1st Class Gen. Ferdinand Čatloš has already garnered considerable attention in Slovak historiography. This study deepens this knowledge, especially with information related to his escape to the insurgent territory (shortly after the SNU outbreak) on the 1th and 2nd September 1944. Čatloš decided to take this action literally “at the eleventh hour”, as German authorities were meanwhile preparing for his arrest. The author follows his reactions and steps he was already taking in relation to the Uprising at that time. He also analyses the reactions of insurgent representatives, as well as the general public, to his arrival at the centre of the Uprising in Banská Bystrica. He confronts these with the attitude of the Czechoslovak government in London, which rejected cooperation with him, also out of exaggerated fear of the Soviets accepting his political plans.