14 Mar 2025 15:00:00 GMT?.css-1txiau5-AnswerContainer{color:var(--GlobalColorScheme-Text-secondaryText2);}Zlate Moravce won 4–0 over Humenne on Fri Predicted lineups are available for the match a few days in advance while the actual lineup will be available about an hour ahead of the match The current head to head record for the teams are Zlate Moravce 1 win(s) Have kept the most clean sheets in the competition (8) Have scored 5 goals in their last 5 matches Who won between Zlate Moravce and Humenne on Fri 14 Mar 2025 15:00:00 GMT?Zlate Moravce won 4–0 over Humenne on Fri 14 Mar 2025 15:00:00 GMT.InsightsHave scored 11 goals in their last 5 matches Zlate Moravce is playing home against Humenne on Fri It is unclear how the culprit got into the grounds which are locked and surrounded by a 6.5ft concrete wall The graffiti was discovered by British journalist who was visiting Humenne as part of research for a book “I was climbing up the cemetery hill when I spotted the swastikas – one on the front of a headstone The cemetery is remote and whoever did this actually made the effort to get there “Slovakian Jews suffered horrifically in the Holocaust and almost all Humenne’s Jews were murdered it is a desecration of the dead and I hope the perpetrator is brought to justice.” Levicky – whose grandparents were murdered in the Holocaust but parents survived the camps – said ordinary people have expressed disgust at the daubings chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust said: This is a sickening act of antisemitic hatred and desecration The sight of swastikas on Jewish gravestones in a town whose Jewish population was decimated by the Holocaust is chilling It is a stark reminder that antisemitism is not a relic of the past but a persistent threat that must be confronted This hatred cannot be ignored – those responsible must be held to account and we must all stand firm against it.” there were just over 2,000 Jews in Humenne accounting for about a third of the town’s population young Jewish women and girls from Humenne were rounded up and sent on the first deportation to Auschwitz The rest of the Jews were expelled over time and deported to the camps according to the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative (ESJF) Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5 £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with 100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline removing any financial barriers to connecting people The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large We hope you agree all this is worth preserving Police have launched an investigation after anti-Semitic symbols were spray-painted onto gravestones at one of Slovakia’s oldest Jewish cemeteries Juraj Levický, a member of the Jewish Religious Community in Prešov and a caretaker of the Humenné cemetery, found the swastikas while visiting the site with a British journalist. "On Tuesday, we toured the city's Jewish landmarks with a distinguished English journalist and visited the cemetery. To our horror, we discovered Nazi symbols on the headstones," Levický said, speaking at the site. The cemetery was last documented in November for the JewishGen foundation, which helps genealogists trace Jewish heritage. At that time, no vandalism was recorded. Levický reported the crime to the police, who have launched an investigation. "The designated officer of the District Police Department in Humenné has initiated criminal proceedings for the offence of desecration of a place of final rest," confirmed Jana Ligdayová, spokesperson for the Prešov Regional Police. The Jewish community in Slovakia has been formally recognised as the victim, with damages assessed as being at least €2,000. The Jewish cemetery in Humenné is one of Slovakia’s oldest and largest, covering nearly two hectares. Established in the 18th century, it was originally leased to the Jewish community by Count Csáky before being purchased outright. It contains over 900 graves containing the remains of more than 1,200 people, with the oldest dating back to 1776. The inscriptions, mostly in Hebrew, feature biblical quotes and personal messages from families. Among those buried at the site are Humenné’s early rabbis, the father of organist Štefan Thomán (a student of Franz Liszt), and the grandparents of writer Ladislav Grosman. Before World War II, Jews made up a third of Humenné’s 7,000 residents. Of the 2,200 Jewish citizens deported to concentration camps, only 176 survived and returned. Almost all of the survivors left in the years following the war; the town currently has no active Jewish community. JewishGen aims to publish a comprehensive record of the cemetery, including a virtual guide to help visitors locate graves. Levický expects this project to take two to three years. Around 40 visitors annually seek out relatives’ graves here. Since 2005, the cemetery has been fenced off thanks to efforts by Berthold Gross, a Humenné-born member of the Jewish Congress in New York. However, the site has been repeatedly targeted by vandals. In 2003, headstones were defaced with Nazi and anti-Semitic slogans. A decade later, drunken youths smashed several gravestones but avoided prosecution due to their age. “This kind of hate-driven vandalism should never happen,” Levický stressed, adding that additional security measures, such as barbed wire and a camera near the entrance, are being considered. 29 Mar 2025 14:00:00 GMT?.css-1txiau5-AnswerContainer{color:var(--GlobalColorScheme-Text-secondaryText2);}Tatran Presov won 3–0 over Humenne on Sat The current head to head record for the teams are Tatran Presov 2 win(s) Have scored 2 goals in their last 5 matches Haven't kept a clean sheet in 5 matches Who won between Tatran Presov and Humenne on Sat 29 Mar 2025 14:00:00 GMT?Tatran Presov won 3–0 over Humenne on Sat 29 Mar 2025 14:00:00 GMT.InsightsHave scored 3 goals in their last 5 matches Tatran Presov is playing home against Humenne on Sat © Martin PitoňákBalconies in the form of sloping drawers and the old-fashioned element of the gallery give the project a joke and smut The use of hook could be considered as another reference to the production past the shape of the pavlax itself and the vertical communications which are without barriers admitted to the exterior as a new element added The playfulness and ease of input reveal even the inevitable accentuation of the input by pulling one panel out of the treble replacing it with a transparent glass railing On a monochromatic palette with white plaster and grey metallic elements the agate wood on the extended balconies and outdoor applications and interiors blended You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email Rail services around the town of Humenne have been resumed after a pause of almost two years with trains running again on the Humenne-Stakcin Humenne-Medzilaborce and Humenne-Presov routes as of Monday director of state-run passenger carrier ZSSK Peter Helexa announced on the same day March 10 (TASR) - Rail services around the town of Humenne (Presov region) have been resumed after a pause of almost two years director of state-run passenger carrier ZSSK Peter Helexa announced on the same day.        The line closures were a result of the electrification of the Banovce nad Ondavou-Humenne line The end of the closures and resumption of rail services also means the end of the necessary replacement bus services.        "I view Humenne as one of the most important railway hubs in eastern Slovakia a backbone of transport that keeps this region moving," said Helexa.                The lines will feature air-conditioned spaces and low-floor trains will be dispatched daily on the Humenne-Presov route We'll talk about higher speeds in the direction of Kosice when electrification is fully completed," stated ZSSK operations section head Karol Henzely.        The resumption of rail services is also connected with a better technical background as the Humenne train-engine depot has undergone extensive reconstruction that will make train maintenance more efficient and contribute to more reliable rail services "The modernisation will make operations more efficient and improve working conditions for employees and for maintaining trains which will result in greater comfort and safety for passengers," said vice-chair of the ZSSK board of directors Martin Bahurinsky quantifying the cost of the modernisation at more than €33 million.        The platforms at Humenne railway station were also reconstructed with brand new tracks and switches laid there," said the Transport Ministry's rail transport section head Filip Hlubocky adding that the remaining work is in line with the schedule and the whole electrification process should be completed by the end of July.        The work on modernising the railway lines in Humenne and its surroundings was launched in May 2023 The total amount of the bid that won the respective tender was €216 million (ex-VAT) By William May United World Wrestling 2025 - All rights reserved Carson Briere who was dismissed from Mercyhurst University men’s hockey team after a March 11 incident at an Erie tavern found a team willing to offer a return to the rink Tipos is considered the elite league of that eastern European country The franchise claimed that honor in only its fourth season of existence Carson Briere is the lone North American player on its current 2023-24 roster More: How did former coach John Melody help change the landscape for soccer in Erie? When Briere initially dons a Humenne sweater it will mark his first formal appearance on hockey skates since March 4 the Lakers’ 2022-23 season concluded with a loss at Rochester (New York) Institute of Technology in an American Hockey Association quarterfinal series Briere and Mercyhurst men’s lacrosse player Patrick Carrozzi were at Sullivan’s Pub and Eatery showed Briere and Carrozzi standing next to an empty wheelchair atop a staircase which belonged to Erie resident Sydney Benes was in a downstairs women’s restroom at that time She's required the wheelchair ever since her legs were amputated because of a 2021 automobile accident in Butler County Although there were no injuries as the result of Briere’s action the possibility other bar patrons could have been injured by the descending wheelchair eventually led to charges against Briere and Carrozzi Each waived the charges of criminal mischief against them during a preliminary hearing More: Ex-Mercyhurst hockey player Briere waives charges to court in Erie wheelchair incident However, Briere and Carrozzi each applied for Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) last month ARD is a state program that allows a district attorney in this case Erie County Deputy District Attorney Jeremy Lightner to decide if those charged can have their records dismissed should they complete the program A guilty plea isn’t required to complete it Chad Vilushis has been Briere’s lawyer throughout the case Vilushis declined comment on Monday as to how or if it will impact his client’s intent to play professional hockey in Europe Briere apologized for what he did on March 11 via a Flyers news release “There’s no excuse for my actions,” he said “and I’ll do whatever I can to make up for this serious lack of judgment.” who was hired as Philadelphia’s general manager on May 11 also publicly apologized for his son’s actions that night at Sullivan’s “They’re inexcusable and run completely counter to our family’s values on treating people with respect,” Daniel Briere said “Carson is very sorry and accepts full responsibility for his behavior.” Plan all along: Gary Manchel's hall of fame coaching career started at an early age Carson Briere recorded 23 goals and 36 assists over 82 games for Mercyhurst He would have been a senior for the 2023-24 Lakers Carrozzi was early in his senior season with the Mercyhurst men’s lacrosse program at the time of the incident which advanced to the NCAA Division II national championship match Carrozzi received his bachelor’s degree in May Staff writer Ed Palattella contributed to this report Contact Mike Copper at mcopper@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNcopper. The reality was more sinister than any of the townsfolk could have imagined Lea and more than 200 other teenagers from their town were taken to the train station separated them from their parents without a proper goodbye and forced them to board a train bound for Poprad Hundreds of young unmarried Jewish women joined the girls from Humenne from other small towns and villages across Slovakia forced to stay in the inhumane and traumatizing Poprad barracks where they were fed starvation rations and ordered to clean the barracks on their hands and knees the girls that had been rounded up in Poprad—numbering 999 in total—boarded a train that would take them to Auschwitz Researched over the course of the last decade and building on a narrative thread she’d followed since the 1990s The Nine Hundred draws on interviews and testimonies from survivors of that first transport and their families “Intellectual men have owned Holocaust literature and I also think it’s classist.” Read More: Why the U.S. Capitol Attack Makes Holocaust Remembrance Day More Important Than Ever though she escaped selection for the notorious gas chambers during her time in the camp who had become seriously ill with typhus after arriving at the camp was killed in a mass gassing in December 1942 After three years of enduring the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau Friedman was liberated when Germany surrendered in 1945 I did not believe that I would survive,” writes Friedman (who became Edith Grosman after she married) in the final part of The Nine Hundred Macadam first became familiar with the story of the transport while researching her first book The book drew on interviews with Rena Kornreich who was on that first transport from Slovakia detailing the experiences she and her sister Danka had at Auschwitz and the fact that the individuals were all girls appeared to be a mere footnote in the annals of Holocaust literature around the time of the 70th anniversary of the transport the author was living in Europe and visited the train station at Poprad where she found a plaque dedicated to the memory of the girls with candles lit around it she left a list of the names of women that she knew had been on the transport One of those names was that of Adela Gross who was 18 when she boarded the train at Poprad and was later killed in a gas chamber at Auschwitz Gross’ family in Slovakia never knew what happened to her until they found Macadam’s list at the train station in Poprad and contacted her Other relatives of Gross living in California were reading Rena’s Promise “I get chills just thinking about it it was such a huge moment to be able to give this beautiful young woman back to her family,” saysMacadam who are both in their 90s; one via Zoom in Australia Both Macadam and her cinematographer had negative COVID-19 tests before conducting the interview and wore masks and stayed six feet apart from their subject “I did have to speak loudly so she could hear me,” says Macadam who hopes the documentary will be released this year “The hardest part of the interview was not hugging her.” “I’ve been telling this story publicly since 1994 It felt like I was shouting into an empty barrel and getting little response,” Macadam says adding that she feels the #MeToo movement has sparked greater interest in the stories of women the story of the 999 girls from Slovakia is a reminder that women and girls are the key targets in war and in genocide and she felt a deep responsibility to tell their stories faithfully “The challenge as a Holocaust biographer is to stick to the facts and I do always try to end with something positive One of the most important things in my book is that in the end they don’t all go home and live happily ever after.” Grosman married and had children after her return home but her life was not free from hardship as she recovered from the tuberculosis that had a debilitating impact on her health she and her family were forced to flee to Israel when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia On last year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day Macadam was with Grosman at her home in Toronto watching the commemoration ceremony take place in Poland on the television and it was the last such year she would mark the day before her death in July 2020 Macadam recalls Grossman turning to her in the middle of the ceremonies I was jumping up and down with the joy of being a woman again Contact us at letters@time.com Two of the five girls in this photograph—taken in Humenné around 1936—are known to have been sent to Auschwitz as part of the first official transport of Jews to the death camp Neither Anna Herskovic (second from left) nor Lea Friedman (fourth from left) survived At the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp a survivor recalls how she came to Auschwitz in March 1942—and the terrible years that followed when the gates were finally opened to about 6,000 prisoners the Nazis had forced nearly 30,000 other prisoners to leave on foot in the midst of a blizzard “We opened and closed Auschwitz,” Edith Grosman says of her ordeal It began when she and more than 900 other young Slovak women boarded the first official Jewish transport to Auschwitz in 1942 It would end for some of them on that forced march Edith was fortunate to survive until armistice on May 8 This photo of the Friedman children was taken in Humenné around 1936 999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz marks the 75th anniversary of their liberation splaying out her arthritic hands and patting the air “and we saw outside on the street glued on the sides of the houses an announcement that all the Jewish girls from 16 up have to come to the school the 20th of March 1942 for work.” But those aspirations had been dashed two years earlier when Hitler’s Germany annexed Slovakia The quisling government of the Slovak Republic began implementing draconian laws against the Jews including revoking their right to be educated past the age of 14 “We couldn’t even have a cat,” Edith says in disbelief then sighs heavily at the memory of that edict assured concerned parents that their girls would be working as “contract volunteers” in a factory making boots for the troops So Hanna packed her daughters’ meager belongings into satchels and sent Edith and Lea out the door to register as part of this new female workforce Edith recognized most of the 200 or so young women “Humenné was a big family—everybody knew each other,” she says Local officials and military personnel presided over the check-in but among them was a man in the uniform of the SS “I thought it was strange there was an SS there,” Edith says Of the nine Jewish girls in this class photo at their school in Humenné Edith Friedman is second from the left in the top row a doctor ordered the girls to strip for a health exam Undressing in front of strange men was unheard of and they wondered what was taking so long on this Friday Then someone noticed that guards had sneaked the girls out a back exit and were herding them toward the train station calling out names and demanding to know where their daughters were going the girls were loaded into passenger cars without even the chance to kiss their parents goodbye Edith could hear her mother’s voice in the crowd: “About Lea she’s like nothing.” It was a joke in the family that the winds off the mountains would sweep the elfin Edith away if she wasn’t careful As the train pulled out of the station, some of the older girls tried to buoy the younger ones. “I thought we were going on an adventure,” one of Edith’s childhood friends, Margie Becker, said. “When we saw the beautiful mountains, the Tatra Mountains, everybody was singing ‘The Beautiful Mountains’ and the Slovak national anthem.” In Poprad, about 75 miles west of Humenné, Edith and her friends disembarked from the train and were marched into an empty army barracks. The next morning, male guards put them to work cleaning the barracks. “We thought, maybe this is it,” Edith says. “Maybe this is the work we are supposed to do.” Then another trainload of young women arrived. And the next day, more trains came in from the surrounding region full of young, unmarried Jewish women. This photograph of Edith Grosman, then 92, was taken in Poprad, Slovakia, on March 24, 2017—the eve of the 75th anniversary of the first official transport to Auschwitz. Five days after Edith’s group from Humenné had left home, nearly a thousand young women had arrived in Poprad. The guards ordered them to pack their things. As they filed past the barracks, they saw cattle cars lined up on the rail tracks. “We were crying,” Edith says. “And so afraid.” Edith says they balked when ordered into the cars, so the guards beat them till they scrambled into the dank, fetid boxes. “I was with my sister and the closest friends of ours—we wanted to be together,” she says. “There was nothing inside. There wasn’t a bucket. No water. Not anything. Just a little window.” Edith draws a tiny rectangle with her fingers to show how small the window was. “And locked from outside.” They had no idea where they were going, but as terrified as Edith was, she felt reassured that she was with Lea as well as Margie from the corner store; Adela Gross, with her flaming red hair; Anna Herskovic, who loved to go to the movies with Lea; and others they knew from school, synagogue, and market. Hours into their journey, in the middle of the night, the train stopped at the border between Greater Germany (formerly Poland) and Slovakia. A secret transaction between the two governments was finalized, with the Slovaks paying the Nazis 500 Reichsmarks (about $250) for each young woman taken for slave labor. And with that, the first official rail consignment of victims of Hitler’s “final solution” chugged its way into the southwestern tip of Poland. When Edith Friedmann and the other young women arrived at Auschwitz, they didn't know at first that they were prisoners. But Edith wondered why there was barbed wire around the barracks. Shown here in 1990, the death camp complex is preserved as a memorial. When the train finally stopped, Edith, Lea, and their friends found themselves in what seemed to be a wasteland, with nothing but snow as far as the eye could see. “It was an empty place—there was nothing there,” Edith exclaims. Why else did we live but to tell?Edith Grosman, Auschwitz survivorAs the girls filed into the camp, Linda Reich, one of the survivors whispered to a friend, “That must be the factory where we are going to work.” The structure was a gas chamber. “Some people say angels have wings.” Edith’s voice is soft and pensive. “My angels had feet.” One of the least arduous jobs in the camp was to sort the clothes and belongings of new prisoners. Margie Becker was assigned to do that, and when Edith’s shoes broke, Margie brought her a good pair. “Shoes could save your life,” Edith says. When Lea fell ill, she was part of a work detail that required standing in cold water all day cleaning out ditches. For weeks, Edith gave Lea her soup because Lea couldn’t swallow bread. Then her sister couldn’t get up. She was feverishly ill. Somehow, Edith had been lucky enough to be assigned to the clothes-sorting detail, and one evening when she returned to her block after work, she learned that Lea had been moved to Block 22, the sick ward. No one escaped from Block 22, where prisoners were warehoused until trucks came to cart them away to the gas chamber. Edith crept in one day to find Lea lying on the dirt floor. “I held her hand, kissed her cheek. I know she could hear me. I was sitting with her, looking at her beautiful face, and I felt I should be there instead of her. The guilt of the survivor—it never goes away.” The next day, December 5, was Shabbat Hanukkah. Edith slipped back into Block 22 before heading to work. Lea was still lying in the dirt. She was “wasting away,” Edith says. “It was so cold. She was in a coma now.” Edith had no choice but to leave her sister. That same day, the Nazis took steps to clear the camp of prisoners infected with typhus. When Edith’s group returned from work, they were ordered to strip and march naked through the gates past the SS guards. Women who had the telltale typhus spots were hustled off to the gas chambers. The sight inside the gates stunned Edith. “The camp was empty,” she says. Survivor Linda Reich recalled finding only 20 women in her block out of the thousand who had been there that morning. All had been taken to the gas chambers. Lea was among them. Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945. They found 7,000 skeletal prisoners, 4,000 of whom were women—and hundreds of abandoned dead. During the next few weeks, hundreds more would succumb to starvation or disease. Meanwhile, the Germans enslaved Edith and thousands of other surviving prisoners in Ravensbrück—the infamous women’s death camp—and in camps such as Bergen Belsen, in Germany, and Mauthausen, in Austria. Overcrowding and hunger threatened everyone’s life. When a kettle of soup spilled, women dropped to their knees and tried to lick it up, Linda Reich remembered. Edith and Elsa were sent to a satellite work camp where they repaired airplane runways that were being bombed repeatedly by the Allies. Edith says that when the bombers attacked the compound, and the SS guards ran for their bunkers, the prisoners sprinted to the kitchen—“so we had a better life. We got food.” Despite her illness, Edith says, “I felt so much hope for the world, for humanity, for our future. I thought: Now the world will change for good.” She was also in love. In 1948, she married screenwriter and author Ladislav Grosman, whose film The Shop on Main Street won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1965. Ladislav died in 1981. Although Edith’s dream of becoming a doctor had been thwarted, she did finish high school and go on to work as a research biologist in communist Czechoslovakia and later in Israel. She now lives in Toronto, Canada, near her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. “You have your little hells, but you have your little paradises,” Edith says of her life. “I have had it all here on this Earth.” But 75 years after Auschwitz, Edith is troubled that the world hasn’t lived up to the hope she’d felt in 1945. Anti-Semitism is on the rise. Hate crimes against minorities haunt the news. “Why are there still wars?” she asks. “Please, please, you have to understand: You don’t have a winner in a war.” Her voice is frail but urgent. “A war is the worst thing that can happen to humanity.” everybody was singing ‘The Beautiful Mountains’ and the Slovak national anthem.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html13","cntnt":{"mrkup":"In Poprad Edith and her friends disembarked from the train and were marched into an empty army barracks male guards put them to work cleaning the barracks “Maybe this is the work we are supposed to do.” Then another trainload of young women arrived more trains came in from the surrounding region full of young unmarried Jewish women."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-3","cntnt":{"cmsType":"image","ariaLabel":"image","align":"right","belowParagraph":true,"credit":"Photograph by Stephen Hopkins","envNme":"prod","flags":{"hideTitle":true,"hideAssetSource":true},"qryStr":"userab=ng_pw_copy-287*variant_b-1127&forceMode=fitt","mrkup":"","placement":"inline"},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html14","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Five days after Edith’s group from Humenné had left home nearly a thousand young women had arrived in Poprad The guards ordered them to pack their things they saw cattle cars lined up on the rail tracks “And so afraid.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html15","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Edith says they balked when ordered into the cars so the guards beat them till they scrambled into the dank “I was with my sister and the closest friends of ours—we wanted to be together,” she says Just a little window.” Edith draws a tiny rectangle with her fingers to show how small the window was “And locked from outside.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html16","cntnt":{"mrkup":"They had no idea where they were going she felt reassured that she was with Lea as well as Margie from the corner store; Adela Gross who loved to go to the movies with Lea; and others they knew from school and market."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html17","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Hours into their journey the train stopped at the border between Greater Germany (formerly Poland) and Slovakia A secret transaction between the two governments was finalized with the Slovaks paying the Nazis 500 Reichsmarks (about $250) for each young woman taken for slave labor the first official rail consignment of victims of Hitler’s “final solution” chugged its way into the southwestern tip of Poland."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html18","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Life—and death—in Auschwitz"},"type":"h2","style":{}},{"id":"inline-4","cntnt":{"cmsType":"image","ariaLabel":"image","align":"contentWidth","belowHeader":true,"credit":"Photograph by Francois LE DIASCORN Gamma-Rapho/Getty","envNme":"prod","flags":{"hideTitle":true,"hideAssetSource":true},"qryStr":"userab=ng_pw_copy-287*variant_b-1127&forceMode=fitt","mrkup":"","placement":"inline"},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html19","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Why did Hitler’s plan to eradicate the Jews through slave labor camps in Poland begin with 999 young women The fascist government wanted to eliminate fertile bearers of the next generation of Jews according to Slovak historian Pavol Mešťan it was easier to get families to relinquish daughters than sons it was thought that the girls would entice their families to follow them to the relocation camps where Jews were being “resettled” or “rehomed”—Nazi euphemisms for killed."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html20","cntnt":{"mrkup":"When the train finally stopped and their friends found themselves in what seemed to be a wasteland with nothing but snow as far as the eye could see “It was an empty place—there was nothing there,” Edith exclaims."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html21","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Guards ordered men in striped uniforms to use sticks to prod the women off the train One Polish survivor remembers them whispering to the girls We don’t want to hurt you.” After almost 12 hours in the frigid railcar Edith and the others struggled to carry their belongings across snowy fields toward what one survivor described as “flickering lights and boxes.” Until now Auschwitz had served as a concentration camp for men Edith had no idea that the men with sticks were prisoners Nor did she know that she too was a prisoner though she did wonder about the barbed wire fencing."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-5","cntnt":{"cmsType":"pullquote","id":"inline-5","quote":"Why else did we live but to tell?","theme":"dark","type":"pull","icon":"quote","byLineProps":{"authors":[{"displayName":"Edith Grosman","authorDesc":"Auschwitz survivor"}],"mode":"richtext"}},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html22","cntnt":{"mrkup":"As the girls filed into the camp one of the survivors whispered to a friend “That must be the factory where we are going to work.” The structure was a gas chamber."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html23","cntnt":{"mrkup":"During the next three years five gas chambers and crematoria were built within a complex of barracks covering more than 15 square miles Although the one Reich had pointed out that March day wasn’t fully operational until July the Nazis had other ways to kill healthy young women A starvation diet of about 600 calories a day combined with backbreaking labor that included demolishing buildings and cleaning out swampland with their bare hands “The girls began to die,” Edith says."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html24","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“Some people say angels have wings.” Edith’s voice is soft and pensive “My angels had feet.” One of the least arduous jobs in the camp was to sort the clothes and belongings of new prisoners “Shoes could save your life,” Edith says."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html25","cntnt":{"mrkup":"It would take more than shoes to save Edith’s sister the women were moved to another camp in the Auschwitz complex: Birkenau Living conditions there were so bad that soon a typhus epidemic was raging through the men’s and women’s blocks killing prisoners and SS guards alike."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html26","cntnt":{"mrkup":"When Lea fell ill she was part of a work detail that required standing in cold water all day cleaning out ditches Edith gave Lea her soup because Lea couldn’t swallow bread She was feverishly ill."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html27","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Somehow Edith had been lucky enough to be assigned to the clothes-sorting detail and one evening when she returned to her block after work she learned that Lea had been moved to Block 22 where prisoners were warehoused until trucks came to cart them away to the gas chamber."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html28","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Edith crept in one day to find Lea lying on the dirt floor and I felt I should be there instead of her The guilt of the survivor—it never goes away.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html29","cntnt":{"mrkup":"The next day Edith slipped back into Block 22 before heading to work She was in a coma now.” Edith had no choice but to leave her sister."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html30","cntnt":{"mrkup":"That same day the Nazis took steps to clear the camp of prisoners infected with typhus they were ordered to strip and march naked through the gates past the SS guards Women who had the telltale typhus spots were hustled off to the gas chambers."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html31","cntnt":{"mrkup":"The sight inside the gates stunned Edith Survivor Linda Reich recalled finding only 20 women in her block out of the thousand who had been there that morning Lea was among them."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html32","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Life without Lea was not a life Edith wanted to live “Why else did we live but to tell?” she says the courage to continue fighting—the will to survive—came from one of her angels with feet were like real sisters to women who needed someone to watch over them She slept next to Edith at night and kept her warm “I can’t survive without you.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html33","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“And so I had to live,” Edith says."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html34","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Leaving Auschwitz—“the snow was red with blood”"},"type":"h2","style":{}},{"id":"html35","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Nearly three years after arriving in Auschwitz as teenagers Edith and her few surviving friends faced a final ordeal The Nazis were making plans to evacuate the camp and flee from the approaching Soviet army the night skies blazed red and gold as Krakow burned the last prisoners in Auschwitz were forced on what became known as the death march toward the German border An estimated 15,000 prisoners from the Auschwitz complex of camps would die on multiday marches across Poland toward border crossings into Germany."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html36","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Of all the horrors and hardships the girls of the first transport suffered “The snow was red with blood.” If a prisoner stumbled and fell Elsa and Edith pulled her back to her feet before an SS officer could shoot her When Edith felt she couldn’t take another step her childhood friend Irena Fein urged her to keep going 4,000 of whom were women—and hundreds of abandoned dead hundreds more would succumb to starvation or disease."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html38","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Meanwhile the Germans enslaved Edith and thousands of other surviving prisoners in Ravensbrück—the infamous women’s death camp—and in camps such as Bergen Belsen Overcrowding and hunger threatened everyone’s life women dropped to their knees and tried to lick it up Linda Reich remembered."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html39","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Edith and Elsa were sent to a satellite work camp where they repaired airplane runways that were being bombed repeatedly by the Allies Edith says that when the bombers attacked the compound the prisoners sprinted to the kitchen—“so we had a better life We got food.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html40","cntnt":{"mrkup":"On May 8 Of the 999 young women of the first transport to Auschwitz fewer than a hundred are estimated to have lived to see freedom among them about eight of Edith’s childhood friends It took Edith and Elsa six weeks to get back home to Slovakia She’d contracted bone tuberculosis in Auschwitz “I was physically disabled by Auschwitz,” she says “Elsa was psychologically disabled”—riddled with fear and anxiety for the rest of her life."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html41","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Despite her illness I thought: Now the world will change for good.” She was also in love she married screenwriter and author Ladislav Grosman whose film The Shop on Main Street won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1965 Ladislav died in 1981."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html42","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Although Edith’s dream of becoming a doctor had been thwarted she did finish high school and go on to work as a research biologist in communist Czechoslovakia and later in Israel near her grandchildren and great-grandchildren."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html43","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“You have your little hells but you have your little paradises,” Edith says of her life “I have had it all here on this Earth.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html44","cntnt":{"mrkup":"But 75 years after Auschwitz Edith is troubled that the world hasn’t lived up to the hope she’d felt in 1945 Hate crimes against minorities haunt the news you have to understand: You don’t have a winner in a war.” Her voice is frail but urgent “A war is the worst thing that can happen to humanity.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-7","cntnt":{"id":"inline-7","cmsType":"editorsNote","note":"Heather Dune Macadam is a Holocaust biographer and the author of 999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz released on January 1."},"type":"inline","style":{}}],"cid":"drn:src:natgeo:unison::prod:ae499cdb-35a0-47f0-b725-8bdada4bb7c5","cntrbGrp":[{"contributors":[{"displayName":"Heather Dune Macadam"}],"title":"By","rl":"Writer"}],"mode":"richtext","dtln":"POPRAD SLOVAKIA","dscrptn":"At the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp a survivor recalls how she came to Auschwitz in March 1942—and the terrible years that followed.","enableAds":true,"endbug":true,"isMetered":false,"isUserAuthed":false,"isTruncated":false,"isEntitled":false,"freemiumContentGatingEnabled":true,"premiumContentGatingEnabled":false,"ldMda":{"cmsType":"image","hasCopyright":true,"id":"d745534c-e10a-405b-a125-8a49b3a78816","lines":3,"positionMetaBottom":true,"showMore":true,"caption":"Two of the five girls in this photograph—taken in Humenné 2017—the eve of the 75th anniversary of the first official transport to Auschwitz When Edith Friedmann and the other young women arrived at Auschwitz they didn't know at first that they were prisoners But Edith wondered why there was barbed wire around the barracks the death camp complex is preserved as a memorial Missing from this happy gathering of the Friedman family in Israel in 1963 is Lea National historical monument will receive a new facade The biggest manor house in Slovakia is awaiting a new facade The residence of the Drugeth dynasty is a national, historical monument. It is now entering the final stage of reconstruction, which includes the reconstruction and renovation of the courtyard as written in the daily newspaper MY Zemplín The Vihorlat Museum located directly in the manor house will see the end to its third reconstruction stage during the year informed TASR that improvements to the building in the second and third stages closely relate to each other The second stage was finished at the end of 2020 The Vihorlat Museum is the only museum in Slovakia that received resources with nearly a 650,000 euro value from the Renovate Your House (Obnov si svoj dom) program The Prešov region also helped out this project bycontributing a 300,000 euro grant The third grant the museum worked with was used during the second reconstruction stage involving repairs of the renaissance building's facade The first and second stages of the reconstruction ran in full mode and according to the director of the museum they brought in locals and tourists who are interested in regional history "We are very thankful for their willingness to abide by safety regulations in order to witness the beautiful exhibition the manor house has to offer," said Mr.Fedič, the museum director, as written in MY Zemplín Despite the ongoing pandemic restrictions and complications tourists actively visited the site during the season the visitor count was higher by a thousand compared to the previous year." A helping hand in the heart of Europe thanks to the Slovakia travel guide with more than 1,000 photos and hundred of tourist spots Detailed travel guide to the Tatras introduces you to the whole region around the Tatra mountains Lost in Bratislava? Impossible with our City Guide 02 May 2025 15:00:00 GMT?.css-1txiau5-AnswerContainer{color:var(--GlobalColorScheme-Text-secondaryText2);}FK Pohronie vs Humenne on Fri The current head to head record for the teams are FK Pohronie 0 win(s) Have scored 3 goals in their last 5 matches Humenne have won the previous 3 matches against FK Pohronie Who won between FK Pohronie and Humenne on Fri 02 May 2025 15:00:00 GMT?FK Pohronie vs Humenne on Fri 02 May 2025 15:00:00 GMT ended in a 1–1 tie.InsightsHave scored 3 goals in their last 5 matches FK Pohronie is playing home against Humenne on Fri the legendary American actor who died on September 26 but his mother – whose birth name was Terézia Fecková – was born in the Slovak town of Humenné The actor’s grandmother is buried there and some of his relatives still live there but his mother – whose birth name was Terézia Fecková – was born in the Slovak town of Humenné The actor’s grandmother is buried there and some of his relatives still live there “His Slovak relatives ‘met’ [Newman through his films] in 1965 for the first time,” Slovak film historian Richard Blech said Newman’s film Sweet Bird of Youth had been shown in Humenné.”Newman never personally visited the town but knew he had roots in this part of Europe journalists who were surprised when he referred to Czechoslovak President Václav Havel as “Dear Václav” during his visit to the USA in the early 1990s Terézia Fecková followed her father to the USA at the turn of the 20th century Her mother and grandmother had already died Her second husband was a furrier named Newman The older one was named Arthur and the younger one was Paul.Both sons served in the Pacific during the Second World War their mother wrote excited letters to her family in Slovakia on which she wrote text in the eastern-Slovak dialect “She also sent home Paul’s army uniform,” Blech added “Her sister then re-sewed it into a suit but the unstitched emblem on the uniform’s sleeve remained preserved.” This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page WITHIN THE so-called humanitarian transfer programme Slovakia will host 58 citizens from Eritrea The plane with 58 Eritreans on board landed at Košice airport on February 4 They came under the humanitarian transfer programme which has been carried out since 2009 to spend six months in the refugee camp in Humenné in the Prešov Region and then to be sent to the USA They joined a group of 85 citizens of Somalia and Lebanon who came to the Emergency Transit Centre (ETC) last September None of these people seek asylum in Slovakia the Interior Ministry informed the Pravda daily These people are threatened by prosecution and their life is in danger they will prepare for the life they are expected to lead in the country where they shall be relocated for good “None of these refugees is an asylum claimant in Slovakia and none is in asylum proceeding here,” Michaela Paulenová of Interior Ministry stressed reacting to the information of parliamentary Šanca party on refugees arriving to Slovakia She also added that the country has been accepting refugees for temporary stays within humanitarian transfer since 2009 in cooperation with the UNHCR and International Organization for Migration (IOM) “Slovakia has found a new home in this way for a thousand refuges since 2009 families with children or mothers with children, Paulenová added for TASR refugees are to stay for a maximum of six months; they will go though security interviews health checks and courses of cultural orientation to prepare for life in the USA The activities within the Humanitarian Transfer of Refugees project are financed by the US Government through USRAP (United States Refugee Admissions Program) or by similar programmes of other relocation countries The loss of Smer's Jana Vaľová in the mayoral race has become symbolic of the 2018 municipal vote It is not very common for the mayoral race in a small town in the very east of Slovakia to be one of the most closely observed votes as was the case of the town of Humenné in the 2018 municipal elections eastern Slovakia was considered the bastion of the ruling Smer party observers of the Slovak political scene used to say when commenting on the results of all types of elections a municipality with some 30,000 inhabitants During the recent municipal election campaign some people from the town started speaking up about the atmosphere of fear in the town Vaľová had her town in a tight grip said former mayor Vladimír Kostilník in an investigative report by the Zastavme Korupciu (Stop Corruption) foundation she is the only person deciding on the being and non-being of citizens,” Kostilník preceded Vaľová in the mayoral post in 1998-2010 “If you want to live in Humenné you will not find a job,” said an anonymous citizen in the video reportage The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.skSubscribe now for full access Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail) PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk The restructuring process is complicated by one of the creditors Creditors are expected to decide about the fate of the Humenné-based producer of synthetic fibres for the automotive industry and has submitted a proposal to start a restructuring process which belongs to the creditors and in whose building Nexis Fibers resides and from which it has utilities the Hospodárske Noviny daily reported Nexis Fibers has submitted a plan according to which the restructuring plan should last five years If the creditors’ committee approved it Nexis would start repaying the debts to Chemes in the last three years of the process introduced its own proposal which only counts three years for restructuring as the original plan is unacceptable to them Thus it also proposed the direct sale of the company Nexis Fibers however disagrees with the plans Slovak laws do not allow companies other than debtors to submit the restructuring proposals Thus experts say the Chemes' proposal is irrelevant The company claimed in the past that if the creditors’ committee accepts the plan submitted by Nexis Fibers it would stop supplying it with the energy necessary for production which will in fact mean the end of the fibres producer Since it resides in the building of Chemes Nexis Fibers currently employs 400 people who would lose their jobs in the case of bankruptcy as well as another 1,000 people working for its subcontractors stressed that the original plan of Nexis Fibers may endanger also 1,500 jobs in the industrial Chemes park Opposition MPs blame government rhetoric for fuelling homophobia director of the Human Rights Institute and co-founder of Rainbow Pride based on information from a person close to the boy who wished to remain anonymous it was clear that the suicide was the result of homophobic bullying but it is evident that he did this because of bullying and fear of being different The boy was searching for his identity; he was gentle perceived by some as effeminate,” Weisenbacher said “He was often called a ‘faggot’ ‘queer’ and ‘tranny’.”  Police have reacted to media reports suggesting that bullying may have played a role in the tragic death of this 13-year-old boy stating that they are investigating the case the city of Košice denied allegations that the boy had been bullied at school the school leadership unequivocally rejects any speculation about possible bullying at this institution,” said Košice city spokesperson Dušan Tokarčík Weisenbacher called on all democratic political parties to push for a thorough investigation into the circumstances that led to the boy’s death.   The opposition party Progressive Slovakia urged politicians in power on March 17 to stop spreading homophobia and intolerance towards LGBT+ people I do not expect this coalition to improve the situation for LGBT+ people they must stop endangering children,” said Progressive Slovakia MP Lucia Plaváková “The spread of this hatred comes at a high price — it costs lives.”  Two queer people were murdered by a radicalised student outside a gay venue in Bratislava in 2022.  Last September, Plaváková clashed with nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS) leader and parliamentary vice-chair Andrej Danko, who expelled her from the debating chamber for displaying queer stickers on her laptop has also publicly dismissed Plaváková stating that he does not consider her to be a woman Progressive Slovakia MP Ingrid Kosová highlighted the lack of school psychologists noting that one psychologist typically serves around 300 students She argued that teachers are focused on academic performance and testing results leaving little time to address classroom dynamics or foster student relationships The Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), a key opposition partner of the Progressive Slovakia party, appears to have a persistent issue with LGBT+ rights. At a recent lecture in Bratislava former KDH MP Renáta Ocilková propagated the notion that homosexuality is merely a passing phase an idea widely discredited by medical and psychological experts Politician Janka Jányová of Smer accused Progressive Slovakia of using the tragedy for social media attention and for dividing society by bringing LGBT+ issues into public debate.  “No one in this government has a problem with people from this community,” Jányová said “But all society is fed up with your constant imposition of sick ideological views and attempts to enforce them into everyday life.”  The LGBT+ community has no rights in Slovakia Moreover, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer) has proposed constitutional amendments to affirm the existence of only two genders prohibit same-sex couples from adopting children His government has also revoked grants worth €100,000 for the LGBT+ organisation Inakosť intended to fund professional support services Slovakia’s Justice Ministry has rejected a €30,000 grant intended for specialist support services for victims of crime which had been allocated annually since 2022 a counselling service providing legal and psychological aid to LGBT+ people who have experienced violence bullying or other crimes related to their sexual orientation who has long been the subject of speculation regarding his own sexuality has so far remained silent on the recent tragedy responded to the suicide of the 13-year-old boy by condemning bullying and hate speech “If the investigation confirms reports of bullying it is horrifying that we fail to realise the weight of words which can drive others to desperate acts,” Susko said His remarks come despite his party’s track record of stoking anti-LGBT+ sentiment Although Slovakia is not the ultimate destination country for refugees Over 1,000 refugees have been resettled via the Emergency Transit Centre in Humenné in eastern Slovakia since 2009 the Slovak branch of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) announced on January 20 It also informed that refugees it assists are heading via Slovakia mainly to the United States head of the IOM’s Slovak branch Zuzana Vatráľová told the TASR newswire The number of refugees who have been resettled via Slovakia in countries that have provided them with permanent residence has therefore increased to 1,019 as many as 96 percent (978 refugees) have been resettled in the United States Slovakia provided temporary shelter to 1,043 refugees in Humenné between 2009 and January 2017 The IOM transported them from refugee camps in Africa UNHCR also participated in their resettlement and included the refugees in a programme called The Humanitarian Transfer of Refugees via Slovakia The IOM noted that more than half of the refugees transported to the Humenné centre have been Somalis Refugees arriving there also come from Afghanistan A majority of them are families with small children or single mothers - i.e people who can neither return to their home country nor continue to live in the country of initial asylum and need immediate protection The capacity of the Humenné centre is 250 people and it serves as a temporary shelter for the most vulnerable groups of refugees under the UNHCR’s protection They can stay there for a maximum of six months to prepare for resettlement in safe conditions Preparation comprises a medical examination a series of vaccinations and training in cultural orientation that prepares refugees for life in a new country Training and international transport of refugees are provided by the IOM The UNHCR takes care of travel documents for the international transport of refugees settles expenditures on refugees’ health care during their stay in Slovakia and provides social services to them while the older ones go to a school in Humenné where they mainly learn mathematics The primeval forest in the vicinity of Morské Oko the third largest natural lake in Slovakia is one of the most easily accessible old forests in Slovakia The Vihorlatský Les forest nature forest on the border of the Humenné one of the five Slovak components included in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List as Old Beech Forests and Beech Forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe is an extensive complex of beech trees stretching along the main crest of the Vihorlatské vrchy up to the Nežabec massif As stated by the director of the Vihorlat Protected Landscape Area Administration "This mountain range is a range of contrasts interesting reserves with rare flora and fauna bogs and many other natural features," she said According to Argalášová the reserve's beech forests are characterised by a low representation of spruce and fir These trees naturally occur only in the Jedlinka area there are mainly homogeneous beech trees of a forest-like nature with a mixture of mountain maple "During the mapping of primeval forests the thickest circumference of the trunk was measured at 357 centimetres for the beech in the vicinity of Morské oko and 293 centimetres for the mountain maple," she added the beeches provide a home for animals of European importance the fire salamander and the Carpathian blue slug The total area of ​​this territory of worldwide importance is 2,160.544 hectares part of it lying in the military district of Valaškovce the reason why it is not accessible to the public "The rest of the territory is highly accessible through a network of educational and tourist trails well connected to one another," explained Argalášová The most visited educational trail is Morské oko – Sninský kamen – Sninské rybníky Morské oko was visited by almost 65,000 people you can see beautiful examples of beech trees with a forest-like character as well as examples of how natural communities are allowed to develop in this area without interference," the conservationist pointed out adding that the easy accessibility of the area is made possible by car access to the parking lot near Morské oko the educational trail through the Vihorlat beeches starting in Poruba pod Vihorlatom in the Michalovce district and ending at the Tri table saddle is also interesting "Here it is possible to admire how an endless natural cycle takes place without human intervention where old trees give way to new ones and they immediately grow in a suitable place," she concluded On the occasion of this year's 50th anniversary of the Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage along with the 30th anniversary of the inclusion of the first Slovak monuments in the World Heritage List the films Carpathian Beech Forests in Slovakia and Carpathians - Hidden Wealth are shown every Wednesday and Friday at Morské oko The Slovak part of the old beech forests and primeval forests of the Carpathians is located in Poloniny National Park and the Vihorlat protected area The shutdown of the Schneider meat-processing plant in the Czech city of Pilsen will leave 230 people jobless Production is slated to be moved outside the Czech Republic The Slovak investment group Penta bought the meat company in 2012 but it has never made it out of the red all production will be stopped and 230 employees will get notice another famous meat-producing brand will cease to exist in Pilsen after merely two years the local Zeman meat plant moved its production to the central-Bohemian town of Příbram Schneider meat products will continue to be sold there – only production will be moved abroad “Schneider products will remain strongly represented on the Czech market,” statutory representative of the plant told the Plzenský denník daily “The closing down of the meat factory will enable us to make production more effective and be ultimately more flexible in fulfilling clients’ requirements.“ Schneider is under heavy pressure form its rival brand which belongs to the Agrofert group owned by the Czech tycoon Andrej Babiš Since Penta acquired the meat processing plant in 2012 the annual turnover of the plant was around three billion Czech crowns (app €330,000,000) and profit CZK36 million (about €3,960,000) In 2015 – the last year for which data are available – the turnover was CZK1.4 billion (€154,000) and the company recorded a loss of CZK40 million (€4,400,000) The Pilsen plant has been making a loss every year since 2012 profit from the previous period has been accumulated by the company to the sum of CZK461 million (€5,710,000) Mäsokombinát Plzeň belongs to the Carnibona group through which Penta associates has investments in the meat-processing industry Penta also owns the Mecom company with a plant in the eastern/central-Slovak towns of Humenné and Lučenec and the Hungarian brand Kaiser Food with production factories in Solnok and Békescsaba Mecom – the biggest meat-processing trust in Slovakia with 800 employees – also presented Penta with a struggle and the revenues have only been increasing in the past four years Mecom also then recorded a small profit of €78,000 – for the first time the company faced a bankruptcy proposal but the Prešov District Court refused it as unjustified because Mecom proved its liquidity The bankruptcy proposal was filed by the then-business partner of Mecom from the Ukraine which is in legal dispute with Penta concerning money The Košice Regional Court confirmed the decision of not announcing the bankruptcy as correct and turned down the appeal of the Ukrainians they filed a new proposal for bankruptcy involving the Humenné-based plant at the beginning of May Disclaimer: The Penta financial group has a 45-percent ownership share in Petit Press Rhone Poulenc Slovakia Holding announced on November 3 that it had obtained a 43% stake in Chemlon Humenne formerly held by the state-owned Chemes Humenne Rhone Poulenc had previously owned 57% of Chemlon said that Rhone Poulenc had obtained the shares via a tender for their purchase announced by the state privatisation agency the National Property Fund (FNM) in August.The company plans to invest some 500 million Sk ($14 million) in Chemlon in the near future The investment projects embrace modernization of fibers for tires and new production units for the production of fibers for airbags the general director of chemical textile firm Chemlon Humenné expects to see big results from merger.TASR the National Property Fund (FNM) in August The company plans to invest some 500 million Sk ($14 million) in Chemlon in the near future "Chemlon was bought out by its major shareholder," said Viktor Levkanič an analyst at Bratislava brokerage firm Slavia Capital "Such an acquisition could have been expected Rhone Poulenc fulfilled certain criteria to get the stake and it has contracted to invest in the company." Chemlon made a gross profit of 67 million Sk ($1.86 million) on sales of 3.4 billion Sk ($94 million) The nine-month export volume of the company accounted for 96% of its total sales of which the Czech Republic represented a 30% share Chemlon exports its products also into EU-member countries which the company attributed to competition and to the fact that raw material costs had risen more quickly than sales prices Chemlon Humenne has now been integrated into the polyamide division of the company Rhodia which controls Rhone Poulenc through the firm Filtec Rhodia is engaged in the production and sale of chemically engineered fibers Chemlon products are used in the production of textiles for tires and other vulcanized products the company was awarded an International Standards Organisation (ISO) 9002 quality certificate for its technical fiber and in 1996 received another award for tire cords The presence of barrels containing toxic waste was officially confirmed after Chemko Strážske went bankrupt Firefighters from Humenné started removing barrels containing toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from a piggery situated in the former compounds of the Chemko Strážske chemical company They are addressing the emergency situation declared in the locality in early 2020 The main objective of the rescue works is to extract dangerous substances currently situated in the former piggery load the barrels with the PCBs and contaminated soil and subsequently place them into containers certified for storing this kind of waste “These are hermetically sealed containers from which substances cannot leak into the surrounding environment,” said Environment Minister Ján Budaj (OĽaNO) who visited the site in person on November 5 The filled containers will be stored in the facility until the Environment Ministry signs a contract with a company capable of disposing of the substances It could take some two weeks to remove the corroded barrels from the piggery said Interior Minister Roman Mikulec (OĽaNO) The Interior Ministry has allocated €500,000 for the rescue works in Chemko Strážske for now firefighters are expected to start with the elimination of the so-called source the place in the nearby enclosure where the currently unknown number of barrels with PCBs and other toxic substances are stored under the ground Some barrels are said to be stored safely in the third building which is why they will be kept there until the firefighters dispose of all other barrels with toxic substances removed from the compounds during the rescue works “This is the first step to help people in this region eliminate what has concerned them for years,” Mikulec said The storage of hundreds of tonnes of PCBs in the buildings of the former Chemko Strážske company had not been officially confirmed for years This happened only after the company went bankrupt in 2009 and the industrial compound underwent state inspection The state authorities officially confirmed the presence of toxic substances at the site a decade later The promise to eliminate the toxic substances near Strážske and the Poša sludge bed is also part of the government’s programme statement THE VIHORLAT Museum in the eastern Slovak town of Humenné has opened its Carpathian Easter Egg (Karpatská kraslica) exhibition for the 18th year THE VIHORLAT Museum in the eastern Slovak town of Humenné has opened its Carpathian Easter Egg (Karpatská kraslica) exhibition for the 18th year artists from Slovakia and neighbouring countries will present 66 different collections of more than 2,000 eggs decorated in both traditional and novel ways “Foreign countries are represented by 15 collections by authors from Poland these are really Carpathian Easter eggs,” Vasil Fedič visitors will be able to see thousands of eggs “The exhibition is also a competition – a jury consisting of artists teachers at art schools and experts from the Vihorlat Museum – will choose the five best authors Collections of ten or more eggs will be evaluated according to certain criteria for instance the use of new artistic elements and the long-term contribution to preserving this folk tradition,” Fedič explained adding that only Slovak authors can take part in the competition People visiting the exhibition will also be able to learn about several techniques used for decorating and painting eggs which are showcased within the museum’s ‘little school of decorating’ Carson Briere has signed for a team in Slovakia following the infamous wheelchair incident a video went viral of Briere shoving an unoccupied wheelchair down a staircase at a bar Briere was temporarily suspended from the Mercyhurst University men’s hockey team Carson Briere will no longer be playing NCAA hockey and instead has signed with HC 19 Humenne The team was formed in 2019 and won the Slovak 1 HC 19 Humenne plays in a 4,500-seat arena and features NHL draft pick Alexander Avtsin Avtsin was drafted in the fourth round in 2009 by the Montreal Canadiens Ladislav Scurko was also drafted in the sixth round in 2004 by the Flyers but never played a game in the NHL last season at Mercyhurst he recorded 13 points in 30 games he played in 82 games and recorded 59 points the son of former NHL player and Philadelphia Flyers GM Daniel Briere He was also charged by the Erie County Police for the stunt after the wheelchair’s owner filed a complaint listing extensive damage to her chair Following the incident and getting kicked off the team, Briere released a statement through the Philadelphia Flyers: The news was also shocking for Danny Briere who said in a statement he was stunned by his son's actions: We will see if Carson Briere can put this event behind him and focus on his career Wayne Gretzky’s wife Janet responds to critics questioning his loyalty to Canada Bobby Orr's support following 4 Nations drama Your perspective matters!Start the conversation