Sereď Holocaust Museum

The Holocaust Museum was established in the premises of the former labor and concentration camp in Sereď. It represents an authentic site related to the tragic period of the "Jewish Question" in Slovakia during World War II. The museum exhibits period documents, photographs, and items related to the persecution of Jews in Slovakia. One of the displayed artifacts is a cattle car that was used to deport Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The exhibition complex is located in five original buildings of the labor and concentration camp for Jews. The museum also serves as a memorial to the Jews murdered in Slovakia, with approximately 16,000 passing through the Sereď camp, the majority of whom were killed during the Holocaust.

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, the Slovak National Museum – Museum of Jewish Culture in Bratislava completed the final part of the permanent exhibition of the Holocaust Museum in Sereď, barrack No. 2. This part of the exhibition focuses on the camps, centers, and ghettos across Slovakia, including those in the southern occupied regions. It also specifically examines the Jews in the so-called 6th Labor Battalion and the persecutions that took place in Slovakia during the Holocaust, such as those in Kremnička and Nemecká. The newly opened barrack also includes a Memorial – a remembrance room where visitors can listen to the names of those deported from Slovakia and a space where they can leave their thoughts or wishes written on paper.

The exhibition has been under development since 2015. Its content was consulted with leading Slovak historians, experts from Israel, and survivors who went through the labor and concentration camp in Sereď, or survived the horrors of the Holocaust. The team of curators from the Museum of Jewish Culture in Bratislava (M.A. Michal Vaněk, PhD., Mgr. Matej Beránek, PhD., Mgr. Eva Poláková, PhD., PhDr. Stanislava Šikulová, Mgr. Andrea Demeterová, Mgr. Kristína Dublanová, Mgr. Marián Naster, Mgr. Jana Schreiberová) was led by the chief curator, Prof. PhDr. Pavol Mešťan, DrSc., and the responsible curator, PhDr. Martin Korčok, PhD., who were also the authors of the script and concept. The design and implementation of the exhibition were created by N&Vdesign, s. r. o., led by Milan Veselý and Nina Veselej-Cohen.

In the first part of the exhibition, opened in 2016, visitors can learn about the Holocaust in Slovakia and the deportations of Slovak Jews to Nazi extermination camps. The exhibition remembers the fates of those who were murdered, the few who survived, and the rescuers honored with the title "Righteous Among the Nations." Since 2018, barrack No. 3 has been part of the visitor circuit, presenting a scenographic depiction of life in the Sereď camp, where Jews were forced to work for the state, which had stripped them of their civil rights, imprisoned them, and ultimately deported them.

The completion of the permanent exhibition of the Holocaust Museum in Sereď was a commitment made by the government in its program declaration. It was funded by the budget of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic and partially by the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic. The reconstruction of the buildings and the area of the labor camp in Sereď began in 2009. The total amount allocated for the realization of the entire project was 7.5 million euros, and 13 new jobs were created.

The opening of the Holocaust Museum exhibition in Sereď was attended by Holocaust survivors. The museum's educational center continues to collaborate with many of them in educating youth and representatives from various professions. The main goal of these activities is to remember the victims of the Holocaust and to fight against antisemitism, racism, and xenophobia.