Okresný ľudový súd v Kežmarku

The fonds contains various case files pertaining the persecution of Jews in Slovakia (1938-1945). One file contains the information on the so called aryanisation of the company in Spišská Belá. Two separate case files contain the information on the Kommando ZbV 27 which operated in this area in 1944. Two other files concern former members of the SS, who served as guards in concentration camps Buchenwald and Auschwitz. There is also information on persecution of Roma in the fonds. One file contains information on the murder of Roma in the forest near Nová Lesná in September 1944. Following Second World War trials with Nazi criminals and their collaborators were organized on the territory of restored Czechoslovakia just like in many other European countries of those days. Three-tier retributive justice system was established in the Slovak part of post-war Czechoslovakia by the Regulation of the Slovak National Council no. 33/1945 on the Punishment of Fascist Criminals, Occupants, Traitors and Collaborators and on the Establishment of People’s Judiciary. District People’s Courts (Okresný ľudový súd), which were established at district seats with the jurisdiction over the territory of specific districts represented the second tier within the system of the retributive judiciary in Slovakia. Within their jurisdiction fall all criminal offenses stipulated by the Regulation No. 33/1945 with the exception of cases under the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Court (which tried only the leading officials of former Slovak Republic (1939-1945)). A 5-member Senates of District People´s Courts, consisting of a Senate president and four members decided cases. The Senate president and his deputy had to be professional judges. Printed inventory: Retribučné súdy a orgány obžaloby na Spiši 1945-1945, available in the Researchers´ room of the archive.