After the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising in the autumn of 1944, American special operatives from the Office of Strategic Services came to Central Slovakia, together with British Allies, to aid the partisans and assist downed Allied airmen trapped behind enemy lines.
As German forces moved to suppress the uprising, the American and British commandos hid in a cottage in the hills above Polomka where local Slovak citizens risked their lives to help them survive in the mountains. Nazi forces later found them and sent them to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria where they were tortured and killed. Ambassador Brink, together with the British Deputy Head of Mission and Defense State Secretary Marian Majer honored their memory at a ceremony in Polomka.
