1944–1945 Partisans in the hills above the townPartizáni v kopcoch nad mestom

When the Slovak National Uprising began on 29 August 1944, a partisan unit was formed in the town itself — the Nová Baňa detachment. The Uprising's capital, Banská Bystrica, fell to the German army on 27 October, and the fighters who were left took to the hills, including the wooded ridges of the Štiavnica range and the Vtáčnik above this stretch of the river. The German answer was reprisal against the villages that fed them: up the Kľak valley beyond Žarnovica, two whole villages were burned and about 148 people killed on 21 January 1945. The front reached the Hron valley in the spring of 1945.Keď sa 29. augusta 1944 začalo Slovenské národné povstanie, sformoval sa priamo v meste partizánsky Novobanský oddiel. Povstalecké hlavné mesto Banská Bystrica padlo Nemcom 27. októbra a tí, čo zostali v zbrani, odišli do hôr — aj do zalesnených chrbtov Štiavnických vrchov a Vtáčnika nad týmto úsekom rieky. Nemeckou odpoveďou bola odveta voči dedinám, ktoré ich živili: v Kľakovskej doline za Žarnovicou vypálili 21. januára 1945 dve celé obce a zabili asi 148 ľudí. Na jar 1945 dorazil na Pohronie front.