mid-1944 · autumn 1944 · 18 January 1945 Partisans, and three months of front linePartizáni a tri mesiace frontu

The Communist Party worked illegally in Giraltovce through the war, and from the middle of 1944 the partisan group Čapajev, led by Ľudovít Kukorelli, operated in these hills — one of the first significant partisan centres in eastern Slovakia. In the autumn the Carpathian–Dukla operation drove the front into the Ondava Highlands, and then it stuck: the Germans held the ridges through the winter and Giraltovce lay in the fighting zone for three months. The town was finally taken on 18 January 1945 by the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps and the Red Army, during the West Carpathian offensive. What was left was rebuilt, which is why the centre is a town of the second half of the twentieth century.Komunistická strana pracovala v Giraltovciach počas vojny ilegálne a od polovice roka 1944 pôsobila v tunajších kopcoch partizánska skupina Čapajev pod velením Ľudovíta Kukorelliho — jedno z prvých významných partizánskych stredísk na východnom Slovensku. Na jeseň zatlačila karpatsko-duklianska operácia front do Ondavskej vrchoviny a tam sa zasekol: Nemci držali hrebene celú zimu a Giraltovce ležali tri mesiace v bojovom pásme. Mesto bolo napokon oslobodené 18. januára 1945 vojakmi 1. československého armádneho zboru a Červenej armády v rámci západokarpatskej operácie. Čo zostalo, postavili nanovo — preto je centrum mestom druhej polovice 20. storočia.