1944 – 28 January 1945 The uprising, and the frontPovstanie a front

The Slovak National Uprising broke out on 29 August 1944 and German troops moved into Spiš within days. The rising held longest in the mountains of central Slovakia; in this basin it was over quickly, though partisan groups worked out of the Tatra forests until the end. As the front came closer, the German-speaking population of Spiš was evacuated westward over the winter of 1944–45. On 28 January 1945 troops of the Soviet 18th Army took Poprad. Podolinec had fallen three days earlier and Kežmarok the day before: the war crossed the basin in under a week.Slovenské národné povstanie vypuklo 29. augusta 1944 a nemecké vojská vstúpili na Spiš v priebehu niekoľkých dní. Najdlhšie sa povstanie držalo v horách stredného Slovenska; v tejto kotline bolo rýchlo po ňom, hoci partizánske skupiny pôsobili v tatranských lesoch až do konca. Ako sa blížil front, nemecké obyvateľstvo Spiša cez zimu 1944 – 1945 evakuovali na západ. 28. januára 1945 obsadili Poprad vojaci sovietskej 18. armády. Podolínec padol tri dni predtým a Kežmarok o deň skôr: vojna prešla kotlinou za necelý týždeň.