German forces broke the Uprising and reoccupied the town, and through the winter of 1944–45 the front line stood in the Liptov basin; the fighting around Liptovský Mikuláš, a short way east, was among the hardest on Slovak soil. German units and the Hlinka Guard hunted partisans and the people who had fed and hidden them in the valleys of the Veľká Fatra and the Low Tatras — the hills that make this a beautiful place to walk were, for one winter, the reason families were shot. Ružomberok was taken on 5 April 1945 by troops of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps, fighting as part of the Soviet 4th Ukrainian Front: Czech and Slovak soldiers coming home in Soviet uniform, which is the shape of the ending almost everywhere in the north.Nemecké vojská povstanie zlomili a mesto znovu obsadili; cez zimu 1944 – 1945 stál front v Liptovskej kotline a boje o neďaleký Liptovský Mikuláš patrili k najťažším, aké sa na slovenskej pôde viedli. Nemecké jednotky a Hlinkova garda stíhali partizánov a ľudí, čo ich v dolinách Veľkej Fatry a Nízkych Tatier živili a ukrývali — hory, pre ktoré sa sem dnes chodí na turistiku, boli jednu zimu dôvodom, prečo strieľali celé rodiny. Ružomberok oslobodili 5. apríla 1945 jednotky 1. československého armádneho zboru, ktorý bojoval v zväzku sovietskeho 4. ukrajinského frontu: českí a slovenskí vojaci sa vracali domov v sovietskych uniformách, a tak sa vojna skončila takmer všade na severe.
