By 1944 the Slovak State had moved the main headquarters of its gendarmerie — the state police — to this town. When the Slovak National Uprising broke out on 29 August 1944, that headquarters joined it, and the police command of a whole country went over to the insurgents. Turčianske Teplice became the seat of a Revolutionary National Committee and of an insurgent military hospital. The Turiec was one of the heartlands of the rising; when German units forced their way into the basin that autumn the fighters withdrew into the Veľká Fatra, and the reprisals fell on the villages under the hills — the castle at Sklabiňa was burnt out and has been a ruin ever since. The town was liberated on 8 April 1945, was later awarded the Commemorative Medal of the Slovak National Uprising, and keeps its monument to the fallen and to the victims of the rising below the hill called Bôr.V roku 1944 sídlilo v meste hlavné veliteľstvo žandárstva Slovenského štátu — teda vedenie štátnej polície. Keď 29. augusta 1944 vypuklo Slovenské národné povstanie, toto veliteľstvo sa k nemu pripojilo a policajné velenie celej krajiny prešlo na stranu povstalcov. Turčianske Teplice sa stali sídlom Revolučného národného výboru aj povstaleckej nemocnice. Turiec bol jedným z jadier povstania; keď do kotliny na jeseň vtrhli nemecké jednotky, bojovníci ustúpili do Veľkej Fatry a represálie dopadli na dediny pod kopcami — hrad Sklabiňa vyhorel a odvtedy je zrúcaninou. Mesto oslobodili 8. apríla 1945, neskôr dostalo Pamätnú medailu SNP a pomník padlým a obetiam povstania mu stojí pod vrchom Bôr.
