Increasing Slovak partisan activity triggered a German invasion on 29 August 1944. The partisans responded by launching a full-scale uprising. The insurgents seized a large portion of central Slovakia but were defeated by the end of October. Einsatzgruppe H, one of the SS death squads, was formed to deport or murder the estimated 25,000 Jews remaining in Slovakia. Einsatzgruppe H was aided by local collaborators, including SS-Heimatschutz, Abwehrgruppe 218, and the Hlinka Guard Emergency Divisions. Most of the Jews who were exempted from the 1942 deportations lived in western Slovakia, but following the invasion many fled to the mountains.