Rudolf Viest Rudolf Viest ( * 24 September 1890 , Revúca , Austria - Hungary † 1945 ? , Flossenbürg concentration camp ? , Germany ) , was a Slovak military leader , member of the Czechoslovak government in exile , member of the Slovak National Council and the commander of the 1st Czechoslovak army during the Slovak National Uprising . He was Slovak with the highest military function and the only one Slovak general during the interwar period in the first Czechoslovak republic . Family . His father Gustáv Viest was a craftsman , later he was an employee of town office . His mother Jana ( born Grnáčová ) came from a family of tailors . He has two brothers ( Ivan and Dušan ) and two sisters ( Oľga and Anna ) . He studied at local elementary Lutheran school and later at high school in Revúca . His older brother Ivan studied in Budapest . Whole family moved to Budapest in 1905 after death of their father . Their household became a place where several nationally conscious people met in time of their studies . He studied building construction and worked shortly for construction company in Budapest . In October 1911 , he joined army as a volunteer in 7th infantry regiment in Graz . He finished his military service and became a cadet on September 1 , 1912 . First World War . He joined army again during general mobilization on August 1 , 1914 . He started as a commander of squad and continued as a commander of company since November 1914 . He was captured during Russian offensive near Krakow on November 24 , 1944 . Because of his strong Slavic feeling , he joined the Serbian army on August 1 , 1915 , then he fought with Serbian volunteers regiment against Bulgarians . He was injured but after healing he returned to Serbian units . On February 1917 , he requested to be assigned to Belgorod to forming Czechoslovak legions . From June 1917 , he served as a second lieutenant and organized the recruitment of volunteers . In 1919 , he became commander of Czechoslovak camp for Slovaks in Irkutsk . New soviet government did not allow to return legionaries to home by the shortest way and Viest with others had to fought his way home cross Siberia . He returned home through Japan , USA and Canada in 1920 . Czechoslovakia . When he returned to Czechoslovakia , he entered general staff course and started professional career as a major . He graduated at Military Academy in Prague . In interwar period , he worked on several military and diplomatic positions ( military attaché in Hungary and Poland ) and intelligence services . In 1933 he was promoted to the position of brigadier general and in 1938 to division general . He was the first and the only one Slovak who reached position of general in the interwar Czechoslovak Army . After Munich Agreement in 1938 , he disagreed with radicalization of political scene in Slovakia and with negative events like formation of Hlinka Guard and seditious anti - Czech propaganda . As a Slovak with the highest position in the army , he was delegated by central government for negotiations with Hungary in Komárno led by new prime minister of autonomous Slovakia Jozef Tiso . Viest warned him about negative impacts of radicalization to the security of the state . According to Viest ' s memoir , general Lev Prchala offered him to perform military cataclysm and take power in November 1938 , but Viest considered it too dangerous because formation of borders was not finished yet . Slovak Republic . Rudolf Viest belonged to a group of anti - Fascist officers and was against the break - up of Czechoslovakia into Slovakia and the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . In March 14 , 1939 , he signed memorandum against creation of Slovak republic delivered to The Slovak Assembly shortly after declaration of independence . New regime did not persecuted him , but offered him function of inspector - general of the Slovak Army . He accepted function after promise of minister of defense Ferdinad Čatloš that he will not be in contact with Germans . He was keeping contact with the Czechoslovak government - in - exile in London and he was member of resistance movement " Obrana národa " ( Defense of Nation ) . In the same time he contributed high sum for economic development of the First Slovak Republic . Hungary which was not satisfied with gains from the First Vienna Award attacked Slovakia on March 23 , 1939 . Viest became member of common Slovak - Hungarian commission which was responsible for establishing new border . According to his memoirs , he finally decided to emigrate during escalation of German - Polish conflict in August 1939 . He used for this purpose official meeting of commission in Budapest ( August 28 , 1939 - September 2 , 1939 ) . He get visa from Romanian embassy in Budapest and moved to Bucharest where he obtained false French passport from French embassy with the help of his Czechoslovak contact . Due to his function of general inspector he had access to all secret materials , however investigation did not prove that he took any of them . Viest was sentenced to death , degradation to the lowest army position and lost of state citizenship on March 28 , 1942 . Exile . On September 13 , he came to Paris . He became a member of Czechoslovak national committee and commander of the exile Czechoslovak army . Since January 1 , 1940 , he was commander of the Czechoslovak Army Ground Forces , later transformed to the 1st Czechoslovak Division in France . After the Nazi occupation of France in June 1940 , he moved to Britain and joined Edvard Beneš on July 10 , 1939 . On October 10 , 1940 , he became member of Council of State and minister on October 27 , 1940 . On May 8 , 1940 , he became deputy of minister of national defense in Czechoslovak government - in - exile . Slovak National Uprising . On May 8 , 1944 , Czechoslovak representatives and Soviet Union signed agreement which guaranteed that Soviet Union will pass administration of liberated territory to exile government in London . Rudolf Viest became deputy of delegate for liberated territory responsible for this task . On August 1944 , he flew with the Czechoslovak delegation to the Soviet Union . After raise of Slovak National Uprising , Ján Golian became the commander of the 1st Czechoslovak Army in Slovakia and urged government - in - exile to send Viest to support uprising . He came to Slovakia during night on October 6 – 7 , 1944 and became official commander of uprising . On October 13 , 1944 he became member of the Slovak National Council . In the time of his arrival , it was already unrealistic to achieve original goals of uprising which started in the worst variant . On October 18 , 1944 , Germans started general offensive focused on elimination of rebelling territory . Viest issued final order to switch to guerrilla warfare during the night from 27 to 28 October in Donovaly . This order had only symbolic value . Army as an organized unit already did not exist in that time and order was not delivered to all troops because of missing communication lines . Viest tried to get from German encirclement and get closer to connection to Red Army . On 3 November 1944 , he was captured with Golian in Pohronský Bukovec . They were taken to Banská Bystrica and then to Bratislava . On November 10 , 1938 they were transported to Vienna on Himmler ' s order and then taken to Berlin . There were investigated by SS - Reichssicherheitshauptamt in prison on Prinz - Albert - Straße , however Germans treated them decently and with particular care . During the entire period Viest declared support for restoration of Czechoslovakia and democracy . The last moments of his life are unclear . He probably died with other Slovak Generals ( Augustín Malár , Ján Golian and Štefan Jurech ) in Flossenbürg concentration camp in 1945 . Even if administration in camp worked until April 1945 , records about execution of Slovak generals are missing . It is possible that they survived war and died after transfer to Soviet Union . After his death , he was honored in memoriam with the Order of Slovak national uprising 1st class ( 1945 ) , Czechoslovak military cross ( 1945 ) , as well with many other Czechoslovak or foreign medals . In 1945 , he was promoted in memoriam to the position of army general . Honors . Czechoslovak : Slovak : Czech : Polish : Yugoslavian : Serbian : French : British :