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(from www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205969.pdf)
Nováky was a labor camp in central Slovakia. The first Jews were brought to Nováky in late 1941, but the camp expanded greatly in 1942, when the Germans began the mass deportation of Slovak Jews. Nováky was created due to the efforts of the Slovak Jewish Center, which had petitioned the Slovak government to establish camps where Jews could work and be spared from deportation.
Nováky, one of the largest labor camps in Slovakia, held 1,600 Jewish prisoners. Most were skilled craftsmen and carpenters who worked in workshops. The prisoners ran their own school, medical clinics, and welfare institutions, and cultural activities such as drama, religious studies, and sports were allowed.
As the Final Solution took shape, the resulting increase in deportation of Slovak Jews led to transformations in the utilization of the Slovak labor camps. Sered, Vyhne, and Nováky were now used to serve the deportation policy, and a number of buildings in Sered and Nováky functioned as a concentration camp, separated from the labor camp by boundaries and supervised by armed guards. In June 1943, there were more than 3,000 Jews in these camps, and some 650 Jews served as forced labor in various labor centers.
Nováky was liberated in August 1944 during the Slovak National Uprising. Over 200 inmates from the camp joined the rebels, and 35 were killed in the fighting.