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Labor camp in Slovakia. Vyhne was established in early 1940 to house 326 Jewish refugees from Prague who had been imprisoned in Sosnowiec, Poland. The group was brought to Slovakia by the Slovak Jewish Center, especially through the efforts of Gisi Fleischmann. Ultimately, most of the 326 successfully reached Palestine.
In March 1942 the Germans began the mass deportation of Slovak Jewry. At that point, the Jewish Center asked the Slovak government to establish camps where Jews could work and be spared from deportation. The first two camps to be used as such were Novaky and Sered; soon Vyhne was also turned into a Jewish work center. The Jews at these camps showed the Germans how valuable they were as workers; in Vyhne they developed a productive textile industry. In addition, the conditions at the camp were not bad: the prisoners received adequate food rations, the children there had a school, and the inmates were even allowed to leave the camp from time to time.
When the Slovak National Uprising erupted in August 1944, Vyhne was liberated. Many of the young inmates left to join the revolt, while most others found refuge in the areas of Slovakia liberated during the uprising.