He was born on 26 January 1906 in
Dombóvár in today's territory of
Hungary. His parents were native Slovaks who came from
Šurany.
He studied at the Military Academy in
Hranice, in 1927 received the rank of
lieutenant of artillery. In 1937 he received the rank of captain. He served as a staff officer in
Trenčín. Belonged to a group of an anti-Nazi oriented officers. Since January 1944 he was appointed chief of staff of the Slovak Ground Forces in
Banská Bystrica, where he gathered a group of influential anti-Nazi oriented officers sustaining contact with the
Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London.
He was the supreme military leader of the uprising from 27 April 1944 (while the uprising was still in preparation) until the arrival of Division General
Rudolf Viest on 7 October 1944. After the start of the Slovak National Uprising on 29 August 1944 Golian took command of the Slovak forces in central Slovakia, from the headquarters in
Banská Bystrica. His units should serve only as a support for two Slovak divisions in eastern Slovakia which should secure connection with Soviet
Red Army. However, organization of the resistance army in the eastern Slovakia failed and German forces disarmed both Slovak divisions without resistance. From the beginning of September Golian along with his staff organized the defence of the Slovak units encircled in central Slovakia. According to the testimony of his Chief of staff Major
Július Nosko, Golian assumed that the resistance defence against the German attacks could not last more than 14 days.[3] On 7 October 1944 Golian was replaced in command of the resistance army forces by general Viest. Afterwards, General Ján Golian served as Viest's deputy. Despite fierce fighting, the outnumbered and surrounded resistance army could not resist the well-equipped and better trained German forces. When Viest and Golian ordered their remaining units to start a guerrilla war on 27 October 1944, they did not know that it would be the last order they issued. Both Generals were captured by German special forces on 3 November 1944 in
Pohronský Bukovec. He was detained in the
Flossenbürg concentration camp, but all information about what happened to him in the last days of the war vanished.[4] It is believed that he was tortured and then murdered in Flossenbürg together with General Viest. Golian was officially listed as missing for 2 years after the war.
^
abAt that time, this rank corresponded to major general.
^Segeš, V. (Ed.), Baka, I., Čaplovič, M., Cséfalvay, F., Dnagl, V., Maskalík, A., Purdek, I., Štaigl, J. & Štefanský, M., 2007, Slovakia Military Chronicle. Perfekt, Bratislava, p. 129 (in English)
^Nosko J., 1994, Takto bojovala povstalecká armáda. (Thus fought the resistance army) NVK International, spol. s.r.o., Bratislava, p. 46 (in Slovak)
^Jablonický, J., 2004, Samizdat o odboji. Štúdie a články. 1. (Samizdat about resistance. Articles and studies. 1) Kalligram, Bratislava, 528 pp. (in Slovak)
