73 Jewish old-age home

The Jewish old-age home. The functionalist building was built in 1934 by the Israelite Women's Association according to a design by the architect Michal Maximilian Scheer. The aim of the society was charity, especially helping the Jewish poor, widows, orphans and the elderly. In 1940, the building was taken over by the "Central Office of the Jews, District Branch in Žilina". In 1944, the first two refugees from Auschwitz-Birkenau, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, hid in the old-age home. They wrote an extensive report on what happened to the Jews in Auschwitz between 1942 and 1944. After 1945, the building was used to house returnees from the concentration camps. Today it is the headquarters of the Jewish Religious Community and also houses the Vrba and Wetzler Memorial Room.