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THE TRAGEDY
of
SLOVAK JEWRY
in SLOVAKIA

by Louis Mandel

NEW YORK, NY

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Recommendation

This pamphlet contains the story of Mr. Louis Mandel's “Life” under the Nazi occupation of Slovakia and of the annihilation of 67,000 Slovak Jews including about fifty members of his family.

Horrible tales of primitive bestiality of the Nazi hordes and their Slovak Fascist helpers – almost unconceivable to a civilized mind – are reported here in a simple way, and with the air of full credibility.

The sufferings of the Jewish people under Hitler's rules should not be forgotten. Again and again should they be brought with all the horrible details to the attention of those who close their eyes and do not want to see the progressing revival of Nazism.

This pamphlet, the dramatic outcry of a survivor's tormented soul, deserves to be heard by the civilized world.

 

AMERICAN COMMITTEE of JEWS from CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Affiliated with the
WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS
1834 Broadway (Room 267)
New York 23, N.Y.

 

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  “The anti-Semitism is according
to my opinion, an insult to non-Jews.
it harms them, and makes them appear
immoral and vulgar.”
Thomas G. Masaryk

 

The Tragedy
of Slovak Jewry in Slovakia

This volume contains 22 photographs which I gathered in Slovakia immediately after the liberation in the Spring of 1945. The material contained herein relates to the life and properties of some 100,000 persecuted persons. Four fifths of them were murdered by the Nazis in concert with the effective help of native collaborators. I took upon myself the duty to gather incriminating material concerning the character, extent consequences of the murders perpetrated in Slovakia by the Nazis and so called Hlinka-Guards…The material which I succeeded to bring to this country deals with the methods used by the Nazis while looting their victims. Specially, the book tells how the Nazis planned and subsequently executed the mass murder of Jewish population of Slovakia.

 

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How it happened that there was a mass murder
of more than 60,000 Jews during the Nazi era in Slovakia

One of the most orderly and most democratic states in Central and Eastern Europe after World War I was the first Pre-Munich Masaryk's Czechoslovak Republic. After the destruction of this great democracy by Hitler, a Protectorate was formed from Bohemia and Moravia and from forcibly separated Slovakia a so-called “Slovak State” was set up under the legal protection of Adolph Hitler. Another section taken by force from Czechoslovakia, Carpatho-Ruthenia, was given to Hungary. During the existence of this Slovak Nazi-Fascist State one of the most appalling human tragedies took place on the territory of Slovakia. More than 100,000 Jewish citizens were robbed of all their properties in the sum of 60 milliards of Czechoslovak Pre-Munich Crowns. More than 60,000 Jews were transported by the Hlinka Guards in line with the policies of the government of the Slovak Nazi State, headed by the Roman Catholic priest, Dr. Joseph Tiso. All these unfortunate Jewish victims lost their lives in the gas chambers of Poland and Germany.

Those people, who during the existence of the Slovak Nazi State, were eye witnesses of this terrible ordeal of the Jews, will never forget the awful and heart-rendering scenes when Hlinka Nazi Guards during night hours forced their way into the homes of un-suspecting Jewish citizens to take by force old, as well as young, yes, even pregnant women in birth pains, or even mothers who only a few hours ago gave birth. There were many cases where the sick could not even stand on their own feet. Yet even in these cases the Slovak Nazis did not display any human feeling. The sick were taken away too. There is no master of the pen who could describe truly the scenes which took place in Slovakia when the Slovak Nazis persecuted the Jews. It is hard to believe that there could be people who would in such a degree be willing and would freely with enthusiasm become

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tyrants and executioners of so many innocent people and whole families who did nothing wrong to them.

There is no complete statistics or numbers of Jews who lost their lives in the gas chambers. But it is certain that the number reached the total of 60,000. The death of such a number of innocent people deserves that we should briefly give a sketchy history of the beginning and the end of this awful march of death, perhaps, the saddest in the history of mankind.

This small publication should serve as a further contribution to an attempt to warn all democratic peoples of the free world that it is a duty of human society to prevent and destroy this horrible Nazi political ideology and her disciples everywhere and anytime on this earth. Today it is clear to every person that the greatest suffering in Europe was caused when Adolph Hitler flooded the world with his dreadful thinking and when he also formed the puppet Slovak State.

Let us look at the ideological beginning, the spread and the end of these Nazi political influences in Slovakia.

The origin of Slovak totalitarianism and the first rapproachment between Slovak and German Nazis.

The first seed of totalitarian political movement in Slovakia, which in the Post-Munich times in 1938, culminated in the Nazi Slovak State under the patronage of Adolph Hitler were sown into the Peoples' Party at the head of which stood as her “leader” a Roman Catholic Priest, Andrew Hlinka. Dictatorial sentiments of this man put Hlinka into opposition with all honest, democratic Slovak as well as Czechoslovak oriented builders of this political party. These fights in the party, led by glory-mad Hlinka culminated by having Hlinka bring Dr. Vojtech Tuka into the party.

Dr. Vojtech Tuka immediately after the ending of World War I began making contacts with the co-leaders of Adolph Hitler and General Ludendorf in hopes that with their help he might overthrow

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the Versailles Treaty and thus bring about the satisfaction of defeated Germany and Hungary. For that reason after World War I Dr. Tuka travelled several times to Munich and concretely began the study of the internal German Republic. He began to study Kapp's putch in the Munich brewery. And thus by this act and with these contacts began the first rapproachment between the Nazi criminals of German and Slovakia. Tuka on the basis of his experiences in Germany comes to a conclusion that it is necessary to create not only a political movement but also a terroristic and political army. Within the Peoples Party, at the head of which stood Andrew Hlinka with totalitarian inclinations, there were possibilities of forming these semi-military units with totalitarian tendencies. Dr. Tuka utilizes this fertile soil for his aims and after the Nazi example he founded a secret, illegal organization in Slovakia, which he called Rodobrana. This Tuka's organization later becomes the basis for the Hlinka Guard, in the framework of which this Rodobrana has a character of an elite group, precisely according to the German SS.

When the Peoples' Party first formulated concretely its autonomistic demands Hlinka as chairman of the party, named Dr. Vojtech Tuka to formulate this program. Tuka formulated this Slovak nationalistic program to conform with his Nazistic totalitarian concepts. The brochure, which was published in 1921, contained complete state separatism and Nazi irridentity which was masked by empty logistic phrases.

At the beginning of 1922 Dr. Tuka became the editor-in-chief of the official newspaper of the Peoples' Party “Slovak”. Thus Tuka became a very influential person in their press. He worked with the aim of having the decisive influence upon the young generation of newspapermen. For that purpose he changed his editorial office in “Slovak” to a seminar in a propaganda for his destructive political activity under the guise of Slovak nationalism. Tuka tried to influence youth and educate new young newspapermen in his spirit. In conjunction with this plan he began to organize Slovak youth. He was instrumental in setting up of a Catholic

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Student Assembly, “Svoradov”, which became a nest of the most destructive and most anti-democratic elements in Slovakia. One of the pupils of Tuka in the editorial offices of “Slovak” was Karol Sidor, Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach. Tuka was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor by the Czechoslovak court for his destructive Nazi activity and spying for the Nazi agents and their allies in Hungary and Germany. Mach was sentenced to 5 years.

After this incident a great upheaval occurred in the Hlinka Party. Many of the prominent Slovak democratic functionaries of the party protested against the destructive activities which took place due to Hlinka and Tuka but without success. The growing Peoples' Party Youth, led by Tuka's pupil Karol Sidor, who after Tuka's arrest even became his successor in the office of editor-in-chief of “Slovak” became exerting its influence in this fight. When taking into consideration this Youth movement, which was led by Sidor, it must be stated that in its early beginning it was closer in its makeup to Italian Fascism, which served as its example. But the growing strength of German Nazism and contacts with this Nazism in domestic policies as well as through agents with whom Tuka and Murgas made contacts after 1921, this movement was brought into the same channels as German Nazism. Hlinka, hungry after honors and with his totalitarian inclinations, easily fell into this Nazi political movement. How close were his incli8nations to the totalitarian Fuehrer principle in Andrew Hlinka can be seen best from the fact that in 1918 when he became the chairman of the Peoples' Party in Slovakia, he added to the name of the Party his own name and called it the Hlinka's People Party. When we study the beginning and the creation of the Fascist and Nazis movement in Europe we cannot escape from the fact that Hlinka was the first totalitarian leader in Central Europe and already in 1918 he had his own political party, and was an exponent of political totalitarianism.

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The German Influence on the Slovak Nazi Elements after 1938

After the beginning of 1938, when the German pressure in Europe became visibly stronger, the Nazi elements of the Hlinka party became inconsiderably aggressive. After that, these elements began to organize in the Nazi organization “Rodobrana” publicly and under all kinds of pretexts. Dr. Tuka began to organize the branches of Rodobrana even among the Slovaks in Vienna. This Rodobrana organized in Vienna was the first, led by SS men Klempa and Hesek, was transported by automobiles to Slovakia to begin terror and robbing of the democratically inclined Slovak citizens. As an aftermath of this, Hlinka's People's Party, after pressure by Hitler, when the Sudeten German question was being settled, took the governing and executive power into his own hands in Slovakia on October 6, 1938 and at that time the Party already had on hand semi-military formed groups. From these Hlinka Guards began to form together with other terroristic groups to destroy any attempt to set up any other political movement than the Hlinka Party. The founder and the first leader of this Hlinka Guard was Karol Sidor, his deputy was Alexander Mach and his chief of staff was Karol Murgas. In the framework of this organization they set up a separate section of the Hlinka Guard named The Academic Hlinka Guard, composed of students. At the head of this unit he named as leader an ultra fascist, Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum, who however loved better Italian Fascism than German Nazism.

After the so-called Zilina Pact, on October 6, 1938, which was forced upon the Slovak nation by political pressure of Germans, the different incidents occurred very rapidly. One of these was the discharge of Tuka from prison and his welcome by the Nazi elements as the biggest Slovak martyr. Several weeks later, December 5, 1938, Karol Sidor asked that the Hlinka Guard should be properly armed, even though there existed in Slovakia a regular army, organized from

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Slovaks of the former Czechoslovak Army. These Guard formations already on October 6, 1938, from the day that Hlinka party took over governing and executive power over Slovakia, began to rob, torture and terrorize Jews, Czechs, Sokols, Czechoslovak Legionaires, all those faithful to the ideals of Masaryk and to Czechoslovak democracy. On the territory of Slovakia under the aegis of the Hlinka Guards definitely disappeared all remains of legal and property rights. In those days the enemies of democracy destroyed the most beautiful and the most progressive democratic states in Eastern and Central Europe, which was established through the efforts of the United States and her president Woodrow Wilson on the basis of a modern, humanitarian and Western oriented democracy.

II.

The Munich Period and the Jews on the ceded territories of Southern Slovakia

After the so-called Zilina Pact on October 6, 1938, after the transfer of power in Slovakia to the Hlinka Peoples' Party and after the destruction of Czechoslovak democracy upon the direct pressure of Hitler and his agents, we were the witnesses of the Munich period on September 29, 1939.

There Hitler, Ribbentrop, Mussolini, Ciano, Chamberlain and Daladier ordered the Czechoslovak Government to cede the Sudeten lands and decided that there should be a further transfer of territories to Hungary and Poland after the consultation of the Nazi and Fascist leaders in Vienna.

The Slovak autonomous government even before it ceded the Southern Slovak territories to Hungary according to the Vienna Dictate, came upon a diabolical plan, how to get rid of the Jews and how to transport them from Slovakia.

The Government made a “historic” decision and that was to transfer to those lands all those Jews who are not important com-

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mercially, that is those Jews that the Slovak Government did not need either for commercial or industrial purposes. So the Slovak Government sent a telegram to all County Officials, National Committees, which were set up after the proclamation of Slovak Autonomy, to the Hlinka Guards and the Hlinka Party that Jews, not needed, were to be forced into trucks, which were taken from them, and on the day of transfer of the territory, to 12 o'clock midnight are to be shipped to the lands which are to be given to Hungary. Every Jew could take with him 60 kilograms of baggage and 500 Czechoslovak crowns. The rest was taken away from him. And here we witnessed a terrible pogrom. The leaders of the Hlinka Guards and the leading members of the Hlinka Party collected as many trucks as they could and went from house to house, to gather the Jews. They took men and women, old and young, small children, pregnant women, babies, 2 and 3 days old, sick women. There was an awful cry all over the land.

Thus they transported the Jews to the territories which were to be transferred to the Hungarians. This land was ceded with the Slovak Jews, with the understanding that these Jews are too remain in Hungary. This action of the Slovak Autonomous Government was not successful. The Hungarian Security Officials realized that this is a fraud and therefore, the Hungarian Government gave order that only those Jews, who lived and were born there, could remain on the territory they are to take over from the Slovak Government.

The Jews returned but into empty and destroyed homes.

It must be stated that the Germans did not mix into the Jewish question in Slovakia as yet. They at that time did not give any instructions or orders, as the Slovak Nazi Separatists now claim in excuses. The Slovak Nazi and Fascist Movement, which came to the forefront even before the Zilina Pact, proved conclusively that in the Post-Munich Republic it wanted to “settle” the Jewish question at all costs. Hitler's racist theories were the basis of the Slovak Fascism and Nazism from the days of Slovak Autonomy through the existence of the Slovak State as well as its fall in 1945.

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Hlinka's Guardists began an Anti-Jewish campaign in Slovakia with a slogan “With Sidor against the Jews”. This activity of the Hlinka Guards from October 6, 1938 to March 14, 1939 must be considered, even though this period belongs to the so-called Second Post-Munich Republic which was dismembered by Hitler because since October 1938 there was no liberty and democracy, even any order or were the rights of citizens guaranteed in that unhappy land. Everything that happened, since the time was occurring day after day under the influence of the growing German power in Europe. This is proved by the fact that Dr. Eduard Benes was forced by Hitler to resign from his office as president on October 5, 1038. This is how the first epoch of the human tragedy in Slovakia took place in the framework of the Post-Munich Republic. The second epoch of the terrible death march, which ended in the gas chambers of Germany and in Poland, belongs to the era that was completely Nazi during the so-called Slovak State.

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Beginning of the Slovak Nazi State

After the Munich verdict in September 1938, which decided that Czechoslovakia must cede the Sudeten Lands to Germany and after the Vienna conference of Germany, Italy and Hungary, that Hungary is to receive another part of Slovakia, the events followed rapidly. Hitler, after his promise that the annexation of the Sudeten territory satisfied his demands, began plans for immediate liquidation of Czechoslovakia. Several weeks after Munich his plans were known that he intended to annex Czechoslovakia to his Great Germany in a form of a Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the so-called Slovak State.

The German minority leaders in Bohemia and Slovakia with the help of the Czech and Slovak Nazi Quislings and under the direct command of Hitler's representatives, Seyss-Inquart, German State Secretary, Dr. Keppler, the District Leader Burkel and Hammerschmidt, began a systematic breakup of the Czechoslovak Republic, in order that the Germans could say that not they but the people of Czechoslovakia destroyed the Republic.

A free hand of the Nazi and Guardist elements in Slovakia against the defenseless democratic population and the idea of the so-called Slovak State was for the German aims one of the tactical and political weapons. Those who enriched themselves from stolen property of Jews and democratic Slovaks without punishment began to clamor for the Slovak State. A number of Slovak Nazi Quislags, who were willing to serve German Nazis, began to grow. After several weeks of propaganda of this idea, we see the first official visit of Slovak Nazi traitors with the German representatives of Hitler.

On March 7, 1939, at 6:00 p.m. Dr. Joseph Tiso and Karol Sidor made their first official visit with Seyss-Inquart and Ham-

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merschmidt. After that there were very frequent visits and conferences. Hitler began to put pressure upon the official circles in Praha and the tempo of incidents began to increase particularly by the activity of the Nazi and Fascist Students, headed by a young fanatical Fascist, Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum, then by the older German agents, Alexander Mach, Karol Murgas, Jan Farkas, Dr. B. Tuka, Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky and Konstantin Culen, who from the back began to incite the Nazi and pro-German elements into radical action. Upon pressure of Berlin there occurred a change in the anti-democratic Slovak autonomous government. On March 9, 1939 representatives of Adolph Hitler, State Secretary, Dr. Keppler, Reich's Vice leader Seyss-Inquart, District Leader Burkel and Hammerschmidt, arrived in Bratislava at night. In the government Building near the Danube they had a meeting with Karol Sidor, the Premier. Sidor promised that he would not do anything against the attempt to create the Slovak State. Dr. Tiso takes the initiative and leaves at the invitation of Hitler for Berlin. He returns on March 14th. Sidor calls the meeting of the Slovak Government and prepares a proclamation with his resignation. The head of the Government becomes Tiso and Sidor takes over the most important political ministry in this new government of the Slovak Nazi State, which is created under the patronage and the protection of Adolph Hitler. Officially Hitler concluded a so-called defense treaty with the new government. This act completed the destruction of the last remains of the Czechoslovak Republic.

 

Slovak Nazi State and the Deportation of Jews

With the creation of the Slovak Nazi State we witnessed not only the destruction of the democratic Czechoslovakia but we saw a tragedy of the death of thousands and tens of thousands of Slovak Jews and democratic citizens of Slovakia. The first act of the new government was to prepare a new constitution, according to which Slovakia becomes a “Slovak Republic” with a totalitarian political regime, with one political party and leader. Hlinka Guard, as a political organization, set up according to the German

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S.S. became the most important organ in the new Hitler created State. Anti0Jewish sentiment began to become stronger and stronger. Agitation appeared against all prominent democratic leaders. According to incomplete records, which the author has in USA, without any trail, or without any investigation, about 2,800 democratic, non-Jewish, citizens were taken to a concentration camp in Ilava. These were imprisoned for a long period of time, hung, often become sick and did not know why they were arrested.

The Jewish problem became more and more acute. The Slovak Parliament voted Racist Theories and the ill-famed Nuremberg Anti-Semitic Law, which were all merged under a special law, called “The Jewish Codex”. According to this law, every Jew was marked with a yellow star, which he had to display on a prominent place on his coat. A Jew could not be taken into employment without a special permit and he had no right to decide the amount of his compensation. In order to receive a working permit, a Jew had to pay a very large price. Jews lost all their properties. They were even robbed of their personal belongings, like clothes, etc. All Jewish property was distributed in accordance with the Jewish Codex to those who were considered reliable by the regime particularly to the Slovak Nazis, members of the Hlinka Party and members of the Hlinka Guard. Jews were to be placed into forced labor on the behest of the proper authorities and the Hlinka Guard.

 

The Concentration of the Jews into Labor Camps and Their Destruction

At the end of 1931 and beginning of 1932 officials began to confer about the concentration of all Jews into 16 principal labor camps since they lost all their properties. These camps were created in a number of communities of Slovakia. In these camps they are to be fed and then sent to forced labor. The pay was decided according to the type of work done. This pay was to be divided into three parts. One part is to go to the State Treasury, the second part is to be given to the Jew for food and the third

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part is to go into a special fund, from which all old and incapable Jews are to be maintained.

These plans were, however, changed and Jews were to be deported from Slovakia. Dr. Tuka, minister Mach and Dr. Kosso came with this idea. Their idea of the deportation of Jews they defended that the State would not have any unnecessary expense and work with them. They contended that if the work camps would remain, Slovakia would never rid itself of Jews. This new plan was against the constitution of the Slovak State and even against the Jewish Codex, since they did not think about deportation at the time these two documents were being prepared.

When the Slovak quislings introduced their new bill of forceful deportation from Slovakia, some representatives were not too enthused and at the beginning opposed it. Often some of those Nazi leaders who fled into the western Zones, when they defend themselves, claim that they were forced to adopt this law, because they were subjected to German pressure. This is not true as was discovered from the investigations and trials of the Slovak Nazi Leaders after World War II. Germans at the beginning opposed this new law. They claimed that the deportation of Jews to Poland and to Germany and their liquidation would mean the use of much transportation facilities which were necessary for the transportation of the German Armies and war material to the Eastern Front. Then again the execution of the liquidation problem would mean the use of much needed personnel and would cost considerable amounts. The Slovak Nazi Government countered the refusal of the Germans with a proposition that it is willing to pay all the expenses connected with this problem. Thus a treaty was negotiated, according to which for each Jew that the Germans take over from Slovakia, the Slovak Government is to pay 5,000 Slovak Crowns. This treaty, which was negotiated between Nazi Germany and the Slovak Nazi government, headed by Rev. Dr. Joseph Tiso, meant the loss thousands of lives of Slovak Jews.

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First Three Transports of Jews

After the treaty between Germany and Slovakia all necessary technical arrangements were made for the deportation of Jews. The principal executors of this plan were the Hlinka Guardists who picked up brutally, unmercifully and without exception all Jews, young and old, sick and even those who were in hospitals, brought them to concentration camps and from there by train transports sent them to Poland. The first three transports were sent from Bratislava, Zilina and Poprad.

When the first news about the fate of the deported Jews in Poland reached Slovakia, it spread throughout the land. The citizens who believed in democracy tried hard to help the Jews, they hid them in their homes, in cellars, in barns, in silos, etc.

Hundreds and thousands of Jews still remain in Slovakia who survived this tragedy and who for years were being hidden by patriotic Slovaks. This caused considerable consternation and antagonism against the Slovak Nazi Regime. A number of Catholic and Protestant leaders called upon Tiso and begged him not to permit this to go on. A number of Slovak Catholic priests called upon Dr. Tiso as upon a fellow-priest and asked him to stop the deportations and warned him against the possible results. The Slovak Lutheran Church through its two Bishops after a General Presbytery gave Dr. Tiso a memorandum, in which the church stated its position as to the racist theories, as to the torture of Jews and asked that further deportations be stopped in the name of humanity.

Dr. Joseph Tiso, in spite of all these memorandas, resolutions and personal interventions, said the following about the Jewish question:

“There are fears, for example, what is happening to the Jews, is not Christian. I say that it will be most Christian when we will put them completely in their place. They hurl at us, that we are destroying the principle of private property. They claim that we take radios from Jews. In life there are things more important

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than radios. Purportedly, we take business from Jews and that is not Christian, they claim. I say that it is Christian, because we take from the Jews, what they took from our people long ago…We are thus correcting a wrong and what they took, we are taking back…I say: if we want to defend our people, so that the Jews would not deprive them from their property, we must deprive him of the opportunity. We do not want that the peasant should be forced to go to a Jewish tavern, whose owner marks his debt on a tablet, then lets him sign a note and then goes to a Jewish banker and lawyer, then to the court and without force, without theft, without blood takes away the property of the poor Slovak peasant. Therefore, I want to defend the Slovak, and if I want to do this, I must break this Jewish chain. We must stop that, so that the Jews in future, armed with all kind of learning, will not be able to force themselves upon the Slovak people.

The new social and business order can be established only the when we will completely uproot the Jews from our national life and see to it that the Jews will never become a destructive element and will not become the bearers of the Marxist liberalistic ideas.”

This Tiso credo about the Jews was published in the official organ of the totalitarian party, the “Slovak”, in the issue No. 227 and was republished in a book, which was printed by Hlinka Slovak Peoples Party in Bratislava under the title “Tiso's teaching”, which was a reprint of articles, speeches and studies, arranged by University Professor, Dr. Polakovic.

 

The Principal Individuals Guilty of this Human Tragedy

No amount of pleading did not change the Nazi ruling class of Slovakia. The Slovak Nazi Guards conducted raids upon the Jews. They were caught by the Guards on the streets, in homes, in hospitals, taken to cattle trains and hungry, thirsty, without medical attention, were taken to places, from which there was to be no return. In the hearts of the Slovak democratic masses, faithful to the ideals of Masaryk, there grew resentment and anger toward

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the Nazi and Fascist totalitarian methods of the Slovak Government against those who carried the Hlinka Guard uniform, or who had any kind of a position with the Slovak Nazi Government of the Hlinka Party. This anger broke into the Slovak national revolution which came about against the Germans and the democratic Slovaks with the Czechoslovak Army began to clean house.

There are three types of those who are guilty for this gruesome cavalry of the Slovak Jews:

First Category:

Into this first group belong those who were the organizers of this idea of the Nazi and Fascist movement. Among individuals, they are:

  1. Dr. Vojtech Tuka, who was found guilty by a Czechoslovak democratic tribunal of justice before February 1948 and who was sentence to death by hanging.
  2. Karol Sidor, editor of Slovak and well-known Fascist and Nazi writer in the Slovak separatist and fascist press, founder and first leader of the Hlinka Guard, first minister of interior in the first government of the Slovak Nazi State, established in March 14, 1932, who was sentenced by the Czechoslovak democratic courts, before February 1948, to a term of 20 years of hard labor, in absencia. There was a motto, which the Guards used and it went: “With Sidor against the Jews.”
  3. Konsta Culen, also well-known Nazi journalist, member of the Slovak Parliament, the most productive writer of articles against the Jews, for Germans and against America. He was the official spokesman of the Slovak Nazi Government at the press conferences, was the press attaché of the Slovak Government, was one of the foremost radio commentators of the Slovak State and was asked to USA before World War II.
  4. Minister Alexander Mach, journalist, vicious and fanatic Nazi, one of the first Nazi agents, who worked with the German Nazis, radical follower of the ideas of a complete liquidation of Jews in Slovakia, the acting minister of interior, which was responsible for the liquidation of the Jewish problem. He was sentenced to 30

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    years of hard labor. Mach like Sidor belongs to the leading Nazi and Anti-Semitic Slovak group.
  1. Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky was the principal representative of these elements, who transported Slovak Catholic Peoples Party into a radical Nazi and Fascist Slovak Hlinka Party. He began this work in the newspaper “Nastup”. His youthful follower was Dr. Kirschbaum and a group of Slovak radicals.
    These radicals, headed by Durcansky, with Farkas, Mutnansky, and others, made first official contact with German Nazi agents, K.H. Franke, Sebeovski and Henlein, even before the Munich crisis. Dr. Durcanksy was in close contact with the Nazi agents in Austria through the editor of Volkishe Beobachter, named Goldbach and with the agents, Garbus and Hamershmidt. Dr. Durcansky by his work in the newspaper “Nastup” was the biggest criminal and was the originator of the Jewish tragedy in Slovakia. He was sentenced by the Czechoslovak democratic court in February 1948 to death in absencia.
  2. Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum, the leading fanatical leader of the students and leader of the Students Hlinka Guard. As a reward for his radical activity during the Munich period against the Masaryk Czechoslovak Republic, for the article he wrote, for his speeches for the totalitarian Slovak State, for his agitation against the Jews in Slovakia, in almost all Slovak cities and towns, he was named the Secretary-general of the only Slovak Nazi party, the Slovak Hlinka Party, during the Hitler occupation.
  3. Dr. Imrich Kruzliak, chief of the Slovak Guardist and Fascist press during the period of the Slovak State, which was instrumental in the Jewish tragedy.
  4. Dr. Joseph Puaco, Editor-in-Chief of “Slovak”, the official organ of the only Slovak Nazi Hlinka Party, whose official line was always anti-semitic, racist, Nazi and anti-American.
  5. Vlado Moravcik, Editor and deputy of the Slovak State, very active Nazi agitator, who in the Slovak Parliament made Nazi speeches in a Hlinka Guard uniform against the Jews and asked that the Slovak democrats be harshly punished.

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  1. Karol Murgas, who was in the years 1917 and 1918 a Communist agent of Bela Kun. This individual led the first armed attack against the Czechoslovak Republic on the orders of Moscow. Later he became a Nazi agent and several years before World War II, was in the German espionage. He was one of the leaders of the Hlinka Guard.
  2. Jan Farkas was one of the leading personalities of the Hlinka guard, the most faithful co-worker of Dr. Tuka, an outstanding member of the political semi-military Nazi organization Rodobrana, which became the foundation of the Hlinka Guard.

The second Category:

This second category consists of the totalitarian organizations and institutions of government, through which all legal, governmental, legislative and executive power was executed.

Into the first group we would include:

  1. President Tiso and members of the Government. Tuka, Mach, Durcansky, Sivak, Pruzinsky, Fritz, Medricky, Catlos: Stano.
  2. The Parliament of the Slovak State, which voted the Anti-Jewish laws, without opposition. From these deputies the following are in exile: Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky, Karol Sidor, Vladimir Moravcik, Stefan Hasssik, Dr. Frantisek Hrusovsky, Konsta Culen.
  3. The Presidium of the Slovak Hlinka's Peoples Party: Dr. Joseph Tiso, chairman, Dr. Vojtech Tuka, Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky, Dr. Martin Sokol, Dr. Joseph Kirshbaum, Dr. Joseph Buday, vice-chairmen, Joseph Sivak, Dr. Mikulas Pruzinsky, Dr. Gejza Fritz, Gejza Medricky, Julius Stano, General Catlos, Dr. Mederly, Dr. Pavel Oplustil, Alexander Mach, Theodore Turcek, A. Marcina, Dr. Matej Hutka, Frantisek Jankov, Stefan Daniel, Ing. Jan Prochazka, Rudolf Cavejsky, Jan Farkas, Stefan Surovjak and Vladimir Cernak. All the above were members of the presidium.
  4. The Supreme Command of the Hlinka Guard, who lead

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    that organization: Karol Sidor, Alexander Mach, Otomar Kubala, Jan Farkas, Karol Murgas.
  1. Student Hlinka Guard from 1939: Dr. Joseph Kirshbaum, leader.
  2. Hlinka Youth: leader Joseph Macek.

The third category:

Into this group would belong those individuals who freely and anxiously put into effect the Anti-Jewish law and were responsible for the concentration and deportation of Jews. Among those are:

Dr. Izidor Kesso, the chief of the presidium of the ministry of interior. Dr. Gejza Konka, the first chief of the Jewish Department in this ministry. Dr. Anton Vasek, second chief of this department. Notary Pecuch, the deputy chief, Otomar Kubala, the last leader of the Hlinka Guard, as well as all members and the functionaries of the Hlinka Guard, who were appointed to put into effect the control, the concentration and deportation of the Jews.

At the end, we must mention the Central Commerical Office of Slovakia, under the presidency of Moravek, which supervised and divided the Jewish properties among the Hlinka Guards and the faithful members of the Hlinka Party.

 

Concluding

When you read this small booklet, in which the author describes the tragic history of his family and which includes my introduction, we hope that you will clearly see that great value should be placed upon human liberty, which can secure to all people the ideals, the liberty, the prosperity and the strength that characterized the great American nation.

We must realize that there is no other substitute for democracy and freedom and that we must exert all our influence and strength that his democracy should survive. We are all threatened by danger of international communism. When you read the

[Page 23]

march of death of this one Slovak Jewish family during the existence of the Slovak Nazi State, you should take into consideration the fact that all of us are endangered by the same danger, which is preparing for us international communism and which we can see from the fate of the millions of people who today suffer in communist slavery. If we do not do all within our means in this great fight for survival of democracy, we will prepare a terrible fate for us and our children.

Do not forget that during World War II, not all Nazi and Fascist Armies were defeated and that the Nazi ideology was not completely routed from this earth. Even this dark and terrible ideology is gathering its force again and waits for a moment when communism will be defeated, so that they can take over the world. We must fight without compromise against communism, but we must not forget, that we have a duty to finish the fight against the surviving Nazi and Fascist ideologies.

 

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