slovakia 2003-4

 

Rehabilitation and whitewashing of the wartime Tiso regime was again the main theme of the struggle in 2003/4 between neo-fascist, antisemitic and populist elements, and liberal forces. Cemetery desecration continued to be the most visible expression of antisemitism in Slovakia in 2003/4.

 

the Jewish community

Slovakia has some 3,000 Jews out of a total population of 5.35 million. The largest Jewish community is in the capital Bratislava; smaller communities exist in Kosice, Presov, Komarno and Dunajska Sreda.

The Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities in the Slovak Republic is the main communal organization. In general, the Jewish community is an aging one; however, there are signs of a revival of interest in Jewish roots among many of the younger generation. In recent years local branches of B’nai Brith and Maccabi have been established, and the Lauder Foundation and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee have been promoting activities for Jewish youth.

The Museum of Jewish Culture has built up an impressive collection displaying the rich Jewish heritage of the country. It organizes cultural and educational activities, as well as seminars for teachers, and prepares documentary films featuring Holocaust survivors. It also publishes a variety of publications and books related to Jewish topics.

In September 2002 the government agreed to pay a small amount of compensation to Jews who “were illegally deprived of their property during World War II”; the issue of compensation to Jews, however, has continued to raise comparisons with citizens who lost their lives fighting against communism (see ASW 2002/3).

 

POLITICAL organizations and antisemitic activity

Slovakia’s entry into the EU in May 2004 and the invitation to join NATO issued at the November 2002 Prague summit have dramatically changed the internal and external status of the country, which in several years has advanced rapidly from what was considered a ‘second rate’ state of the former communist bloc to the ‘elitist’ club of the first eight former communist states to join the EU.

Slovakia’s new standing has hardened the position of extremist parties toward the Union as well as toward other European structures of integration. The small extreme left and the more vocal extreme right, as well as some populist groups, have warned against the ‘march of globalization’.

Ethnic and racial issues headed the public agenda in 2003 as the country prepared to join the EU. The Roma became a major topic after social benefit cuts in early 2004 provoked violent clashes between them and the authorities, especially in eastern Slovakia. The country’s human rights record was under close scrutiny of European and US monitoring bodies.

Ultra-nationalist parties and movements often blend xenophobic and antisemitic attitudes with less extreme positions on these issues. The Slovak National Party (SNS), for example, which was a partner in the Meciar-led coalition government until it lost the 1998 general elections, is clearly such a party. SNS has been behind the continuing campaign to rehabilitate Jozef Tiso, head of the wartime fascist regime, which was responsible for the deportation of the country’s Jews to the death camps. In late 1991 the SNS, which was led by Ján Slota, split into two parts: one led by Slota’s former deputy Anna Malikova retained the original name, and the other, led by Slota, formed the Real Slovak National Party. Neither party gained parliamentary representation in the 2002 September elections. In June 2003 the two parties amalgamated in an effort to present a united front of Slovak extremism (see Slovak Spectator, 9 June 2003)

Other extremist nationalist organizations include the fringe Slovak People’s Party (SLS), which continued to spread xenophobic hate messages, and the Slovenska Pospolitost (Slovak Community), formed in 1996 by skinheads and other right-wing extremists. Together with several other organizations, Slovenska Pospolitost publishes bulletins of its activities on the website of the International Third Position, based in the UK.

The desecration of Jewish sites continued in 2003/4, with vandals in eastern Slovakia painting swastikas and antisemitic slogans on tombstones in cemeteries in Nove Mesto and Vahom in October and in the city of Hummene in November.

 

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA

Rehabilitation of the wartime Tiso regime continued to be the main theme of the struggle in 2003/4, between neo-fascist, antisemitic and populist elements, and liberal forces. The views of the former are expressed forcefully in public discourse and in various publications.

Right-wing extremists maintained their high level of activity, begun in 1999 largely in connection with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the wartime Slovak fascist state (14 March 1939).

The attempts to rewrite history and rehabilitate the wartime ideological line continued in a variety of forums, such as ‘scientific’ meetings and numerous publications. Leading revisionists such as Milan S. Durica and Jozef M. Rydlo continued to write positive appraisals of the Tiso regime (Kultura [nationalist weekly] 6/2004). Moreover, the apologetic Catholic line in defense of Tiso’s legacy appears to have intensified. Various references to ‘Christian traditions’ and ‘legacy’ are, in fact, connected to the continuous whitewashing of the Tiso era and its deeds. Often the words are veiled, but the meaning is clear. Archbishop Jan Sokol, for example, spoke on 2 January 2004 of “threats to the Christian environment in Slovakia... the misinterpretation of freedom leads people to misfortune.” Further, nationalists and revisionists claim repeatedly that Tiso’s regime was not to blame for the Holocaust in Slovakia, and that the regime and it leaders served “God and the nation.” Stanislav Majek, for example, who is widely acclaimed in Catholic circles, published a clerical-nationalist, antisemitic and pro-Tiso book defending the role of Bishop Jan Vojtassak, deputy chairman of the State Council (of the fascist Slovak state). According to the author, neither Vojtassak nor Tiso himself initiated or approved anti-Jewish steps. Noting that Vojtassek was to be beatified in 2003, Majek states that this event did not take place because of “objections of Jewish historians” and “unsubstantiated fabrication.” On the wartime “need to solve the Jewish question,” Majek wrote that “no one wanted the tragedy of the Second World War to happen.” However, by hinting that Jews were responsible for the social deterioration and poverty of the Slovak people, and that they were “among the most avid Magyarizers,” he infers that in a sense the Jews were to blame for their own fate. Majek liberally quotes Anton Stefanek, a well-known sociologist with purportedly racist views of the Jews (see Pavol Mestan, Antisemitism in Slovak Politics 1989-1999, Museum of Jewish Culture and Tel Aviv University, Bratislava, 2000).

The use and misuse of the term ‘Holocaust’ is also evident in Slovakia. Under the title “Duchovny holokaust” (A Spiritual Holocaust), the editor in chief of Kultura (19–20/2004) complained that much is written and said about the Jews but little about the culture of the Slovak majority, which is neglected by Jewish intellectuals. The Slovak nation is “losing its spiritual blood… it is almost a spiritual Holocaust.”

 

RESPONSES TO ANTISEMITISM

Members of the Jewish community, as well as liberal and democratic forces, continued to play an active role in combating antisemitism, and have been involved especially in the campaign against rehabilitating the Tiso era. Government promises and actions (such as former President Rudolf Schuster’s declaration of 9 September as a memorial day for victims of the Holocaust and of racial violence – see ASW 2000/1) to support these endeavors have done little to weaken the trend of historical revisionism.

In 2003/4 several events took place to commemorate the beginning of the transports to the death camps from Slovakia in March 1942 (see Kultura 4/2004; SME, 17 April 2004). Traditional memorial services were held in Nitra and Kosice, as well as in Poprad, from where the first transport of unmarried girls left on 25 March 1942. In Zilina Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic unambiguously condemned the Tiso regime during an unveiling of a memorial on the site of a camp operated by the Tiso regime.

Excellent relations between Israel and Slovakia contribute to working out joint plans for programs in both countries to help educators from Slovakia teach the subject of the Holocaust.