slovakia 2004

 

Rehabilitation and whitewashing of the wartime Tiso regime was again the main theme of the struggle in 2004 between neo-fascist, antisemitic and populist elements, and liberal forces.

 

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 promote 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.

Since the government agreed to pay, in September 2002, a small amount of compensation to Jews who “were illegally deprived of their property during World War II,” there have been continued calls to similarly indemnify families of 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’. 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, such as the Slovak National Party (SNS) led by Ján Slota, often blend xenophobic and antisemitic attitudes with less extreme positions on these issues. SNS and the nationalist organization Matica Slovenska, 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. (See US State Department, “Report on Global Anti-Semitism − Slovak Republic, 2004.”

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. There have been continuing attempts on the part of liberal circles to outlaw the organization.

International coordination activities of the extreme right continued in 2004 with active Slovak participation. In July 2004 a “regional reunion of the Third Position partnership, the European National Front” took place in Slovakia, which was represented by the Slovenska Pospolitost (see Stormfront White National Community, stormfront.org, 21 July 2004). European extremists agreed to coordinate their activities and increase cooperation.

In December 2004 Slovensak Postpolitost participated in another meeting, in Antwerp, of European extreme right movements (Searchlight, Jan. 2005).

The country recorded a low level of antisemitic activity in 2004.

 

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA

Rehabilitation of the wartime Tiso regime continued to be the main theme of the struggle in 2004 between neo-fascist, antisemitic and populist elements, and liberal circles. The views of the former are expressed forcefully in public discourse as well as 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 were serving “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 Majek, neither Vojtassak nor Tiso himself initiated or approved anti-Jewish steps (see ASW 2003/4 and Pavol Mestan, Antisemitism in Slovak Politics 1989-1999, Museum of Jewish Culture and Tel Aviv University, Bratislava, 2000).

The term ‘Holocaust’ is sometimes misused 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.”

During 2004 the public Institute of National Remembrance gathered information on Jewish property confiscated in the Holocaust. It was intending to publish the names of companies owned by Jews that were taken over by the fascist regime in late 2005. The Institute's website (www.upn.gov.sk) also released data on some of the 70,000 Jews who perished in Slovakia and mostly in the extermination camps (Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism, 7 Jan. 2006; EJP [European Jewish Press], 18 Dec. 2005).

 

RESPONSES TO ANTISEMITISM

Members of the Jewish community, joined by liberal and democratic circles, have been especially involved 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.

Several events commemorating the beginning of the transports to the death camps from Slovakia in March 1942 took place in 2004 (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.

The Jewish community continued to protest that a lawsuit against Martin Savel, a former editor of the publishing house Agres, which issued antisemitic literature in the 1990s, has never been resolved because of the sluggishness of the judicial system (US State Department, “International Religious Freedom Report, Slovakia, 2004” - online)

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

The US has also been active in aiding the Slovak government in its attempts to become a member of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remebrance and Research (see, US State Department, “International Religious Freedom Report, Slovakia, 2004”). Following increased cooperation between Slovak educational and cultural institutions with their Israeli and Jewish counterparts, as well as with Yad Vashem, on Holocaust education, Slovakia was to become a member of the Task Force in late 2005.

The Slovak government extended its Action Plan to Fight Discrimination, Racism, Xenophobia and Antisemitism, which supports anti-discrimination campaigns and teacher training (US State Department, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in the Slovak Republic, 2004” – online).