page_title: Partisan Congress riots
section_title: Lead-up
hierarchical_section_title: Partisan Congress riots / Lead-up
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Slovenské národní povstrání-ústup do hor-ve světlé bundě letec Stanislav Rejthar- 1944Slovenčina: Skupina dôstojníkov 2. československej paradesantnej brigády na povstaleckom území. V popredí zľava: štábny kapitán Srp, štábny kapitán Marcely, štábny kapitán Rajter, major Ďumbala.&#91;1&#93;
context_page_description: The Partisan Congress riots were attacks on Jews in Bratislava and other cities and towns in the autonomous Slovak region of Czechoslovakia between 1 and 6 August 1946. Nineteen people were injured, four seriously, in Bratislava alone.
  After World War II in Europe ended in May 1945, former Slovak partisans were often appointed as national administrators of businesses that had been Aryanized, or confiscated, from Jews by the Axis client state known as the Slovak State, leading to conflict with Jews seeking to regain their property. This conflict sporadically erupted into attacks on Jews. Tensions between Jewish and non-Jewish Slovaks were exacerbated in May 1946 by the passage of an unpopular law that mandated the restitution of Aryanized property and businesses to their original owners. Both antisemitic leaflets and attacks on Jews—many of them initiated by former partisans—increased following the restitution law.
  Rioting began on 1 August with the robbery of František Hoffmann's apartment. A national congress of former Slovak partisans was held in Bratislava on 2–4 August 1946, and many of the rioters were identified as former partisans. Rioting continued until 6 August.
context_section_description: After the September 1945 Topoľčany  pogrom, the central Czechoslovak government in Prague pressured the autonomous Slovak government to adopt a law for the restitution of Aryanized property. In May 1946, the Slovak autonomous government passed the Restitution Act 128/1946, which canceled Aryanizations in cases where the victim was judged to be loyal to the Czechoslovak state. Jews could regain their property via the court system, rather than local authorities, which were less favorable to their claims. At this time, most of the Aryanized property was in the hands of either the Aryanizers or national administrators. The government faced overwhelming public pressure not to implement the law and many officials refused to implement it. The restitution law triggered a resurgence  of popular anti-Jewish sentiment which led to the riots at the Partisan Congress.
  In postwar Slovakia, anti-Jewish leaflets appeared regularly, despite mostly unsuccessful attempts by the state to seek out and prosecute their creators. Multiple leaflets gave Jews an ultimatum to leave the country by the end of July 1946; Slovak historian Michal Šmigeľ suggests that the similarities in the leaflets imply that there was a coordinated campaign. In late July and early August, leaflets appeared with the phrases "Beat the Jews!", "Now or never, away with the Jews!", and even "Death to the Jews!". During the last week of July, posters were put up around Bratislava with slogans such as "Attention Jew, a partisan is coming to beat Jews", "Czechoslovakia is for Slovaks and Czechs, Palestine is for Jews", "Jews to Palestine!" "Jews out!" and "Hang the Jews!" In early July, two former partisans in Bytča repeatedly attacked Jews; an incident involving Jews and several former partisans occurred in Humenné on 27 July. The next day, provocateurs tried to incite anti-Jewish rioting in Trenčianske Teplice. From mid-July 1946, minor anti-Jewish incidents were occurring on an almost daily basis in Bratislava. For example, on 20 July, two men publicly hounded Jews on  Kapucínska Street during the day, one of them "publicly calling all Hlinka Guardsmen, Hlinka Party members, and partisans to unite against the Jews". That night,  Jews were assaulted on various streets, especially Kapucínska and Zámocká Streets. The SRP complained of systematically organized anti-Jewish demonstrations which pointed towards a future pogrom, which according to Šmigeľ was "not far from the truth".
  The First National Congress of Slovak Partisans (Slovak: Prvý  celoslovenský  zjazd  partizánov), also known as the Partisan Congress (Partizánsky zjazd), took place between 2 and 4 August 1946. The Slovak authorities had intelligence anticipating riots at the Partisan Congress. On 31 July, podplukovník Rudolf Viktorin of the Czechoslovak police met with ÚSŽNO leaders and told them that he expected trouble from "reactionary elements" at the congress. Masariak, a representative of the Union of Slovak Partisans, met with the SRP. He told them that a thousand politically reliable former partisans were on hand to protect the Jews in Bratislava. However, the police erred in planning the strictest security measures for the evening of 3 August to the morning of 5 August—when the main group of former partisans were expected to be in the city. Previous to that, only 250–300 delegates were scheduled to attend meetings. Contrary to expectations, two to three thousand former partisans arrived in Bratislava on 2 August; total attendance at the congress was estimated at fifteen thousand. Many of the partisans were armed. The local police went on alert and the SRP set up an observation station in the Jewish quarter to report on incidents by telephone.
caption: Slovak partisans during the Slovak National Uprising
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