page_title: Vojtech Tuka
section_title: The Slovak Republic and Tuka's rise to political power
hierarchical_section_title: Vojtech Tuka / The Slovak Republic and Tuka's rise to political power
caption_attribution_description: English: Manfred von Killinger meets Tiso and Tuka
context_page_description: Vojtech Lázar "Béla" Tuka was a Slovak politician who served as Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the First Slovak Republic between 1939 and 1945. Tuka was one of the main forces behind the deportation of Slovak Jews to Nazi concentration camps in German occupied Poland. He was the leader of the radical wing of the Slovak People's Party.
context_section_description: On 9 March 1939, Czech troops moved into Slovakia in reaction to radical calls for independence from Slovak patriots (including Tuka, who had recently been released from prison). On 13 March, Adolf Hitler took advantage of this "Homolov Putsch", prompting Jozef Tiso—the Slovak ex–prime minister and Roman Catholic priest deposed by the Czech troops—to declare Slovak independence on 14 March by an act of the Slovak Assembly. The Czech part of Czechoslovakia was incorporated into the Third Reich as a protectorate. Tiso became Prime Minister of the new Slovak state on 14 March 1939; he was chosen as President on 26 October 1939 and immediately appointed Tuka as Prime Minister.
  The Salzburg Conference, concluded between Slovakia and the Reich in Salzburg, Austria on 28 July 1940, resulted in closer collaboration with Germany, and in Tuka and other political leaders increasing their powers at the expense of Tiso's original concept of a Catholic corporate state. Tuka attended the conference, as did Hitler, Tiso, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Alexander Mach (head of the Hlinka Guards), and Franz Karmasin, head of the local German minority. The agreement called for dual command by the Slovak People’s Party and the Hlinka Guard (HSĽS), and also an acceleration in Slovakia's anti-Jewish policies. The Reich appointed Stormtrooper leader Manfred von Killinger as the German representative in Slovakia. Tiso  accepted these changes in subsequent conversation with Hitler. As a result of the conference, two state agencies were created to deal with "Jewish affairs".
caption: Manfred von Killinger meets Tiso and Tuka in Bratislava, August 1940
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