Slovak Republic (1939–1945)

The Slovak Republic, was a client state of Nazi Germany which existed from 14 March 1939 until 4 April 1945.

History


One day before the Nazi German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, they declared independence from Czechoslovakia.  It has mostly the same borders as the modern-day Slovakia except for the regions which were ceded to Hungary in 1938. The Capital city was declared Bratislava, as it was good in terms of politics, economics and culture when it came to representing Slovakia.

Jozef Tiso

Jozef Tiso, the founder and only President of the Slovak Republic, was a Catholic priest. He was a member of the pro-Nazi Catholic fascist Hlinka Slovak People's Party (HSL’S), 



  which seized power in Slovakia, when Czechoslovakia was dismembered by Nazi Germany, and modelled Slovakia after Nazi Germany's totalitarian state. 





Hlinka Guard


The Slovak Hlinka Guard was a militia set up by Jozef Tiso to hunt down Jews, Roma and other "undesirable" minorities.

Holocaust in Slovakia

1940–1942


In 1940, Jews were fired from their jobs and their properties taken over by Jozef Tiso's regime. Tiso's regime enacted the strictest laws against Jews – called The Jewish Code – in Nazi-occupied European countries. Before the start Tiso's deportation of Jews in March 1942, about 88,951 Jews lived in Slovakia.

1942–44

By November 1942, 57,000 Slovak Jews were handed over to the Germans by the Hlinka Guard, Slovak police and ethnic German Slovak SS volunteers. In the final three months of 1944, over 70,000 of the pre-deportation 88,951 Jews were deported to Nazi death camps, mostly Auschwitz and Theresienstadt, with over 60,000 of them slain. Tiso's regime paid Hitler 500 reichsmarks per deported Jew.

End

In April 1945, the Slovak capital Bratislava was taken over by the Soviet Red Army, while Romanian troops took over other parts of Slovakia.

Aftermath

Jozef Tiso was handed over by American troops to the Czechoslovak regime. Tiso was tried along with former Foreign Minister Ferdinand Durčanský and Interior Minister Alexander Mach. He was convicted of treason, and executed four days after.

Related pages

 Independent State of Croatia

Notes

References

Category:Puppet states
Category:The Holocaust
Category:History of Slovakia
Category:Former dictatorships
Category:Former countries in Europe