Jozef Tiso's speech in Holíč
In August 1942,
Background
In March 1939, the
Content
In the speech, which was delivered on 15,[14] 16,[13] or 17[6] August 1942 in Holíč, Slovakia, Tiso argued that the deportation of Jews was consistent with Christian ethics,[12] and furthermore a positive commandment from God:[15]
People ask whether what is being done with the Jews is Christian. Is it human? Is it not robbery? ... I ask is it Christian when the nation wants to free itself from its eternal enemy[6]—the Jew? ... Love of self is a command from God, and this love of self commands me to remove ... everything that damages me or that threatens my life. I don't think I need to convince anyone that the Jewish element threatened the lives of Slovaks. ... It would have looked even worse if we hadn't pulled ourselves together in time, if we hadn't purged them from us. And we did so according to divine command: Slovak, cast off your parasite.[7]
Tiso claimed that Slovak Jews, representing only 5% of the population, earned 38% of the national income.[7] He also distinguished himself from the radical wing of his party (the Slovak People's Party), invoking "that [old] slogan: 'Jews to Birobidzhan'"—which Tiso considered "a little bit too far". He claimed that Adolf Hitler was giving the Jews an independent state where the deported Jews were living,[12][16] and argued that the remaining Jews had to be deported to allow the development of Slovakia.[17] Tiso also repeated the doctrine of Andrej Hlinka, the founder of the Slovak People's Party, that "a Jew remains a Jew even if he is baptized by a hundred bishops".[18][19]
Reactions
On 30 August, Hitler remarked, "It is interesting how this little Catholic priest—Tiso—is sending us the Jews!" The Hlinka Guard's newspaper wrote, "[now] no one has the right ... to doubt about the justice of deporting Jews".[12][20] Dieter Wisliceny, SS officer and Judenberater in Slovakia, referred to Tiso's speech when arguing for the resumption of deportations in a letter dated 18 August.[21][22] Slovak clergy did not react positively to the speech, critical of Tiso's political opportunism and presentation of self-love as a divine commandment.[23] In September and October, another 2,800 Jews were deported from Slovakia; the deportations would not resume until 1944.[24]
Modern interpretations
According to Austrian historian
According to American historian James Mace Ward, Tiso intended to appease Nazi Germany and the radical faction of the
References
Notes
Citations
- ^ Rajcan, Vadkerty & Hlavinka 2018, p. 843.
- ^ a b Ward 2013, p. 231.
- ^ Fatran 1994, p. 167.
- ^ Kamenec 2007, p. 205.
- ^ a b Kamenec 2007, p. 207.
- ^ a b c Rajcan, Vadkerty & Hlavinka 2018, p. 847.
- ^ a b c d Ward 2013, p. 8.
- ^ Rajcan, Vadkerty & Hlavinka 2018, p. 845.
- ^ Kamenec 2007, p. 173.
- ^ Fatran 1994, p. 171.
- ^ Nižňanský 2014, p. 83.
- ^ a b c d e f Ward 2013, p. 234.
- ^ a b Kamenec 2002, p. 119.
- ^ Rothkirchen 2000, p. 3.
- ^ Rothkirchen 2000, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Kamenec 2007, p. 206.
- ^ Fatran 1994, p. 172.
- ^ Rothkirchen 2000, p. 4.
- ^ Cymet 2010, p. 328.
- ^ Hitler 2013, p. 511.
- ^ Fatran 1994, pp. 172, 195.
- ^ Kamenec 2002, p. 130.
- ^ Paulovičová 2012, p. 273.
- ^ Ward 2013, pp. 8, 235.
- ^ Suppan 2019, p. 615.
- ^ Nižňanský 2014, pp. 83–84.
- ^ Kamenec 2007, pp. 206–207.
- ^ Kamenec 2002, p. 120.
Bibliography
- Cymet, David (2010). History Vs. Apologetics: The Holocaust, the Third Reich, and the Catholic Church. Lanham: Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739132937.
- Fatran, Gila (1994). "The 'Working Group'". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 8 (2). Translated by Greenwood, Naftali: 164–201. ISSN 8756-6583.
- ISBN 9781929631667.
- ISBN 83-88526-15-4.
- Kamenec, Ivan (2007). On the Trail of Tragedy: The Holocaust in Slovakia. Translated by Styan, Martin. Bratislava: Hajko & Hajková. ISBN 9788088700685.
- Nižňanský, Eduard (2014). "On Relations between the Slovak Majority and Jewish Minority During World War II". ISSN 0084-3296.
- Paulovičová, Nina (2012). Rescue of Jews in the Slovak State (1939 - 1945) (PhD thesis). University of Alberta. doi:10.7939/R33H33.
- Rajcan, Vanda; Vadkerty, Madeline; Hlavinka, Ján (2018). "Slovakia". In ISBN 978-0-253-02373-5.
- ISBN 9780826412997. From an online version paginated 1–5.)
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: External link in
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- JSTOR j.ctvvh867x.
- Ward, James Mace (2013). Priest, Politician, Collaborator: Jozef Tiso and the Making of Fascist Slovakia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801468124.