Slovakia 1929-1939 Slovakia 1945-1948









'Independent' Slovakia, 1939-1945



Establishment of the First Independent Slovakia : Slovakia had declared political autonomy within Czechoslovakia on Nov. 22nd 1938. Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, headed by Jozef Tiso, emerged as the sole political party representing the Slovaks (Nov. 1938) and the Czechoslovak parliament was compelled to accept Slovak autonomy and to concede to the right of the (future) Slovak administration to alter the Czechoslovak constitution, as far as Slovakia was concerned.
Prague suspected the emerging Slovak administration as secessionist, and decided on military action to prevent the latter (March 9-10; a number of Slovak political leaders was arrested). Germany supported the Slovak autonomous administration; the Slovak assembly declared independence on March 14th. On March 16th 1939, German troops occupied what was left of Czechia, renaming it the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
Slovakia was an independent republic, under the government of Slovak leader and Catholic priest Jozef Tiso (president of the Slovak People's Party) - a reduced Slovakia (autonomous since the Munich Pact), that is, after the cessions of territory to Poland and Hungary according to the Munich Pact of 1938.

The Establishment of a Fascist State : On November 8th 1938, all party organizations in Slovakia except for those representing the German and Hungarian national minorities declared that the Slovak People's Party (renamed Hlinka's Slovak People's Party) was the sole representative of Slovak national interests, turning the emerging nation in effect into a one-party-state. The parties representing the German respectively Hungarian ethnic minorities were granted autonomy for their respective ethnic groups and did not challenge the position of Hlinka's Slovak People's Party. Slovakia passed a law declaring autonomy on Nov. 22nd 1938; on Dec. 17th the Czechoslovak parliament in Prague approved an Empowerment Act for Slovakia, granting the Slovak government the right to alter the constitution. Elections for a new autonomous Slovak Assembly were held on December 18th 1938, with Hlinka's Slovak People's Party unsurprisingly winning 97.5 % of the votes. A constitution, modelled after those of Austria and Portugal, was adoptred on July 21st 1939; Jozef Tiso was elected president, Vojtech Tuka prime minister on Oct. 26th.
The Slovak or Hlinka Guard, headed by Vojtech Tuka, was Slovakia's pendant to the SA; it was established in August 1938. Internment camps to lodge political prisoners were established by a decree of March 24th, the most important one at Ilava.

Foreign Policy : On March 23rd 1939 Hungarian forces invaded; on March 25th Slovakia 386 square km of territory to Hungary. The newly independent state received international recognition from Germany, Italy, Japan and their respective allies, and from the Vatican.
Units of both the Slovak army and the Hlinka Guard participated in German operations against Poland in September 1939; Slovakia reannexed territory Poland had annexed from Czechoslovakia in 1938. On June 24th Slovakia entered the war againt the Soviet Union (which Germany had invaded on June 22nd). In November 1941 Slovakia joined the Anti-Comintern Pact.

Domestic Policy : (1) Policy concerning ethnic minorities. The Slovak Republic and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia implemented a policy of exchanging their nationals; in 1939-1940 most of the Czechs which had moved into Slovakia in the previous two decades left Slovakia. In reaction to German insistance, Slovakia implemented legislation (Feb. 1940, Sept. 1940, Jewish Code Sept. 1941) which resulted in the gradual exclusion of her Jewish population from political, economic and social life., Slovakia deportated her Jewish population to the annihilation camps in Auschwitz etc. (58,000 out of Slovakia's c.90,000 Jews were deported March to October 1942), but stopped the deportations when it became apparent that the deportees were not merely forced to work, but systematically killed). The deportations would be resumed during the period of German occupation in 1944-1945, with the exception of Schindler's Jews; Slovakia provided the stage for the last part of Oskar Schindler's project to save about 1100 Jews from the gas chambers in Auschwitz, as his 'ammunitions factory' was located in his hometown in Slovakia.
Slovakia's ethnic German and Hungarian minorities were represented by political parties which ran their respective communities autonomously.
(2) Power Struggle within the ruling Hlinka's Slovak People's Party (HSLS). The party had two wings. The more moderate wing was lead by Catholic priest Jozef Tiso, president since October 1939; the main representative of the radical national socialists was Vojtech Tuka, head of the Hlinka Guard and, since October 1939, prime minister. While Tiso promoted a Clerical Fascism, Tuka attempted to use German influence to gain power at the expense of Tiso; In July 1940 the Slovak leadership (Tiso) had to agree to German interference in Slovak internal affairs. In January 1941, the HSLS, on Tuka's initiative, published the 14 Points of Slovak National Socialism. On October 22nd 1942 the Slovak assembly attributed the title of "leader" to Jozef Tiso, confirming his position vis-a-vis his challenger.
In 1943 Slovakia's assembly extended her mandate for 4 more years, thus avoiding elections scheduled for 1943. Membership in the HSLS was important for a career in state administration; it rose from 50,000 in 1938 to 300,000 in 1943.
(3) Religious Policy
Slovakia declared Catholicism the official confession, and by doing so alienated the protestant minority. On July 14th 1939 Slovakia's Lutheran Church split into a German and a Slovak Lutheran Church of Slovakia.
(4) The Development of Slovakia
The Slovak National Bank was established on April 4th 1939, an administrative reform implemented July 25th 1939, dividing the country into 6 counties; a Slovak National Museum founded Jan. 26th 1940, a Slovak University established on July 3rd 1940, a College of Commerce in Bratislava Oct. 4th 1940, the Slovak National Library on May 1st 1941. The Slovak government pursued a policy of industrialization (see under economy).

The Economy : The dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1938-1939 had taken place largely without armed resistance; in consequence, there damage to her factories, housing etc. had been, by comparison, negligible. As Slovakia was a country of small towns and villages, the country did not experience a threatening food shortage; food rationing was not implemented. In 1943, problems in supplying the Slovaks with basic goods occurred; Corruption and the black market became significant factors.
A Slovak National Bank was established in April 1939, with seat in Bratislava, among others responsible for the new Slovak currency. In 1939, state officials of Czech nationality employed in Slovakia and those of Slovak nationality employed in Czechia were to return to their country of origin; the majority of the Czechs who had moved into Slovakia in the previous two decades returned to Czechia (90,000 out of 120,000).
Land owned by Jews was bought / confiscated by the state, and a part of it redistributed in a land reform (Feb. 1940). In May 1940 the Slovak state issued a regulation which provided incentives for the construction of factories and company housing, followed up by a law in November 1940 promoting the industrialization of Slovakia. Laws passed in September aimed at the limitation of the role Jews could play in the national economy. The extradition of 2/3 of Slovakia's Jewish population (March to October 1942, when the proces was discontinued), the emergence of an armed resistance (1943) had some impact on the Slovak economy.
About 40,000 Slovaks per year left Slovakia in order to find employment in Germany.
The Slovak National Uprising (August-October 1944), pogroms against Slovakia's German minority and the evacuation of the bulk of the latter (winter 1944-1945), the resumption of the deportation of Jews from Slovakia (1944-1945) and the gradual advance of the Soviet and Allied forces in 1944-1945 did cause havoc with the Slovak economy.

The Exile, Resistance, Slovak National Uprising 1944 : (1) The Exile. In 1939, both a Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile (London) and a Slovak National Council (Milan Hozda, Paris) were founded. While the Czech exile government could provide pilots which served in the Battle of Britain (many Czech pilots had left Czechoslovakia in March 1939), the Paris Slovak National Council was severely restricted in her actions by the lack of funds as well as of recognition, and ceased to function in May 1940 (German occupation of Paris). Following the German (and Slovak) invasion of the USSR on June 22nd 1941, on July 18th 1941 both the UK and the USSR recognized the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile seated in London; a regiment of Czechoslovaks was established, which, from 1944, alongside the Red Army, would participate in the liberation of Slovakia. In December 1943 the Czechoslovak govt.-in-exile (Benes) signed a treaty of friendship with the USSR in Dec. 1943.
(2) Resistance. Political opponents from a wide range within Slovak society organized themselves, with the Protestants and Communists (the Communist Party had been banned in fall 1938) playing a prominent role. At Christmas 1943 the various resistance groups in Slovakia established of a new Slovak National Council, which was to function in Slovakia and cooperate with the govt.-in-exile. In 1944, the Red Army together with Slovak partisans and regular Czechoslovak troops loyal to the Czechoslovak govt.-in-exile began the liberation of Slovakia.
(3) Slovak National Uprising (August-October 1944). Martial law was declared on August 11th. Partisan activity spread quickly, the Slovak authorities feeling it beyond their ability to deal effectively with the situation, they requested German assistance; the first German troops arrived August 28th. A full-scale uprising began August 29th; a Free Slovak Radio began broadcasting on August 30th. In September the Slovak insurgents and units of the Red Army undertook a concerted campaign against the Germans. The drastic measures taken by the SS against the rebels resulted in revenge action by the Slovak insurgents against the country's ethnic German minority. The vast majority of Slovakia's German population was evacuated (winter 1944-1945, beginning September 19th 1944). German forces took Banska Bystrica, the center of the insurrection, on October 27th; 4,000 insurgents had fallen, 15,000 prisoners were deported to concentration camps.
The insurgent Slovak National Council, on September 1st 1944, declared itself to be the sole representative of the Slovak nation and opted for the reestablishment of Czechoslovakia. On September 19th 1944 the newly established Social Democrat and Communist Party of Slovakia merged, under the label Communist Party of Slovakia, an event which pleased Soviet dictator Stalin.

The End of the First Independent Slovakia Soviet and Czechoslovak troops entered Slovak territory on October 6th. At Yalta (Feb. 1945), Churchill conceded that Slovakia was to fall in the Soviet sphere of interest; the reestablishment of Czechoslovakia had been agreed upon. With the fall of Bratislava on April 4th 1945 the liberation of Slovakia was completed. Vojtech Tuka and Jozef Tiso were arrested, sentenced to death; Tuka was executed August 20th 1946, Tiso April 18th 1947.






EXTERNAL
LINKS 		Protectorate and Slovak State, Chapter 10 of the History of Slovakia by Prof. Jozef Komornik, Univ. Bratislava
History, from Eastern Slovakia Genealogy
Chronology 1939, from League of Nations Photo Archive
Teodor Münz, Catholic Theologians and the National Question (1939-1945), in : Tibor Pichler, Jana Gaparkova (ed.), Language, Values and the Slovak Nation, posted by CRVP
1944 Slovak 50 Korun, from Calgary Numismatic Society
Paul R. Hinlicky, The Lutheran Church in Slovakia, Five Years after Communism, has paragraph on history
Article Slovakia, Slovak National Uprising, Jozef Tiso, Slovak People's Party, Vojtech Tuka, Hlinka Guard, from Wikipedia
Jews in Slovakia, from Jewish Virtual Library
Profiles of the main leaders of the Clerofascist Regime, postd by Prometheus Society
DOCUMENTS Constitution of the Slovak Republic, 1939, posted by Verfassungen.de, in German
Slovakia - the Homeland of our Ancestors (1946), posted by the National Slovak Society
Flag : Hlinka Guard, from FOTW
Flag : Slovakia 1939-1945, from FOTW
REFERENCE Julius Bartl et al., Slovak History, Chronology & Lexicon, Wauconda, Illinois : Bolchazy-Carducci 2002
Peter A. Toma, Slovakia During World War II, pp.121-150 in : Peter A. Toma, Dusan Kovac, Slovakia from Samo to Dzurinda, Stanford : Hoover Institution Press 2001 [G]
Ehemaliges Bundesministerium für Vertriebene, Flüchtlinge und Kriegsgeschädigte (ed.), Die Vertreibung der Deutschen Bevölkerung aus der Tschechoslowakei (The Expulsion of the German population from Czechoslovakia), München : Weltbild 1994 [G]
Article : Slovakia, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1944 p.640, 1945 p.640 [G]
Article : Slovakia, in : New International Year Book Events of 1940 pp.679-680, 1941 pp.593-594, 1942 pp.623-624, 1943 pp.571-572 [G]
Article : Slovakia, in : Funk & Wagnall's New Standard Encyclopedia Year Book 1940 p.475, 1941 pp.440-441, 1942 pp.417-418, 1943 p.414 [G]
VIDEO Schindler's List, 1993, cc


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on August 26th 2007

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