Vojtech Tuka - The Persecution of Slovak Jews

The Persecution of Slovak Jews

At the end of August 1942, Dieter Wisliceny, an SS hauptstrumführer, was sent to Bratislava to act as an "adviser on Jewish affairs" to Tuka's government. With Wisliceny, Tuka composed the Ordinance Judenkodex (Codex Judaicus, or Jewish Code) of 9 September 1941, which comprised 270 articles comprehensively denying rights to Slovak Jews. The Code was longer than the Slovak Constitution. It required that Jews wear the yellow star, annulled all debts owed to Jews, confiscated Jewish property, and expelled Jews from Bratislava, the Slovak capital.

The Slovak episcopate protested some of the laws; in particular, they took issue with the fact that they did not allow for religious conversion. As the Slovak president, Tiso, was himself a clergyman, this was a notable objection; the Church hierarchy in Rome told the Slovak government that it objected to the idea that a country led by a Catholic clergyman would do such a thing. Section 225 of the Jewish Code satisfied the Slovak bishops by giving the President the right to exempt individuals of his choosing from the code's provisions. Jews who had converted to Christianity were given letters of amnesty by Tiso.

Twenty thousand Jews were to be deported under the German resettlement scheme, for which the Slovak government was to pay five hundred Reichsmark per deportee. Tuka issued the directive to deport the Jews without the knowledge of President Tiso or the parliament.

The deportation of Slovak Jews stopped in October 1942, at the order of the Slovak Council of Ministers. A number of reasons for the sudden decision were posited: increased awareness amongst Slovak Jews that "deportation" meant extermination in a concentration camp; bribery of Wisliceny or other high SS officials; the disapproval of the Catholic church; a letter by Slovakia's Protestant bishops to Tiso protesting the deportations; the appearance of the "Jewish problem" being solved because many remaining Jews had work permits because they were vital to the economy or held letters of amnesty from Tiso. A report by the Bratislava Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence agency of the SS, stated that the reason for the sudden halt was a meeting called by Tuka on 11 August 1942. At that meeting, Tuka and the secretary-general of the Industrial Union told the ministers that Slovakia's economy could not withstand continued deportation of the Jews, causing the Council to order the halt. Between 25 March and 20 October 1942, Slovakia sent about 57,700 Jews to Nazi concentration camps.

In September 1944, the deportation of Slovak Jews was resumed; by the end of the war in April 1945, about 13,500 additional Jews were deported.