Jozef Tiso
Monsignor Jozef Tiso (
October 13,
1887–
April 18,
1947) was a
Roman Catholic priest who became a deputy of the
Czechoslovak parliament, a member of the Czechoslovak government, and finally the
President of
Independent Slovak Republic from 1939-1945. After the end of
World War II, Tiso was executed by Czechoslovak authorities as a
war criminal.
Born in Veľká Bytča (today's
Bytča), he graduated from the "Pasmaneum" in
Vienna in
1910 as a theologian, and afterwards worked as a Catholic curate in several towns, teaching Slovak spelling, organising theatre performances and doing cultural work. At the beginning of
World War I he served as a military chaplain. In
1915 he became the director of the Theological Seminary of
Nitra and a teacher at the
Piarist High School in the same town. From
1921 to
1924 he served as the secretary of the bishop and teacher at the Seminary of Divinity at
Nitra. In 1924 he became the dean and parish priest of the town of
Bánovce nad Bebravou.
Tiso became one of the leaders of the
Slovak People's Party. Father
Andrej Hlinka had founded the Slovak People's Party as a Roman Catholic grouping in
1913, while
Austria-Hungary still ruled Slovakia. The party sought the
autonomy of Slovakia within
Czechoslovakia and after
1923 became the largest party in Slovakia . It comprised one of the two purely Slovak parties in Slovakia; the remaining parties either represented
national minorities, or functioned (at least nominally) throughout Czechoslovakia. When Hlinka died in
1938, Tiso became
de facto leader of the party (officially he served as deputy-leader of the party from
1930 to
October 1,
1939, becoming the official party leader only after that date).
Even during his presidency, Tiso continued to work actively as the parish priest of the town of Bánovce nad Bebravou (from
1924 to
1945). From 1925 to 1939 he served as a deputy in the Czechoslovak parliament in
Prague, and from 1927 to 1929 as a member of the Czechoslovak government - the Minister of Health and Sports, and 6 October to 28 November 1938 again as Czechoslovak Minister for Slovak Affairs.
Adolf Hitler's
Germany annexed the
Sudetenland (in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia) and the Czechoslovak president
Edvard Beneš fled the country in October
1938. During the chaos which resulted, the Slovaks (who had lacked any form of
autonomy within Czechoslovakia) declared their autonomy within Czechoslovakia and Tiso, as the leader of one of the Slovak parties - the "Hlinka's Slovak People's Party" -, became (until
March 9,
1939) the
prime minister of this autonomous Slovakia.
Hungary, having never really accepted the separation of Slovakia from its control in
1918, took advantage of the situation and managed to persuade
Germany and
Italy to force Slovakia to let it (Hungary) occupy one third of Slovak territory in November 1938, by the so-called
Vienna Award (Vienna Arbitration).
In the light of this situation, all Czech or Slovak political parties in Slovakia (except for the
Communists) voluntarily joined forces and set up the "Hlinka's Slovak People's Party - Party of Slovak National Unity" in November 1938, which created the basis for the future authoritarian regime in Slovakia. (The same happened in the Czech part of the country two weeks later for Czech parties.) In January 1939, the Slovak government officially prohibited all parties apart from the Party of Slovak National Unity, the "Deutsche Partei" (a party of Germans in Slovakia) and the "Unified Hungarian Party" (a party of Hungarians in Slovakia).
From February 1939, representatives of Germany - planning to occupy the Czech part and basically not interested in Slovakia - started to officially persuade Slovak politicians to declare the independence of Slovakia. On
March 9,
1939, Czech troops occupied Slovakia and Tiso lost his post of Prime Minister. On
March 13,
1939,
Adolf Hitler lost his patience. He invited Tiso - as the deposed prime minister - to Berlin, and personally forced him to immediately (as he said "in a flash") declare the independence of Slovakia under German "protection", otherwise Germany would allow Hungary (and partly
Poland) to annex the remaining territory of Slovakia. Under these circumstances, Tiso spoke by phone to the Czechoslovak president
Emil Hácha and to the then Prime Minister of Slovakia,
Karol Sidor, and they agreed to convene the Slovak parliament the next day and let it decide. On
March 14, the Slovak parliament unanimously declared the independence of Slovakia, and on
March 15, Germany invaded the remaining Czech lands - exactly according to German plans.
Tiso served as the Prime Minister of independent Slovakia from
March 14 1939 until
October 26,
1939. On
October 26 he became President of Slovakia (separate from the Prime Ministerial office). On
October 1 1939 he officially became the president of the Slovak People's Party. According to the pro-nazi nationalist fashion, from 1942 he was self-styled
Vodca "Leader", an imitation in the national language of
Führer (compare in that article).
The "independence" of Slovakia remained largely illusory in the sense that Slovakia had become a German
puppet state. On the other hand, Slovakia had become independent of Prague, and was perhaps less servile to
Nazi Germany than communist Czechoslovakia would be to the Soviet Union after World War II. (German troops fully occupied Slovakia only at the end of the war in 1944, while Soviet troops remained in Czechoslovakia for more than 20 years).
The Slovak People's Party functioned as almost the sole legal political organisation in Slovakia. The Party under Tiso's leadership submitted to Nazi demands for
anti-Semitic legislation in Slovakia. The respective main act was the so-called Jewish Code. Under the anti-Semitic Jewish Code, Jews in Slovakia could not own any real estates or luxury goods, were excluded from public jobs and free occupations, could not participate in sport or cultural events, were excluded from secondary schools and universities, and were required to wear the star of David in public. Tiso himself - like many people in Central Europe at that time - had definite
anti-Semitic views (as some of his own letters from the end of World War II suggest), but as an (active) Catholic
priest he opposed violence -- even against the
Jews. In general, opinions differ widely on his role in the Jewish deportations from Slovakia. He definitely did not initiate or organize these activities. He also granted 2,000 presidential exceptions for baptized Jews according to art. 255 of the anti-Semitic Jewish Code, referring to some 5000 people. (The exact number remains in dispute, as does the question whether this is a relatively high or low number.) Some sources prefer the view that Tiso supported the deportations tacitly; other sources point out that the first deportations had to take place secretly behind his back due to his personal opposition. As to the then Slovak government, however, documents concerning the holocaust in Slovakia (such as
E.Niznansky et al. (eds.), Holokaust na Slovensku, vols. 1-5. Bratislava: NMS/ZNO, 2001-2004) prove that the Slovak government consentingly cooperated with Germans and even somewhat coordinated deportations.
In any case Hitler praised the policy concerning the Jews of Slovakia in a meeting with Tiso in the Klassheim Castle in
Salzburg (
Ostmark) on 22th April
1942.
The deportations of Jews from Slovakia started in March 1942, but were stopped - despite heavy opposition to this from Germany, which demanded they resume - in October 1942 by the Slovaks, when it became clear that Nazi Germany had not "only" misused the Slovakian Jews as forced labour workers but had also partly executed them in camps, and when public protests arose as well as pressure from the
Holy See to stop the deportations. Slovakia became the first state in the Nazi sphere to rigorously stop deportations of Jews, but some 58,000 Jews (75% of Slovak Jewry) had already suffered deportation, mostly to
Auschwitz, of whom only a minority survived. Between October
1942 and October
1944, Independent Slovakia even served as a safe last resort for Jews suffering persecution in Nazi-occupied neighbouring countries such as annexated Austria,
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Poland and occupied Ukraine.
Jewish deportations were resumed by German occupation authorities in October 1944, when the
Soviet army reached the Slovak border, and the
Slovak National Uprising took place. As a result of the Uprising and the approach of the Soviet forces, Nazi Germany had decided to occupy all of Slovakia and the country lost its independence and saw the deportation of Jews resumed again after two years. During the 1944-1945 German occupation, the country saw 13,500 more Jews deported and another 5,000 imprisoned.
Tiso lost power when the Soviet Army liberated the last parts of western Slovakia in April
1945. He faced a charge of "internal
treason, treason of the
Slovak National Uprising and collaboration with
Nazism". President
Edvard Beneš had the possibility to grant a reprieve, but he let the then Czechoslovak government decide on this. While ministers for the
Democratic Party and
Czechoslovak People's Party voted for a reprieve, the Communists and Social Democrats in the government, who outnumbered the former, voted against the reprieve. As a result,
monsignor Tiso was
hanged on
April 18,
1947.
*
WWII Slovak Republic*
Clerical fascism*
WorldStatesmen- Slovakia* Online exhibit from the
Holocaust World Resource Centre:
In the Spirit of Christianity
