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, allied with Nazi Germany. After the end of World War II, Tiso was executed by Czechoslovak authorities.
Early life
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.
Political Ascent
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 (the German 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).
Policies and Demise
The "independence" of Slovakia remained largely illusory in the sense that Slovakia had become a German puppet state. The Slovak People's Party functioned as almost the sole legal political organisation in Slovakia. The Party under Tiso's leadership aligned themselves with Nazi policy on anti-Semitic legislation in Slovakia. This was no hard task, given Hlinka's policy of a "Slovakia for the Slovaks," a line vehemently adhered to by Jozef Tiso. 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). In general, opinions differ widely on his role in the Jewish deportations from Slovakia, but it is known that he adhered to the Nazi line to a great extent. 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 fact, Hitler praised the policy concerning the Jews of Slovakia in a meeting with Tiso in the Klassheim Castle in Salzburg (Ostmark) on 22nd 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 annexed Austria, the 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 conquered 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." On April 15, 1947, the National court (Národný súd) sentenced him to death. Only president Edvard Beneš had the power to grant a reprieve. However, despite broad Slovak public opinion and the intervention of the Slovak Democratic Party, as well as a vote in the Czechoslovak cabinet against execution, he refused to grant Tiso amnesty. Jozef Tiso was hanged on April 18, 1947.
Legacy
Few figures in Slovak history divide the nation more than the legacy of Monsignor Jozef Tiso, who presided over the creation of an autonomous Slovakia in a Czecho-Slovak state.
Yet in 1938, with a Hungarian army mobilized to occupy Slovakia and reclaim its pre-1918 boundaries, the Slovak parliament opted for independence under German protection. Of course, protection had its price, and Slovakia became an ally of Germany during the Second World War. The Nazis pressed Slovakia to conform not only to its foreign policy, but also its policy toward the Jews. Slovakia adopted stringent laws, which limited the rights of its 80,000 Jewish residents.
As the war dragged on, Hitler sought his final solution, and client states such as Slovakia were instructed to transport their Jews to Poland. Many Slovaks who participated in the process claimed they had no idea that the Jews were going to death camps, but rather to a new Jewish homeland created for them in Poland. Ultimately, most of Slovakia's Jews perished in the gas chambers at Auschwitz and other death camps. This has left a bitter legacy.
Historically, an argument has raged over Tiso's position on Jewish policies. Some, such as the historian Milan Durica, believe Tiso actually helped protect some Jews from deportation, particularly those who benefited the Slovak economy and received exemptions. Others claim Tiso wholeheartedly endorsed and participated in the process, and thus bore full responsibility. Even though Jewish leaders warned Tiso that the deportations might lead to extermination, he did allow them to take place in 1942, and the Slovak government even paid 500 Reichsmarks for each Jew sent to Germany.
Slovak society has remained deeply divided about how to interpret Tiso. While his accusers decried him as a fascist quisling, others looked at Tiso as a defender of Slovak national interests. To the latter, he was a virtual George Washington in clerical garb. His execution turned him into a virtual martyr. Many remember that economic conditions in Slovakia were much better than in the rest of Europe during the war, and they credited Tiso for sparing Slovakia an earlier occupation by Hungary or Germany. They do not necessarily blame Tiso for what happened to the Jews.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Deák, István; Gross, Jan Tomasz; and Judt, Tony. 2000. The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000. ISBN 0691009546 and ISBN 978-0691009544
- Murin, Charles. Remembrances and Testimony. Montreal: RealTime Pub., 1992. ISBN 978-0969779803 and ISBN 0969779801
- Sutherland, Anthony X. 1978. Dr. Josef Tiso and Modern Slovakia. Cleveland: First Catholic Slovak Union, 1978. OCLC 4625396
- Vnuk, Frantisek. This is Dr. Jozef Tiso, President of Slovak Republic. Cambridge, ON: Friends of Good Books, 1977. B0006DZZZ1
External links
- WorldStatesmen- Slovakia
- Online exhibit from the Holocaust World Resource Centre
- In the Spirit of Christianity
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
