The decision to officially condemn the deportation of Jews in Slovakia was made after a vote in the “National Council of the Slovak Republic”, a number of nationalist legislators, members of the far-right faction ‘Our Slovakia’, abstained from voting
After 80 years, Slovakia officially condemns the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz by the government, apologizes and stands for a minute of silence.
The decision was made at the end of a vote in the ‘National Council of the Slovak Republic’, which is in fact the parliament of the country, which during the Holocaust – led by Josef Tisso – served as a kind of ‘branch’ of Nazi Germany.
The Holocaust of the Jews of Slovakia was the expropriation, systematic deportation, and mass murder of Jews within the Slovak state, under the auspices of Nazi Germany, during World War II. Out of 98,000 Jews in the country in 1959. It is estimated that 69,000 were murdered in the Holocaust.
In 1941, the Slovak government negotiated with Nazi Germany for the mass deportation of Jews to German-occupied Poland. 58,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps, only a few hundred survived until the end of the war.
The Slovak government organized the transport to the camps, and the persecution of the Jews resumed in 1944, when Germany invaded Slovakia and launched the Slovak uprising. Another 13,500 Jews were deported and tens of thousands were murdered in Slovakia by emergency brigades of the Linka Guard. After his release by the Red Army, survivors faced renewed anti-Semitism and difficulties in recovering their stolen property, and most emigrated after the 1948 communist coup.
Only now, 80 years later, the decision recognizing the crime of the Slovak government that sent tens of thousands of Jews to extermination, passed in parliament in Bratislava. A number of nationalist legislators, members of the far-right faction “Our Slovakia”, who were angry at the “damage to the character” of then-president Tisso, abstained from voting on the decision that would hold him responsible and responsible for the horrific acts.
However, most MPs supported and so the decision was made. Legislators stated that for them “the forced expulsion of Jews of Jewish descent from the territory of the Slovak Republic at the time deserves special condemnation. We condemn these actions of the regime, and express our regret at the tragedy that befell the innocent victims,” the resolution approved. The deputies also apologized to all the survivors as well as the relatives and descendants of the victims.