Language:
English
Year of publication:
2015
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
29,1 (2015) 76-108
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
World War, 1939-1945 Territorial questions
Abstract:
The territorial dispute of October 1938 between autonomous Slovakia and irredentist Hungary, as well as the ensuing First Vienna Award of November 1938, which obliged Slovakia to cede territories to Hungary, facilitated, accelerated, and, to a certain extent, inspired the Holocaust in independent Slovakia of 1939-44. The ruling Slovak People's Party (L'udák) and its allies believed that it was the Jews, most of them Hungarian speakers, who determined the new borders and were responsible for Slovakia's humiliation. The conception of the Jews as a security threat emerged amongst the L'udák leadership, as well as the plan to "Slovakize" the country's cities by expelling the Jews in order to safeguard the cities against future Hungarian territorial claims. In addition, the rulers of Slovakia planned to expropriate the Jews. Immediately after the Award, the L'udák authorities initiated a deportation of Slovak Jews to the territories to be ceded to Hungary; 7,500 Jews were deported south before the operation was cancelled by President Tiso. Obviously, it was Nazi Germany that could support and uphold Slovakia's independence and integrity, so antisemitic legislation and other anti-Jewish measures became tools of competition between Slovakia and Hungary for the favor of Germany. The ensuing war made it possible for Tiso's government to deport the country's Jews.
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