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The Slovak Republic (Slovak: Slovenská republika) was an independent national Slovak state and ally of Nazi Germany during World War II on the territory of present-day Slovakia with the exception of the southern and eastern parts of present-day Slovakia. It bordered with Germany, Poland and Hungary. While widely internationally recognized at the time, its legal existence has been retroactively nullified by WWII victorous parties as a result of the nullification of the Munich Agreement and all its consequences.
It is also called the First Slovak Republic (Slovak: prvá Slovenská republika) or Slovak State (Slovak: slovenský štát or Slovenský štát) to distinguish it from the contemporary (Second) Slovak Republic, which is not considered its legal successor state. The name Slovak state was the form used by almost all history texts during Communism in Czechoslovakia (1948-1989).
Creation
After the Munich Agreement, Slovakia gained autonomy inside Czecho-Slovakia (as the former Czechoslovakia has been renamed) and lost its southern territories to Hungary under the Vienna Award. As Hitler was preparing an invasion to the Czech lands and creation of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, he had various plans with Slovakia (German officials were initially misinformed by Hungarians that the Slovaks wanted to join Hungary). Finally it was decided to make it a separate state under strong influence of Germany and a potential strategic base for German attacks on Poland and other regions.
On March 13, 1939 Hitler invited Jozef Tiso (Slovak ex-prime minister deposed by Czech troops several days earlier) to Berlin and urged him to immediately proclaim an independent Slovak Republic, otherwise Slovakia's territory would be divided between Hungary and Poland, which has been "confirmed" by Joachim von Ribbentrop by means of a (false) report saying that Hungarian troops were approaching Slovak borders. Tiso refused to make such a decision himself, after which he was allowed by Hitler to organize a meeting of the Slovak parliament ("Diet of the Slovak Country"), which would approve Slovakia's independence. On March 14, the Slovak parliament convened, heard Tiso's report on his discussion with Hitler, and unanimously declared Slovak independence (some sources say that Tiso was firmly against). Jozef Tiso was appointed the first Prime Minister of the new republic.
War with Hungary
On March 23, Hungary, having already occupied Carpathian Ruthenia, attacked from there, and the newly established Slovak republic was forced to cede 1697 km² of territory with about 70000 people to Hungary. See Slovak-Hungarian War for more information.
International relations
From the beginning, the Slovak Republic was strongly dependent on Nazi Germany. The so-called "Protection treaty" (Treaty on the protective relationship between the German Empire and the Slovak State) subordinated its foreign, military and economic policy to Germany (formally at least) signed on March 23 1939. This contract logically resulted in Slovakia joining the Axis Powers and fighting against Poland, the Soviet Union and even declaring war on Great Britain and the United States of America. However, except for a strip of land at the border with Germany, Slovakia was not occupied by German troops.
The most difficult foreign policy problem of the state were the relations with Hungary, which, after all, had annexed one third of Slovakia's territory by the First Vienna Award and had tried to occupy the remaining territory. Slovakia tried to achieve a revision of the Vienna Award, but Germany did not allow that. There were also constant quarrels concerning Hungary's treatment of Slovaks living in Hungary (see First Vienna Award).
Characteristics
85% of the inhabitants were Slovaks, the remaining 15% were made up of Germans, Hungarians, Jews and Roma. 50% of the populations were employed in agriculture. The state was divided in 6 counties ("župy"), 61 districts ("okresy") and 2659 municipalities. The capital Bratislava had over 120,000 inhabitants.
The state continued the legal system of Czechoslovakia, which was modified only gradually. According to the Constitution of 1939, the "President" (Jozef Tiso) was the head of the state, the "Assembly/Diet of the Slovak Republic" elected for 5 years was the highest legislative body (no general elections took place, however), and the "State Council" performed the duties of a senate. The government with 8 ministries was the executive body.
The WWII Slovak Republic was an authoritarian state marked by elements of fascism. It is characterized by some as a clerical fascist state - this is the "definition" officially coined by the Communists. The leading political party was the "Hlinka's Slovak People's Party- Party of Slovak National Unity. All other political parties, with the exception of parties representing national minorities (Germans and Hungarians) had been forbidden (this happened before the creation of the state, however). The government issued a number of antisemitic laws, prohibiting the Jews to participate in public life, and later supported their deportations to German concentration camps. See also Jozef Tiso for some details. On the other hand, not a single execution occurred during the existence of the republic.
The existence of the republic had positive effects on Slovak economy, science, education and culture. The Slovak Academy of Sciences was founded in 1942, a number of new universities and high schools were established, Slovak literature and culture flourished.
The Slovak Republic and the Holocaust
Soon after independence, the Slovak Republic began a series of measures aimed against the 90,000 Jews in the country. The Hlinka Guard began to attack Jews, and the "Jewish Code" was passed in September 1941. Resembling the Nuremberg Laws, the Code required that Jews wear a yellow armband, and were banned from intermarriage and many jobs. By October 1941, 15,000 Jews were expelled from Bratislava; many were sent to labor camps.
The Slovak Republic was one of the countries to agree to deport its Jews as part of the Nazi Final Solution. Originally, the Slovak government tried to make a deal with Germany in October of 1941 to deport its Jews as a substitute for providing Slovak workers to help the war effort. After the Wannsee Conference, the Germans agreed to the Slovak proposal, and a deal was reached where the Slovak Republic would pay for each Jew deported, and, in return, Germany promised that the Jews would never return to the republic. The initial terms were for "20,000 young, strong Jews", but the Slovak government quickly agreed to a German proposal to deport the entire population.
The deportations of Jews from Slovakia started in March 1942, but halted in October 1942, when a group of Jewish citizens, led by Gisi Fleischmann, built a coalition of concerned officials from the Vatican and the government, and, though a mix of bribery and negotiation, was able to stop the process. By then, however, some 58,000 Jews (75% of Slovak Jewry) had already been deported, mostly to Auschwitz.
Jewish deportations resumed in October 1944, when the Soviet army reached the Slovak border, and the Slovak National Uprising took place. As a result of these events, Germany decided to occupy all of Slovakia and the country lost its independence. During the German occupation, another 13,500 Jews were deported and 5,000 were imprisoned. In all, German and Slovak authorities deported about 70,000 Jews from Slovakia; about 65,000 of them were murdered.
Two wings of the ruling party
Since 1939, a conflict between two wings arose within the party. The conservative and moderate wing led by the Catholic priest Jozef Tiso, the president of Slovakia and chairman of the party, wanted to create a specific totalitarian and religious state of Estates. This wing controlled the leading posts of the country, party and the clerics. The other wing were more radical persons, who were inspired by the German model, were strong Anti-Semites, wanted to remove all Czechs and to create a radically fascist state (Slovak National Socialism). Their main organization was the Hlinka Guard (Hlinkova garda), which was controlled by the HSLS-SSNJ. The main representatives were the Prime Minister Vojtech Tuka and the Minister of the Interior Alexander Mach. The problem of the fascist wing was that the population supported Tiso's wing, because the fascist wing was visibly demagogic, the fascist ideology was not compatible with most of the Slovak largely Catholic population and that the country was doing very well economically as compared to the neighbouring countries (incl. Germany).
Germany initially supported Tuka, but since 1942 when deportations of Jews started and a Germany-inspired act identifying Tiso and the HSLS-SSJN with the country itself (the "Führer"-principle) was forcibly adopted, Tiso's temperate wing had full support of Germany, whose only concern was the Jewish question and no problems whatsover at German borders. This even enabled Tiso's wing to stop the deportations after some time.
The End
After the anti-Nazi Slovak National Uprising in August 1944, the upset Germans occupied the country (from September 1944), which thereby lost much of its independence. The German troops were gradually pushed out by the Red Army, by Romanian and by Czechoslovak troops coming from the east. The liberated territories became de-facto part of Czechoslovakia again.
The First Slovak Republic definitely ceased to exist de-facto on 4 April 1945 when the Red Army captured Bratislava and occupied all of Slovakia. De-iure it ceased to exist when the exiled Slovak government capitulated to General Walton Walker leading the XX Corps of the 3rd US Army on May 8, 1945 in the Austrian Kremsmünster.
See also
External links
History of Slovakia | Former countries in Europe | World War II client states
Slovenský stát | Geschichte der Slowakei#Erste slowakische Republik | Slovaka ŝtato | Prvá slovenská republika
"Slovak Republic (WWII)"