Karl Pfeifer recently interviewed the Slovak historian Prof. Dr. Pavol Mest’an, director of the Jewish Museum in Bratislava.
Via Harry's Place
[...]
Is there a glorification of the Slovak state of 1935-1945 and of
its anti-Semitic policy as in Hungary, where pro-government historians
try to rehabilitate Horthy? They do this by camouflaging the active role
of Horthy and his system in the Holocaust of Hungarian Jews and by way
of searching for justifications for the anti-Jewish policy of the Horthy
regime.
There is a similarity. I have published two books on anti-Semitism in
Slovak politics [1989-1999 and 2000-2009] and analyzed two decades of
political developments in Slovakia, and controversial publications. I
hoped that the number of anti-Semitic and xenophobic books and articles
of this kind would decline over time. This did not happen. If we take
into account that the Slovak book and print market is not a large and
influential one in the European context, these number over the course of
twenty years are almost unbelievable, and precisely for this reason,
alarming.
Unfortunately it is not only the most radical ultra-nationalists who
are openly propogating the antidemocratic direction of the satellite
pro-Nazi state, its extreme ethnic nationalism and virulent
anti-Semitism in an effort to glorify this state. In addition, some
representatives of the Catholic Church, some historians close to Matica
Slovenská (Slovak Heritage Trust) do too.
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| Josef Tiso with Adolf Hitler (Berlin) |
Could you give an example of a Catholic author who is doing this?
One example, Milan Stanislav Ďurica, SDB, belonging to the Salesian
order, is a Slovak historian and theologian, professor of ecclesiastical
history at the Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Divinity of Comenius
University, Bratislava. [...]
Ďurica endeavors to prove that:
–
[Monsignor Josef] Tiso, the Catholic Church in Slovakia, and the state had nothing to do with fascism and Holocaust;
– Church leders did not partake in the exercise of power;
– Tiso and the church were merely some sort of appendage and victim of the Prime Minister, Dr. Tuka;
– Tiso and the church saved the majority of Jews. [...]
Can one today – when only about 2,000- 4,000 Jews live here – win votes in an election with anti-Semitism?
Open anti-Semitism is a domain for extremist groups that are marginal
elements. No party can gain voters today with anti-Semitic agitation.
Extremists use explicit anti-Semitic language mainly on their websites.
There is also anti-Zionism present in leftist circles and slogans
against Israel come from them, denying the right of the Jewish state to
self-defense. Their approach is sometimes quite sophisticated.
Anti-Semitism is not only a problem of the small Jewish community
but of one of the Slovak society. Does the Slovak government confront
honestly the evil past?
An official statement 70 years after the Slovak uprising started on
29 August 1944 says, “The Slovak armed struggle against Nazism was also a
fight for the Slovaks’ own national existence.” The Slovaks
demonstrated their national growth and inner self-consciousness through
the Uprising, which was triggered by the decision to end their vassal
dependency on Nazi Germany. Indeed this day is national holiday in
Slovakia and there is no way back to clerical fascism. The government is
subsidizing our museum, which is visited by many school classes, and
Slovak teachers learn at Yad Vashem how to teach about the Holocaust.
Next January the Museum of Holocaust will be opened at the location of
former concentration camp in Sered, a project with the help of the
Jewish Museum of Bratislava.
