1 50 31 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d0577842868b7d94615309287fb336e5.pdf 05d5ff1a6e3261b78b698b582b6de0f5 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 10 "FOR GOD AND NATION" 50 YEARS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA PHILIP A. HROBAK After greater numbers of Slovaks had settled in the United States of America during the last quarter of the past century, Slovak newspapers, fraternal benefit societies, churches and schools soon came into being. The Slovaks took to American democracy like fish to water, enjoying fully every moment of their existence in their "new" homeland. In America they had the very thing that souls of men everywhere thirst for: freedom. The liberties and God-given rights so freely and thoroughly pursued and enjoyed in America electrified the minds and hearts of the Slovaks and inspired them to work for the freedom and independence of their own homeland, where natural rights had been denied their people for a thousand years. Of course, their interest in the "old" homeland was only natural. Political persecution and economic suppression were the daily lot of the Slovaks under the Magyars of Hungary. It was evident that the Magyars, after their settlement with Vienna in 1867, were determined to liquidate the Slovaks as a national entity. The Matica Slovenska (Slovak Institute) was taken over by Budapest and its assets confiscated, students were thrown out of secondary schools, professors were fired or transferred to Magyar regions for their Slovak convictions, and Slovak intellectuals and professionals were deprived of the opportunity of making a livelihood in their own homeland. "Extra Hungariam non est vita" ( outside Hungary there is no life), the Magyars used to say, but this applied only to them, while the Slovaks were forced to leave their homeland by the hundreds of thousands to keep their bodies and souls together. The incident that fired the Slovaks both at home and in America to do something about the unfortunate lot of their homeland was the Cernova Massacre of October 26, 1907. Cernova was the birthplace of Andrew Hlinka, beloved priest and ardent patriot, who had been sentenced to �SLOVAKIA 11 two years in jail in 1906 by the Magyars for his active opposition to Magyarizat ion. The good Slovaks of Cernova, in the meantime, having completed the building of their new church with funds collected by Hlinka, entreated the Ordinary of the diocese, Bishop Parvy, who had suspended Hlinka because of his political activity, to reinstate and allow 'our Father Hlinka' to perform the ceremonies of dedication. The bishop refused, appointing another priest for the task. The people resented this decision of the bishop On October 26, 1907, the date of the dedication, the Slovaks of Cernova blocked the priest's entrance to their new church; hard words led to turmoil; the Magyar gendarmes on hand for the occasion fired into the mass of the people. When the smoke cleared nine were dead, three were dying, twelve were seriously and 80 less seriously injured. Before the night was over five more succumbed to their injuries: fourteen dead, fourteen martyrs of Magyar chauvinism. And numerous Slovaks were jailed as "instigator s" of the Cernova incident. The Slovaks in America swung into action; mass meetings of protest organized by the Slovak clergy and Slovak newsmen followed; articles in Slovak and English flooded every Slovak center to spotlight the attention of the world on Magyar brutalities. Thousands of dollars were collected and sent to the homeland for the defense and support of patriotic Slovaks. Cernova, above all else, w1doubtedly motivated the Slovaks of America to join the Slovak League of America, to form a united front against Magyar tyranny. It was on April 4, 1907, at the invitation of the Rev. Stephen Furdek of Cleveland, Ohio, that representat ives of the Slovak Press in America met in Pittsburgh, Pa., to deliberate how they might best help their wretched brethren beneath the Tatras. All recognized the fact that the time was ripe to organize all Slovaks in America into one union for the defense of everything past Slovak generations had built and fought for in Slovakia. Adopting the slogan "For Our Slovak Heritage" (Za tu nasu Slovencinu ), the meeting adopted a two-plank program: 1. To care for and support Slovak cultural and political life at home (in Slovakia); 2. �12 SLOVAKIA To care for and support Slovak cultural and political life in America. Furthermore, it was decided that a mass meeting of American Slovaks would be held at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 26, 1907. Soon after the Pittsburgh meeting, all Slovak newspapers in America publicized the proposed mass rally in Cleveland, inviting all Slovaks interested in the righteous cause of the Slovak nation to attend the "Slovak Congress" on May 26, 1907. It was undersigned by representatives of all Slovak fraternal organizations and newspapers. "The purpose of the Congress," the announcement said, "is to unite all Slovak organizations in systematic national work. ... Our old country is turning to us, let us help it. We must present a united front." Over 7000 of them, representing all Slovak societies and newspapers, fraternal benefit organizations and parishes, clergy and laity of various religious and political convictions, met in Cleveland, Ohio, where they more than filled the spacious Gray's Armory. On that day the Slovak League of America was founded to unite all Slovaks in America to fight for the inherent, God-given rights of the Slovak nation which was doomed to national extinction by the Magyars of Hungary. On that day Americans of Slovak descent resolved in the spirit of America that the nation they are descended from shall be free and independent of alien rule, that it shall be the master of its own household and work out its own destiny as an equal among nations. Under the leadership of the great and immortal Rev. Stephen Furdek, the founder and first president of the Slovak League of America, the League made America known to the Slovaks at home, and Slovakia and her people known to Americans. The seed of freedom and independence, which had taken a solid hold in the fertile soil of America, was now planted by Americans of Slovak descent in the land of their forefathers, Slovakia. Throughout the past fifty years, the Slovak League of America has remained faithful to its mission. It united the Slovaks in America to work for a better America by becoming alert citizens and to work for the liberation of their brethren in Slovakia from hostile, alien domination. The �SLOVAKIA 13 League has made America and the rest of the world aware of the fact that the Slovak nation does exist and demands recognition of and respect for its natural rights. But the Slovak League of America also inspired and gave strength to the Slovaks at home not to abandon the uneven struggle for freedom and independence. It was, in fact, the Slovak League of America that made it possible for the Slovak nation to liberate itself from Magyar tyranny. The fatal shot that started the world conflagration and massacre in 1914 had not yet been fired in Sarajevo, when the Slovak League of America prepared a Memorandum addressed "to all just and truth-respecting nations," demanding complete autonomy for the Slovaks on the basis of the right of self-determination. After the Sarajevo incident, the Slovaks were faced with the question: We are through with the Magyars, but now with whom shall we join up to gain what is rightfully ours? With the Russians? The Czechs? The Poles? After due consideration, the Slovaks decided to go along with the Czechs. The decision was greatly influenced by the Slovak League of America. But it was only after T. G. Masaryk, first president and one of the founders of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, drafted and signed the Pittsburgh Agreement on May 30, 1918, that the Slovaks really joined with the Czechs to work for the establishment of a common political state. The Agreement guaranteed complete autonomy (states' rights) to Slovakia within the framework of Czecho-Slovakia, which was to be patterned after Switzerland and the United States. Unfortunately, T. G. Masaryk failed to keep his word. Advised by Dr. Edward Benes and other "progressive" chauvinistic Czech socialists, Masaryk repudiated the Pittsburgh Pact, calling it a "scrap of paper." The Slovaks, however, never let up in their clamor for the incorporation of the Pittsburgh Pact into the Constitution of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. But to no avail: the Masaryk-Benes Czechs in Prague subbornly refused to listen to reason. After twenty years of Czecho-Slovakia under Masaryk and Benes, the Slovaks were ready to break with the Czechs. After twenty years of Masaryk-Benes pro-Soviet and antiSlovak policies, the Slovaks and Czechs were farther apart �14 SLOVAKIA than they ever had been. Dr. Edward Benes pursued his ruinous policy to the very bitter end, refusing to recognize and respect the inherent right of the Slovak nation to have something to say about its own destiny. Within a week after accepting the Munich verdict, without consulting the parliament or the Slovak and Czech people, he simply resigned and later left the country. The day following Benes' resignation, the Prague Parliament belatedly and begrudgingly granted autonomy to Slovakia and later had the law incorporated into the Czecho-Slovak Constitution. Hitler and his Nazis started their mad race to destruction; there was no one to stop them at that time. And the Czechs, apparently regretting that they had granted autonomy to Slovakia, placed Slovakia under martial law on March 10, 1939, and occupied Slovakia. Hitler, of course, exploited the situation. Without mincing words, he told the Slovaks to proclaim their independence or else. Under the circumstances, the duly elected representatives of the Slovak people proclaimed the independnce of Slovakia on March 14, 1939. The independent Republic of Slovakia was soon recognized by twenty-seven countries. Slovakia was not too badly off during the war; as far as their internal affairs were concerned, the Slovaks managed their country well under President Joseph Tiso. They were better off than most neutral countries and enjoyed more freedom than they ever did under Masaryk and Benes. Why Hitler left them alone and did not bother to take them over completely, as he did the Czechs and so many other nations, still remains unexplained. But the fact is that the Slovaks were doing right well until the end of August 1944, when Moscow agents and the Benes proSoviet clique engineered the so-called "Slovak National Uprising." The story of Warsaw was repeated. Hitler's hordes poured into Slovakia "to restore order" - and the Slovaks were on the receiving end of both sides, the Reds and the Nazis. Over 70,000 Slovaks were killed in the slaughter. We know what happened at the end of World War IT. Benes sold out Czecho-Slovakia to Hitler in 1938 without firing a shot; he repeated the performance in 1943 by for- �SLOVAKIA 15 mally selling out the Slovaks and Czechs to Stalin with a treaty. Benes' pro-Soviet policy paid off temporarily: with Stalin's blessing he became president of Czecho-Slovakia again, this time the head man of the new "people's" Republic. To show his gratefulness, Dr. Benes and his Reddominated Prague government immediately began to liquidate all anti-Communist and anti-Socialistic elements in the "new" Czecho-Slovakia. But finally Benes himself was destroyed by the monster he had nurtured to prove again that Communism devours its own children! The Slovak nation was consistently vilified and misrepresented by the nations which dominated and exploited it. As far as the Magyars and Czechs were concerned, there was no Slovak nation, there was no Slovak language. T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes told the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 that the Slovaks were but a branch of the Czech nation and their language was but a dialect of the Czech. In old Hungary, the Magyars boasted that they were the "natio hungarica" ; after 1918, the Czechs beat their chests that they were the "state-nation" - the "Czechoslovak" nation. The Magyars accused the Slovaks of being anti-State and pro-Slav; the Czechs under Masaryk and Benes accused them of being anti-State and pro-Magyar. Both Magyars and Czechs agreed that the Slovaks were "separatists." And their propaganda in America blasted the Slovaks who worked for the liberation of their old homeland from alien domination. The Slovak League of America was the prime target of both the Magyars and the Czechs. During the last war, the Slovak League of America was the main target of attack of Dr. Benes' smear and vilification campaign. Dr. Benes knew the right people in Washington, Paris, London, and Moscow. Americans of Slovak descent could not prevail on their own government to save the Republic of Slovakia for the West; official Washington, in 1945, brushed them off when they begged that Dr. Tiso and the members of the Slovak Government, who had surrendered to the American Army in Austria, be offered political asylum and not handed over to the vengeful Dr. Benes; and two million Americans of Slovak descent �16 SLOVAKIA could not prevail on the President and the Government of the United States to request Benes to spare Dr. Tiso from the gallows in 1947. And today, ten years later, we find that the Benes Czechs still carry some weight in official Washington circles. The Slovak League of America has lost several skirmishes and battles, but it still is carrying on the fight for the reeognition of the natural rights of the Slovak nation. It is only natural that the League is vitally interested in this all-important question, because the existence of the Slovak people is at stake. Since the Slovak nation has not been given an opportunity to speak freely for itself and never had been actually free and independent to work out its own destiny, the Slovak League of America has taken upon itself the obligation of pleading for the realization of the fundamental rights of the Slovak people. As loyal Americans, we are firmly convinced that those rights are predicated on the elementary principle that all peoples are morally entitled to speak in the United Nations, there to defend their rights to survival and self-fulfillment. Liberty cannot be exercised by proxy, and the Slovak people, like all other nations on the earth, must have a voice in the determination of their own destiny. Being American institutions, the Slovak League of America and the Slovak organizations affiliated with it are primarily interested in the welfare and security of the United States of America. They sincerely believe that it is in the highest interest of America and the rest of the free world that the Slovak nation be free and independent. Therefore, they cannot sit idly by while foreign political opportunists of the Benes stripe, discredited and cursed by their own people, exploit and compromise the good name of America, while given the opportunity to use American tax dollars to prolong the fiction of a united "Czechoslovak" nation and to promote the political, pseudo-democratic conceptions of Masaryk and Benes which led to the destruction of Czecho-Slovakia and the utter enslavement of the Slovak and Czech nations by the Communists. It is, the Slovaks believe, contrary to justice and morals to recognize and give moral and material aid to individuals and �SLOVAKIA 17 organizations that seek the destruction of the Slovak nation by promoting the big lie of a "united Czechoslovak nation." The truth is that the Slovaks never were, nor do they wish to be Czechs; and, on the other hand, the Czechs never were, nor do they desire to be Slovaki:i. Americans of Slovak descent, organized in the Slovak League of America, are loyal to America, because to them America is an ideal, a living symbol of freedom, tolerance, and justice. They seek no special favors for the nation they are descended from, but only recognition of and respect for the inherent, natural rights of the Slovak nation. The Slovaks learned about freedom and democracy from America. They know that they can best secure and safeguard their national existence only if they manage their own household. America has no cause to deny the Slovaks their rights to freedom and independence; this the American people as a whole understand well, but it seems that people making up our Government do not. This undoubtedly is due to the influence of the Benes Czechs who collaborated with the Reds and the Soviet Union until February 1948, when they suddenly became "democratic" exiles. As in the past, so in the future, the Slovak League must expend every effort to correct the situation. Administrations • of the United States Government, no matter what their political beliefs, must be convinced that the righteous cause of the Slovak nation deserves the support of all Americans. Americans of Slovak descent, we trust, are not overly presumptuous in assuming that they merit at least the same measure of favor and trust from their Government as does the bankrupt, pro-Soviet political clique of the late Dr. Edward Benes, which today is operating in America as the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia." Rebuffed and humbled on so many occasions, the Slovak League continues stubbornly and courageously in the work of liberating the Slovaks from all foreign domination. The existence of the Slovak nation can never be secured unless the Slovaks are masters of their own destiny. The Slovaks must not be denied the right to organize their own state, an independent Slovak Republic. The Slovaks are not against a federation or confederation of European �18 SLOVAKIA states, but rather for it. But into such a federation they want to enter not as an appendage of the Czech nation, but as a nation no less sovereign than the rest of the nations of any such proposed European federation. Today the Slovaks look to America for liberation and salvation more than they ever did; the Slovak nation needs encouragement and inspiration in this its darkest hour. After the great onslaught of World War II, the Slovaks were thrown to the Red wolves of the Kremlin and their stooges in Prague, and yet they have never let up in their fight against Communism. They fought against this scourge of humanity in and out of season for the past 100 years and are determined, with God's help, to keep fighting it until the Red plague is wiped off the face of the earth. The work of the Slovak League of America will never be finished until this happens and the Slovak nation at last takes its rightful place in the family of free nations, there to share the burdens and blessings of free men under God, all laboring toward one end: a just and lasting peace, based on the love of man for God and for his fellowman . • • . WHO SAID IT? ' ~Prague, Budapest, Zagreb, Brno, Bratislaiva were as German a'S Linz or Innsbruck, so much so they had German names: Brague (for Praha), Ofon, Agrrum, Brlinn, Pressburg. In Prague in 181'5 there were 50,000 Germam.s and only 15,000 Czechs; even in 1848 respectrubie people spoke only German in the streets, and to ask the way in Czech would provoke an offensive reply . . . . The smaller towns remained German far longer, ,some, such as Brno, until the twentieth century .... The German character of the towns (in the HaJbsbur,g Monarchy) had little or nothing to do with race . . . The enterp:r,ising son of a peasant, Czech, Roumaniian, or &rob, who entered a town, learned a German art and spoke Geiiman to his fellow shopkeepers; his children despised their father',s peasant dialect, am.d his grandcihildren, sa.fuly arrived in staJte j'dbs, forgot that they had ever been am.ytlling but German and town-dwellers." - (A. J. P. Taylor, THE HiABSBURG MONARJOHY, London, 1948; ,pp. 24-25). � SLOVAKIA 10 "FOR GOD AND NATION" 50 YEARS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA PHILIP A. HROBAK After greater numbers of Slovaks had settled in the United States of America during the last quarter of the past century, Slovak newspapers, fraternal benefit societies, churches and schools soon came into being. The Slovaks took to American democracy like fish to water, enjoying fully every moment of their existence in their "new" homeland. In America they had the very thing that souls of men everywhere thirst for: freedom. The liberties and God-given rights so freely and thoroughly pursued and enjoyed in America electrified the minds and hearts of the Slovaks and inspired them to work for the freedom and independence of their own homeland, where natural rights had been denied their people for a thousand years. Of course, their interest in the "old" homeland was only natural. Political persecution and economic suppression were the daily lot of the Slovaks under the Magyars of Hungary. It was evident that the Magyars, after their settlement with Vienna in 1867, were determined to liquidate the Slovaks as a national entity. The Matica Slovenska (Slovak Institute) was taken over by Budapest and its assets confiscated, students were thrown out of secondary schools, professors were fired or transferred to Magyar regions for their Slovak convictions, and Slovak intellectuals and professionals were deprived of the opportunity of making a livelihood in their own homeland. "Extra Hungariam non est vita" ( outside Hungary there is no life), the Magyars used to say, but this applied only to them, while the Slovaks were forced to leave their homeland by the hundreds of thousands to keep their bodies and souls together. The incident that fired the Slovaks both at home and in America to do something about the unfortunate lot of their homeland was the Cernova Massacre of October 26, 1907. Cernova was the birthplace of Andrew Hlinka, beloved priest and ardent patriot, who had been sentenced to �SLOVAKIA 11 two years in jail in 1906 by the Magyars for his active opposition to Magyarizat ion. The good Slovaks of Cernova, in the meantime, having completed the building of their new church with funds collected by Hlinka, entreated the Ordinary of the diocese, Bishop Parvy, who had suspended Hlinka because of his political activity, to reinstate and allow 'our Father Hlinka' to perform the ceremonies of dedication. The bishop refused, appointing another priest for the task. The people resented this decision of the bishop On October 26, 1907, the date of the dedication, the Slovaks of Cernova blocked the priest's entrance to their new church; hard words led to turmoil; the Magyar gendarmes on hand for the occasion fired into the mass of the people. When the smoke cleared nine were dead, three were dying, twelve were seriously and 80 less seriously injured. Before the night was over five more succumbed to their injuries: fourteen dead, fourteen martyrs of Magyar chauvinism. And numerous Slovaks were jailed as "instigator s" of the Cernova incident. The Slovaks in America swung into action; mass meetings of protest organized by the Slovak clergy and Slovak newsmen followed; articles in Slovak and English flooded every Slovak center to spotlight the attention of the world on Magyar brutalities. Thousands of dollars were collected and sent to the homeland for the defense and support of patriotic Slovaks. Cernova, above all else, w1doubtedly motivated the Slovaks of America to join the Slovak League of America, to form a united front against Magyar tyranny. It was on April 4, 1907, at the invitation of the Rev. Stephen Furdek of Cleveland, Ohio, that representat ives of the Slovak Press in America met in Pittsburgh, Pa., to deliberate how they might best help their wretched brethren beneath the Tatras. All recognized the fact that the time was ripe to organize all Slovaks in America into one union for the defense of everything past Slovak generations had built and fought for in Slovakia. Adopting the slogan "For Our Slovak Heritage" (Za tu nasu Slovencinu ), the meeting adopted a two-plank program: 1. To care for and support Slovak cultural and political life at home (in Slovakia); 2. �12 SLOVAKIA To care for and support Slovak cultural and political life in America. Furthermore, it was decided that a mass meeting of American Slovaks would be held at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 26, 1907. Soon after the Pittsburgh meeting, all Slovak newspapers in America publicized the proposed mass rally in Cleveland, inviting all Slovaks interested in the righteous cause of the Slovak nation to attend the "Slovak Congress" on May 26, 1907. It was undersigned by representatives of all Slovak fraternal organizations and newspapers. "The purpose of the Congress," the announcement said, "is to unite all Slovak organizations in systematic national work. ... Our old country is turning to us, let us help it. We must present a united front." Over 7000 of them, representing all Slovak societies and newspapers, fraternal benefit organizations and parishes, clergy and laity of various religious and political convictions, met in Cleveland, Ohio, where they more than filled the spacious Gray's Armory. On that day the Slovak League of America was founded to unite all Slovaks in America to fight for the inherent, God-given rights of the Slovak nation which was doomed to national extinction by the Magyars of Hungary. On that day Americans of Slovak descent resolved in the spirit of America that the nation they are descended from shall be free and independent of alien rule, that it shall be the master of its own household and work out its own destiny as an equal among nations. Under the leadership of the great and immortal Rev. Stephen Furdek, the founder and first president of the Slovak League of America, the League made America known to the Slovaks at home, and Slovakia and her people known to Americans. The seed of freedom and independence, which had taken a solid hold in the fertile soil of America, was now planted by Americans of Slovak descent in the land of their forefathers, Slovakia. Throughout the past fifty years, the Slovak League of America has remained faithful to its mission. It united the Slovaks in America to work for a better America by becoming alert citizens and to work for the liberation of their brethren in Slovakia from hostile, alien domination. The �SLOVAKIA 13 League has made America and the rest of the world aware of the fact that the Slovak nation does exist and demands recognition of and respect for its natural rights. But the Slovak League of America also inspired and gave strength to the Slovaks at home not to abandon the uneven struggle for freedom and independence. It was, in fact, the Slovak League of America that made it possible for the Slovak nation to liberate itself from Magyar tyranny. The fatal shot that started the world conflagration and massacre in 1914 had not yet been fired in Sarajevo, when the Slovak League of America prepared a Memorandum addressed "to all just and truth-respecting nations," demanding complete autonomy for the Slovaks on the basis of the right of self-determination. After the Sarajevo incident, the Slovaks were faced with the question: We are through with the Magyars, but now with whom shall we join up to gain what is rightfully ours? With the Russians? The Czechs? The Poles? After due consideration, the Slovaks decided to go along with the Czechs. The decision was greatly influenced by the Slovak League of America. But it was only after T. G. Masaryk, first president and one of the founders of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, drafted and signed the Pittsburgh Agreement on May 30, 1918, that the Slovaks really joined with the Czechs to work for the establishment of a common political state. The Agreement guaranteed complete autonomy (states' rights) to Slovakia within the framework of Czecho-Slovakia, which was to be patterned after Switzerland and the United States. Unfortunately, T. G. Masaryk failed to keep his word. Advised by Dr. Edward Benes and other "progressive" chauvinistic Czech socialists, Masaryk repudiated the Pittsburgh Pact, calling it a "scrap of paper." The Slovaks, however, never let up in their clamor for the incorporation of the Pittsburgh Pact into the Constitution of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. But to no avail: the Masaryk-Benes Czechs in Prague subbornly refused to listen to reason. After twenty years of Czecho-Slovakia under Masaryk and Benes, the Slovaks were ready to break with the Czechs. After twenty years of Masaryk-Benes pro-Soviet and antiSlovak policies, the Slovaks and Czechs were farther apart �14 SLOVAKIA than they ever had been. Dr. Edward Benes pursued his ruinous policy to the very bitter end, refusing to recognize and respect the inherent right of the Slovak nation to have something to say about its own destiny. Within a week after accepting the Munich verdict, without consulting the parliament or the Slovak and Czech people, he simply resigned and later left the country. The day following Benes' resignation, the Prague Parliament belatedly and begrudgingly granted autonomy to Slovakia and later had the law incorporated into the Czecho-Slovak Constitution. Hitler and his Nazis started their mad race to destruction; there was no one to stop them at that time. And the Czechs, apparently regretting that they had granted autonomy to Slovakia, placed Slovakia under martial law on March 10, 1939, and occupied Slovakia. Hitler, of course, exploited the situation. Without mincing words, he told the Slovaks to proclaim their independence or else. Under the circumstances, the duly elected representatives of the Slovak people proclaimed the independnce of Slovakia on March 14, 1939. The independent Republic of Slovakia was soon recognized by twenty-seven countries. Slovakia was not too badly off during the war; as far as their internal affairs were concerned, the Slovaks managed their country well under President Joseph Tiso. They were better off than most neutral countries and enjoyed more freedom than they ever did under Masaryk and Benes. Why Hitler left them alone and did not bother to take them over completely, as he did the Czechs and so many other nations, still remains unexplained. But the fact is that the Slovaks were doing right well until the end of August 1944, when Moscow agents and the Benes proSoviet clique engineered the so-called "Slovak National Uprising." The story of Warsaw was repeated. Hitler's hordes poured into Slovakia "to restore order" - and the Slovaks were on the receiving end of both sides, the Reds and the Nazis. Over 70,000 Slovaks were killed in the slaughter. We know what happened at the end of World War IT. Benes sold out Czecho-Slovakia to Hitler in 1938 without firing a shot; he repeated the performance in 1943 by for- �SLOVAKIA 15 mally selling out the Slovaks and Czechs to Stalin with a treaty. Benes' pro-Soviet policy paid off temporarily: with Stalin's blessing he became president of Czecho-Slovakia again, this time the head man of the new "people's" Republic. To show his gratefulness, Dr. Benes and his Reddominated Prague government immediately began to liquidate all anti-Communist and anti-Socialistic elements in the "new" Czecho-Slovakia. But finally Benes himself was destroyed by the monster he had nurtured to prove again that Communism devours its own children! The Slovak nation was consistently vilified and misrepresented by the nations which dominated and exploited it. As far as the Magyars and Czechs were concerned, there was no Slovak nation, there was no Slovak language. T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes told the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 that the Slovaks were but a branch of the Czech nation and their language was but a dialect of the Czech. In old Hungary, the Magyars boasted that they were the "natio hungarica" ; after 1918, the Czechs beat their chests that they were the "state-nation" - the "Czechoslovak" nation. The Magyars accused the Slovaks of being anti-State and pro-Slav; the Czechs under Masaryk and Benes accused them of being anti-State and pro-Magyar. Both Magyars and Czechs agreed that the Slovaks were "separatists." And their propaganda in America blasted the Slovaks who worked for the liberation of their old homeland from alien domination. The Slovak League of America was the prime target of both the Magyars and the Czechs. During the last war, the Slovak League of America was the main target of attack of Dr. Benes' smear and vilification campaign. Dr. Benes knew the right people in Washington, Paris, London, and Moscow. Americans of Slovak descent could not prevail on their own government to save the Republic of Slovakia for the West; official Washington, in 1945, brushed them off when they begged that Dr. Tiso and the members of the Slovak Government, who had surrendered to the American Army in Austria, be offered political asylum and not handed over to the vengeful Dr. Benes; and two million Americans of Slovak descent �16 SLOVAKIA could not prevail on the President and the Government of the United States to request Benes to spare Dr. Tiso from the gallows in 1947. And today, ten years later, we find that the Benes Czechs still carry some weight in official Washington circles. The Slovak League of America has lost several skirmishes and battles, but it still is carrying on the fight for the reeognition of the natural rights of the Slovak nation. It is only natural that the League is vitally interested in this all-important question, because the existence of the Slovak people is at stake. Since the Slovak nation has not been given an opportunity to speak freely for itself and never had been actually free and independent to work out its own destiny, the Slovak League of America has taken upon itself the obligation of pleading for the realization of the fundamental rights of the Slovak people. As loyal Americans, we are firmly convinced that those rights are predicated on the elementary principle that all peoples are morally entitled to speak in the United Nations, there to defend their rights to survival and self-fulfillment. Liberty cannot be exercised by proxy, and the Slovak people, like all other nations on the earth, must have a voice in the determination of their own destiny. Being American institutions, the Slovak League of America and the Slovak organizations affiliated with it are primarily interested in the welfare and security of the United States of America. They sincerely believe that it is in the highest interest of America and the rest of the free world that the Slovak nation be free and independent. Therefore, they cannot sit idly by while foreign political opportunists of the Benes stripe, discredited and cursed by their own people, exploit and compromise the good name of America, while given the opportunity to use American tax dollars to prolong the fiction of a united "Czechoslovak" nation and to promote the political, pseudo-democratic conceptions of Masaryk and Benes which led to the destruction of Czecho-Slovakia and the utter enslavement of the Slovak and Czech nations by the Communists. It is, the Slovaks believe, contrary to justice and morals to recognize and give moral and material aid to individuals and �SLOVAKIA 17 organizations that seek the destruction of the Slovak nation by promoting the big lie of a "united Czechoslovak nation." The truth is that the Slovaks never were, nor do they wish to be Czechs; and, on the other hand, the Czechs never were, nor do they desire to be Slovaki:i. Americans of Slovak descent, organized in the Slovak League of America, are loyal to America, because to them America is an ideal, a living symbol of freedom, tolerance, and justice. They seek no special favors for the nation they are descended from, but only recognition of and respect for the inherent, natural rights of the Slovak nation. The Slovaks learned about freedom and democracy from America. They know that they can best secure and safeguard their national existence only if they manage their own household. America has no cause to deny the Slovaks their rights to freedom and independence; this the American people as a whole understand well, but it seems that people making up our Government do not. This undoubtedly is due to the influence of the Benes Czechs who collaborated with the Reds and the Soviet Union until February 1948, when they suddenly became "democratic" exiles. As in the past, so in the future, the Slovak League must expend every effort to correct the situation. Administrations • of the United States Government, no matter what their political beliefs, must be convinced that the righteous cause of the Slovak nation deserves the support of all Americans. Americans of Slovak descent, we trust, are not overly presumptuous in assuming that they merit at least the same measure of favor and trust from their Government as does the bankrupt, pro-Soviet political clique of the late Dr. Edward Benes, which today is operating in America as the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia." Rebuffed and humbled on so many occasions, the Slovak League continues stubbornly and courageously in the work of liberating the Slovaks from all foreign domination. The existence of the Slovak nation can never be secured unless the Slovaks are masters of their own destiny. The Slovaks must not be denied the right to organize their own state, an independent Slovak Republic. The Slovaks are not against a federation or confederation of European �18 SLOVAKIA states, but rather for it. But into such a federation they want to enter not as an appendage of the Czech nation, but as a nation no less sovereign than the rest of the nations of any such proposed European federation. Today the Slovaks look to America for liberation and salvation more than they ever did; the Slovak nation needs encouragement and inspiration in this its darkest hour. After the great onslaught of World War II, the Slovaks were thrown to the Red wolves of the Kremlin and their stooges in Prague, and yet they have never let up in their fight against Communism. They fought against this scourge of humanity in and out of season for the past 100 years and are determined, with God's help, to keep fighting it until the Red plague is wiped off the face of the earth. The work of the Slovak League of America will never be finished until this happens and the Slovak nation at last takes its rightful place in the family of free nations, there to share the burdens and blessings of free men under God, all laboring toward one end: a just and lasting peace, based on the love of man for God and for his fellowman . • • . WHO SAID IT? ' ~Prague, Budapest, Zagreb, Brno, Bratislaiva were as German a'S Linz or Innsbruck, so much so they had German names: Brague (for Praha), Ofon, Agrrum, Brlinn, Pressburg. In Prague in 181'5 there were 50,000 Germam.s and only 15,000 Czechs; even in 1848 respectrubie people spoke only German in the streets, and to ask the way in Czech would provoke an offensive reply . . . . The smaller towns remained German far longer, ,some, such as Brno, until the twentieth century .... The German character of the towns (in the HaJbsbur,g Monarchy) had little or nothing to do with race . . . The enterp:r,ising son of a peasant, Czech, Roumaniian, or &rob, who entered a town, learned a German art and spoke Geiiman to his fellow shopkeepers; his children despised their father',s peasant dialect, am.d his grandcihildren, sa.fuly arrived in staJte j'dbs, forgot that they had ever been am.ytlling but German and town-dwellers." - (A. J. P. Taylor, THE HiABSBURG MONARJOHY, London, 1948; ,pp. 24-25). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 10 "FOR GOD AND NATION" 50 YEARS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA PHILIP A. HROBAK After greater numbers of Slovaks had settled in the United States of America during the last quarter of the past century, Slovak newspapers, fraternal benefit societies, churches and schools soon came into being. The Slovaks took to American democracy like fish to water, enjoying fully every moment of their existence in their "new" homeland. In America they had the very thing that souls of men everywhere thirst for: freedom. The liberties and God-given rights so freely and thoroughly pursued and enjoyed in America electrified the minds and hearts of the Slovaks and inspired them to work for the freedom and independence of their own homeland, where natural rights had been denied their people for a thousand years. Of course, their interest in the "old" homeland was only natural. Political persecution and economic suppression were the daily lot of the Slovaks under the Magyars of Hungary. It was evident that the Magyars, after their settlement with Vienna in 1867, were determined to liquidate the Slovaks as a national entity. The Matica Slovenska (Slovak Institute) was taken over by Budapest and its assets confiscated, students were thrown out of secondary schools, professors were fired or transferred to Magyar regions for their Slovak convictions, and Slovak intellectuals and professionals were deprived of the opportunity of making a livelihood in their own homeland. "Extra Hungariam non est vita" ( outside Hungary there is no life), the Magyars used to say, but this applied only to them, while the Slovaks were forced to leave their homeland by the hundreds of thousands to keep their bodies and souls together. The incident that fired the Slovaks both at home and in America to do something about the unfortunate lot of their homeland was the Cernova Massacre of October 26, 1907. Cernova was the birthplace of Andrew Hlinka, beloved priest and ardent patriot, who had been sentenced to SLOVAKIA 11 two years in jail in 1906 by the Magyars for his active opposition to Magyarizat ion. The good Slovaks of Cernova, in the meantime, having completed the building of their new church with funds collected by Hlinka, entreated the Ordinary of the diocese, Bishop Parvy, who had suspended Hlinka because of his political activity, to reinstate and allow 'our Father Hlinka' to perform the ceremonies of dedication. The bishop refused, appointing another priest for the task. The people resented this decision of the bishop On October 26, 1907, the date of the dedication, the Slovaks of Cernova blocked the priest's entrance to their new church; hard words led to turmoil; the Magyar gendarmes on hand for the occasion fired into the mass of the people. When the smoke cleared nine were dead, three were dying, twelve were seriously and 80 less seriously injured. Before the night was over five more succumbed to their injuries: fourteen dead, fourteen martyrs of Magyar chauvinism. And numerous Slovaks were jailed as "instigator s" of the Cernova incident. The Slovaks in America swung into action; mass meetings of protest organized by the Slovak clergy and Slovak newsmen followed; articles in Slovak and English flooded every Slovak center to spotlight the attention of the world on Magyar brutalities. Thousands of dollars were collected and sent to the homeland for the defense and support of patriotic Slovaks. Cernova, above all else, w1doubtedly motivated the Slovaks of America to join the Slovak League of America, to form a united front against Magyar tyranny. It was on April 4, 1907, at the invitation of the Rev. Stephen Furdek of Cleveland, Ohio, that representat ives of the Slovak Press in America met in Pittsburgh, Pa., to deliberate how they might best help their wretched brethren beneath the Tatras. All recognized the fact that the time was ripe to organize all Slovaks in America into one union for the defense of everything past Slovak generations had built and fought for in Slovakia. Adopting the slogan "For Our Slovak Heritage" (Za tu nasu Slovencinu ), the meeting adopted a two-plank program: 1. To care for and support Slovak cultural and political life at home (in Slovakia); 2. 12 SLOVAKIA To care for and support Slovak cultural and political life in America. Furthermore, it was decided that a mass meeting of American Slovaks would be held at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 26, 1907. Soon after the Pittsburgh meeting, all Slovak newspapers in America publicized the proposed mass rally in Cleveland, inviting all Slovaks interested in the righteous cause of the Slovak nation to attend the "Slovak Congress" on May 26, 1907. It was undersigned by representatives of all Slovak fraternal organizations and newspapers. "The purpose of the Congress," the announcement said, "is to unite all Slovak organizations in systematic national work. ... Our old country is turning to us, let us help it. We must present a united front." Over 7000 of them, representing all Slovak societies and newspapers, fraternal benefit organizations and parishes, clergy and laity of various religious and political convictions, met in Cleveland, Ohio, where they more than filled the spacious Gray's Armory. On that day the Slovak League of America was founded to unite all Slovaks in America to fight for the inherent, God-given rights of the Slovak nation which was doomed to national extinction by the Magyars of Hungary. On that day Americans of Slovak descent resolved in the spirit of America that the nation they are descended from shall be free and independent of alien rule, that it shall be the master of its own household and work out its own destiny as an equal among nations. Under the leadership of the great and immortal Rev. Stephen Furdek, the founder and first president of the Slovak League of America, the League made America known to the Slovaks at home, and Slovakia and her people known to Americans. The seed of freedom and independence, which had taken a solid hold in the fertile soil of America, was now planted by Americans of Slovak descent in the land of their forefathers, Slovakia. Throughout the past fifty years, the Slovak League of America has remained faithful to its mission. It united the Slovaks in America to work for a better America by becoming alert citizens and to work for the liberation of their brethren in Slovakia from hostile, alien domination. The SLOVAKIA 13 League has made America and the rest of the world aware of the fact that the Slovak nation does exist and demands recognition of and respect for its natural rights. But the Slovak League of America also inspired and gave strength to the Slovaks at home not to abandon the uneven struggle for freedom and independence. It was, in fact, the Slovak League of America that made it possible for the Slovak nation to liberate itself from Magyar tyranny. The fatal shot that started the world conflagration and massacre in 1914 had not yet been fired in Sarajevo, when the Slovak League of America prepared a Memorandum addressed "to all just and truth-respecting nations," demanding complete autonomy for the Slovaks on the basis of the right of self-determination. After the Sarajevo incident, the Slovaks were faced with the question: We are through with the Magyars, but now with whom shall we join up to gain what is rightfully ours? With the Russians? The Czechs? The Poles? After due consideration, the Slovaks decided to go along with the Czechs. The decision was greatly influenced by the Slovak League of America. But it was only after T. G. Masaryk, first president and one of the founders of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, drafted and signed the Pittsburgh Agreement on May 30, 1918, that the Slovaks really joined with the Czechs to work for the establishment of a common political state. The Agreement guaranteed complete autonomy (states' rights) to Slovakia within the framework of Czecho-Slovakia, which was to be patterned after Switzerland and the United States. Unfortunately, T. G. Masaryk failed to keep his word. Advised by Dr. Edward Benes and other "progressive" chauvinistic Czech socialists, Masaryk repudiated the Pittsburgh Pact, calling it a "scrap of paper." The Slovaks, however, never let up in their clamor for the incorporation of the Pittsburgh Pact into the Constitution of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. But to no avail: the Masaryk-Benes Czechs in Prague subbornly refused to listen to reason. After twenty years of Czecho-Slovakia under Masaryk and Benes, the Slovaks were ready to break with the Czechs. After twenty years of Masaryk-Benes pro-Soviet and antiSlovak policies, the Slovaks and Czechs were farther apart 14 SLOVAKIA than they ever had been. Dr. Edward Benes pursued his ruinous policy to the very bitter end, refusing to recognize and respect the inherent right of the Slovak nation to have something to say about its own destiny. Within a week after accepting the Munich verdict, without consulting the parliament or the Slovak and Czech people, he simply resigned and later left the country. The day following Benes' resignation, the Prague Parliament belatedly and begrudgingly granted autonomy to Slovakia and later had the law incorporated into the Czecho-Slovak Constitution. Hitler and his Nazis started their mad race to destruction; there was no one to stop them at that time. And the Czechs, apparently regretting that they had granted autonomy to Slovakia, placed Slovakia under martial law on March 10, 1939, and occupied Slovakia. Hitler, of course, exploited the situation. Without mincing words, he told the Slovaks to proclaim their independence or else. Under the circumstances, the duly elected representatives of the Slovak people proclaimed the independnce of Slovakia on March 14, 1939. The independent Republic of Slovakia was soon recognized by twenty-seven countries. Slovakia was not too badly off during the war; as far as their internal affairs were concerned, the Slovaks managed their country well under President Joseph Tiso. They were better off than most neutral countries and enjoyed more freedom than they ever did under Masaryk and Benes. Why Hitler left them alone and did not bother to take them over completely, as he did the Czechs and so many other nations, still remains unexplained. But the fact is that the Slovaks were doing right well until the end of August 1944, when Moscow agents and the Benes proSoviet clique engineered the so-called "Slovak National Uprising." The story of Warsaw was repeated. Hitler's hordes poured into Slovakia "to restore order" - and the Slovaks were on the receiving end of both sides, the Reds and the Nazis. Over 70,000 Slovaks were killed in the slaughter. We know what happened at the end of World War IT. Benes sold out Czecho-Slovakia to Hitler in 1938 without firing a shot; he repeated the performance in 1943 by for- SLOVAKIA 15 mally selling out the Slovaks and Czechs to Stalin with a treaty. Benes' pro-Soviet policy paid off temporarily: with Stalin's blessing he became president of Czecho-Slovakia again, this time the head man of the new "people's" Republic. To show his gratefulness, Dr. Benes and his Reddominated Prague government immediately began to liquidate all anti-Communist and anti-Socialistic elements in the "new" Czecho-Slovakia. But finally Benes himself was destroyed by the monster he had nurtured to prove again that Communism devours its own children! The Slovak nation was consistently vilified and misrepresented by the nations which dominated and exploited it. As far as the Magyars and Czechs were concerned, there was no Slovak nation, there was no Slovak language. T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes told the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 that the Slovaks were but a branch of the Czech nation and their language was but a dialect of the Czech. In old Hungary, the Magyars boasted that they were the "natio hungarica" ; after 1918, the Czechs beat their chests that they were the "state-nation" - the "Czechoslovak" nation. The Magyars accused the Slovaks of being anti-State and pro-Slav; the Czechs under Masaryk and Benes accused them of being anti-State and pro-Magyar. Both Magyars and Czechs agreed that the Slovaks were "separatists." And their propaganda in America blasted the Slovaks who worked for the liberation of their old homeland from alien domination. The Slovak League of America was the prime target of both the Magyars and the Czechs. During the last war, the Slovak League of America was the main target of attack of Dr. Benes' smear and vilification campaign. Dr. Benes knew the right people in Washington, Paris, London, and Moscow. Americans of Slovak descent could not prevail on their own government to save the Republic of Slovakia for the West; official Washington, in 1945, brushed them off when they begged that Dr. Tiso and the members of the Slovak Government, who had surrendered to the American Army in Austria, be offered political asylum and not handed over to the vengeful Dr. Benes; and two million Americans of Slovak descent 16 SLOVAKIA could not prevail on the President and the Government of the United States to request Benes to spare Dr. Tiso from the gallows in 1947. And today, ten years later, we find that the Benes Czechs still carry some weight in official Washington circles. The Slovak League of America has lost several skirmishes and battles, but it still is carrying on the fight for the reeognition of the natural rights of the Slovak nation. It is only natural that the League is vitally interested in this all-important question, because the existence of the Slovak people is at stake. Since the Slovak nation has not been given an opportunity to speak freely for itself and never had been actually free and independent to work out its own destiny, the Slovak League of America has taken upon itself the obligation of pleading for the realization of the fundamental rights of the Slovak people. As loyal Americans, we are firmly convinced that those rights are predicated on the elementary principle that all peoples are morally entitled to speak in the United Nations, there to defend their rights to survival and self-fulfillment. Liberty cannot be exercised by proxy, and the Slovak people, like all other nations on the earth, must have a voice in the determination of their own destiny. Being American institutions, the Slovak League of America and the Slovak organizations affiliated with it are primarily interested in the welfare and security of the United States of America. They sincerely believe that it is in the highest interest of America and the rest of the free world that the Slovak nation be free and independent. Therefore, they cannot sit idly by while foreign political opportunists of the Benes stripe, discredited and cursed by their own people, exploit and compromise the good name of America, while given the opportunity to use American tax dollars to prolong the fiction of a united "Czechoslovak" nation and to promote the political, pseudo-democratic conceptions of Masaryk and Benes which led to the destruction of Czecho-Slovakia and the utter enslavement of the Slovak and Czech nations by the Communists. It is, the Slovaks believe, contrary to justice and morals to recognize and give moral and material aid to individuals and SLOVAKIA 17 organizations that seek the destruction of the Slovak nation by promoting the big lie of a "united Czechoslovak nation." The truth is that the Slovaks never were, nor do they wish to be Czechs; and, on the other hand, the Czechs never were, nor do they desire to be Slovaki:i. Americans of Slovak descent, organized in the Slovak League of America, are loyal to America, because to them America is an ideal, a living symbol of freedom, tolerance, and justice. They seek no special favors for the nation they are descended from, but only recognition of and respect for the inherent, natural rights of the Slovak nation. The Slovaks learned about freedom and democracy from America. They know that they can best secure and safeguard their national existence only if they manage their own household. America has no cause to deny the Slovaks their rights to freedom and independence; this the American people as a whole understand well, but it seems that people making up our Government do not. This undoubtedly is due to the influence of the Benes Czechs who collaborated with the Reds and the Soviet Union until February 1948, when they suddenly became "democratic" exiles. As in the past, so in the future, the Slovak League must expend every effort to correct the situation. Administrations • of the United States Government, no matter what their political beliefs, must be convinced that the righteous cause of the Slovak nation deserves the support of all Americans. Americans of Slovak descent, we trust, are not overly presumptuous in assuming that they merit at least the same measure of favor and trust from their Government as does the bankrupt, pro-Soviet political clique of the late Dr. Edward Benes, which today is operating in America as the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia." Rebuffed and humbled on so many occasions, the Slovak League continues stubbornly and courageously in the work of liberating the Slovaks from all foreign domination. The existence of the Slovak nation can never be secured unless the Slovaks are masters of their own destiny. The Slovaks must not be denied the right to organize their own state, an independent Slovak Republic. The Slovaks are not against a federation or confederation of European 18 SLOVAKIA states, but rather for it. But into such a federation they want to enter not as an appendage of the Czech nation, but as a nation no less sovereign than the rest of the nations of any such proposed European federation. Today the Slovaks look to America for liberation and salvation more than they ever did; the Slovak nation needs encouragement and inspiration in this its darkest hour. After the great onslaught of World War II, the Slovaks were thrown to the Red wolves of the Kremlin and their stooges in Prague, and yet they have never let up in their fight against Communism. They fought against this scourge of humanity in and out of season for the past 100 years and are determined, with God's help, to keep fighting it until the Red plague is wiped off the face of the earth. The work of the Slovak League of America will never be finished until this happens and the Slovak nation at last takes its rightful place in the family of free nations, there to share the burdens and blessings of free men under God, all laboring toward one end: a just and lasting peace, based on the love of man for God and for his fellowman . • • . WHO SAID IT? ' ~Prague, Budapest, Zagreb, Brno, Bratislaiva were as German a'S Linz or Innsbruck, so much so they had German names: Brague (for Praha), Ofon, Agrrum, Brlinn, Pressburg. In Prague in 181'5 there were 50,000 Germam.s and only 15,000 Czechs; even in 1848 respectrubie people spoke only German in the streets, and to ask the way in Czech would provoke an offensive reply . . . . The smaller towns remained German far longer, ,some, such as Brno, until the twentieth century .... The German character of the towns (in the HaJbsbur,g Monarchy) had little or nothing to do with race . . . The enterp:r,ising son of a peasant, Czech, Roumaniian, or &rob, who entered a town, learned a German art and spoke Geiiman to his fellow shopkeepers; his children despised their father',s peasant dialect, am.d his grandcihildren, sa.fuly arrived in staJte j'dbs, forgot that they had ever been am.ytlling but German and town-dwellers." - (A. J. P. Taylor, THE HiABSBURG MONARJOHY, London, 1948; ,pp. 24-25).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 50 Years of the Slovak League of America Description An account of the resource Philip A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2 (23), June 1957 pp. 10-18 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1957 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/2a7db42a0de7e82305e7938edaf41f12.pdf d0d8d20af77aa5ed8a55583d38826676 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 31 need right now is a large, stiff dose of "Knowlandism" for the brain to clear our thinking so that we might resolve: NO MORAL AND/ OR MATERIAL AID FOR THE SOVIET UNION AND ITS SATELLITES! • • • A BELATED REPORT By CHARLES MURIN, Ph.D., LL.D. It seems to be inevitable during a war, when the stakes are high, that people reduce their thinking to two categories only: my side is identified with the good and moral purely and simply, the enemy, or the other side. is the embodiment pure of the principle of evil which is the root of all disorder in the world. It is understandable that this psychological attitude belongs to war, because one has to know what he is offering his life for. However, if this psychological factor seems to belong to the conditions required for the winning of a war, the same attitude is a disturbing factor when it enters among the considerations how to win the peace. This is exactly what we experienced after World War II in regard to the organization of post-war Europe. Besides this, Slovak refugees, among many others, have experienced in their own personal destinies the drawbacks in the application of the above-mentioned psychological attitude to the period immediately following the war. It took about two years until an about face had been brought about, and the writer of these lines had the peculiar opportunity of being personally involved in both stages of mind; the one that is supposed to win the war, and the one which aims at winning the peace. It goes without saying that the latter was infinitely more in accordance with common sense and reason and with what can be called the moral principles in politics. The psychological attitude of seeing only black and white becomes a real disaster when it is adopted by responsible statesmen and politicians. As a direct consequence, this attitude inevitably involves political and moral contradictions that do not fail to give, with on unerring �32 SLOVAKIA exactitude, the results of which are best illustrated by the present state of affairs in Europe. It is our intention to point out one instance of the application of the black and/ or white psychological attitude in connection with the conditions in the Danube valley and particularly in connection with the late President of the Slovak Republic, Msgr. Dr. Joseph Tiso. We shall not go into the analysis of the causes of this attitude in our case even though they can be, without any doubt, revealed quite easily. The Munich Agreement of 1938 was an affair of the big European powers of that time. The small nations could not help but take notice of the agreement by which Central Europe became the zone of influence of Germany. Since the great powers knew that it was a Nazi Germany, the small nations were compelled to take notice of this fact and steer the destiny of their respective nations through the troubled waters of the years to come. It is a curious fact, unfortunately not a unique one in the political history, that the same great powers, or more exactly a part of them, did not mind the putting to trial and sentencing of people, after World War II, simply because they had to accept what the great powers had agreed upon in Munich. Either they must concede that they were not able to see the immediate geopolitical consequence of what they were doing, or they must admit that they accepted a multiplicity of rights to life and rights to survive: one code for me, another, a modified one, to suit my interests for the others. First they objected to Nazi-Germany and later on - grace a Dieu to the Soviet Union. It is not difficult to see that a contradiction in regard to fundamental moral principles is involved in this case. However, let us look into the case which applies this time not directly to the whole area of Central Europe but specifically to Slovakia and only indirectly, though not less vitally, to the whole area of Central Europe. We are going to mention three instances of a public address of the late President Dr. Joseph Tiso which should not have escaped the attention of the people in charge of Central European affairs in respective Departments of Foreign Affairs in the Western World. The more so, since the Germans' reaction :n all the three cases was utterly hostile. �SLO\',\KIA 33 1. In the Western-Slovakia town of Trnava, some 30 miles from the capital of Slovakia, Dr. Tiso said in August 1939: "Slovaks, do not think that what the Germans are doing for us they do because of their love for us (literally, "because of our beautiful blue eyes" - this expression comes from a Slovak proverb). They do it because it is in their interest to do so." 2. In speaking to the District Governors of Slovakia, Dr. Tiso said in the Redoute Hall in Bratislava: "Our participation in the present war is but a symbolic one." 3. On the occasion of the opening of the new Strazske-Vranov rail line, Dr. Tiso proclaimed in Presov, a town situated in Eastern Slovakia: "The Slovak people will display more loyalty to the one who will help us to a more free life" (Not having the original texts at hand, the writer guarantees for the fidelity of the quoted sentences only as far as their genuine meaning is concerned). In all the three instances, the President's speeches were broadcast throughout the whole territory of the Slovak Republic and to the personal knowledge of the writer the last two quotations were objected to in strong terms by the Germans. The meaning of these speeches was clear to all concerned, including the Germans, and to the Benes clique at that time preparing its comeback via Moscow. What was the reaction to these speeches in Slovakia? What we were interested in was whether these speeches will be noticed by those in charge of Central Europe in the State Department of the United States. Confidence towards the Americans of Slovak origin was in the eyes of Slovaks extended to the whole of the United States. Even towards the end of the war, when the present writer discussed with President Tiso his preferences of the then unknown zones of occupation of Germany and of Austria, in the opinion of the President it was the American zone of occupation that he wished for in the first place. In reality, however, the facts have shown that the French have manifested more understanding for the complexities of the Central European politics than did the military administration of the United States. �34 SLOVAKIA There were two points around which revolved the thinking of Dr. Joseph Tiso as regards the future of the Slovak people. First, it was the confidence in the United States as to the country of Washington, Lincoln, etc., and, last but not least, as to the country of the American Slovaks. In other words, the Slovaks had expected that the Government of the United States would not oppose the will of a nation to freedom. Secondly, Dr. Tiso ruled out in his thinking the possibility of creating a political vacuum in Europe after the war, because he knew that any political vacuum would be but an invitation to the Soviets who would not fail to intervene if not opposed by a military force superior to their own. Now let us recall what was the situation during the war in Slovakia and what moves were expected by the Slovaks in regard to their political future. Call it whatever you want, call it unjustly a German protectorate or a German appendix, or call it according to no matter which names given to the Slovak Republic by the Benes people and the Communists, the fact remains that the Slovak people, during the short period of the Slovak Republic, made greater progress in all fields of their national existence than during any period of time, entirely out of proportion with the six years, in the last centuries. On the other hand, the Slovak nation was very much aware of the fact that the conditions of their freedom were rather precarious in more than one regard, concerning both some of the internal and also international factors. The only positive approach to the Slovak people leads through what hindered their freedom and not through questioning their right to fredom. This was the meaning of the above messages of President Joseph Tiso to the Western World and in particular to the United States. On the other hand, what was the political formula offered 'by the United Nations to the Slovak people? To put it bluntly, it can be briefly resumed in the following sentence: give up your freedom. Or in a more explicit way: if you want to get rid of what contradicts the way of life you are striving for, get rid of freedom. Or: there is no other way to cut loose from the accompanying phenomena that �SLOVAKIA 35 hinder your freedom than to kill the whole thing, which is tantamount to the advice: throw out the child together with the bath water. There was an inherent contradiction in this attitude that can be summed up as follows: in order to be free you must renounce freedom. In itself, this is a perfectly coherent assertion under the condition one qualifies the two meanings of freedom in a due way. Yet historically speaking the conditions were set either by the Nazis, on the one side, or by the Benes people and the Communists, on the other side. President Tiso hoped that there might be a third condition, that is, that of the Slovak people, and that the United States might understand this. Dr. Tiso's political vision aimed at the transition from freedom conditioned by Nazi Germany {the history of this condition is not a univocal one; there were changes for better and for worse) to the freedom conditioned by the Slovak people. Contrary to this legitimate expectation, on the Slovak people was imposed the Communist and the Benes version of freedom which by no means was lacking an univocal significance whose depth of cruelty the Western World seems to be grasping only after the Hungarian tragedy of last Fall. In Slovakia we had a chance to see this version of freedom i.n an extremely lucid way during the so-called August "uprising" of 1944. This political movement might pass into history as the most curious and most ineffective and futile piece of political thinking. Ill-timed, wrongly executed, without any real significance as to war operations, its only result was to bring the war on the territory of Slovakia and to help Benes to sell his version of "freedom" by building Potemkin villages to the West, yet replacing the rather humorous deceit of the famous Russian deceiver by the cruelty of the present-day power-holders of Russia. What about the Slovak version of their freedom? For the time being its highest symbol is President Dr. Joseph Tiso. Historical events have imposed upon him this significance. The German military police {Sicherheitsdienst) gathered material towards the end of the war for a process against Dr. Joseph Tiso. The forecluded result of his show process would have been most probably the last and the definite qualification of the Nazi-Germany version of the �36 SLOVAKIA Slovak freedom. Where the Germans were stopped by the victory of the United Nations, the Benes government faithfully carried on. The execution of the President of the Slovak Republic, the 10th anniversary of which the free Slovaks commemorated this year, was supposed to put an end to Slovak freedom. It would seem that there can be no freedom for this people at all; that the Slovaks have to choose between the two or more pseudo-versions of freedom which must be always conditioned for the benefit of one of their neighbors, not in the sense of a loyal cooperation as might be arranged with justice in a federation of nations, but in the sense of being politically, economically, and culturally subjected by one of its neighbors. The Slovaks are not shocked to hear this. Yet they beg to differ radically from this opinion, both because of their conviction that they have the moral and political right to live freely, the Slovak way of life, in full respect of other peoples, and because they trust that the vitality of the American spirit of freedom is keen and strong enough to overcome the contradiction implied in the wartime pattern of political thinking concerning the Slovaks. Western wartime reporters had failed to report the above-mentioned messages of the late Msgr. Dr. Joseph Tiso to the responsible personalities of the U. S. Government. I am using the opportunity to do this on the tenth anniversary of the death on the gallows of the priest of whom his ecclesiastical superior, Archbishop Dr. Kmefko, said: "It is because we knew him always as an exemplary priest that we wished him to accept the nomination for the Presidency of the Slovak Republic; he was a guarantee against the intrusion of Nazi ideology." Thus I am drawing attention of the United States Government to the political vision of Dr. Joseph Tiso, the vision of his Slovak people, i.e., not a Nazi version, nor a Comunist one, nor a Czech version of Slovak freedom, but an honest-to-goodness Washington version of freedom which is a human one. By .this I believe, I am only fulfilling, though somewhat belatedly, my duty connected with my being the former "personal secretary" of the late President of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso. � SLOVAKIA 31 need right now is a large, stiff dose of "Knowlandism" for the brain to clear our thinking so that we might resolve: NO MORAL AND/ OR MATERIAL AID FOR THE SOVIET UNION AND ITS SATELLITES! • • • A BELATED REPORT By CHARLES MURIN, Ph.D., LL.D. It seems to be inevitable during a war, when the stakes are high, that people reduce their thinking to two categories only: my side is identified with the good and moral purely and simply, the enemy, or the other side. is the embodiment pure of the principle of evil which is the root of all disorder in the world. It is understandable that this psychological attitude belongs to war, because one has to know what he is offering his life for. However, if this psychological factor seems to belong to the conditions required for the winning of a war, the same attitude is a disturbing factor when it enters among the considerations how to win the peace. This is exactly what we experienced after World War II in regard to the organization of post-war Europe. Besides this, Slovak refugees, among many others, have experienced in their own personal destinies the drawbacks in the application of the above-mentioned psychological attitude to the period immediately following the war. It took about two years until an about face had been brought about, and the writer of these lines had the peculiar opportunity of being personally involved in both stages of mind; the one that is supposed to win the war, and the one which aims at winning the peace. It goes without saying that the latter was infinitely more in accordance with common sense and reason and with what can be called the moral principles in politics. The psychological attitude of seeing only black and white becomes a real disaster when it is adopted by responsible statesmen and politicians. As a direct consequence, this attitude inevitably involves political and moral contradictions that do not fail to give, with on unerring �32 SLOVAKIA exactitude, the results of which are best illustrated by the present state of affairs in Europe. It is our intention to point out one instance of the application of the black and/ or white psychological attitude in connection with the conditions in the Danube valley and particularly in connection with the late President of the Slovak Republic, Msgr. Dr. Joseph Tiso. We shall not go into the analysis of the causes of this attitude in our case even though they can be, without any doubt, revealed quite easily. The Munich Agreement of 1938 was an affair of the big European powers of that time. The small nations could not help but take notice of the agreement by which Central Europe became the zone of influence of Germany. Since the great powers knew that it was a Nazi Germany, the small nations were compelled to take notice of this fact and steer the destiny of their respective nations through the troubled waters of the years to come. It is a curious fact, unfortunately not a unique one in the political history, that the same great powers, or more exactly a part of them, did not mind the putting to trial and sentencing of people, after World War II, simply because they had to accept what the great powers had agreed upon in Munich. Either they must concede that they were not able to see the immediate geopolitical consequence of what they were doing, or they must admit that they accepted a multiplicity of rights to life and rights to survive: one code for me, another, a modified one, to suit my interests for the others. First they objected to Nazi-Germany and later on - grace a Dieu to the Soviet Union. It is not difficult to see that a contradiction in regard to fundamental moral principles is involved in this case. However, let us look into the case which applies this time not directly to the whole area of Central Europe but specifically to Slovakia and only indirectly, though not less vitally, to the whole area of Central Europe. We are going to mention three instances of a public address of the late President Dr. Joseph Tiso which should not have escaped the attention of the people in charge of Central European affairs in respective Departments of Foreign Affairs in the Western World. The more so, since the Germans' reaction :n all the three cases was utterly hostile. �SLO\',\KIA 33 1. In the Western-Slovakia town of Trnava, some 30 miles from the capital of Slovakia, Dr. Tiso said in August 1939: "Slovaks, do not think that what the Germans are doing for us they do because of their love for us (literally, "because of our beautiful blue eyes" - this expression comes from a Slovak proverb). They do it because it is in their interest to do so." 2. In speaking to the District Governors of Slovakia, Dr. Tiso said in the Redoute Hall in Bratislava: "Our participation in the present war is but a symbolic one." 3. On the occasion of the opening of the new Strazske-Vranov rail line, Dr. Tiso proclaimed in Presov, a town situated in Eastern Slovakia: "The Slovak people will display more loyalty to the one who will help us to a more free life" (Not having the original texts at hand, the writer guarantees for the fidelity of the quoted sentences only as far as their genuine meaning is concerned). In all the three instances, the President's speeches were broadcast throughout the whole territory of the Slovak Republic and to the personal knowledge of the writer the last two quotations were objected to in strong terms by the Germans. The meaning of these speeches was clear to all concerned, including the Germans, and to the Benes clique at that time preparing its comeback via Moscow. What was the reaction to these speeches in Slovakia? What we were interested in was whether these speeches will be noticed by those in charge of Central Europe in the State Department of the United States. Confidence towards the Americans of Slovak origin was in the eyes of Slovaks extended to the whole of the United States. Even towards the end of the war, when the present writer discussed with President Tiso his preferences of the then unknown zones of occupation of Germany and of Austria, in the opinion of the President it was the American zone of occupation that he wished for in the first place. In reality, however, the facts have shown that the French have manifested more understanding for the complexities of the Central European politics than did the military administration of the United States. �34 SLOVAKIA There were two points around which revolved the thinking of Dr. Joseph Tiso as regards the future of the Slovak people. First, it was the confidence in the United States as to the country of Washington, Lincoln, etc., and, last but not least, as to the country of the American Slovaks. In other words, the Slovaks had expected that the Government of the United States would not oppose the will of a nation to freedom. Secondly, Dr. Tiso ruled out in his thinking the possibility of creating a political vacuum in Europe after the war, because he knew that any political vacuum would be but an invitation to the Soviets who would not fail to intervene if not opposed by a military force superior to their own. Now let us recall what was the situation during the war in Slovakia and what moves were expected by the Slovaks in regard to their political future. Call it whatever you want, call it unjustly a German protectorate or a German appendix, or call it according to no matter which names given to the Slovak Republic by the Benes people and the Communists, the fact remains that the Slovak people, during the short period of the Slovak Republic, made greater progress in all fields of their national existence than during any period of time, entirely out of proportion with the six years, in the last centuries. On the other hand, the Slovak nation was very much aware of the fact that the conditions of their freedom were rather precarious in more than one regard, concerning both some of the internal and also international factors. The only positive approach to the Slovak people leads through what hindered their freedom and not through questioning their right to fredom. This was the meaning of the above messages of President Joseph Tiso to the Western World and in particular to the United States. On the other hand, what was the political formula offered 'by the United Nations to the Slovak people? To put it bluntly, it can be briefly resumed in the following sentence: give up your freedom. Or in a more explicit way: if you want to get rid of what contradicts the way of life you are striving for, get rid of freedom. Or: there is no other way to cut loose from the accompanying phenomena that �SLOVAKIA 35 hinder your freedom than to kill the whole thing, which is tantamount to the advice: throw out the child together with the bath water. There was an inherent contradiction in this attitude that can be summed up as follows: in order to be free you must renounce freedom. In itself, this is a perfectly coherent assertion under the condition one qualifies the two meanings of freedom in a due way. Yet historically speaking the conditions were set either by the Nazis, on the one side, or by the Benes people and the Communists, on the other side. President Tiso hoped that there might be a third condition, that is, that of the Slovak people, and that the United States might understand this. Dr. Tiso's political vision aimed at the transition from freedom conditioned by Nazi Germany {the history of this condition is not a univocal one; there were changes for better and for worse) to the freedom conditioned by the Slovak people. Contrary to this legitimate expectation, on the Slovak people was imposed the Communist and the Benes version of freedom which by no means was lacking an univocal significance whose depth of cruelty the Western World seems to be grasping only after the Hungarian tragedy of last Fall. In Slovakia we had a chance to see this version of freedom i.n an extremely lucid way during the so-called August "uprising" of 1944. This political movement might pass into history as the most curious and most ineffective and futile piece of political thinking. Ill-timed, wrongly executed, without any real significance as to war operations, its only result was to bring the war on the territory of Slovakia and to help Benes to sell his version of "freedom" by building Potemkin villages to the West, yet replacing the rather humorous deceit of the famous Russian deceiver by the cruelty of the present-day power-holders of Russia. What about the Slovak version of their freedom? For the time being its highest symbol is President Dr. Joseph Tiso. Historical events have imposed upon him this significance. The German military police {Sicherheitsdienst) gathered material towards the end of the war for a process against Dr. Joseph Tiso. The forecluded result of his show process would have been most probably the last and the definite qualification of the Nazi-Germany version of the �36 SLOVAKIA Slovak freedom. Where the Germans were stopped by the victory of the United Nations, the Benes government faithfully carried on. The execution of the President of the Slovak Republic, the 10th anniversary of which the free Slovaks commemorated this year, was supposed to put an end to Slovak freedom. It would seem that there can be no freedom for this people at all; that the Slovaks have to choose between the two or more pseudo-versions of freedom which must be always conditioned for the benefit of one of their neighbors, not in the sense of a loyal cooperation as might be arranged with justice in a federation of nations, but in the sense of being politically, economically, and culturally subjected by one of its neighbors. The Slovaks are not shocked to hear this. Yet they beg to differ radically from this opinion, both because of their conviction that they have the moral and political right to live freely, the Slovak way of life, in full respect of other peoples, and because they trust that the vitality of the American spirit of freedom is keen and strong enough to overcome the contradiction implied in the wartime pattern of political thinking concerning the Slovaks. Western wartime reporters had failed to report the above-mentioned messages of the late Msgr. Dr. Joseph Tiso to the responsible personalities of the U. S. Government. I am using the opportunity to do this on the tenth anniversary of the death on the gallows of the priest of whom his ecclesiastical superior, Archbishop Dr. Kmefko, said: "It is because we knew him always as an exemplary priest that we wished him to accept the nomination for the Presidency of the Slovak Republic; he was a guarantee against the intrusion of Nazi ideology." Thus I am drawing attention of the United States Government to the political vision of Dr. Joseph Tiso, the vision of his Slovak people, i.e., not a Nazi version, nor a Comunist one, nor a Czech version of Slovak freedom, but an honest-to-goodness Washington version of freedom which is a human one. By .this I believe, I am only fulfilling, though somewhat belatedly, my duty connected with my being the former "personal secretary" of the late President of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 31 need right now is a large, stiff dose of "Knowlandism" for the brain to clear our thinking so that we might resolve: NO MORAL AND/ OR MATERIAL AID FOR THE SOVIET UNION AND ITS SATELLITES! • • • A BELATED REPORT By CHARLES MURIN, Ph.D., LL.D. It seems to be inevitable during a war, when the stakes are high, that people reduce their thinking to two categories only: my side is identified with the good and moral purely and simply, the enemy, or the other side. is the embodiment pure of the principle of evil which is the root of all disorder in the world. It is understandable that this psychological attitude belongs to war, because one has to know what he is offering his life for. However, if this psychological factor seems to belong to the conditions required for the winning of a war, the same attitude is a disturbing factor when it enters among the considerations how to win the peace. This is exactly what we experienced after World War II in regard to the organization of post-war Europe. Besides this, Slovak refugees, among many others, have experienced in their own personal destinies the drawbacks in the application of the above-mentioned psychological attitude to the period immediately following the war. It took about two years until an about face had been brought about, and the writer of these lines had the peculiar opportunity of being personally involved in both stages of mind; the one that is supposed to win the war, and the one which aims at winning the peace. It goes without saying that the latter was infinitely more in accordance with common sense and reason and with what can be called the moral principles in politics. The psychological attitude of seeing only black and white becomes a real disaster when it is adopted by responsible statesmen and politicians. As a direct consequence, this attitude inevitably involves political and moral contradictions that do not fail to give, with on unerring 32 SLOVAKIA exactitude, the results of which are best illustrated by the present state of affairs in Europe. It is our intention to point out one instance of the application of the black and/ or white psychological attitude in connection with the conditions in the Danube valley and particularly in connection with the late President of the Slovak Republic, Msgr. Dr. Joseph Tiso. We shall not go into the analysis of the causes of this attitude in our case even though they can be, without any doubt, revealed quite easily. The Munich Agreement of 1938 was an affair of the big European powers of that time. The small nations could not help but take notice of the agreement by which Central Europe became the zone of influence of Germany. Since the great powers knew that it was a Nazi Germany, the small nations were compelled to take notice of this fact and steer the destiny of their respective nations through the troubled waters of the years to come. It is a curious fact, unfortunately not a unique one in the political history, that the same great powers, or more exactly a part of them, did not mind the putting to trial and sentencing of people, after World War II, simply because they had to accept what the great powers had agreed upon in Munich. Either they must concede that they were not able to see the immediate geopolitical consequence of what they were doing, or they must admit that they accepted a multiplicity of rights to life and rights to survive: one code for me, another, a modified one, to suit my interests for the others. First they objected to Nazi-Germany and later on - grace a Dieu to the Soviet Union. It is not difficult to see that a contradiction in regard to fundamental moral principles is involved in this case. However, let us look into the case which applies this time not directly to the whole area of Central Europe but specifically to Slovakia and only indirectly, though not less vitally, to the whole area of Central Europe. We are going to mention three instances of a public address of the late President Dr. Joseph Tiso which should not have escaped the attention of the people in charge of Central European affairs in respective Departments of Foreign Affairs in the Western World. The more so, since the Germans' reaction :n all the three cases was utterly hostile. SLO\',\KIA 33 1. In the Western-Slovakia town of Trnava, some 30 miles from the capital of Slovakia, Dr. Tiso said in August 1939: "Slovaks, do not think that what the Germans are doing for us they do because of their love for us (literally, "because of our beautiful blue eyes" - this expression comes from a Slovak proverb). They do it because it is in their interest to do so." 2. In speaking to the District Governors of Slovakia, Dr. Tiso said in the Redoute Hall in Bratislava: "Our participation in the present war is but a symbolic one." 3. On the occasion of the opening of the new Strazske-Vranov rail line, Dr. Tiso proclaimed in Presov, a town situated in Eastern Slovakia: "The Slovak people will display more loyalty to the one who will help us to a more free life" (Not having the original texts at hand, the writer guarantees for the fidelity of the quoted sentences only as far as their genuine meaning is concerned). In all the three instances, the President's speeches were broadcast throughout the whole territory of the Slovak Republic and to the personal knowledge of the writer the last two quotations were objected to in strong terms by the Germans. The meaning of these speeches was clear to all concerned, including the Germans, and to the Benes clique at that time preparing its comeback via Moscow. What was the reaction to these speeches in Slovakia? What we were interested in was whether these speeches will be noticed by those in charge of Central Europe in the State Department of the United States. Confidence towards the Americans of Slovak origin was in the eyes of Slovaks extended to the whole of the United States. Even towards the end of the war, when the present writer discussed with President Tiso his preferences of the then unknown zones of occupation of Germany and of Austria, in the opinion of the President it was the American zone of occupation that he wished for in the first place. In reality, however, the facts have shown that the French have manifested more understanding for the complexities of the Central European politics than did the military administration of the United States. 34 SLOVAKIA There were two points around which revolved the thinking of Dr. Joseph Tiso as regards the future of the Slovak people. First, it was the confidence in the United States as to the country of Washington, Lincoln, etc., and, last but not least, as to the country of the American Slovaks. In other words, the Slovaks had expected that the Government of the United States would not oppose the will of a nation to freedom. Secondly, Dr. Tiso ruled out in his thinking the possibility of creating a political vacuum in Europe after the war, because he knew that any political vacuum would be but an invitation to the Soviets who would not fail to intervene if not opposed by a military force superior to their own. Now let us recall what was the situation during the war in Slovakia and what moves were expected by the Slovaks in regard to their political future. Call it whatever you want, call it unjustly a German protectorate or a German appendix, or call it according to no matter which names given to the Slovak Republic by the Benes people and the Communists, the fact remains that the Slovak people, during the short period of the Slovak Republic, made greater progress in all fields of their national existence than during any period of time, entirely out of proportion with the six years, in the last centuries. On the other hand, the Slovak nation was very much aware of the fact that the conditions of their freedom were rather precarious in more than one regard, concerning both some of the internal and also international factors. The only positive approach to the Slovak people leads through what hindered their freedom and not through questioning their right to fredom. This was the meaning of the above messages of President Joseph Tiso to the Western World and in particular to the United States. On the other hand, what was the political formula offered 'by the United Nations to the Slovak people? To put it bluntly, it can be briefly resumed in the following sentence: give up your freedom. Or in a more explicit way: if you want to get rid of what contradicts the way of life you are striving for, get rid of freedom. Or: there is no other way to cut loose from the accompanying phenomena that SLOVAKIA 35 hinder your freedom than to kill the whole thing, which is tantamount to the advice: throw out the child together with the bath water. There was an inherent contradiction in this attitude that can be summed up as follows: in order to be free you must renounce freedom. In itself, this is a perfectly coherent assertion under the condition one qualifies the two meanings of freedom in a due way. Yet historically speaking the conditions were set either by the Nazis, on the one side, or by the Benes people and the Communists, on the other side. President Tiso hoped that there might be a third condition, that is, that of the Slovak people, and that the United States might understand this. Dr. Tiso's political vision aimed at the transition from freedom conditioned by Nazi Germany {the history of this condition is not a univocal one; there were changes for better and for worse) to the freedom conditioned by the Slovak people. Contrary to this legitimate expectation, on the Slovak people was imposed the Communist and the Benes version of freedom which by no means was lacking an univocal significance whose depth of cruelty the Western World seems to be grasping only after the Hungarian tragedy of last Fall. In Slovakia we had a chance to see this version of freedom i.n an extremely lucid way during the so-called August "uprising" of 1944. This political movement might pass into history as the most curious and most ineffective and futile piece of political thinking. Ill-timed, wrongly executed, without any real significance as to war operations, its only result was to bring the war on the territory of Slovakia and to help Benes to sell his version of "freedom" by building Potemkin villages to the West, yet replacing the rather humorous deceit of the famous Russian deceiver by the cruelty of the present-day power-holders of Russia. What about the Slovak version of their freedom? For the time being its highest symbol is President Dr. Joseph Tiso. Historical events have imposed upon him this significance. The German military police {Sicherheitsdienst) gathered material towards the end of the war for a process against Dr. Joseph Tiso. The forecluded result of his show process would have been most probably the last and the definite qualification of the Nazi-Germany version of the 36 SLOVAKIA Slovak freedom. Where the Germans were stopped by the victory of the United Nations, the Benes government faithfully carried on. The execution of the President of the Slovak Republic, the 10th anniversary of which the free Slovaks commemorated this year, was supposed to put an end to Slovak freedom. It would seem that there can be no freedom for this people at all; that the Slovaks have to choose between the two or more pseudo-versions of freedom which must be always conditioned for the benefit of one of their neighbors, not in the sense of a loyal cooperation as might be arranged with justice in a federation of nations, but in the sense of being politically, economically, and culturally subjected by one of its neighbors. The Slovaks are not shocked to hear this. Yet they beg to differ radically from this opinion, both because of their conviction that they have the moral and political right to live freely, the Slovak way of life, in full respect of other peoples, and because they trust that the vitality of the American spirit of freedom is keen and strong enough to overcome the contradiction implied in the wartime pattern of political thinking concerning the Slovaks. Western wartime reporters had failed to report the above-mentioned messages of the late Msgr. Dr. Joseph Tiso to the responsible personalities of the U. S. Government. I am using the opportunity to do this on the tenth anniversary of the death on the gallows of the priest of whom his ecclesiastical superior, Archbishop Dr. Kmefko, said: "It is because we knew him always as an exemplary priest that we wished him to accept the nomination for the Presidency of the Slovak Republic; he was a guarantee against the intrusion of Nazi ideology." Thus I am drawing attention of the United States Government to the political vision of Dr. Joseph Tiso, the vision of his Slovak people, i.e., not a Nazi version, nor a Comunist one, nor a Czech version of Slovak freedom, but an honest-to-goodness Washington version of freedom which is a human one. By .this I believe, I am only fulfilling, though somewhat belatedly, my duty connected with my being the former "personal secretary" of the late President of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Belated Report Description An account of the resource Charles Murin, Ph.D., LL.D. Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2 (23), June 1957 pp. 31-36 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Murín, Karol, 1913-1998 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1957 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/f8066c33951e2700b471ba9f96d5ab49.pdf afd0299df80e4d64bee7c61dd5fb7c03 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 19 ANALYZING THE ANALYSTS: IS THE SOVIET UNION DOOMED? PHILIP A. HROBAK According to a number of Western "expert" analysts, correspondents, and "top" diplomats, there are many signs pointing to the "fact" that the Soviet Union is doomed. They say that many things have happened in the various satellite countries, even in the Soviet Union itself, which definitely are unmistakable signs of the failure of the Communists to convert their subjects to the doctrines of Marx and Engels and "to sell their ideas to their own youth." To the "experts" this means the eventual doom for the Communist empire," the collapse of the political system of Communism in the "foreseeable future." Such is the apparent conclusion of analyst Howard Randleman of the International News Service, whose series of articles, published early in January, 1957, I have taken the liberty to scrutinize. Is the Soviet Union really doomed? The vast majority of the nations of the free world undoubtedly wish that it were; and the sooner the Communist political system collapses, the better - but, unfortunately, wishing alone will not make it so. As long as Western political leaders, "expert" analysts and commentators, "top" diplomats and "distinguished" diplomatic correspondents follow the path which the Communists want anti-Communists to follow - the path of "peaceful coexistence," the support of "nationalist" or Titoist Communism which is supposed to be "different" than the Soviet "international" brand of Communism, while the Communists of all countries under the leadership of the men in the Kremlin are busy conquering the world - America and the rest of the free world are in mortal danger. Under the prevailing conditions, it is not the Soviet Union and the Communist political system that is doomed, but the democratic west and all free democratic political systems. Of course, the West still has time to meet the danger with �20 SLOVAKIA effective countermeasures, but it's later than most of us think. Substituting wishful thinking and arbitrary theorizing, and completely ignoring the Communist "guide to action" which is necessary for the understanding of Communist policies, techniques and tactics, did not and will not contribute to the downfall of Communism. Neither will irresponsible vagaries of Western Titoists, who glorify and idolize Tito, Gomulka, and Kadar - the old stalwarts of international Communism, but now the proponents of "naas champions of democracy. To tional" Communism promote "national" Communism (Titoism), that is, a policy of helping a Communist regin1e, for the sake of a Communist conquest of the world, makes sense. To promote it for the sake of freedom, does not. Events behind the Iron Curtain - as noted by the EVENING NEWS (Harrisburg, Pa.), January 7, 1957, in its introduction to the first of a series of six articles by Howard Randleman, " distinguished diplomatic and foreign correspondent" - have indeed moved with swift and startling speed in recent months. However, whether the analysis or interpretation of these events by the "Chief European Correspondent of the International News Service" is reasonably correct is, in my mind, highly questionable, the views of the "West's top diplomats" and the "daily headlines" on the future of the Soviet Empire to the contrary notwithstanding. After reading the articles carefully several times, I had been left with the impression that the Soviet Union really was in serious trouble and might be expected to fold up within the next five years even without any armed intervention by the West. Undoubtedly other readers of the paper had been similarly impressed. But thoroughly informed persons on the Soviet Union and Communist techniques and tactics know that this is only wishful thinking. The analysis tendered by Mr. Randleman has, I am afraid, only added to the heaps of misinformation so generously propagated even by so-called "Western experts" on Communism and the Soviet Union. The men in the Kremlin thrive on confusion and cha<!>s; they promote ,it assiduously, (. �SLOVAKIA 21 though they prefer that the West does the promoting for them, wittingly or unwittingly, for the edification of satellites and potential satellites. Strangely enough, the West thus far has done a remarkable job in that respect, and Mr. Handleman's effort, in my opinion not the least of the contributions, was appreciated by the Kremlin goons. According to Randleman: "The handwriting is on the wall for the Communist Empire. Western diplomatic authorities see it. They say the men in the Kremlin must see it." Was this a warranted or unwarranted assumption? Even if it were warranted, can any "expert" or "Western diplomatic authority" tell us with certitude that the hand½Titing on the wall is seen and interpreted by the men in he Kremlin in he same light as it is by any Western experts or diplomats? Of course not! The job of busting up the empire of Lenin and Stalin, we are told, will not be easy and may take time, but "Western experts" - whoever they are - "believe the Communist Empire will break up without a major war. They also believe, according to Randleman, that if the West can hold fast for another four or five years, "the Soviet rulers in the end will offer an acceptable formula for security in Europe and the world." But, Mr. Randleman hedged, "it is also recognized that, although the present signs point to the dissolution of the power of the Soviet Empire, the trend could be reversed." And, when it comes to the Soviet Union, there are always "too many unpredictables," according to one highly placed diplomat, "but certainly from everything we know now, the most likely trend over the next few years is one in which the Kremlin leaders will be pushed towards a realistic negotiation by their own peoples." History, however, tells us in no uncertain terms that any such "trend" not only could be, but always had been reversed in the past. It also tells us that, whenever the Kremlin leaders were "pushed" towards a realistic negotiation by their own peoples, the negotiation never actually benefitted the West and the peoples concerned, but only the Soviet Union and Communist regimes. "Weste@A~516~aUB'RM'f Randleman, "bank heavily MILLERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE �22 SLOVAKIA on the common sense of the Russian leaders." One of the "best informed, who has served in the Soviet Union," said the Kremlin leaders might make war if things get worse, "but the best safeguard against war, perhaps, is that leaders in the Kremlin are pretty level headed: they do not want to commit suicide." So, if it does come to the worst, the Kremlin leaders, we are supposed to believe, will yield "what they must" to satellite pressure and, in the end, instead of busting out with atomic war, "it seems more likely they will make a realistic and acceptable offer to the West for a workable security system." It is obvious that what Randleman referred to as the "best informed" diplomat does not necessarily mean that a diplomat so qualified is in fact too well informed on the Soviet or Communist business. It certainly is most unfortunate for the West that its diplomats bank so heavily on the "common sense" of the men in the Kremlin and consider them "pretty level headed," because Soviet leaders are not just ordinary men with "common sense." They are madmen. Hence, if it is in the Soviet interest, they will commit suicide, because they know that the slightest indication to refuse to make the supreme sacrifice at any time means a betrayal of that interest, and the penalty for betrayal is death. Communism always has and always will continue to devour its own children. The Kremlin leaders cannot ever be honestly interested in any "workable security system" with the West, because they are dedicated to the destruction of western civilization and all systems of government opposed to the Soviet system. What did the West really gain by what recently transpired in Poland and Hungary? Let's be honest and face it: nothing but the scorn and curses of the terribly disappointed wretches - the "heroic fighters for freedom" as the West called them - who certainly expected a lot more than pious platitudes, sympathy, and resolutions of protest from the Western democracies which, they swear before God and all men, are in fact responsible for their brutal enslavement by the Soviet Union and its stooges. On the other hand, what did Communism and/ or the Soviet Union actually lose by what happened in those hap- �SLOVAKIA 23 less, brutally tyrannized countries? Let us be equally honest and openly admit that the Soviet Union lost nothing. And judging by past history, the Reds even stand to gain more power and prestige ! Having assumed that the Soviet Empire is collapsing, Haqdleman continued to babble, saying that "the Soviet rulers have embarked on a monumental and desperate operation to salvage what they can of the power of their empire." But the odds "among Western diplomats" are that the operation will fail because the Kremlin moved too late. In the light of reality, however, it is rather naive, if not downright silly, to assume that the Soviet Empire is collapsing and then to declare that the Soviet rulers, therefore, have embarked on a "monumental and desperate" operation to salvage the power, which they still held firmly in their hands, but which the West hopefully wished was actually threatened. Once he was captivated by his assumption, the Chief European Correspondent of the INS looked for support of his thesis to the view taken by Secretary of State Dulles at the recent NATO conference: satellite unrest carries with it the danger of a general war, but it is still to be welcomed greatly as foreshadowing the collapse of the Soviet Empire or a fundamental change in its character; and the "desperation in the Kremlin is reflected in the various means it has used to salvage power." Now, what were some of those various means? He told us that in Hungary "there were tanks and guns, and concession . .. Chou En-Lai of Red China was invited to Moscow for talks. . . . Radio Budapest broadcast Christmas hymns and carols for the first time in eight years .... In Poland there were concessions ... : On Christmas Eve radio Warsaw broadcast a message by Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski." Concessions? If that's what the above might be called, yes, but only temporary. After devoting one installment to the "various means" the Kremlin used to "salvage" its power in the satellites, Randleman then told us in the next: "The Kremlin leadership appears secure, however, within the Soviet Union and in the other satellites for the time �24 SLOVAKIA being." Quite a let-down, indeed! But there is more; the situation may not be such as reported: "The best diplomatic brains in Paris and other West European capitals decry what they call a tendency to sensationalize reports of unrest within the Soviet Union." On the other hand, however, "there have been enough reports to convince the experts that satellite people no longer are sheep who accept whatever they are told." What the 'experts" mean by "whatever they are told," is anybody's guess. We know, however, that if satellite people do not keep in line with the regime that is totally subservient to the Kremlin, they may be slaughtered, as they were in Hungary. But then, if there is a tendency to "sensationalize" reports of unrest within the Soviet Union, what was there to prevent readers of Handleman's "analysis" from suspecting that possibly even the Hungarian reports were sensationalized? And what was the net result in Hungary and Poland? Were not those satellite peoples, in the end, "sheep" who had to accept whatever they were told by the Kremlin and its agents? Youth revolts in Poland and Hungary, and other satellites, also forecast the doom of the Soviet Empire, according to Randleman, who based his conclusion on the views of Western "experts and diplomats." Even students of Moscow and Leningrad "suddenly" have begun to question and "to criticize the results of Communist rule - if not yet the very tenets of Communism." Accepting this behavior of the students as a "failure of the Communists to sell their ideas to their own youth," Western diplomats figure, according to Randleman, that this "alone means the eventual doom for the Communist Empire." Randleman himself, however, had stated in a previous chapter that "there has been no confirmed report of basic criticism of the system of Soviet rule." And we know that it will take more than criticism to knock Communism out. But does it? Youth generally is highly emotional, impatient, and fickle; it is easily swayed from one ideology to another, taking little account of principles. We read of student demonstrations in Slovakia, Ukrainia, Poland, Bohemia and Hungary against oppressions of Red regimes; �SLOVAKIA 25 in some places these demonstrations resulted in violence. The net result usually was frustration: their own people would not support their "revolts" - and the West was unwilling to intervene, because that might have meant war. Youth wants war in the satellites, but the oldsters do not and Western democracies do not, either. After a couple of setbacks, satellite youth tends to accept its fate with resignation, like the oldsters do. Of course, that is unfortunate, because in the end it means a stronger and more powerful Soviet Union. Now, in Moscow itself, did the students really question the infallibility of the Red Party, as Randleman told us? Did they really criticize "the results" of Communist rule, or possibly just some of its methods and techniques? What percentage of the students of Moscow and Leningrad dared to question "the results" of Communist rule? I believe it is safe to say that no one knows not even the "experts." Furthermore, is it not possible that some of the students, who did the questioning and criticizing, were trained agents of the men in the Kremlin? Unless Western "experts and diplomats," ordinary and "distinguished" reporters, take these and similar questions into account in their reports and statements, I believe we have reason to suspect that they are not objective, but more or less superficial and tendencious. In the last of the series of articles by Randleman in the EVENING NEWS, we read that "the American dream of a Russia strong, healthy and friendly goes way back." That may be so, but does that necessarily apply to our dream of the Soviet Union? Or does Russia and the Soviet Union mean one and the same thing to Western "expert" diplomats and correspondents? George Kennan, former ambassador to the Soviet Union and "one of the two or three best American experts on the Soviet Union," according to Randleman, "forecast bluntly in 1951 that the satellites would win their independence." Of course, he did not forecast exactly from whom or what, or how and when that would happen, but, behold what the same Mr. Kennan said on May 3, 1956: "What we must recognize today, in the case of the sa- �26 SLOVAKIA tellites, is that evil like good, produces its own vested interests. Where regimes of this nature have been in power for more than a decade, there can be no question of putting Humpty Dumpty (i.e., a relative condition of freedom) together again and restoring the status quo ante ... there is a finality, for better or worse, about what has now occurred in Eastern Europe. . . . Whether we like it or not, the gradual evolution of these Communist regimes to a position of greater independence and greater responsiveness to domestic opinion is the best we can hope for as the next phase of development in that area." However, according to the SATURDAY EVENING POST of November 24, 1956, Mr. Kennan, "our No. 1 expert on the Soviet Union," knew right along that satellite rebellions were going to take place, and actually predicted, in 1945 that they would. Then he predicted still further uprisings because "the same fundamental forces are at work throughout the whole area." What these "fundamental forces" were, however, Mr. Kennan did not spell out. On May 3, 1956, according to Mr. Kennan, there was a "finality" about Red regimes, but some seven months later he knew that there was no "finality" about those regimes at all. That, of course, brings us to the question: Did Mr. Kennan, "our No. 1 expert on the Soviet Union," have the vaguest idea of what he was talking about on May 3, 1956? We remember Mr. Kennan as the promoter of the "containment" policy of our State Department. When the Soviet "de-Stalinization" campaign erupted last winter, the same Mr. Kennan wrote many articles and spoke many speeches to explain "the meaning of the change." The central idea in all of these manifestations of Kennan is the same: "The Russians have changed" since the death and renunciation of Stalin. That, of course, was exactly what the men of the Kremlin wanted the West to believe! Then came the Hungarian massacre! It is obvious that Randleman attempted to demonstrate, with the help of "the best diplomatic brains in Paris and other West European capitals": 1. that the "normal logic" of Communist leaders is precisely the same as that of a representative Western mind (his own and the "ex- �SLOVAKIA 27 perts' " he relies upon) ; and, 2. that within the next "three, four or five years," with the United States making a strenuous effort to stop Communism in its tracks by appealing to "common sense," the men in the Kremlin, Russians or whatever they are, will come around to the point of "offering a realistic and acceptable formula by which the two worlds of the cold war era can live together in peace and later in friendship." This is muddled thinking and tragic nonsense. The thesis is built on false premises. Many of our policymakers and writers, rather than being guided by a correct picture of what is going on in Communist minds, have tended to interpret these minds in our own image. They know that all decent people would like to have the cold war ended and a lasting peace established. But they know, too, that peace can come about only by "understanding." The chief function of our policies, therefore, should be to overcome "misunderstanding" between America and the Soviet Union, with the U. S. appealing to "common purposes"! This reasoning derives from the assumption that the Soviet system is basically a national political system devoted to the pursuits of reasonable social goals. But a closer, better look at that system reveals that it is no different basically than the Nazi system. Because the Nazi features were widely accepted as evidence of irrationality, we called the followers of Hitler "crazy, dangerous madmen." What then are the followers of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Co.? It is well to remember that, by virtue of their belief in Marxist dogma, Communists live in a mental world that is essentially hostile to the mental world of the West. From the very beginning, Marxism-Leninism has conceived the relation between itself and the rest of the world as one of destruction. The program of the Reds never changes: they are dedicated to our destruction; they will destroy us, if we do not destroy them first. In Soviet foreign relations there is no intellectual or emotional basis for reasonableness, as non-Soviet countries understand it. "Reasonable Communism" is a contradiction in terms. The Communist mind, as the record shows, has so defined its world that it shares neither truth nor logic nor moral- �28 SLOVAKIA ity with the rest of mankind. It is, therefore, senseless to talk about establishing peace with the Communists. Temporary truce, yes, if it suits the Soviet Union and the ultimate aim of Comunism, but not peace. Peace, in the sense of international order based on a minimum of common values, is not possible with an adversary who rejects the very right of other societies to exist. Furthermore, Communists tend to develop the psychological tendency to engage in self-contradictory actions. It is not easy for most Westerners, even many Western "experts and diplomats," to grasp that Communists manage to be for and against something at the same time. Handleman's articles, though he did not bring the thought out, have many evidences of this. The Communists were for the Russian people, so they executed more than fifteen million Russians from 1917 to 1938; they were for the Ukrainians, so they starved over 20 million of them to death in one year when there was no war; they claimed they were for a strong, democratic, independent Poland and then proceeded to knock the tar out of them, butchering over 10,000 Polish Army officers in the Katyn Forest for good measure; Moscow supported the parties allied with the Reds in the French Popular Front and simultaneously sought to split and weaken them from within; the Kremlin worked for Hitler's destruction at Geneva and in the capitals of Western Europe, but it also conducted negotiations with Berlin aiming at increasing Nazi strength; Tito, a most valuable product of the Kremlin, fought the Germans in Yugoslavia and also used their help to fight his civil war; Slovak Reds were for an independent Slovak Republic, but at the same time they collaborated with the Czech Reds and Benes Czechs to restore CzechoSlovakia; Stalin helped Benes and his Czech Nazis back into power in the "new" Czecho-Slovakia, while his stooge Gottwald was under orders to speed up the complete takeover the power by the Reds; the Kremlin is for peace and order in the world, but at the same time is fomenting throuble just about everywhere. And Stalin recommended democratic tactics as the surest way to achieve Communist aims. Communist dialectics! �SLOVAKIA 29 Handleman's articles gave the impression that the recent disturbances in Poland and Hungary had weakened the Soviet Empire ("Prophecy of Doom Heard by the Kremlin, Observer Believes" - "Red Rulers Face Desepration Drive to Save Empire"). But is it not a fact that the entire history of Communism is practically an uninterrupted sequence of bloody convulsions? And yet we know that the Communist world is stronger today than it ever was. What is more, the record shows that factional feuds within the Communist Empire do not help the West and the enslaved peoples, but ultimately only strengthen Communism. The anti-Communists of Europe apparently have learned one lesson from history: no totalitarian regime, once it was established, has ever broken down because of internal disruptions; a totalitarian regime collapses only when external powers intervene. In the face of the recent Hungarian slaughter, the "democratic" West now should be definitely convinced that even the most fantastic courage of a suppressed people cannot overthrow a determined totalitarian regime which always has the backing of the Kremlin. Of course, rebellions and convulsions within the Communist-dominated countries are exceptional opportunities for the West to thrust into the Red orbit, but, if the opportunity is wasted by a West enchanted by or petrified with pacifism, the inescapable result of such historic frustration is a further triumph of Communism. In November 1917, one regiment could have stopped the Bolsheviks, led by non-Russians, in their tracks. A year later, perhaps a division of Allied troops would have knocked them out, but a small army would have been needed in 1920. The Red Empire was always mortally vulnerable to a determined attack by organized external forces, but as the years rolled by the required effort increased both in size and also in risk. Today the men of the Kremlin are convinced that the West does not want war - that it prefers to fight with words. Randleman reported: "the chief of these problems, staggering problems for the United States, will be to prevent a third world war from erupting." In the last of his �30 SLOVAKIA series of six articles (Jan. 12, 1957), he added: "the threat of a major war being triggered in this way (by the satellites) ... was the reason Dulles had to make the painful announcement during the December meeting of NATO foreign ministers that the U. S. would not be able to intervene to help any satellite revolt with arms." That is what the poor wretches in the satellite countries did not want to hear, but that is precisely what the men of the Kremlin did want to hear: the Reds are now determined more than ever to intervene anywhere at any time in the interest of the Soviet Union, the homeland of all Communists, with impunity. The Kremlin can always take care of revolts in the satellite countries and at the same time start trouble for the West elsewhere - and its stooges in the satellites know that. The men in the Kremlin and all Reds agree with Dulles on one point he made at the NATO meeting in December: Soviet rulers shall never give up their dream of world conquest voluntarily! Freedom and Communism are irreconcilable. Coexistence is the complete denial of this fundamental fact of the present international situation. The Communist policy of "peaceful coexistence" is aimed at the moral, political, and military disarmament of the West. At present it is the main Communist vehicle to destroy the will of the free world to live and fight. Ever since the first Communist seizure of power, the Communists have amply demonstrated that they meant business and used power with utter contempt for human lives, moral scruples, and democratic principles. Since the free world has 'coexisted" with Communism for some 39 years (one generation) , Communism has grown from 200 to over 800 million people and now rules one-third of the globe. Another generation of such "coexistence" and ... ? The situation becomes all the more tragic and alarming when we recall that ten European countries were harnessed with Communist regimes by the Western democracies to appease the high-priests of Communism, the men of the Kremlin. What America and the rest of the free world really �SLOVAKIA 31 need right now is a large, stiff dose of "Knowlandism" for the brain to clear our thinking so that we might resolve: NO MORAL AND/ OR MATERIAL AID FOR THE SOVIET UNION AND ITS SATELLITES! • • • A BELATED REPORT By CHARLES MURIN, Ph.D., LL.D. It seems to be inevitable during a war, when the stakes are high, that people reduce their thinking to two categories only: my side is identified with the good and moral purely and simply, the enemy, or the other side. is the embodiment pure of the principle of evil which is the root of all disorder in the world. It is understandable that this psychological attitude belongs to war, because one has to know what he is offering his life for. However, if this psychological factor seems to belong to the conditions required for the winning of a war, the same attitude is a disturbing factor when it enters among the considerations how to win the peace. This is exactly what we experienced after World War II in regard to the organization of post-war Europe. Besides this, Slovak refugees, among many others, have experienced in their own personal destinies the drawbacks in the application of the above-mentioned psychological attitude to the period immediately following the war. It took about two years until an about face had been brought about, and the writer of these lines had the peculiar opportunity of being personally involved in both stages of mind; the one that is supposed to win the war, and the one which aims at winning the peace. It goes without saying that the latter was infinitely more in accordance with common sense and reason and with what can be called the moral principles in politics. The psychological attitude of seeing only black and white becomes a real disaster when it is adopted by responsible statesmen and politicians. As a direct consequence, this attitude inevitably involves political and moral contradictions that do not fail to give, with on unerring � SLOVAKIA 19 ANALYZING THE ANALYSTS: IS THE SOVIET UNION DOOMED? PHILIP A. HROBAK According to a number of Western "expert" analysts, correspondents, and "top" diplomats, there are many signs pointing to the "fact" that the Soviet Union is doomed. They say that many things have happened in the various satellite countries, even in the Soviet Union itself, which definitely are unmistakable signs of the failure of the Communists to convert their subjects to the doctrines of Marx and Engels and "to sell their ideas to their own youth." To the "experts" this means the eventual doom for the Communist empire," the collapse of the political system of Communism in the "foreseeable future." Such is the apparent conclusion of analyst Howard Randleman of the International News Service, whose series of articles, published early in January, 1957, I have taken the liberty to scrutinize. Is the Soviet Union really doomed? The vast majority of the nations of the free world undoubtedly wish that it were; and the sooner the Communist political system collapses, the better - but, unfortunately, wishing alone will not make it so. As long as Western political leaders, "expert" analysts and commentators, "top" diplomats and "distinguished" diplomatic correspondents follow the path which the Communists want anti-Communists to follow - the path of "peaceful coexistence," the support of "nationalist" or Titoist Communism which is supposed to be "different" than the Soviet "international" brand of Communism, while the Communists of all countries under the leadership of the men in the Kremlin are busy conquering the world - America and the rest of the free world are in mortal danger. Under the prevailing conditions, it is not the Soviet Union and the Communist political system that is doomed, but the democratic west and all free democratic political systems. Of course, the West still has time to meet the danger with �20 SLOVAKIA effective countermeasures, but it's later than most of us think. Substituting wishful thinking and arbitrary theorizing, and completely ignoring the Communist "guide to action" which is necessary for the understanding of Communist policies, techniques and tactics, did not and will not contribute to the downfall of Communism. Neither will irresponsible vagaries of Western Titoists, who glorify and idolize Tito, Gomulka, and Kadar - the old stalwarts of international Communism, but now the proponents of "naas champions of democracy. To tional" Communism promote "national" Communism (Titoism), that is, a policy of helping a Communist regin1e, for the sake of a Communist conquest of the world, makes sense. To promote it for the sake of freedom, does not. Events behind the Iron Curtain - as noted by the EVENING NEWS (Harrisburg, Pa.), January 7, 1957, in its introduction to the first of a series of six articles by Howard Randleman, " distinguished diplomatic and foreign correspondent" - have indeed moved with swift and startling speed in recent months. However, whether the analysis or interpretation of these events by the "Chief European Correspondent of the International News Service" is reasonably correct is, in my mind, highly questionable, the views of the "West's top diplomats" and the "daily headlines" on the future of the Soviet Empire to the contrary notwithstanding. After reading the articles carefully several times, I had been left with the impression that the Soviet Union really was in serious trouble and might be expected to fold up within the next five years even without any armed intervention by the West. Undoubtedly other readers of the paper had been similarly impressed. But thoroughly informed persons on the Soviet Union and Communist techniques and tactics know that this is only wishful thinking. The analysis tendered by Mr. Randleman has, I am afraid, only added to the heaps of misinformation so generously propagated even by so-called "Western experts" on Communism and the Soviet Union. The men in the Kremlin thrive on confusion and cha<!>s; they promote ,it assiduously, (. �SLOVAKIA 21 though they prefer that the West does the promoting for them, wittingly or unwittingly, for the edification of satellites and potential satellites. Strangely enough, the West thus far has done a remarkable job in that respect, and Mr. Handleman's effort, in my opinion not the least of the contributions, was appreciated by the Kremlin goons. According to Randleman: "The handwriting is on the wall for the Communist Empire. Western diplomatic authorities see it. They say the men in the Kremlin must see it." Was this a warranted or unwarranted assumption? Even if it were warranted, can any "expert" or "Western diplomatic authority" tell us with certitude that the hand½Titing on the wall is seen and interpreted by the men in he Kremlin in he same light as it is by any Western experts or diplomats? Of course not! The job of busting up the empire of Lenin and Stalin, we are told, will not be easy and may take time, but "Western experts" - whoever they are - "believe the Communist Empire will break up without a major war. They also believe, according to Randleman, that if the West can hold fast for another four or five years, "the Soviet rulers in the end will offer an acceptable formula for security in Europe and the world." But, Mr. Randleman hedged, "it is also recognized that, although the present signs point to the dissolution of the power of the Soviet Empire, the trend could be reversed." And, when it comes to the Soviet Union, there are always "too many unpredictables," according to one highly placed diplomat, "but certainly from everything we know now, the most likely trend over the next few years is one in which the Kremlin leaders will be pushed towards a realistic negotiation by their own peoples." History, however, tells us in no uncertain terms that any such "trend" not only could be, but always had been reversed in the past. It also tells us that, whenever the Kremlin leaders were "pushed" towards a realistic negotiation by their own peoples, the negotiation never actually benefitted the West and the peoples concerned, but only the Soviet Union and Communist regimes. "Weste@A~516~aUB'RM'f Randleman, "bank heavily MILLERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE �22 SLOVAKIA on the common sense of the Russian leaders." One of the "best informed, who has served in the Soviet Union," said the Kremlin leaders might make war if things get worse, "but the best safeguard against war, perhaps, is that leaders in the Kremlin are pretty level headed: they do not want to commit suicide." So, if it does come to the worst, the Kremlin leaders, we are supposed to believe, will yield "what they must" to satellite pressure and, in the end, instead of busting out with atomic war, "it seems more likely they will make a realistic and acceptable offer to the West for a workable security system." It is obvious that what Randleman referred to as the "best informed" diplomat does not necessarily mean that a diplomat so qualified is in fact too well informed on the Soviet or Communist business. It certainly is most unfortunate for the West that its diplomats bank so heavily on the "common sense" of the men in the Kremlin and consider them "pretty level headed," because Soviet leaders are not just ordinary men with "common sense." They are madmen. Hence, if it is in the Soviet interest, they will commit suicide, because they know that the slightest indication to refuse to make the supreme sacrifice at any time means a betrayal of that interest, and the penalty for betrayal is death. Communism always has and always will continue to devour its own children. The Kremlin leaders cannot ever be honestly interested in any "workable security system" with the West, because they are dedicated to the destruction of western civilization and all systems of government opposed to the Soviet system. What did the West really gain by what recently transpired in Poland and Hungary? Let's be honest and face it: nothing but the scorn and curses of the terribly disappointed wretches - the "heroic fighters for freedom" as the West called them - who certainly expected a lot more than pious platitudes, sympathy, and resolutions of protest from the Western democracies which, they swear before God and all men, are in fact responsible for their brutal enslavement by the Soviet Union and its stooges. On the other hand, what did Communism and/ or the Soviet Union actually lose by what happened in those hap- �SLOVAKIA 23 less, brutally tyrannized countries? Let us be equally honest and openly admit that the Soviet Union lost nothing. And judging by past history, the Reds even stand to gain more power and prestige ! Having assumed that the Soviet Empire is collapsing, Haqdleman continued to babble, saying that "the Soviet rulers have embarked on a monumental and desperate operation to salvage what they can of the power of their empire." But the odds "among Western diplomats" are that the operation will fail because the Kremlin moved too late. In the light of reality, however, it is rather naive, if not downright silly, to assume that the Soviet Empire is collapsing and then to declare that the Soviet rulers, therefore, have embarked on a "monumental and desperate" operation to salvage the power, which they still held firmly in their hands, but which the West hopefully wished was actually threatened. Once he was captivated by his assumption, the Chief European Correspondent of the INS looked for support of his thesis to the view taken by Secretary of State Dulles at the recent NATO conference: satellite unrest carries with it the danger of a general war, but it is still to be welcomed greatly as foreshadowing the collapse of the Soviet Empire or a fundamental change in its character; and the "desperation in the Kremlin is reflected in the various means it has used to salvage power." Now, what were some of those various means? He told us that in Hungary "there were tanks and guns, and concession . .. Chou En-Lai of Red China was invited to Moscow for talks. . . . Radio Budapest broadcast Christmas hymns and carols for the first time in eight years .... In Poland there were concessions ... : On Christmas Eve radio Warsaw broadcast a message by Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski." Concessions? If that's what the above might be called, yes, but only temporary. After devoting one installment to the "various means" the Kremlin used to "salvage" its power in the satellites, Randleman then told us in the next: "The Kremlin leadership appears secure, however, within the Soviet Union and in the other satellites for the time �24 SLOVAKIA being." Quite a let-down, indeed! But there is more; the situation may not be such as reported: "The best diplomatic brains in Paris and other West European capitals decry what they call a tendency to sensationalize reports of unrest within the Soviet Union." On the other hand, however, "there have been enough reports to convince the experts that satellite people no longer are sheep who accept whatever they are told." What the 'experts" mean by "whatever they are told," is anybody's guess. We know, however, that if satellite people do not keep in line with the regime that is totally subservient to the Kremlin, they may be slaughtered, as they were in Hungary. But then, if there is a tendency to "sensationalize" reports of unrest within the Soviet Union, what was there to prevent readers of Handleman's "analysis" from suspecting that possibly even the Hungarian reports were sensationalized? And what was the net result in Hungary and Poland? Were not those satellite peoples, in the end, "sheep" who had to accept whatever they were told by the Kremlin and its agents? Youth revolts in Poland and Hungary, and other satellites, also forecast the doom of the Soviet Empire, according to Randleman, who based his conclusion on the views of Western "experts and diplomats." Even students of Moscow and Leningrad "suddenly" have begun to question and "to criticize the results of Communist rule - if not yet the very tenets of Communism." Accepting this behavior of the students as a "failure of the Communists to sell their ideas to their own youth," Western diplomats figure, according to Randleman, that this "alone means the eventual doom for the Communist Empire." Randleman himself, however, had stated in a previous chapter that "there has been no confirmed report of basic criticism of the system of Soviet rule." And we know that it will take more than criticism to knock Communism out. But does it? Youth generally is highly emotional, impatient, and fickle; it is easily swayed from one ideology to another, taking little account of principles. We read of student demonstrations in Slovakia, Ukrainia, Poland, Bohemia and Hungary against oppressions of Red regimes; �SLOVAKIA 25 in some places these demonstrations resulted in violence. The net result usually was frustration: their own people would not support their "revolts" - and the West was unwilling to intervene, because that might have meant war. Youth wants war in the satellites, but the oldsters do not and Western democracies do not, either. After a couple of setbacks, satellite youth tends to accept its fate with resignation, like the oldsters do. Of course, that is unfortunate, because in the end it means a stronger and more powerful Soviet Union. Now, in Moscow itself, did the students really question the infallibility of the Red Party, as Randleman told us? Did they really criticize "the results" of Communist rule, or possibly just some of its methods and techniques? What percentage of the students of Moscow and Leningrad dared to question "the results" of Communist rule? I believe it is safe to say that no one knows not even the "experts." Furthermore, is it not possible that some of the students, who did the questioning and criticizing, were trained agents of the men in the Kremlin? Unless Western "experts and diplomats," ordinary and "distinguished" reporters, take these and similar questions into account in their reports and statements, I believe we have reason to suspect that they are not objective, but more or less superficial and tendencious. In the last of the series of articles by Randleman in the EVENING NEWS, we read that "the American dream of a Russia strong, healthy and friendly goes way back." That may be so, but does that necessarily apply to our dream of the Soviet Union? Or does Russia and the Soviet Union mean one and the same thing to Western "expert" diplomats and correspondents? George Kennan, former ambassador to the Soviet Union and "one of the two or three best American experts on the Soviet Union," according to Randleman, "forecast bluntly in 1951 that the satellites would win their independence." Of course, he did not forecast exactly from whom or what, or how and when that would happen, but, behold what the same Mr. Kennan said on May 3, 1956: "What we must recognize today, in the case of the sa- �26 SLOVAKIA tellites, is that evil like good, produces its own vested interests. Where regimes of this nature have been in power for more than a decade, there can be no question of putting Humpty Dumpty (i.e., a relative condition of freedom) together again and restoring the status quo ante ... there is a finality, for better or worse, about what has now occurred in Eastern Europe. . . . Whether we like it or not, the gradual evolution of these Communist regimes to a position of greater independence and greater responsiveness to domestic opinion is the best we can hope for as the next phase of development in that area." However, according to the SATURDAY EVENING POST of November 24, 1956, Mr. Kennan, "our No. 1 expert on the Soviet Union," knew right along that satellite rebellions were going to take place, and actually predicted, in 1945 that they would. Then he predicted still further uprisings because "the same fundamental forces are at work throughout the whole area." What these "fundamental forces" were, however, Mr. Kennan did not spell out. On May 3, 1956, according to Mr. Kennan, there was a "finality" about Red regimes, but some seven months later he knew that there was no "finality" about those regimes at all. That, of course, brings us to the question: Did Mr. Kennan, "our No. 1 expert on the Soviet Union," have the vaguest idea of what he was talking about on May 3, 1956? We remember Mr. Kennan as the promoter of the "containment" policy of our State Department. When the Soviet "de-Stalinization" campaign erupted last winter, the same Mr. Kennan wrote many articles and spoke many speeches to explain "the meaning of the change." The central idea in all of these manifestations of Kennan is the same: "The Russians have changed" since the death and renunciation of Stalin. That, of course, was exactly what the men of the Kremlin wanted the West to believe! Then came the Hungarian massacre! It is obvious that Randleman attempted to demonstrate, with the help of "the best diplomatic brains in Paris and other West European capitals": 1. that the "normal logic" of Communist leaders is precisely the same as that of a representative Western mind (his own and the "ex- �SLOVAKIA 27 perts' " he relies upon) ; and, 2. that within the next "three, four or five years," with the United States making a strenuous effort to stop Communism in its tracks by appealing to "common sense," the men in the Kremlin, Russians or whatever they are, will come around to the point of "offering a realistic and acceptable formula by which the two worlds of the cold war era can live together in peace and later in friendship." This is muddled thinking and tragic nonsense. The thesis is built on false premises. Many of our policymakers and writers, rather than being guided by a correct picture of what is going on in Communist minds, have tended to interpret these minds in our own image. They know that all decent people would like to have the cold war ended and a lasting peace established. But they know, too, that peace can come about only by "understanding." The chief function of our policies, therefore, should be to overcome "misunderstanding" between America and the Soviet Union, with the U. S. appealing to "common purposes"! This reasoning derives from the assumption that the Soviet system is basically a national political system devoted to the pursuits of reasonable social goals. But a closer, better look at that system reveals that it is no different basically than the Nazi system. Because the Nazi features were widely accepted as evidence of irrationality, we called the followers of Hitler "crazy, dangerous madmen." What then are the followers of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Co.? It is well to remember that, by virtue of their belief in Marxist dogma, Communists live in a mental world that is essentially hostile to the mental world of the West. From the very beginning, Marxism-Leninism has conceived the relation between itself and the rest of the world as one of destruction. The program of the Reds never changes: they are dedicated to our destruction; they will destroy us, if we do not destroy them first. In Soviet foreign relations there is no intellectual or emotional basis for reasonableness, as non-Soviet countries understand it. "Reasonable Communism" is a contradiction in terms. The Communist mind, as the record shows, has so defined its world that it shares neither truth nor logic nor moral- �28 SLOVAKIA ity with the rest of mankind. It is, therefore, senseless to talk about establishing peace with the Communists. Temporary truce, yes, if it suits the Soviet Union and the ultimate aim of Comunism, but not peace. Peace, in the sense of international order based on a minimum of common values, is not possible with an adversary who rejects the very right of other societies to exist. Furthermore, Communists tend to develop the psychological tendency to engage in self-contradictory actions. It is not easy for most Westerners, even many Western "experts and diplomats," to grasp that Communists manage to be for and against something at the same time. Handleman's articles, though he did not bring the thought out, have many evidences of this. The Communists were for the Russian people, so they executed more than fifteen million Russians from 1917 to 1938; they were for the Ukrainians, so they starved over 20 million of them to death in one year when there was no war; they claimed they were for a strong, democratic, independent Poland and then proceeded to knock the tar out of them, butchering over 10,000 Polish Army officers in the Katyn Forest for good measure; Moscow supported the parties allied with the Reds in the French Popular Front and simultaneously sought to split and weaken them from within; the Kremlin worked for Hitler's destruction at Geneva and in the capitals of Western Europe, but it also conducted negotiations with Berlin aiming at increasing Nazi strength; Tito, a most valuable product of the Kremlin, fought the Germans in Yugoslavia and also used their help to fight his civil war; Slovak Reds were for an independent Slovak Republic, but at the same time they collaborated with the Czech Reds and Benes Czechs to restore CzechoSlovakia; Stalin helped Benes and his Czech Nazis back into power in the "new" Czecho-Slovakia, while his stooge Gottwald was under orders to speed up the complete takeover the power by the Reds; the Kremlin is for peace and order in the world, but at the same time is fomenting throuble just about everywhere. And Stalin recommended democratic tactics as the surest way to achieve Communist aims. Communist dialectics! �SLOVAKIA 29 Handleman's articles gave the impression that the recent disturbances in Poland and Hungary had weakened the Soviet Empire ("Prophecy of Doom Heard by the Kremlin, Observer Believes" - "Red Rulers Face Desepration Drive to Save Empire"). But is it not a fact that the entire history of Communism is practically an uninterrupted sequence of bloody convulsions? And yet we know that the Communist world is stronger today than it ever was. What is more, the record shows that factional feuds within the Communist Empire do not help the West and the enslaved peoples, but ultimately only strengthen Communism. The anti-Communists of Europe apparently have learned one lesson from history: no totalitarian regime, once it was established, has ever broken down because of internal disruptions; a totalitarian regime collapses only when external powers intervene. In the face of the recent Hungarian slaughter, the "democratic" West now should be definitely convinced that even the most fantastic courage of a suppressed people cannot overthrow a determined totalitarian regime which always has the backing of the Kremlin. Of course, rebellions and convulsions within the Communist-dominated countries are exceptional opportunities for the West to thrust into the Red orbit, but, if the opportunity is wasted by a West enchanted by or petrified with pacifism, the inescapable result of such historic frustration is a further triumph of Communism. In November 1917, one regiment could have stopped the Bolsheviks, led by non-Russians, in their tracks. A year later, perhaps a division of Allied troops would have knocked them out, but a small army would have been needed in 1920. The Red Empire was always mortally vulnerable to a determined attack by organized external forces, but as the years rolled by the required effort increased both in size and also in risk. Today the men of the Kremlin are convinced that the West does not want war - that it prefers to fight with words. Randleman reported: "the chief of these problems, staggering problems for the United States, will be to prevent a third world war from erupting." In the last of his �30 SLOVAKIA series of six articles (Jan. 12, 1957), he added: "the threat of a major war being triggered in this way (by the satellites) ... was the reason Dulles had to make the painful announcement during the December meeting of NATO foreign ministers that the U. S. would not be able to intervene to help any satellite revolt with arms." That is what the poor wretches in the satellite countries did not want to hear, but that is precisely what the men of the Kremlin did want to hear: the Reds are now determined more than ever to intervene anywhere at any time in the interest of the Soviet Union, the homeland of all Communists, with impunity. The Kremlin can always take care of revolts in the satellite countries and at the same time start trouble for the West elsewhere - and its stooges in the satellites know that. The men in the Kremlin and all Reds agree with Dulles on one point he made at the NATO meeting in December: Soviet rulers shall never give up their dream of world conquest voluntarily! Freedom and Communism are irreconcilable. Coexistence is the complete denial of this fundamental fact of the present international situation. The Communist policy of "peaceful coexistence" is aimed at the moral, political, and military disarmament of the West. At present it is the main Communist vehicle to destroy the will of the free world to live and fight. Ever since the first Communist seizure of power, the Communists have amply demonstrated that they meant business and used power with utter contempt for human lives, moral scruples, and democratic principles. Since the free world has 'coexisted" with Communism for some 39 years (one generation) , Communism has grown from 200 to over 800 million people and now rules one-third of the globe. Another generation of such "coexistence" and ... ? The situation becomes all the more tragic and alarming when we recall that ten European countries were harnessed with Communist regimes by the Western democracies to appease the high-priests of Communism, the men of the Kremlin. What America and the rest of the free world really �SLOVAKIA 31 need right now is a large, stiff dose of "Knowlandism" for the brain to clear our thinking so that we might resolve: NO MORAL AND/ OR MATERIAL AID FOR THE SOVIET UNION AND ITS SATELLITES! • • • A BELATED REPORT By CHARLES MURIN, Ph.D., LL.D. It seems to be inevitable during a war, when the stakes are high, that people reduce their thinking to two categories only: my side is identified with the good and moral purely and simply, the enemy, or the other side. is the embodiment pure of the principle of evil which is the root of all disorder in the world. It is understandable that this psychological attitude belongs to war, because one has to know what he is offering his life for. However, if this psychological factor seems to belong to the conditions required for the winning of a war, the same attitude is a disturbing factor when it enters among the considerations how to win the peace. This is exactly what we experienced after World War II in regard to the organization of post-war Europe. Besides this, Slovak refugees, among many others, have experienced in their own personal destinies the drawbacks in the application of the above-mentioned psychological attitude to the period immediately following the war. It took about two years until an about face had been brought about, and the writer of these lines had the peculiar opportunity of being personally involved in both stages of mind; the one that is supposed to win the war, and the one which aims at winning the peace. It goes without saying that the latter was infinitely more in accordance with common sense and reason and with what can be called the moral principles in politics. The psychological attitude of seeing only black and white becomes a real disaster when it is adopted by responsible statesmen and politicians. As a direct consequence, this attitude inevitably involves political and moral contradictions that do not fail to give, with on unerring � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 19 ANALYZING THE ANALYSTS: IS THE SOVIET UNION DOOMED? PHILIP A. HROBAK According to a number of Western "expert" analysts, correspondents, and "top" diplomats, there are many signs pointing to the "fact" that the Soviet Union is doomed. They say that many things have happened in the various satellite countries, even in the Soviet Union itself, which definitely are unmistakable signs of the failure of the Communists to convert their subjects to the doctrines of Marx and Engels and "to sell their ideas to their own youth." To the "experts" this means the eventual doom for the Communist empire," the collapse of the political system of Communism in the "foreseeable future." Such is the apparent conclusion of analyst Howard Randleman of the International News Service, whose series of articles, published early in January, 1957, I have taken the liberty to scrutinize. Is the Soviet Union really doomed? The vast majority of the nations of the free world undoubtedly wish that it were; and the sooner the Communist political system collapses, the better - but, unfortunately, wishing alone will not make it so. As long as Western political leaders, "expert" analysts and commentators, "top" diplomats and "distinguished" diplomatic correspondents follow the path which the Communists want anti-Communists to follow - the path of "peaceful coexistence," the support of "nationalist" or Titoist Communism which is supposed to be "different" than the Soviet "international" brand of Communism, while the Communists of all countries under the leadership of the men in the Kremlin are busy conquering the world - America and the rest of the free world are in mortal danger. Under the prevailing conditions, it is not the Soviet Union and the Communist political system that is doomed, but the democratic west and all free democratic political systems. Of course, the West still has time to meet the danger with 20 SLOVAKIA effective countermeasures, but it's later than most of us think. Substituting wishful thinking and arbitrary theorizing, and completely ignoring the Communist "guide to action" which is necessary for the understanding of Communist policies, techniques and tactics, did not and will not contribute to the downfall of Communism. Neither will irresponsible vagaries of Western Titoists, who glorify and idolize Tito, Gomulka, and Kadar - the old stalwarts of international Communism, but now the proponents of "naas champions of democracy. To tional" Communism promote "national" Communism (Titoism), that is, a policy of helping a Communist regin1e, for the sake of a Communist conquest of the world, makes sense. To promote it for the sake of freedom, does not. Events behind the Iron Curtain - as noted by the EVENING NEWS (Harrisburg, Pa.), January 7, 1957, in its introduction to the first of a series of six articles by Howard Randleman, " distinguished diplomatic and foreign correspondent" - have indeed moved with swift and startling speed in recent months. However, whether the analysis or interpretation of these events by the "Chief European Correspondent of the International News Service" is reasonably correct is, in my mind, highly questionable, the views of the "West's top diplomats" and the "daily headlines" on the future of the Soviet Empire to the contrary notwithstanding. After reading the articles carefully several times, I had been left with the impression that the Soviet Union really was in serious trouble and might be expected to fold up within the next five years even without any armed intervention by the West. Undoubtedly other readers of the paper had been similarly impressed. But thoroughly informed persons on the Soviet Union and Communist techniques and tactics know that this is only wishful thinking. The analysis tendered by Mr. Randleman has, I am afraid, only added to the heaps of misinformation so generously propagated even by so-called "Western experts" on Communism and the Soviet Union. The men in the Kremlin thrive on confusion and cha<!>s; they promote ,it assiduously, (. SLOVAKIA 21 though they prefer that the West does the promoting for them, wittingly or unwittingly, for the edification of satellites and potential satellites. Strangely enough, the West thus far has done a remarkable job in that respect, and Mr. Handleman's effort, in my opinion not the least of the contributions, was appreciated by the Kremlin goons. According to Randleman: "The handwriting is on the wall for the Communist Empire. Western diplomatic authorities see it. They say the men in the Kremlin must see it." Was this a warranted or unwarranted assumption? Even if it were warranted, can any "expert" or "Western diplomatic authority" tell us with certitude that the hand½Titing on the wall is seen and interpreted by the men in he Kremlin in he same light as it is by any Western experts or diplomats? Of course not! The job of busting up the empire of Lenin and Stalin, we are told, will not be easy and may take time, but "Western experts" - whoever they are - "believe the Communist Empire will break up without a major war. They also believe, according to Randleman, that if the West can hold fast for another four or five years, "the Soviet rulers in the end will offer an acceptable formula for security in Europe and the world." But, Mr. Randleman hedged, "it is also recognized that, although the present signs point to the dissolution of the power of the Soviet Empire, the trend could be reversed." And, when it comes to the Soviet Union, there are always "too many unpredictables," according to one highly placed diplomat, "but certainly from everything we know now, the most likely trend over the next few years is one in which the Kremlin leaders will be pushed towards a realistic negotiation by their own peoples." History, however, tells us in no uncertain terms that any such "trend" not only could be, but always had been reversed in the past. It also tells us that, whenever the Kremlin leaders were "pushed" towards a realistic negotiation by their own peoples, the negotiation never actually benefitted the West and the peoples concerned, but only the Soviet Union and Communist regimes. "Weste@A~516~aUB'RM'f Randleman, "bank heavily MILLERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE 22 SLOVAKIA on the common sense of the Russian leaders." One of the "best informed, who has served in the Soviet Union," said the Kremlin leaders might make war if things get worse, "but the best safeguard against war, perhaps, is that leaders in the Kremlin are pretty level headed: they do not want to commit suicide." So, if it does come to the worst, the Kremlin leaders, we are supposed to believe, will yield "what they must" to satellite pressure and, in the end, instead of busting out with atomic war, "it seems more likely they will make a realistic and acceptable offer to the West for a workable security system." It is obvious that what Randleman referred to as the "best informed" diplomat does not necessarily mean that a diplomat so qualified is in fact too well informed on the Soviet or Communist business. It certainly is most unfortunate for the West that its diplomats bank so heavily on the "common sense" of the men in the Kremlin and consider them "pretty level headed," because Soviet leaders are not just ordinary men with "common sense." They are madmen. Hence, if it is in the Soviet interest, they will commit suicide, because they know that the slightest indication to refuse to make the supreme sacrifice at any time means a betrayal of that interest, and the penalty for betrayal is death. Communism always has and always will continue to devour its own children. The Kremlin leaders cannot ever be honestly interested in any "workable security system" with the West, because they are dedicated to the destruction of western civilization and all systems of government opposed to the Soviet system. What did the West really gain by what recently transpired in Poland and Hungary? Let's be honest and face it: nothing but the scorn and curses of the terribly disappointed wretches - the "heroic fighters for freedom" as the West called them - who certainly expected a lot more than pious platitudes, sympathy, and resolutions of protest from the Western democracies which, they swear before God and all men, are in fact responsible for their brutal enslavement by the Soviet Union and its stooges. On the other hand, what did Communism and/ or the Soviet Union actually lose by what happened in those hap- SLOVAKIA 23 less, brutally tyrannized countries? Let us be equally honest and openly admit that the Soviet Union lost nothing. And judging by past history, the Reds even stand to gain more power and prestige ! Having assumed that the Soviet Empire is collapsing, Haqdleman continued to babble, saying that "the Soviet rulers have embarked on a monumental and desperate operation to salvage what they can of the power of their empire." But the odds "among Western diplomats" are that the operation will fail because the Kremlin moved too late. In the light of reality, however, it is rather naive, if not downright silly, to assume that the Soviet Empire is collapsing and then to declare that the Soviet rulers, therefore, have embarked on a "monumental and desperate" operation to salvage the power, which they still held firmly in their hands, but which the West hopefully wished was actually threatened. Once he was captivated by his assumption, the Chief European Correspondent of the INS looked for support of his thesis to the view taken by Secretary of State Dulles at the recent NATO conference: satellite unrest carries with it the danger of a general war, but it is still to be welcomed greatly as foreshadowing the collapse of the Soviet Empire or a fundamental change in its character; and the "desperation in the Kremlin is reflected in the various means it has used to salvage power." Now, what were some of those various means? He told us that in Hungary "there were tanks and guns, and concession . .. Chou En-Lai of Red China was invited to Moscow for talks. . . . Radio Budapest broadcast Christmas hymns and carols for the first time in eight years .... In Poland there were concessions ... : On Christmas Eve radio Warsaw broadcast a message by Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski." Concessions? If that's what the above might be called, yes, but only temporary. After devoting one installment to the "various means" the Kremlin used to "salvage" its power in the satellites, Randleman then told us in the next: "The Kremlin leadership appears secure, however, within the Soviet Union and in the other satellites for the time 24 SLOVAKIA being." Quite a let-down, indeed! But there is more; the situation may not be such as reported: "The best diplomatic brains in Paris and other West European capitals decry what they call a tendency to sensationalize reports of unrest within the Soviet Union." On the other hand, however, "there have been enough reports to convince the experts that satellite people no longer are sheep who accept whatever they are told." What the 'experts" mean by "whatever they are told," is anybody's guess. We know, however, that if satellite people do not keep in line with the regime that is totally subservient to the Kremlin, they may be slaughtered, as they were in Hungary. But then, if there is a tendency to "sensationalize" reports of unrest within the Soviet Union, what was there to prevent readers of Handleman's "analysis" from suspecting that possibly even the Hungarian reports were sensationalized? And what was the net result in Hungary and Poland? Were not those satellite peoples, in the end, "sheep" who had to accept whatever they were told by the Kremlin and its agents? Youth revolts in Poland and Hungary, and other satellites, also forecast the doom of the Soviet Empire, according to Randleman, who based his conclusion on the views of Western "experts and diplomats." Even students of Moscow and Leningrad "suddenly" have begun to question and "to criticize the results of Communist rule - if not yet the very tenets of Communism." Accepting this behavior of the students as a "failure of the Communists to sell their ideas to their own youth," Western diplomats figure, according to Randleman, that this "alone means the eventual doom for the Communist Empire." Randleman himself, however, had stated in a previous chapter that "there has been no confirmed report of basic criticism of the system of Soviet rule." And we know that it will take more than criticism to knock Communism out. But does it? Youth generally is highly emotional, impatient, and fickle; it is easily swayed from one ideology to another, taking little account of principles. We read of student demonstrations in Slovakia, Ukrainia, Poland, Bohemia and Hungary against oppressions of Red regimes; SLOVAKIA 25 in some places these demonstrations resulted in violence. The net result usually was frustration: their own people would not support their "revolts" - and the West was unwilling to intervene, because that might have meant war. Youth wants war in the satellites, but the oldsters do not and Western democracies do not, either. After a couple of setbacks, satellite youth tends to accept its fate with resignation, like the oldsters do. Of course, that is unfortunate, because in the end it means a stronger and more powerful Soviet Union. Now, in Moscow itself, did the students really question the infallibility of the Red Party, as Randleman told us? Did they really criticize "the results" of Communist rule, or possibly just some of its methods and techniques? What percentage of the students of Moscow and Leningrad dared to question "the results" of Communist rule? I believe it is safe to say that no one knows not even the "experts." Furthermore, is it not possible that some of the students, who did the questioning and criticizing, were trained agents of the men in the Kremlin? Unless Western "experts and diplomats," ordinary and "distinguished" reporters, take these and similar questions into account in their reports and statements, I believe we have reason to suspect that they are not objective, but more or less superficial and tendencious. In the last of the series of articles by Randleman in the EVENING NEWS, we read that "the American dream of a Russia strong, healthy and friendly goes way back." That may be so, but does that necessarily apply to our dream of the Soviet Union? Or does Russia and the Soviet Union mean one and the same thing to Western "expert" diplomats and correspondents? George Kennan, former ambassador to the Soviet Union and "one of the two or three best American experts on the Soviet Union," according to Randleman, "forecast bluntly in 1951 that the satellites would win their independence." Of course, he did not forecast exactly from whom or what, or how and when that would happen, but, behold what the same Mr. Kennan said on May 3, 1956: "What we must recognize today, in the case of the sa- 26 SLOVAKIA tellites, is that evil like good, produces its own vested interests. Where regimes of this nature have been in power for more than a decade, there can be no question of putting Humpty Dumpty (i.e., a relative condition of freedom) together again and restoring the status quo ante ... there is a finality, for better or worse, about what has now occurred in Eastern Europe. . . . Whether we like it or not, the gradual evolution of these Communist regimes to a position of greater independence and greater responsiveness to domestic opinion is the best we can hope for as the next phase of development in that area." However, according to the SATURDAY EVENING POST of November 24, 1956, Mr. Kennan, "our No. 1 expert on the Soviet Union," knew right along that satellite rebellions were going to take place, and actually predicted, in 1945 that they would. Then he predicted still further uprisings because "the same fundamental forces are at work throughout the whole area." What these "fundamental forces" were, however, Mr. Kennan did not spell out. On May 3, 1956, according to Mr. Kennan, there was a "finality" about Red regimes, but some seven months later he knew that there was no "finality" about those regimes at all. That, of course, brings us to the question: Did Mr. Kennan, "our No. 1 expert on the Soviet Union," have the vaguest idea of what he was talking about on May 3, 1956? We remember Mr. Kennan as the promoter of the "containment" policy of our State Department. When the Soviet "de-Stalinization" campaign erupted last winter, the same Mr. Kennan wrote many articles and spoke many speeches to explain "the meaning of the change." The central idea in all of these manifestations of Kennan is the same: "The Russians have changed" since the death and renunciation of Stalin. That, of course, was exactly what the men of the Kremlin wanted the West to believe! Then came the Hungarian massacre! It is obvious that Randleman attempted to demonstrate, with the help of "the best diplomatic brains in Paris and other West European capitals": 1. that the "normal logic" of Communist leaders is precisely the same as that of a representative Western mind (his own and the "ex- SLOVAKIA 27 perts' " he relies upon) ; and, 2. that within the next "three, four or five years," with the United States making a strenuous effort to stop Communism in its tracks by appealing to "common sense," the men in the Kremlin, Russians or whatever they are, will come around to the point of "offering a realistic and acceptable formula by which the two worlds of the cold war era can live together in peace and later in friendship." This is muddled thinking and tragic nonsense. The thesis is built on false premises. Many of our policymakers and writers, rather than being guided by a correct picture of what is going on in Communist minds, have tended to interpret these minds in our own image. They know that all decent people would like to have the cold war ended and a lasting peace established. But they know, too, that peace can come about only by "understanding." The chief function of our policies, therefore, should be to overcome "misunderstanding" between America and the Soviet Union, with the U. S. appealing to "common purposes"! This reasoning derives from the assumption that the Soviet system is basically a national political system devoted to the pursuits of reasonable social goals. But a closer, better look at that system reveals that it is no different basically than the Nazi system. Because the Nazi features were widely accepted as evidence of irrationality, we called the followers of Hitler "crazy, dangerous madmen." What then are the followers of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Co.? It is well to remember that, by virtue of their belief in Marxist dogma, Communists live in a mental world that is essentially hostile to the mental world of the West. From the very beginning, Marxism-Leninism has conceived the relation between itself and the rest of the world as one of destruction. The program of the Reds never changes: they are dedicated to our destruction; they will destroy us, if we do not destroy them first. In Soviet foreign relations there is no intellectual or emotional basis for reasonableness, as non-Soviet countries understand it. "Reasonable Communism" is a contradiction in terms. The Communist mind, as the record shows, has so defined its world that it shares neither truth nor logic nor moral- 28 SLOVAKIA ity with the rest of mankind. It is, therefore, senseless to talk about establishing peace with the Communists. Temporary truce, yes, if it suits the Soviet Union and the ultimate aim of Comunism, but not peace. Peace, in the sense of international order based on a minimum of common values, is not possible with an adversary who rejects the very right of other societies to exist. Furthermore, Communists tend to develop the psychological tendency to engage in self-contradictory actions. It is not easy for most Westerners, even many Western "experts and diplomats," to grasp that Communists manage to be for and against something at the same time. Handleman's articles, though he did not bring the thought out, have many evidences of this. The Communists were for the Russian people, so they executed more than fifteen million Russians from 1917 to 1938; they were for the Ukrainians, so they starved over 20 million of them to death in one year when there was no war; they claimed they were for a strong, democratic, independent Poland and then proceeded to knock the tar out of them, butchering over 10,000 Polish Army officers in the Katyn Forest for good measure; Moscow supported the parties allied with the Reds in the French Popular Front and simultaneously sought to split and weaken them from within; the Kremlin worked for Hitler's destruction at Geneva and in the capitals of Western Europe, but it also conducted negotiations with Berlin aiming at increasing Nazi strength; Tito, a most valuable product of the Kremlin, fought the Germans in Yugoslavia and also used their help to fight his civil war; Slovak Reds were for an independent Slovak Republic, but at the same time they collaborated with the Czech Reds and Benes Czechs to restore CzechoSlovakia; Stalin helped Benes and his Czech Nazis back into power in the "new" Czecho-Slovakia, while his stooge Gottwald was under orders to speed up the complete takeover the power by the Reds; the Kremlin is for peace and order in the world, but at the same time is fomenting throuble just about everywhere. And Stalin recommended democratic tactics as the surest way to achieve Communist aims. Communist dialectics! SLOVAKIA 29 Handleman's articles gave the impression that the recent disturbances in Poland and Hungary had weakened the Soviet Empire ("Prophecy of Doom Heard by the Kremlin, Observer Believes" - "Red Rulers Face Desepration Drive to Save Empire"). But is it not a fact that the entire history of Communism is practically an uninterrupted sequence of bloody convulsions? And yet we know that the Communist world is stronger today than it ever was. What is more, the record shows that factional feuds within the Communist Empire do not help the West and the enslaved peoples, but ultimately only strengthen Communism. The anti-Communists of Europe apparently have learned one lesson from history: no totalitarian regime, once it was established, has ever broken down because of internal disruptions; a totalitarian regime collapses only when external powers intervene. In the face of the recent Hungarian slaughter, the "democratic" West now should be definitely convinced that even the most fantastic courage of a suppressed people cannot overthrow a determined totalitarian regime which always has the backing of the Kremlin. Of course, rebellions and convulsions within the Communist-dominated countries are exceptional opportunities for the West to thrust into the Red orbit, but, if the opportunity is wasted by a West enchanted by or petrified with pacifism, the inescapable result of such historic frustration is a further triumph of Communism. In November 1917, one regiment could have stopped the Bolsheviks, led by non-Russians, in their tracks. A year later, perhaps a division of Allied troops would have knocked them out, but a small army would have been needed in 1920. The Red Empire was always mortally vulnerable to a determined attack by organized external forces, but as the years rolled by the required effort increased both in size and also in risk. Today the men of the Kremlin are convinced that the West does not want war - that it prefers to fight with words. Randleman reported: "the chief of these problems, staggering problems for the United States, will be to prevent a third world war from erupting." In the last of his 30 SLOVAKIA series of six articles (Jan. 12, 1957), he added: "the threat of a major war being triggered in this way (by the satellites) ... was the reason Dulles had to make the painful announcement during the December meeting of NATO foreign ministers that the U. S. would not be able to intervene to help any satellite revolt with arms." That is what the poor wretches in the satellite countries did not want to hear, but that is precisely what the men of the Kremlin did want to hear: the Reds are now determined more than ever to intervene anywhere at any time in the interest of the Soviet Union, the homeland of all Communists, with impunity. The Kremlin can always take care of revolts in the satellite countries and at the same time start trouble for the West elsewhere - and its stooges in the satellites know that. The men in the Kremlin and all Reds agree with Dulles on one point he made at the NATO meeting in December: Soviet rulers shall never give up their dream of world conquest voluntarily! Freedom and Communism are irreconcilable. Coexistence is the complete denial of this fundamental fact of the present international situation. The Communist policy of "peaceful coexistence" is aimed at the moral, political, and military disarmament of the West. At present it is the main Communist vehicle to destroy the will of the free world to live and fight. Ever since the first Communist seizure of power, the Communists have amply demonstrated that they meant business and used power with utter contempt for human lives, moral scruples, and democratic principles. Since the free world has 'coexisted" with Communism for some 39 years (one generation) , Communism has grown from 200 to over 800 million people and now rules one-third of the globe. Another generation of such "coexistence" and ... ? The situation becomes all the more tragic and alarming when we recall that ten European countries were harnessed with Communist regimes by the Western democracies to appease the high-priests of Communism, the men of the Kremlin. What America and the rest of the free world really SLOVAKIA 31 need right now is a large, stiff dose of "Knowlandism" for the brain to clear our thinking so that we might resolve: NO MORAL AND/ OR MATERIAL AID FOR THE SOVIET UNION AND ITS SATELLITES! • • • A BELATED REPORT By CHARLES MURIN, Ph.D., LL.D. It seems to be inevitable during a war, when the stakes are high, that people reduce their thinking to two categories only: my side is identified with the good and moral purely and simply, the enemy, or the other side. is the embodiment pure of the principle of evil which is the root of all disorder in the world. It is understandable that this psychological attitude belongs to war, because one has to know what he is offering his life for. However, if this psychological factor seems to belong to the conditions required for the winning of a war, the same attitude is a disturbing factor when it enters among the considerations how to win the peace. This is exactly what we experienced after World War II in regard to the organization of post-war Europe. Besides this, Slovak refugees, among many others, have experienced in their own personal destinies the drawbacks in the application of the above-mentioned psychological attitude to the period immediately following the war. It took about two years until an about face had been brought about, and the writer of these lines had the peculiar opportunity of being personally involved in both stages of mind; the one that is supposed to win the war, and the one which aims at winning the peace. It goes without saying that the latter was infinitely more in accordance with common sense and reason and with what can be called the moral principles in politics. The psychological attitude of seeing only black and white becomes a real disaster when it is adopted by responsible statesmen and politicians. As a direct consequence, this attitude inevitably involves political and moral contradictions that do not fail to give, with on unerring  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Analyzing the Analysts: Is the Soviet Union Doomed? Description An account of the resource Philip A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2 (23), June 1957 pp. 19-31 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1957 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/1f0f9bc599dea6701063b4aebfa243bf.pdf 58cecf62a0a46d604e71bc2cd40df4c8 PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presid ent Vice-President Dr. Peter P. Hletko Julia Krajcovic 19-13 W . 48th Street Chicago 9, Illinois 16-18 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. llecord ing Secretary President Philip Constantine Culen A. 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Hrob ak P. 0 . !:lox 150, .\liddl etown, Pa. Vice-President Secretary-Treasurer Jacob Kocis l\lilan V. 1517 -- lli7th Street Hammond, Ind. B lazek -1922 S. Leela.ire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Stephen J. Tkach P. Jamriska 173 N. Main Street Wilkes-Darre, Pa. SlO Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock Franc es L. Mize nko 61 Woodland Avenu e Campbell, Ohio 3756 Lee 'Road Cleveland 28, Ohio Jo seph Prusa 205 l\Iadison St., Passaic, N. J. ADVISORY COUNCIL Stephen J . Tkach l,lichael J. Vargovich National President Penna. Slovak Union :-.ational President First Catholic.: Slovak Union Anna Sotak Helen Kocan National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Paul Fallat John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Sokol National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America ) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEONOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLICKY SOKOL SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Passaic, N. J . Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SL OVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �Benes Defied Last Minute ,.o" 0 " Warning Not to Murder : President Dr. Tiso WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT TISO : . Tiso Exec1uion Shocks V. ahcan ,._o.,,,0.~ / ... • B eg Im e i en e 5 R ders Deat h r 0 \VSNY, Schenectady, N. Y.,:! • ;Jic Broadcasts About Tiso : ,- for Fr TI so London 1Pl' I - Edwar1' Bene.A. ~ C Z 10 0 Vat ican C i l ~ _ Jz:i &11 et• ro ~Rve the Rew Dr Joae pb I ► T l!lo " 'l\r -tt m" prP!lden t t>f Slo~ 1...,!orT 1.1un1,.,, _,11rta1or nr i\loarow-made z ('zPcbn-Slnv1'k111 ,..,., 1'Ptermlned lO ru 11rdPr Or J O!t'pb T iso, t be ~ 88 of April 1e Te ll e of An xltty or Slov a k ■ Over Tl ■ o Sbtement . 1so JAU.n'•~¥c;1iT ~ l e ~ t An atm oapberP- , 1N J:.i~ ,....Clf'IU 8U (WHO ~ D DR, 'n.80!) : nso m : MoRIAL MASS Jeolr ~o u,; LAKEWOOD, 1':fsolr.z./JJ:.n o. \]Pmonal Man fo r lb e -THE CAT H O UC UNIVERSE BU LLETIN- MURDER IN CZECHO-SLOVAKIA They Killed President Tiso v. ERN Y OLOVAK and Slovak communists dem .MASS FOR TISO ;:,or:;;:r ~~! ~:tec~~~01~~ 1'r d Dr Edward Bene§ obliged. Fa IN PH ILADELPHIA t the 001 of Dr T l10·1 de h PIDLIP JAMES ANTHO:>'Y ~s1dent of wartime ' S l'AUL KOTYA 4 Go • }A.ASS g,~~d...Par ··~:::i.. and··w ··IC."k-J People N HOL Y &EE u ~ CZECH PRESIOENT TO SPAR E HIS LIFS u ~ - : __, to"o and hamlet ot Slov': ·The Murder of Tiso Has Shocked i Tiso More Dangerous Dead Thao Alive; Writer Sums Up • ~ ~ ' ~ "' the Civilized World ..• " ,, 0 ~ 0 ~• , n0NoTA Feeling of Slovaks ~ ~ f c■ NTRAL Eu&~~~~~~a T~NRoauR~~~'~T ~~ pt;:iR~;MPATH v To • . ......... ,,, death WU prooouoced 011 preelden t 8 of Jews and othel"f 11 ~ Q O BY J ~ N E R, ~ By Our (Special CorrupondeP1t, N C. W. C. New, Servic e) Dratlsla \'I, Apri l :?1 . - ''Tiso lli.·i ll be mo re da nse rous dead than ~hl_a · ·.ru the opinion exprl'll~~ MURDER IN -stovAKIA :::;e,"L 01 •Benes Hangs ·Speech ather T•ISO Corre■p0Pldent and about Czech Arr Cen-1 I..o ndon, A pril l0. - The Court, tral European communit y In Great the lncreuett d th' ogance an e , Death of Rev. Joseph Tiso ; -- or HON. ALVIN E. O'ICONSKI of Wisconsin 1n the· -House of Re t&tt w-..1 ~ ·1 A . The r ecent waTe or pollUe&I Tpreeen ves cun~a.y, pril 23, 1947 k.Hl~cga In Eu~op! bu arouaed lh_!I < ' Mr. 0 KOMKI. Mr. Speaker, the NlCellt h&nglng by the E-< Commumsts of CzechoslO\•alda of the bra,•f) and gallant Monsignor J oseph Tiso wao murder In its moot ghaotly aod shameful fonn. Th e bra,·e and gallant Monsignor J oseph Q BRIDGEPORT SLOVAKS Tiso went the way of the immortal General i\liha.llo,;tch a.nd Mi,lrJl,.town, Pa - T he ward , ~ AT MASS FOR TISO the lmmortal Archbish op Stepinac, of Yugoslavia.. of J,ednota llome and the, SJ1uer1 exe< Tho F : 01 o z . . Memorial Mass for Tiso at Jednota Home Bars Mercy • .... .•"" Communist Executions in Slovakia I'••"~-;·•"'<;-.,._.,, ., th_, i,;Execulion of Father Tiso _ _ , Months Mmd Mass Fer """ "C0Sl BeneS ChaDCe l0 w·JD or ~hgr Jose ph Tl.!o. prealdei R_e pu_bl k durln PF:TF:·R p J 't·n'c 11 i K~ --- Tiso. JEO NOT.A. L It f SI k V ti I Th e cold·blood ed execution vak < r,:~lu~~s ~ 1 ;::~~~=c) : !.e_!l~d=?~ .. sio,\~~~...~~.11 g~i~. ,~r -~-~_;~ t:~ mule t.he 1e11tencf' oC death to ]Ur , ..... ~1o .... m,.nt Z ~ P11 tsburgb, 'T'h .. ~'- - .. Pa. Rei· M, B. 11\d eo t of tb ~ C' -~ }Al\SS Oya y O OVa S, Paper Says fOR a can · •!,11'},\0Rl JIL Vllil'l:l,!IQ,~ - ; Am • M ·a1 . .Dr. Tiso Hanged, Goes to.,Plttrr1s0 1N__.. Rome Apr il 19 (NC) The q I encan emon m Gallows in Calm Prayer !~.~:..~ .~~~· "-~~~ Ci:ech governmen~ of Pruldent ;::; Tribute to Tiso ,.oN oT• a Y , . " MAUTHNER "TISO ACTED AND WORKED IN THE INTEREST ~ NATIONAL ;:;;;;£ PLANNED B rat itl av, . ~ The Re, OF THE NATION AND WAS NEVER A TRAITOR.••" , IN HONOR OF SLOVAKIA'S Jo,cph T iso. wartime preside_ -Archbp. Kmetko i5 MARTYR .,,..,, •• to hl o .Administration Scored for .s: ~ Thi" propospd monutr ·- • •· .. . TI SO !IDAORIAL MASS tJ 00 Failure to Make Dr. Tiso IN PERTH AMBOY :;j ' ""' , , ... s,.,.,, , MD.IO RIAL MASS FOR In re\·ered memo ry o r >TI SO IN NEW YORK -=-"-=="-==-=-- 0 ,,,11 ,lwm •• • '"" . Execution Protest h th US What Happened Wit e SLOVAKIA VS. COMM NI M "'"''""'""· Ap, ,, ,sc, Body of Tiso? ;,,: I SPEECH e,:11,•,•:_n Europe to tnsun;:<:~~~~!~~YOUNGSTOWN SLOVAKS ~ 1 OF I• • .... , 'ATTEND MASS FOR TI SO V. ER NY SLOVAK ' ;.> HON. RAV J . !\1 .\DDEN Women Who Paraded for . · '" ~ Apr!! 20th, t he Commlaur!at /i' ~ 1:-1 TRI'. HO I -::-. 1:~~::~E~TU IHS Tiso to Be Sent to Slovak Police Confiscate ::un~~~tiCII ln Brat isl ava 12~: 194 ~ ,u, .. ,,.,y. Jfo,c/, ol. ~EONOT' Labor Camps Issue of Catholic Paper -· Dr. fj;~· ···- :' <I! .... '"' '" impon~"". lo ...... u 0 ~ ~ w,OI d I ;u ~ J~s~ph ,.!1:;icaM;~~D:~i Ub;~;~.\o~fnet::: Prl\gue. ( N ~lo,•ak ~ondi'~;t~~:\~v:~ (~;\\;71\ T:;;~o: h: Priu t, Tuche 0~dcnt ar,d &II· Na. Slovak Ministry to Suppress ; ~o ;~eF:;~ ll~lls:~l~~:r,~~m~a,;~cent _,ac tion by th e Pub_llc P ro! t lo l\.ll Hero o~lov.ak Nation • 0 D- Ji'. l'uto1 omre. J u~tlre or<ic!als co Dr J o11e_ph T iso, war,tlme pre• 0 z Demonstrations for Repertnss1ons n r. 1so;:~:ie~o~-i~~.~.p1;1:;~~~iu~lc~~~ ~ -~ TI SO ME.10RIAL MASS : Dr. Tiso Death Continue 'Czech Police Ape Nazis in ~ERS_,_li_•.x.,_ 1> T'r~guf". (:,; r) - Tb(' Slov;,k ~ Another &1ov.a k Luder Re portec Spying On Sermons . ''JED NOT A' t f 0 l!lfi lrr or the In ter ior, Gen. ,.., £ idled By Ru ul ane -C h Rd M Z 1: Jr nrik . h a11 be t•n ,i:-ranted 11per P rnirne. Though tbt P rague. {:,;'C) - Agent 11 or the zec e S aneUVef to [Tl ,..rr11 tn , 111,prr~JI '°i1\cg111 demi Rev. Or. Joseph Ti so, pres ident 01 Czech pol!ce, beaded by Commuo• K S . d Ca h I' 0 ~ slr:i1i11n•·· fa\nring the releas e ' • ,., ____ ,. ,_ ,. __ ,. ___ \st Minister or I nte rior VaclaT Noeep e1ze t O IC :I: 10 ~ ~~:s~r1: :r -~~~:.:~1 ~11!i1;~;-~~Pontiff Well Acquair.l'cd ~::1~t'.:~-ear~~p~:~1 ~«ee:;ft:~~cr: ~:~ Schools in Slovakia ~ C/l With Slovak Religious "~~;;:;;~; ~~~;~t• "c' _ T,, comm"' '" : 0 JI (A ! (t,.;(') _ 110 • a~ r ~t ;~~~--~;~:;~;;~•·~;;_-ss IN MI L'IIAUJ(E~ -c:i .AN~im.iion1 ~lrN-a~ _,,, AT ;:,:c:n Lllll"f.RrrT· ,.,...,, TISO MASS \loml"'"' T,·,d• u,10, "•"m'"' ,( or Czec hos\oukla bas come l1.P \il1Ll£RSVILLE STATE COLLEGE"' ·,,., fl_LERSVILLE. PA. 17551 � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presid ent Vice-President Dr. Peter P. Hletko Julia Krajcovic 19-13 W . 48th Street Chicago 9, Illinois 16-18 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. llecord ing Secretary President Philip Constantine Culen A. 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Hrob ak P. 0 . !:lox 150, .\liddl etown, Pa. Vice-President Secretary-Treasurer Jacob Kocis l\lilan V. 1517 -- lli7th Street Hammond, Ind. B lazek -1922 S. Leela.ire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Stephen J. Tkach P. Jamriska 173 N. Main Street Wilkes-Darre, Pa. SlO Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock Franc es L. Mize nko 61 Woodland Avenu e Campbell, Ohio 3756 Lee 'Road Cleveland 28, Ohio Jo seph Prusa 205 l\Iadison St., Passaic, N. J. ADVISORY COUNCIL Stephen J . Tkach l,lichael J. Vargovich National President Penna. Slovak Union :-.ational President First Catholic.: Slovak Union Anna Sotak Helen Kocan National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Paul Fallat John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Sokol National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America ) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEONOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLICKY SOKOL SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Passaic, N. J . Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SL OVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �Benes Defied Last Minute ,.o" 0 " Warning Not to Murder : President Dr. Tiso WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT TISO : . Tiso Exec1uion Shocks V. ahcan ,._o.,,,0.~ / ... • B eg Im e i en e 5 R ders Deat h r 0 \VSNY, Schenectady, N. Y.,:! • ;Jic Broadcasts About Tiso : ,- for Fr TI so London 1Pl' I - Edwar1' Bene.A. ~ C Z 10 0 Vat ican C i l ~ _ Jz:i &11 et• ro ~Rve the Rew Dr Joae pb I ► T l!lo " 'l\r -tt m" prP!lden t t>f Slo~ 1...,!orT 1.1un1,.,, _,11rta1or nr i\loarow-made z ('zPcbn-Slnv1'k111 ,..,., 1'Ptermlned lO ru 11rdPr Or J O!t'pb T iso, t be ~ 88 of April 1e Te ll e of An xltty or Slov a k ■ Over Tl ■ o Sbtement . 1so JAU.n'•~¥c;1iT ~ l e ~ t An atm oapberP- , 1N J:.i~ ,....Clf'IU 8U (WHO ~ D DR, 'n.80!) : nso m : MoRIAL MASS Jeolr ~o u,; LAKEWOOD, 1':fsolr.z./JJ:.n o. \]Pmonal Man fo r lb e -THE CAT H O UC UNIVERSE BU LLETIN- MURDER IN CZECHO-SLOVAKIA They Killed President Tiso v. ERN Y OLOVAK and Slovak communists dem .MASS FOR TISO ;:,or:;;:r ~~! ~:tec~~~01~~ 1'r d Dr Edward Bene§ obliged. Fa IN PH ILADELPHIA t the 001 of Dr T l10·1 de h PIDLIP JAMES ANTHO:>'Y ~s1dent of wartime ' S l'AUL KOTYA 4 Go • }A.ASS g,~~d...Par ··~:::i.. and··w ··IC."k-J People N HOL Y &EE u ~ CZECH PRESIOENT TO SPAR E HIS LIFS u ~ - : __, to"o and hamlet ot Slov': ·The Murder of Tiso Has Shocked i Tiso More Dangerous Dead Thao Alive; Writer Sums Up • ~ ~ ' ~ "' the Civilized World ..• " ,, 0 ~ 0 ~• , n0NoTA Feeling of Slovaks ~ ~ f c■ NTRAL Eu&~~~~~~a T~NRoauR~~~'~T ~~ pt;:iR~;MPATH v To • . ......... ,,, death WU prooouoced 011 preelden t 8 of Jews and othel"f 11 ~ Q O BY J ~ N E R, ~ By Our (Special CorrupondeP1t, N C. W. C. New, Servic e) Dratlsla \'I, Apri l :?1 . - ''Tiso lli.·i ll be mo re da nse rous dead than ~hl_a · ·.ru the opinion exprl'll~~ MURDER IN -stovAKIA :::;e,"L 01 •Benes Hangs ·Speech ather T•ISO Corre■p0Pldent and about Czech Arr Cen-1 I..o ndon, A pril l0. - The Court, tral European communit y In Great the lncreuett d th' ogance an e , Death of Rev. Joseph Tiso ; -- or HON. ALVIN E. O'ICONSKI of Wisconsin 1n the· -House of Re t&tt w-..1 ~ ·1 A . The r ecent waTe or pollUe&I Tpreeen ves cun~a.y, pril 23, 1947 k.Hl~cga In Eu~op! bu arouaed lh_!I < ' Mr. 0 KOMKI. Mr. Speaker, the NlCellt h&nglng by the E-< Commumsts of CzechoslO\•alda of the bra,•f) and gallant Monsignor J oseph Tiso wao murder In its moot ghaotly aod shameful fonn. Th e bra,·e and gallant Monsignor J oseph Q BRIDGEPORT SLOVAKS Tiso went the way of the immortal General i\liha.llo,;tch a.nd Mi,lrJl,.town, Pa - T he ward , ~ AT MASS FOR TISO the lmmortal Archbish op Stepinac, of Yugoslavia.. of J,ednota llome and the, SJ1uer1 exe< Tho F : 01 o z . . Memorial Mass for Tiso at Jednota Home Bars Mercy • .... .•"" Communist Executions in Slovakia I'••"~-;·•"'<;-.,._.,, ., th_, i,;Execulion of Father Tiso _ _ , Months Mmd Mass Fer """ "C0Sl BeneS ChaDCe l0 w·JD or ~hgr Jose ph Tl.!o. prealdei R_e pu_bl k durln PF:TF:·R p J 't·n'c 11 i K~ --- Tiso. JEO NOT.A. L It f SI k V ti I Th e cold·blood ed execution vak < r,:~lu~~s ~ 1 ;::~~~=c) : !.e_!l~d=?~ .. sio,\~~~...~~.11 g~i~. ,~r -~-~_;~ t:~ mule t.he 1e11tencf' oC death to ]Ur , ..... ~1o .... m,.nt Z ~ P11 tsburgb, 'T'h .. ~'- - .. Pa. Rei· M, B. 11\d eo t of tb ~ C' -~ }Al\SS Oya y O OVa S, Paper Says fOR a can · •!,11'},\0Rl JIL Vllil'l:l,!IQ,~ - ; Am • M ·a1 . .Dr. Tiso Hanged, Goes to.,Plttrr1s0 1N__.. Rome Apr il 19 (NC) The q I encan emon m Gallows in Calm Prayer !~.~:..~ .~~~· "-~~~ Ci:ech governmen~ of Pruldent ;::; Tribute to Tiso ,.oN oT• a Y , . " MAUTHNER "TISO ACTED AND WORKED IN THE INTEREST ~ NATIONAL ;:;;;;£ PLANNED B rat itl av, . ~ The Re, OF THE NATION AND WAS NEVER A TRAITOR.••" , IN HONOR OF SLOVAKIA'S Jo,cph T iso. wartime preside_ -Archbp. Kmetko i5 MARTYR .,,..,, •• to hl o .Administration Scored for .s: ~ Thi" propospd monutr ·- • •· .. . TI SO !IDAORIAL MASS tJ 00 Failure to Make Dr. Tiso IN PERTH AMBOY :;j ' ""' , , ... s,.,.,, , MD.IO RIAL MASS FOR In re\·ered memo ry o r >TI SO IN NEW YORK -=-"-=="-==-=-- 0 ,,,11 ,lwm •• • '"" . Execution Protest h th US What Happened Wit e SLOVAKIA VS. COMM NI M "'"''""'""· Ap, ,, ,sc, Body of Tiso? ;,,: I SPEECH e,:11,•,•:_n Europe to tnsun;:<:~~~~!~~YOUNGSTOWN SLOVAKS ~ 1 OF I• • .... , 'ATTEND MASS FOR TI SO V. ER NY SLOVAK ' ;.> HON. RAV J . !\1 .\DDEN Women Who Paraded for . · '" ~ Apr!! 20th, t he Commlaur!at /i' ~ 1:-1 TRI'. HO I -::-. 1:~~::~E~TU IHS Tiso to Be Sent to Slovak Police Confiscate ::un~~~tiCII ln Brat isl ava 12~: 194 ~ ,u, .. ,,.,y. Jfo,c/, ol. ~EONOT' Labor Camps Issue of Catholic Paper -· Dr. fj;~· ···- :' <I! .... '"' '" impon~"". lo ...... u 0 ~ ~ w,OI d I ;u ~ J~s~ph ,.!1:;icaM;~~D:~i Ub;~;~.\o~fnet::: Prl\gue. ( N ~lo,•ak ~ondi'~;t~~:\~v:~ (~;\\;71\ T:;;~o: h: Priu t, Tuche 0~dcnt ar,d &II· Na. Slovak Ministry to Suppress ; ~o ;~eF:;~ ll~lls:~l~~:r,~~m~a,;~cent _,ac tion by th e Pub_llc P ro! t lo l\.ll Hero o~lov.ak Nation • 0 D- Ji'. l'uto1 omre. J u~tlre or<ic!als co Dr J o11e_ph T iso, war,tlme pre• 0 z Demonstrations for Repertnss1ons n r. 1so;:~:ie~o~-i~~.~.p1;1:;~~~iu~lc~~~ ~ -~ TI SO ME.10RIAL MASS : Dr. Tiso Death Continue 'Czech Police Ape Nazis in ~ERS_,_li_•.x.,_ 1> T'r~guf". (:,; r) - Tb(' Slov;,k ~ Another &1ov.a k Luder Re portec Spying On Sermons . ''JED NOT A' t f 0 l!lfi lrr or the In ter ior, Gen. ,.., £ idled By Ru ul ane -C h Rd M Z 1: Jr nrik . h a11 be t•n ,i:-ranted 11per P rnirne. Though tbt P rague. {:,;'C) - Agent 11 or the zec e S aneUVef to [Tl ,..rr11 tn , 111,prr~JI '°i1\cg111 demi Rev. Or. Joseph Ti so, pres ident 01 Czech pol!ce, beaded by Commuo• K S . d Ca h I' 0 ~ slr:i1i11n•·· fa\nring the releas e ' • ,., ____ ,. ,_ ,. __ ,. ___ \st Minister or I nte rior VaclaT Noeep e1ze t O IC :I: 10 ~ ~~:s~r1: :r -~~~:.:~1 ~11!i1;~;-~~Pontiff Well Acquair.l'cd ~::1~t'.:~-ear~~p~:~1 ~«ee:;ft:~~cr: ~:~ Schools in Slovakia ~ C/l With Slovak Religious "~~;;:;;~; ~~~;~t• "c' _ T,, comm"' '" : 0 JI (A ! (t,.;(') _ 110 • a~ r ~t ;~~~--~;~:;~;;~•·~;;_-ss IN MI L'IIAUJ(E~ -c:i .AN~im.iion1 ~lrN-a~ _,,, AT ;:,:c:n Lllll"f.RrrT· ,.,...,, TISO MASS \loml"'"' T,·,d• u,10, "•"m'"' ,( or Czec hos\oukla bas come l1.P \il1Ll£RSVILLE STATE COLLEGE"' ·,,., fl_LERSVILLE. PA. 17551 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presid ent Vice-President Dr. Peter P. Hletko Julia Krajcovic 19-13 W . 48th Street Chicago 9, Illinois 16-18 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. llecord ing Secretary President Philip Constantine Culen A. 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Hrob ak P. 0 . !:lox 150, .\liddl etown, Pa. Vice-President Secretary-Treasurer Jacob Kocis l\lilan V. 1517 -- lli7th Street Hammond, Ind. B lazek -1922 S. Leela.ire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Stephen J. Tkach P. Jamriska 173 N. Main Street Wilkes-Darre, Pa. SlO Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock Franc es L. Mize nko 61 Woodland Avenu e Campbell, Ohio 3756 Lee 'Road Cleveland 28, Ohio Jo seph Prusa 205 l\Iadison St., Passaic, N. J. ADVISORY COUNCIL Stephen J . Tkach l,lichael J. Vargovich National President Penna. Slovak Union :-.ational President First Catholic.: Slovak Union Anna Sotak Helen Kocan National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Paul Fallat John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Sokol National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America ) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEONOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLICKY SOKOL SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Passaic, N. J . Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SL OVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. Benes Defied Last Minute ,.o" 0 " Warning Not to Murder : President Dr. Tiso WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT TISO : . Tiso Exec1uion Shocks V. ahcan ,._o.,,,0.~ / ... • B eg Im e i en e 5 R ders Deat h r 0 \VSNY, Schenectady, N. Y.,:! • ;Jic Broadcasts About Tiso : ,- for Fr TI so London 1Pl' I - Edwar1' Bene.A. ~ C Z 10 0 Vat ican C i l ~ _ Jz:i &11 et• ro ~Rve the Rew Dr Joae pb I ► T l!lo " 'l\r -tt m" prP!lden t t>f Slo~ 1...,!orT 1.1un1,.,, _,11rta1or nr i\loarow-made z ('zPcbn-Slnv1'k111 ,..,., 1'Ptermlned lO ru 11rdPr Or J O!t'pb T iso, t be ~ 88 of April 1e Te ll e of An xltty or Slov a k ■ Over Tl ■ o Sbtement . 1so JAU.n'•~¥c;1iT ~ l e ~ t An atm oapberP- , 1N J:.i~ ,....Clf'IU 8U (WHO ~ D DR, 'n.80!) : nso m : MoRIAL MASS Jeolr ~o u,; LAKEWOOD, 1':fsolr.z./JJ:.n o. \]Pmonal Man fo r lb e -THE CAT H O UC UNIVERSE BU LLETIN- MURDER IN CZECHO-SLOVAKIA They Killed President Tiso v. ERN Y OLOVAK and Slovak communists dem .MASS FOR TISO ;:,or:;;:r ~~! ~:tec~~~01~~ 1'r d Dr Edward Bene§ obliged. Fa IN PH ILADELPHIA t the 001 of Dr T l10·1 de h PIDLIP JAMES ANTHO:>'Y ~s1dent of wartime ' S l'AUL KOTYA 4 Go • }A.ASS g,~~d...Par ··~:::i.. and··w ··IC."k-J People N HOL Y &EE u ~ CZECH PRESIOENT TO SPAR E HIS LIFS u ~ - : __, to"o and hamlet ot Slov': ·The Murder of Tiso Has Shocked i Tiso More Dangerous Dead Thao Alive; Writer Sums Up • ~ ~ ' ~ "' the Civilized World ..• " ,, 0 ~ 0 ~• , n0NoTA Feeling of Slovaks ~ ~ f c■ NTRAL Eu&~~~~~~a T~NRoauR~~~'~T ~~ pt;:iR~;MPATH v To • . ......... ,,, death WU prooouoced 011 preelden t 8 of Jews and othel"f 11 ~ Q O BY J ~ N E R, ~ By Our (Special CorrupondeP1t, N C. W. C. New, Servic e) Dratlsla \'I, Apri l :?1 . - ''Tiso lli.·i ll be mo re da nse rous dead than ~hl_a · ·.ru the opinion exprl'll~~ MURDER IN -stovAKIA :::;e,"L 01 •Benes Hangs ·Speech ather T•ISO Corre■p0Pldent and about Czech Arr Cen-1 I..o ndon, A pril l0. - The Court, tral European communit y In Great the lncreuett d th' ogance an e , Death of Rev. Joseph Tiso ; -- or HON. ALVIN E. O'ICONSKI of Wisconsin 1n the· -House of Re t&tt w-..1 ~ ·1 A . The r ecent waTe or pollUe&I Tpreeen ves cun~a.y, pril 23, 1947 k.Hl~cga In Eu~op! bu arouaed lh_!I < ' Mr. 0 KOMKI. Mr. Speaker, the NlCellt h&nglng by the E-< Commumsts of CzechoslO\•alda of the bra,•f) and gallant Monsignor J oseph Tiso wao murder In its moot ghaotly aod shameful fonn. Th e bra,·e and gallant Monsignor J oseph Q BRIDGEPORT SLOVAKS Tiso went the way of the immortal General i\liha.llo,;tch a.nd Mi,lrJl,.town, Pa - T he ward , ~ AT MASS FOR TISO the lmmortal Archbish op Stepinac, of Yugoslavia.. of J,ednota llome and the, SJ1uer1 exe< Tho F : 01 o z . . Memorial Mass for Tiso at Jednota Home Bars Mercy • .... .•"" Communist Executions in Slovakia I'••"~-;·•"'<;-.,._.,, ., th_, i,;Execulion of Father Tiso _ _ , Months Mmd Mass Fer """ "C0Sl BeneS ChaDCe l0 w·JD or ~hgr Jose ph Tl.!o. prealdei R_e pu_bl k durln PF:TF:·R p J 't·n'c 11 i K~ --- Tiso. JEO NOT.A. L It f SI k V ti I Th e cold·blood ed execution vak < r,:~lu~~s ~ 1 ;::~~~=c) : !.e_!l~d=?~ .. sio,\~~~...~~.11 g~i~. ,~r -~-~_;~ t:~ mule t.he 1e11tencf' oC death to ]Ur , ..... ~1o .... m,.nt Z ~ P11 tsburgb, 'T'h .. ~'- - .. Pa. Rei· M, B. 11\d eo t of tb ~ C' -~ }Al\SS Oya y O OVa S, Paper Says fOR a can · •!,11'},\0Rl JIL Vllil'l:l,!IQ,~ - ; Am • M ·a1 . .Dr. Tiso Hanged, Goes to.,Plttrr1s0 1N__.. Rome Apr il 19 (NC) The q I encan emon m Gallows in Calm Prayer !~.~:..~ .~~~· "-~~~ Ci:ech governmen~ of Pruldent ;::; Tribute to Tiso ,.oN oT• a Y , . " MAUTHNER "TISO ACTED AND WORKED IN THE INTEREST ~ NATIONAL ;:;;;;£ PLANNED B rat itl av, . ~ The Re, OF THE NATION AND WAS NEVER A TRAITOR.••" , IN HONOR OF SLOVAKIA'S Jo,cph T iso. wartime preside_ -Archbp. Kmetko i5 MARTYR .,,..,, •• to hl o .Administration Scored for .s: ~ Thi" propospd monutr ·- • •· .. . TI SO !IDAORIAL MASS tJ 00 Failure to Make Dr. Tiso IN PERTH AMBOY :;j ' ""' , , ... s,.,.,, , MD.IO RIAL MASS FOR In re\·ered memo ry o r >TI SO IN NEW YORK -=-"-=="-==-=-- 0 ,,,11 ,lwm •• • '"" . Execution Protest h th US What Happened Wit e SLOVAKIA VS. COMM NI M "'"''""'""· Ap, ,, ,sc, Body of Tiso? ;,,: I SPEECH e,:11,•,•:_n Europe to tnsun;:<:~~~~!~~YOUNGSTOWN SLOVAKS ~ 1 OF I• • .... , 'ATTEND MASS FOR TI SO V. ER NY SLOVAK ' ;.> HON. RAV J . !\1 .\DDEN Women Who Paraded for . · '" ~ Apr!! 20th, t he Commlaur!at /i' ~ 1:-1 TRI'. HO I -::-. 1:~~::~E~TU IHS Tiso to Be Sent to Slovak Police Confiscate ::un~~~tiCII ln Brat isl ava 12~: 194 ~ ,u, .. ,,.,y. Jfo,c/, ol. ~EONOT' Labor Camps Issue of Catholic Paper -· Dr. fj;~· ···- :' <I! .... '"' '" impon~"". lo ...... u 0 ~ ~ w,OI d I ;u ~ J~s~ph ,.!1:;icaM;~~D:~i Ub;~;~.\o~fnet::: Prl\gue. ( N ~lo,•ak ~ondi'~;t~~:\~v:~ (~;\\;71\ T:;;~o: h: Priu t, Tuche 0~dcnt ar,d &II· Na. Slovak Ministry to Suppress ; ~o ;~eF:;~ ll~lls:~l~~:r,~~m~a,;~cent _,ac tion by th e Pub_llc P ro! t lo l\.ll Hero o~lov.ak Nation • 0 D- Ji'. l'uto1 omre. J u~tlre or<ic!als co Dr J o11e_ph T iso, war,tlme pre• 0 z Demonstrations for Repertnss1ons n r. 1so;:~:ie~o~-i~~.~.p1;1:;~~~iu~lc~~~ ~ -~ TI SO ME.10RIAL MASS : Dr. Tiso Death Continue 'Czech Police Ape Nazis in ~ERS_,_li_•.x.,_ 1> T'r~guf". (:,; r) - Tb(' Slov;,k ~ Another &1ov.a k Luder Re portec Spying On Sermons . ''JED NOT A' t f 0 l!lfi lrr or the In ter ior, Gen. ,.., £ idled By Ru ul ane -C h Rd M Z 1: Jr nrik . h a11 be t•n ,i:-ranted 11per P rnirne. Though tbt P rague. {:,;'C) - Agent 11 or the zec e S aneUVef to [Tl ,..rr11 tn , 111,prr~JI '°i1\cg111 demi Rev. Or. Joseph Ti so, pres ident 01 Czech pol!ce, beaded by Commuo• K S . d Ca h I' 0 ~ slr:i1i11n•·· fa\nring the releas e ' • ,., ____ ,. ,_ ,. __ ,. ___ \st Minister or I nte rior VaclaT Noeep e1ze t O IC :I: 10 ~ ~~:s~r1: :r -~~~:.:~1 ~11!i1;~;-~~Pontiff Well Acquair.l'cd ~::1~t'.:~-ear~~p~:~1 ~«ee:;ft:~~cr: ~:~ Schools in Slovakia ~ C/l With Slovak Religious "~~;;:;;~; ~~~;~t• "c' _ T,, comm"' '" : 0 JI (A ! (t,.;(') _ 110 • a~ r ~t ;~~~--~;~:;~;;~•·~;;_-ss IN MI L'IIAUJ(E~ -c:i .AN~im.iion1 ~lrN-a~ _,,, AT ;:,:c:n Lllll"f.RrrT· ,.,...,, TISO MASS \loml"'"' T,·,d• u,10, "•"m'"' ,( or Czec hos\oukla bas come l1.P \il1Ll£RSVILLE STATE COLLEGE"' ·,,., fl_LERSVILLE. PA. 17551  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 1 (22) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1957 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/efd60932b6a13855399f17a83d34ef80.pdf db6a35610dfc14b132e6358980f88b3c PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Andrew J . Hamrock Honorary P r esidents Dr. Pet er P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenue Campbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. ' Stephen Dubi el Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio Elizab eth Andr ejko President 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. Ph i l i p A . Hrobak P. 0. Box 150 Midd letown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Michael J. Rev. John W. Kr i spinsky 2425 W. 11 th Street Cleveland, Ohio Julia Vargovic National President First Catholic Slovak Union Krajcovic H e l en Kocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Lad ies Union Recor'ding Secretary Constantine Culen Paul Fallat 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Mi Ian V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. National President Penna. Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Joseph <.. Prusa John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union 205 Madison Street Passaic, N . J. SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middl et own, P a . Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Wilkes-Ba rre, Pa. Cl evel and, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiC"KY SOKOL P as saic, N. J. SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Whitaker, Pa. Chtca.go, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �s:tg; rr;;z: rrGn fT1 f'T1 (Tl ~~;o <<r rra5 rr;;:o rr1f'TI):> ~ CJ)~ ~i! ...... -I -...J fTI CJ1-n (Jlo 1-'rr- 8 rr, SLOVAK.IA: General view of Bratislava, Capital of Slovakia, with the Bratislava. Castle in foreground � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Andrew J . Hamrock Honorary P r esidents Dr. Pet er P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenue Campbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. ' Stephen Dubi el Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio Elizab eth Andr ejko President 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. Ph i l i p A . Hrobak P. 0. Box 150 Midd letown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Michael J. Rev. John W. Kr i spinsky 2425 W. 11 th Street Cleveland, Ohio Julia Vargovic National President First Catholic Slovak Union Krajcovic H e l en Kocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Lad ies Union Recor'ding Secretary Constantine Culen Paul Fallat 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Mi Ian V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. National President Penna. Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Joseph <.. Prusa John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union 205 Madison Street Passaic, N . J. SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middl et own, P a . Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Wilkes-Ba rre, Pa. Cl evel and, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiC"KY SOKOL P as saic, N. J. SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Whitaker, Pa. Chtca.go, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �s:tg; rr;;z: rrGn fT1 f'T1 (Tl ~~;o <<r rra5 rr;;:o rr1f'TI):> ~ CJ)~ ~i! ...... -I -...J fTI CJ1-n (Jlo 1-'rr- 8 rr, SLOVAK.IA: General view of Bratislava, Capital of Slovakia, with the Bratislava. Castle in foreground � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Andrew J . Hamrock Honorary P r esidents Dr. Pet er P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenue Campbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. ' Stephen Dubi el Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio Elizab eth Andr ejko President 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. Ph i l i p A . Hrobak P. 0. Box 150 Midd letown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Michael J. Rev. John W. Kr i spinsky 2425 W. 11 th Street Cleveland, Ohio Julia Vargovic National President First Catholic Slovak Union Krajcovic H e l en Kocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Lad ies Union Recor'ding Secretary Constantine Culen Paul Fallat 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Mi Ian V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. National President Penna. Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Joseph <.. Prusa John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union 205 Madison Street Passaic, N . J. SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middl et own, P a . Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Wilkes-Ba rre, Pa. Cl evel and, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiC"KY SOKOL P as saic, N. J. SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Whitaker, Pa. Chtca.go, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. s:tg; rr;;z: rrGn fT1 f'T1 (Tl ~~;o <<r rra5 rr;;:o rr1f'TI):> ~ CJ)~ ~i! ...... -I -...J fTI CJ1-n (Jlo 1-'rr- 8 rr, SLOVAK.IA: General view of Bratislava, Capital of Slovakia, with the Bratislava. Castle in foreground  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2 (23) Description An account of the resource includes photo of Bratislava with the Bratislava Castle in foreground Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1957 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/edfb0e587f6c9ed1f461b555ec3533c1.pdf 3f834d3b18894afbc96d9b5791cfd64a PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presidents And r ew J. Hamrock Dr. Peter P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenue Car,1pbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. Stephen Dubi el Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio E l izab et h Andr ejko President Ph i lip A. Hrobak 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. P. 0. Box 150 Midd letown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Rev. John W. Krisp i nsky M ich ael 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio Ju l ia Krajcov ic H e le n K ocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Constantine Culen Paul F <1 llat 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J . Tkach Mi Ian V . Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic<tgo 38, Ill. Nationa l President Penna. Slov::tk Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvanit_ Slovak Union Pau l P. Jamri ska 810 Montooth Street Pittsb:J.rgh 10, Pa. Josepr, G. Prusa J . Vargovi c National President First Catholic Slovak Union John 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozbo r il National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Midd letown, Pa. Scranton. Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO Wi lkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVINY Cleveland, Ohio KATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOST Passaic, N. J . Whitaker, Pa SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Lnd ZORNICKA Chicago, Ill. OSADNE HLASY Chica.go, m �SLOVAKIA: Cathedral of Spisska Kapitul'a and, in the background, the ruins of the Spis Castle � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presidents And r ew J. Hamrock Dr. Peter P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenue Car,1pbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. Stephen Dubi el Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio E l izab et h Andr ejko President Ph i lip A. Hrobak 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. P. 0. Box 150 Midd letown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Rev. John W. Krisp i nsky M ich ael 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio Ju l ia Krajcov ic H e le n K ocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Constantine Culen Paul F <1 llat 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J . Tkach Mi Ian V . Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic<tgo 38, Ill. Nationa l President Penna. Slov::tk Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvanit_ Slovak Union Pau l P. Jamri ska 810 Montooth Street Pittsb:J.rgh 10, Pa. Josepr, G. Prusa J . Vargovi c National President First Catholic Slovak Union John 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozbo r il National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Midd letown, Pa. Scranton. Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO Wi lkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVINY Cleveland, Ohio KATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOST Passaic, N. J . Whitaker, Pa SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Lnd ZORNICKA Chicago, Ill. OSADNE HLASY Chica.go, m �SLOVAKIA: Cathedral of Spisska Kapitul'a and, in the background, the ruins of the Spis Castle � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presidents And r ew J. Hamrock Dr. Peter P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenue Car,1pbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. Stephen Dubi el Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio E l izab et h Andr ejko President Ph i lip A. Hrobak 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. P. 0. Box 150 Midd letown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Rev. John W. Krisp i nsky M ich ael 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio Ju l ia Krajcov ic H e le n K ocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Constantine Culen Paul F <1 llat 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J . Tkach Mi Ian V . Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic<tgo 38, Ill. Nationa l President Penna. Slov::tk Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvanit_ Slovak Union Pau l P. Jamri ska 810 Montooth Street Pittsb:J.rgh 10, Pa. Josepr, G. Prusa J . Vargovi c National President First Catholic Slovak Union John 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozbo r il National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Midd letown, Pa. Scranton. Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO Wi lkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVINY Cleveland, Ohio KATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOST Passaic, N. J . Whitaker, Pa SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Lnd ZORNICKA Chicago, Ill. OSADNE HLASY Chica.go, m SLOVAKIA: Cathedral of Spisska Kapitul'a and, in the background, the ruins of the Spis Castle  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25) Description An account of the resource includes photo of Cathedral of Spišská Kapituľa and, in the background, the ruins of Spiš Castle Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/e8393482d575f457cb49b6fe42559817.pdf 37eac43278d2e84137b9438dc839665f PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA Published quarterly by the Slovak VOL. VII League of America JUNE, 1957 NO. 2 (23) C. I. A. DULLES AND THE BENES CZECHS Philip A. Hrobak The House Committee on Un-American Activities prepared and released, in September, 1956, a two-volume symposium on the technique of Soviet cold-warfare which it called: "Soviet Total War - 'Historic Mission' of Violence and Deceit." Besides Mr. Allen W. Dulles, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, more than 120 other prominent United States Government officials, military leaders, labor officials, business executives, educators, journalists, and political scientists contributed statements for the symposium. The analysis of current Communist tactics submitted by Mr. Allen Dulles ("The Communist Attack Upon Parliamentary Government," Vol. II, pp. 423-430) is interesting, indeed, even though it only repeats what others already had said and written on so many other occasions and, in spots, betrays a certain tendency. This tendency is particularly noticeable in Dulles' reference to Czecho-Slovakia, with which I am quite familiar. How the Reds take over a country is a pet subject of the C. I. A. Director; he has talked about it on many occasions, and we read about one such occasion in June, 1956, shortly after Mr. Dulles, at a dinner of the University of Pennsylvania "Law Review," described the methods by which Communists can gain control of a country's parliament. His contribution to the symposium, published by the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities, is for the most part a repeat of that address. Mr. Allen Dulles says that in the Soviet process of subverting the "free" governments of Hungary, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria, "the actual presence of Soviet forces on the spot played a decisive role," though he does not elaborate on how it came about that Soviet forces happened to �2 SLOVAKIA be "on the spot," or just how "free" the governments of the countries mentioned were at the time. In Czecho-Slovakia, however, according to Mr. Dulles, "some of the same effect was obtained by the presence, just across the border, of strong Soviet forces and by the fact that the Soviet had previously occupied Prague and many other important Czech centers and had been able, by their terrorist and infiltration methods, to gain a position of strength which far exceed the numerical representation in the population at large. "In fact, they prepared the way for the coup before they evacuated their troops in 1945. Beginning in 1945, Moscow exercised heavy pressure on the free Czech government headed by President Benes. "Hoping to be able to work with the Kremlin and anxious to insure the quick withdrawal of Russian troops, Benes went to Moscow in March of that year. He sought agreement on the forming of a coalition government acceptable to the Soviet, which would include some of the proCommunist emigres who had been collected in Moscow during the war and who flooded back to their home country to play roles preassigned to them by the Kremlin." It is significant that this is the same story which the Benes Czechs ( Czech socialists of all shades now organized in the so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia") tell us today, the story which did not exist until after the Reds took over all power in Czecho-Slovakia, that is, until after February 25, 1948. If Moscow exercised "heavy pressure" on what Mr. Dulles calls "the free Czech government headed by president Benes," why did Benes and the members of his handpicked political entourage tell the world in 1945, and as late as the end of 1947, that there was no Iron Curtain in Czecho-Slovakia, that the Soviet Union was not intervening in the internal affairs of that hapless country? Furthermore, why did Laurence A. Steinhardt, U. S. Ambassador to Czecho-Slovakia, tell the American public that "there is definitely no iron curtain in Czechoslovakia" (The New York Times, 2-1-47)? It is significant, too, that the C.I.A. Director seems to know nothing about what happened to Slovakia and its �SLOVAKIA 3 people in 1945, when Benes and his Moscow-formed "free Czech government" - supported by the Red Army - returned as "liberators"! And why did Mr. Dulles completely ignore the long record of collaboration of the once-resigned president of Czecho-Slovakia with the Soviet Union - a collaboration that went back to at least 1922? What about the Benes-Soviet Treaty of December 12, 1943? BENE~ DID WORK WITH THE REDS Benes did not only "hope" to be able to work with the Kremlin, as Dulles states, but he actually did work with the men of the Kremlin for many years. How else could he have become president again after he resigned "voluntarily" - as he himself admitted - and Ha.cha was duly elected in his place by the Prague Parliament according to the Czecho-Slovak Constitution? The fact is that Benes already knew in London, as head of the so-called "Czecho-Slovak government-in-exile," the conditions under which he could return as "president" of the country which he had first cowardly abandoned to Hitler in 1938, and then formally to Stalin in 1943. And what does Mr. Dulles mean by saying that "some" pro-Communist emigres "flooded" back to their home country? All of them, including Benes and his band-picked political entourage, "flooded" back only because all were proSoviet and pro-Communist, and all had agreed to play the roles "pre-assigned to them by the Kremlin," as Dulles tells it. "When the parliamentary government of President Benes was actually reconstituted," Mr. Dulles continues, "the anti-Communist forces were badly divided among four or more parties. The Communist Party, as usual, presented a monolithic front." But the fact is that no anti-Communist and anti-Socialist forces were allowed· to organize in a political party by Benes and his government. The national Front Government of the Benes-Gottwald coalition was dominated by the Czech Nazis of Benes (Czech National Socialists) and the Czech Communists headed by Gottwald, the former collaborating wholeheartedly with the latter to suppress and �4 SLOVAKIA liquidate all anti-Communist and anti-Socialist elements in the country. The Benes Czechs might be called non-Communist forces, but never "anti-Communist." The same applies to the so-called Slovak "democrats" - the Judas Slovaks headed by Dr. Joseph Lettrich who collaborated so closely with the Communists and the Benes Czechs. The vast majority of the Slovak nation, however, which was not permitted to organize in a political party but was forced to join either the Communists or the Lettrich "democrats," was truly anti-Communist and not merely nonCommunist. "Under these conditions," Mr. Dulles continues, "the elections of 1946 gave the Communists 38 percent of the votes. Thus they became the largest single party, their leader Gottwald was named Prime Minister, and the Communists were able to take over key ministries, including Interior, Information and Finance, with a crypto-Communjst in charge of Defense." SLOVAKS VOTED ANTI-RED Mr. Dulles, however, does not explain who gave the Communists the votes: the people of the Czech lands (Behemia and Moravia), or the people of Slovakia? Of course, informed persons know that the votes of the Czech lands did - and they gave more than 38 percent of the total number of votes to the Communists. In Slovakia the Communists were decisively beaten, getting less than 30 percent of the votes cast, despite the fact that thousands of patriotic Slovaks were not permitted to vote while some 200,000 Czech army and administrative personnel in Slovakia did vote. And another thing, Mr. Allen Dulles states that as a result of the 1946 elections "the Communists were able to take over key ministries" in Czecho-Slovakia. Informed persons, including the Benes Czechs- themselves, however, know that the Czech Reds had already taken over "key ministries" in 1945, as agreed upon by Benes and Stalin in Moscow. Is it possible that the director of our Central Intelligence Agency did not know this, that even today he does �SLOVAKIA 5 not understand the difference between a Slovak and a Czech? Or that the Reds, even though they were thoroughly trounced in Slovakia in the May, 1946, elections, nevertheless retained all key positions in that country, thanks to Benes and his government and the weakness and cowardly behavior of Dr. Joseph Lettrich and his "democratic" lieutenants? "During all this period," Mr. Dulles rambles on, "Stalin had cultivated President Benes and lulled him into a feeling of security as to Moscow's intentions. Meanwhile the Communists were building up their control of the Czech military forces, the trade unions, and the internal security policy. "Finally, one of Moscow's principal 'expediters,' Valerian Zarin, now Soviet ambassador to Bonn, was sent to Prague, and the minority Communist Party seized power in February, 1948, without firing a shot." Dr. Edward Benes - frequently hailed as "the smartest statesman in Europe - the world's foremost democrat - Europe's wisest politician" and "brilliant diplomat" - the man who was supposed to know Stalin and Soviet Russia better than any man in Europe, the man who saw what the USSR did in Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and other countries, was, we are supposed to believe, "lulled into a feeling of security as to Moscow's intentions by Stalin! The fact is that the Reds were in control of the key posts in Czecho-Slovakia before the elections of 1946; the latter made them more secure and, hence, more aggressive. GAVE UP WITHOUT A SHOT T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes were largely responsible for the conduct of the Czechs in regard to the Soviet Union and materialistic Communism; Dr. Edward Benes and his political clique had lulled the Czech people into a feeling of security as to Moscow's intentions. Even many Czechs admit this today. The Czechs, who controlled government in Czech-Slovakia, promoted materialistic Socialism and the pro-Soviet policy of Benes and, hence, Czecho-Slovakia could wind up only as she did: The Czechs did not fire a shot at Hitler �ti SLOVAKIA in 1938, and they gave up to the Communists without firing a shot in 1948. C. L. Sulzberger's article in The New York Times of March 10, 1956, based on information received from Czechs in Prague, aptly described the Czechs: The Czech people under T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes, had been transformed into a nation of 'Schweiks' ( clowns or buffoons). The Czechs never had to fight for anything, everything being handed to them on a platter, including CzechoSlovakia, and hence, had no real sense of appreciation for freedom. "The · principal Czech anti-Communist leaders," according to Dulles, "either escaped abroad, committed suicide, or were eliminated by arrest. Non-Communist parties were liquidated by the armed seizure of their headquarters and newspapers. A purge commission dealt with all so-called ' unreliable political leaders." leaders" that esanti-Communist Who the "principal It is generally say. not caped abroad were, Mr. Dulles does anti"principal" any, if known, however, that very few, CommunCommunist leaders are able to escape from any ist-controlled country. Does Mr. Dulles mean the members of Dr. Benes's political family, who escaped "wholesale" from Czecho-Slovakia in 1948 and today form the so-called "Council of Free Czecho-Slovakia" and are regarded as The New York Times stated, as a sort of "Czecho-Slovak government-inexile" by official Washington, "reliable enough to exercise significant influence in and on various United States Government agencies (USIA, State Department, Army, C.I.C., C.I.A., etc.), and even on Congress and the White House? If he does, he is dead wrong in applying the appellation "principal Czech anti-Communist leaders" to them. They promoted the pro-Soviet policy of Dr. Edward Benes and collaborated with the Communists: some of them have frankly admitted this regretfully, most of them have not, and all of them would rather not be questioned about it. We know that non-Communist, and particularly antiOommunist, parties are generally liquidated in every coun- �SLOVAKIA 7 try in which Communists gain control. We know, too, that Reds sometimes purge Reds themselves: everi in CzechoSlovakia the Czech Reds liquidated or rendered useless leading Slovak Reds and then even purged their own ranks. Who liquidated the anti-Communist and anti-Socialist parties in Czecho-Slovakia? Benes and his handpicked and Moscow-blessed government and, mind you, after - as Mr. Dulles puts it - "the parliamentary government of President Benes was actually reconstituted" in 1945 ! The Benes-Gottwald regime controlled everything in CzechoSlovakia: political parties, the press, radio, army, etc. In the lands of the Czechs four political parties were permitted by the government to exist, while only two were allowed in Slovakia (later, just before the 1946 elections, two more were permitted to help the Reds). So, in CzechoSlovakia, anti-Soviet and anti-Red elements and parties were liquidated by both the "non-Communist" and also the "Communist" parties which were allowed to organize by the Prague government of the Benes-Gottwald coalition of 1945. BENl!S FORCED TO DO EVERYTHING "President Benes," Mr. Dulles states categorically, "was forced to resign in June, 1948, and the Communists took over and ever since have maintained supreme control." Benes, according to his apologists, C. I. A. Director Allen Dulles included, was always "forced" to do things: he was forced to give in to England and France and surrender to Hitler in Munich; he was forced to take on the presidency after he had resigned; he was forced to go to Moscow and sign a treaty, without a mandate from the Slovaks and the Czechs, whereby he formally sold out the peoples of Czecho-Slovakia to Stalin; he was forced to return to Czecho-Slovakia behind the Red Army after he had cowardly fled the country in 1938; he was forced to surrender the great Skoda Works to the Nazis and then to the Communists; he was forced to hoodwink President Roosevelt, convincing him that Stalin was "a good old Joe" and really a democrat at heart; he was forced to hang Dr. Joseph Tiso, president of the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), and to imprison and put to trial all his Czech and Slovak �8 SLOVAKIA political opponents, including President Ha.cha, whom he had -congratulated after he was elected his successor; he was forced to eliminate all anti-Communist and anti-Socialist leaders in post-war Czecho-Slovakia; he was forced to decree the establishment of "people's courts" in CzechoSlovakia; he was forced to nationalize just about everything, including ecclesiastical property; he was forced to dispossess and deport some 3,500,000 Germans and 500,000 Magyars; he was forced to accept the resignation of nonCommunist ministers in February 1948; he was forced to consent to the creation of a Cabinet under full control of the Communist Party; he was forced to resign in June, 1948; and in September, 1948, he was forced to die! In 1945, after the end of the war in Europe, the world press told us that Dr. Edward Benes had the backing of all the people of Czecho-Slovakia and that on his return to that country he was joyously and wildly acclaimed by Slovaks and Czechs. And yet, we are supposed to believe that this man Benes was forced to do practically everything during his political life, except possibly to promote socialism and friendship for the Soviet Union in his country! C. I. A. DULLES IS BADLY INFORMED Mr. Dulles concludes his commentary on Czecho-Slovakia with these obfuscated words of wisdom: "There are many lessons to be learned from this historical precedent. When the Communists obtain an effective minority position in any parliamentary body, it is a sign of danger. "If, in addition to that, they have important places in the government and, in particular, control of the ministries of defense and interior, then that danger is greatly augmented and the country in question is ripe for a Communist take-over." The director of the C. I. A. undoubtedly could have done better, if he were better informed. How did the Communists in Czecho-Slovakia obtain "an effective minority position" in the government or the Prague parliament? How did they happen to be in "important places" and, in particular, in control of the Ministries of Defense and Interior? �SLOVAKIA 9 Benes we were told, had everything under control. The Communists, we know, could not obtain an "effective minority position" and control of any ministry in the wartime Slovak Republic, for example, because they were outlawed by the Slovak government under Dr. Joseph Tiso. Benes, on the other hand, after his return to Czecho-Slovakia, stated unequivocally that he would not govern the state without the Communists. The world knows what happened - and at this late date, so should the head of our Central Intelligence Agency. If Mr. Dulles is thoroughly informed on the subject, he could have pointed out the one lesson to be learned from Czecho-Slovakia, or rather from the conduct of the Benes Czechs: you cannot tolerate Communism, you cannot collaborate with Communists and expect to retain the blessings of freedom. It appears that what Mr. Allen W. Dulles said about Czecho-Slovakia was prepared by a Benes apologist, probably a Benes Czech of the so-called "Council of Free Czecho-Slovakia," and, possibly, by a Benes Czech employed by him in the C. I. A. itself. The Benes Czechs have prepared many speeches and briefs for men in the United States Government and its various agencies. And that probably explains why the American public is so misinformed on Czecho-Slovakia. • • • WHO SAID IT? "Today, in vain are the followers of Benes trying to justify thei:r coHalb.oraJbion with the Bolsh0V.iiks and their crimes a:gainst humarrtty during 1945-1948 with the desperate claim that they did so !because the USA wanted them to do it. That is not only a lie, ,b ut a coarse and ibase insult to the government and the naition of the US·A. The freedom and laiw-aJbiding democratic American peo,ple hitherto had no idea of the terrible crimes the Bolsheviks with their collrubo-rator;s had committed in our country. Only now is the American people slowly learning the truth, that terrible truth and ma•k ing itself heard. It does not want criminals and the agents of Moscow in its country." - (J. Horny, BOHEMIA, Dec. 1952). � SLOVAKIA Published quarterly by the Slovak VOL. VII League of America JUNE, 1957 NO. 2 (23) C. I. A. DULLES AND THE BENES CZECHS Philip A. Hrobak The House Committee on Un-American Activities prepared and released, in September, 1956, a two-volume symposium on the technique of Soviet cold-warfare which it called: "Soviet Total War - 'Historic Mission' of Violence and Deceit." Besides Mr. Allen W. Dulles, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, more than 120 other prominent United States Government officials, military leaders, labor officials, business executives, educators, journalists, and political scientists contributed statements for the symposium. The analysis of current Communist tactics submitted by Mr. Allen Dulles ("The Communist Attack Upon Parliamentary Government," Vol. II, pp. 423-430) is interesting, indeed, even though it only repeats what others already had said and written on so many other occasions and, in spots, betrays a certain tendency. This tendency is particularly noticeable in Dulles' reference to Czecho-Slovakia, with which I am quite familiar. How the Reds take over a country is a pet subject of the C. I. A. Director; he has talked about it on many occasions, and we read about one such occasion in June, 1956, shortly after Mr. Dulles, at a dinner of the University of Pennsylvania "Law Review," described the methods by which Communists can gain control of a country's parliament. His contribution to the symposium, published by the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities, is for the most part a repeat of that address. Mr. Allen Dulles says that in the Soviet process of subverting the "free" governments of Hungary, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria, "the actual presence of Soviet forces on the spot played a decisive role," though he does not elaborate on how it came about that Soviet forces happened to �2 SLOVAKIA be "on the spot," or just how "free" the governments of the countries mentioned were at the time. In Czecho-Slovakia, however, according to Mr. Dulles, "some of the same effect was obtained by the presence, just across the border, of strong Soviet forces and by the fact that the Soviet had previously occupied Prague and many other important Czech centers and had been able, by their terrorist and infiltration methods, to gain a position of strength which far exceed the numerical representation in the population at large. "In fact, they prepared the way for the coup before they evacuated their troops in 1945. Beginning in 1945, Moscow exercised heavy pressure on the free Czech government headed by President Benes. "Hoping to be able to work with the Kremlin and anxious to insure the quick withdrawal of Russian troops, Benes went to Moscow in March of that year. He sought agreement on the forming of a coalition government acceptable to the Soviet, which would include some of the proCommunist emigres who had been collected in Moscow during the war and who flooded back to their home country to play roles preassigned to them by the Kremlin." It is significant that this is the same story which the Benes Czechs ( Czech socialists of all shades now organized in the so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia") tell us today, the story which did not exist until after the Reds took over all power in Czecho-Slovakia, that is, until after February 25, 1948. If Moscow exercised "heavy pressure" on what Mr. Dulles calls "the free Czech government headed by president Benes," why did Benes and the members of his handpicked political entourage tell the world in 1945, and as late as the end of 1947, that there was no Iron Curtain in Czecho-Slovakia, that the Soviet Union was not intervening in the internal affairs of that hapless country? Furthermore, why did Laurence A. Steinhardt, U. S. Ambassador to Czecho-Slovakia, tell the American public that "there is definitely no iron curtain in Czechoslovakia" (The New York Times, 2-1-47)? It is significant, too, that the C.I.A. Director seems to know nothing about what happened to Slovakia and its �SLOVAKIA 3 people in 1945, when Benes and his Moscow-formed "free Czech government" - supported by the Red Army - returned as "liberators"! And why did Mr. Dulles completely ignore the long record of collaboration of the once-resigned president of Czecho-Slovakia with the Soviet Union - a collaboration that went back to at least 1922? What about the Benes-Soviet Treaty of December 12, 1943? BENE~ DID WORK WITH THE REDS Benes did not only "hope" to be able to work with the Kremlin, as Dulles states, but he actually did work with the men of the Kremlin for many years. How else could he have become president again after he resigned "voluntarily" - as he himself admitted - and Ha.cha was duly elected in his place by the Prague Parliament according to the Czecho-Slovak Constitution? The fact is that Benes already knew in London, as head of the so-called "Czecho-Slovak government-in-exile," the conditions under which he could return as "president" of the country which he had first cowardly abandoned to Hitler in 1938, and then formally to Stalin in 1943. And what does Mr. Dulles mean by saying that "some" pro-Communist emigres "flooded" back to their home country? All of them, including Benes and his band-picked political entourage, "flooded" back only because all were proSoviet and pro-Communist, and all had agreed to play the roles "pre-assigned to them by the Kremlin," as Dulles tells it. "When the parliamentary government of President Benes was actually reconstituted," Mr. Dulles continues, "the anti-Communist forces were badly divided among four or more parties. The Communist Party, as usual, presented a monolithic front." But the fact is that no anti-Communist and anti-Socialist forces were allowed· to organize in a political party by Benes and his government. The national Front Government of the Benes-Gottwald coalition was dominated by the Czech Nazis of Benes (Czech National Socialists) and the Czech Communists headed by Gottwald, the former collaborating wholeheartedly with the latter to suppress and �4 SLOVAKIA liquidate all anti-Communist and anti-Socialist elements in the country. The Benes Czechs might be called non-Communist forces, but never "anti-Communist." The same applies to the so-called Slovak "democrats" - the Judas Slovaks headed by Dr. Joseph Lettrich who collaborated so closely with the Communists and the Benes Czechs. The vast majority of the Slovak nation, however, which was not permitted to organize in a political party but was forced to join either the Communists or the Lettrich "democrats," was truly anti-Communist and not merely nonCommunist. "Under these conditions," Mr. Dulles continues, "the elections of 1946 gave the Communists 38 percent of the votes. Thus they became the largest single party, their leader Gottwald was named Prime Minister, and the Communists were able to take over key ministries, including Interior, Information and Finance, with a crypto-Communjst in charge of Defense." SLOVAKS VOTED ANTI-RED Mr. Dulles, however, does not explain who gave the Communists the votes: the people of the Czech lands (Behemia and Moravia), or the people of Slovakia? Of course, informed persons know that the votes of the Czech lands did - and they gave more than 38 percent of the total number of votes to the Communists. In Slovakia the Communists were decisively beaten, getting less than 30 percent of the votes cast, despite the fact that thousands of patriotic Slovaks were not permitted to vote while some 200,000 Czech army and administrative personnel in Slovakia did vote. And another thing, Mr. Allen Dulles states that as a result of the 1946 elections "the Communists were able to take over key ministries" in Czecho-Slovakia. Informed persons, including the Benes Czechs- themselves, however, know that the Czech Reds had already taken over "key ministries" in 1945, as agreed upon by Benes and Stalin in Moscow. Is it possible that the director of our Central Intelligence Agency did not know this, that even today he does �SLOVAKIA 5 not understand the difference between a Slovak and a Czech? Or that the Reds, even though they were thoroughly trounced in Slovakia in the May, 1946, elections, nevertheless retained all key positions in that country, thanks to Benes and his government and the weakness and cowardly behavior of Dr. Joseph Lettrich and his "democratic" lieutenants? "During all this period," Mr. Dulles rambles on, "Stalin had cultivated President Benes and lulled him into a feeling of security as to Moscow's intentions. Meanwhile the Communists were building up their control of the Czech military forces, the trade unions, and the internal security policy. "Finally, one of Moscow's principal 'expediters,' Valerian Zarin, now Soviet ambassador to Bonn, was sent to Prague, and the minority Communist Party seized power in February, 1948, without firing a shot." Dr. Edward Benes - frequently hailed as "the smartest statesman in Europe - the world's foremost democrat - Europe's wisest politician" and "brilliant diplomat" - the man who was supposed to know Stalin and Soviet Russia better than any man in Europe, the man who saw what the USSR did in Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and other countries, was, we are supposed to believe, "lulled into a feeling of security as to Moscow's intentions by Stalin! The fact is that the Reds were in control of the key posts in Czecho-Slovakia before the elections of 1946; the latter made them more secure and, hence, more aggressive. GAVE UP WITHOUT A SHOT T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes were largely responsible for the conduct of the Czechs in regard to the Soviet Union and materialistic Communism; Dr. Edward Benes and his political clique had lulled the Czech people into a feeling of security as to Moscow's intentions. Even many Czechs admit this today. The Czechs, who controlled government in Czech-Slovakia, promoted materialistic Socialism and the pro-Soviet policy of Benes and, hence, Czecho-Slovakia could wind up only as she did: The Czechs did not fire a shot at Hitler �ti SLOVAKIA in 1938, and they gave up to the Communists without firing a shot in 1948. C. L. Sulzberger's article in The New York Times of March 10, 1956, based on information received from Czechs in Prague, aptly described the Czechs: The Czech people under T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes, had been transformed into a nation of 'Schweiks' ( clowns or buffoons). The Czechs never had to fight for anything, everything being handed to them on a platter, including CzechoSlovakia, and hence, had no real sense of appreciation for freedom. "The · principal Czech anti-Communist leaders," according to Dulles, "either escaped abroad, committed suicide, or were eliminated by arrest. Non-Communist parties were liquidated by the armed seizure of their headquarters and newspapers. A purge commission dealt with all so-called ' unreliable political leaders." leaders" that esanti-Communist Who the "principal It is generally say. not caped abroad were, Mr. Dulles does anti"principal" any, if known, however, that very few, CommunCommunist leaders are able to escape from any ist-controlled country. Does Mr. Dulles mean the members of Dr. Benes's political family, who escaped "wholesale" from Czecho-Slovakia in 1948 and today form the so-called "Council of Free Czecho-Slovakia" and are regarded as The New York Times stated, as a sort of "Czecho-Slovak government-inexile" by official Washington, "reliable enough to exercise significant influence in and on various United States Government agencies (USIA, State Department, Army, C.I.C., C.I.A., etc.), and even on Congress and the White House? If he does, he is dead wrong in applying the appellation "principal Czech anti-Communist leaders" to them. They promoted the pro-Soviet policy of Dr. Edward Benes and collaborated with the Communists: some of them have frankly admitted this regretfully, most of them have not, and all of them would rather not be questioned about it. We know that non-Communist, and particularly antiOommunist, parties are generally liquidated in every coun- �SLOVAKIA 7 try in which Communists gain control. We know, too, that Reds sometimes purge Reds themselves: everi in CzechoSlovakia the Czech Reds liquidated or rendered useless leading Slovak Reds and then even purged their own ranks. Who liquidated the anti-Communist and anti-Socialist parties in Czecho-Slovakia? Benes and his handpicked and Moscow-blessed government and, mind you, after - as Mr. Dulles puts it - "the parliamentary government of President Benes was actually reconstituted" in 1945 ! The Benes-Gottwald regime controlled everything in CzechoSlovakia: political parties, the press, radio, army, etc. In the lands of the Czechs four political parties were permitted by the government to exist, while only two were allowed in Slovakia (later, just before the 1946 elections, two more were permitted to help the Reds). So, in CzechoSlovakia, anti-Soviet and anti-Red elements and parties were liquidated by both the "non-Communist" and also the "Communist" parties which were allowed to organize by the Prague government of the Benes-Gottwald coalition of 1945. BENl!S FORCED TO DO EVERYTHING "President Benes," Mr. Dulles states categorically, "was forced to resign in June, 1948, and the Communists took over and ever since have maintained supreme control." Benes, according to his apologists, C. I. A. Director Allen Dulles included, was always "forced" to do things: he was forced to give in to England and France and surrender to Hitler in Munich; he was forced to take on the presidency after he had resigned; he was forced to go to Moscow and sign a treaty, without a mandate from the Slovaks and the Czechs, whereby he formally sold out the peoples of Czecho-Slovakia to Stalin; he was forced to return to Czecho-Slovakia behind the Red Army after he had cowardly fled the country in 1938; he was forced to surrender the great Skoda Works to the Nazis and then to the Communists; he was forced to hoodwink President Roosevelt, convincing him that Stalin was "a good old Joe" and really a democrat at heart; he was forced to hang Dr. Joseph Tiso, president of the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), and to imprison and put to trial all his Czech and Slovak �8 SLOVAKIA political opponents, including President Ha.cha, whom he had -congratulated after he was elected his successor; he was forced to eliminate all anti-Communist and anti-Socialist leaders in post-war Czecho-Slovakia; he was forced to decree the establishment of "people's courts" in CzechoSlovakia; he was forced to nationalize just about everything, including ecclesiastical property; he was forced to dispossess and deport some 3,500,000 Germans and 500,000 Magyars; he was forced to accept the resignation of nonCommunist ministers in February 1948; he was forced to consent to the creation of a Cabinet under full control of the Communist Party; he was forced to resign in June, 1948; and in September, 1948, he was forced to die! In 1945, after the end of the war in Europe, the world press told us that Dr. Edward Benes had the backing of all the people of Czecho-Slovakia and that on his return to that country he was joyously and wildly acclaimed by Slovaks and Czechs. And yet, we are supposed to believe that this man Benes was forced to do practically everything during his political life, except possibly to promote socialism and friendship for the Soviet Union in his country! C. I. A. DULLES IS BADLY INFORMED Mr. Dulles concludes his commentary on Czecho-Slovakia with these obfuscated words of wisdom: "There are many lessons to be learned from this historical precedent. When the Communists obtain an effective minority position in any parliamentary body, it is a sign of danger. "If, in addition to that, they have important places in the government and, in particular, control of the ministries of defense and interior, then that danger is greatly augmented and the country in question is ripe for a Communist take-over." The director of the C. I. A. undoubtedly could have done better, if he were better informed. How did the Communists in Czecho-Slovakia obtain "an effective minority position" in the government or the Prague parliament? How did they happen to be in "important places" and, in particular, in control of the Ministries of Defense and Interior? �SLOVAKIA 9 Benes we were told, had everything under control. The Communists, we know, could not obtain an "effective minority position" and control of any ministry in the wartime Slovak Republic, for example, because they were outlawed by the Slovak government under Dr. Joseph Tiso. Benes, on the other hand, after his return to Czecho-Slovakia, stated unequivocally that he would not govern the state without the Communists. The world knows what happened - and at this late date, so should the head of our Central Intelligence Agency. If Mr. Dulles is thoroughly informed on the subject, he could have pointed out the one lesson to be learned from Czecho-Slovakia, or rather from the conduct of the Benes Czechs: you cannot tolerate Communism, you cannot collaborate with Communists and expect to retain the blessings of freedom. It appears that what Mr. Allen W. Dulles said about Czecho-Slovakia was prepared by a Benes apologist, probably a Benes Czech of the so-called "Council of Free Czecho-Slovakia," and, possibly, by a Benes Czech employed by him in the C. I. A. itself. The Benes Czechs have prepared many speeches and briefs for men in the United States Government and its various agencies. And that probably explains why the American public is so misinformed on Czecho-Slovakia. • • • WHO SAID IT? "Today, in vain are the followers of Benes trying to justify thei:r coHalb.oraJbion with the Bolsh0V.iiks and their crimes a:gainst humarrtty during 1945-1948 with the desperate claim that they did so !because the USA wanted them to do it. That is not only a lie, ,b ut a coarse and ibase insult to the government and the naition of the US·A. The freedom and laiw-aJbiding democratic American peo,ple hitherto had no idea of the terrible crimes the Bolsheviks with their collrubo-rator;s had committed in our country. Only now is the American people slowly learning the truth, that terrible truth and ma•k ing itself heard. It does not want criminals and the agents of Moscow in its country." - (J. Horny, BOHEMIA, Dec. 1952). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA Published quarterly by the Slovak VOL. VII League of America JUNE, 1957 NO. 2 (23) C. I. A. DULLES AND THE BENES CZECHS Philip A. Hrobak The House Committee on Un-American Activities prepared and released, in September, 1956, a two-volume symposium on the technique of Soviet cold-warfare which it called: "Soviet Total War - 'Historic Mission' of Violence and Deceit." Besides Mr. Allen W. Dulles, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, more than 120 other prominent United States Government officials, military leaders, labor officials, business executives, educators, journalists, and political scientists contributed statements for the symposium. The analysis of current Communist tactics submitted by Mr. Allen Dulles ("The Communist Attack Upon Parliamentary Government," Vol. II, pp. 423-430) is interesting, indeed, even though it only repeats what others already had said and written on so many other occasions and, in spots, betrays a certain tendency. This tendency is particularly noticeable in Dulles' reference to Czecho-Slovakia, with which I am quite familiar. How the Reds take over a country is a pet subject of the C. I. A. Director; he has talked about it on many occasions, and we read about one such occasion in June, 1956, shortly after Mr. Dulles, at a dinner of the University of Pennsylvania "Law Review," described the methods by which Communists can gain control of a country's parliament. His contribution to the symposium, published by the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities, is for the most part a repeat of that address. Mr. Allen Dulles says that in the Soviet process of subverting the "free" governments of Hungary, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria, "the actual presence of Soviet forces on the spot played a decisive role," though he does not elaborate on how it came about that Soviet forces happened to 2 SLOVAKIA be "on the spot," or just how "free" the governments of the countries mentioned were at the time. In Czecho-Slovakia, however, according to Mr. Dulles, "some of the same effect was obtained by the presence, just across the border, of strong Soviet forces and by the fact that the Soviet had previously occupied Prague and many other important Czech centers and had been able, by their terrorist and infiltration methods, to gain a position of strength which far exceed the numerical representation in the population at large. "In fact, they prepared the way for the coup before they evacuated their troops in 1945. Beginning in 1945, Moscow exercised heavy pressure on the free Czech government headed by President Benes. "Hoping to be able to work with the Kremlin and anxious to insure the quick withdrawal of Russian troops, Benes went to Moscow in March of that year. He sought agreement on the forming of a coalition government acceptable to the Soviet, which would include some of the proCommunist emigres who had been collected in Moscow during the war and who flooded back to their home country to play roles preassigned to them by the Kremlin." It is significant that this is the same story which the Benes Czechs ( Czech socialists of all shades now organized in the so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia") tell us today, the story which did not exist until after the Reds took over all power in Czecho-Slovakia, that is, until after February 25, 1948. If Moscow exercised "heavy pressure" on what Mr. Dulles calls "the free Czech government headed by president Benes," why did Benes and the members of his handpicked political entourage tell the world in 1945, and as late as the end of 1947, that there was no Iron Curtain in Czecho-Slovakia, that the Soviet Union was not intervening in the internal affairs of that hapless country? Furthermore, why did Laurence A. Steinhardt, U. S. Ambassador to Czecho-Slovakia, tell the American public that "there is definitely no iron curtain in Czechoslovakia" (The New York Times, 2-1-47)? It is significant, too, that the C.I.A. Director seems to know nothing about what happened to Slovakia and its SLOVAKIA 3 people in 1945, when Benes and his Moscow-formed "free Czech government" - supported by the Red Army - returned as "liberators"! And why did Mr. Dulles completely ignore the long record of collaboration of the once-resigned president of Czecho-Slovakia with the Soviet Union - a collaboration that went back to at least 1922? What about the Benes-Soviet Treaty of December 12, 1943? BENE~ DID WORK WITH THE REDS Benes did not only "hope" to be able to work with the Kremlin, as Dulles states, but he actually did work with the men of the Kremlin for many years. How else could he have become president again after he resigned "voluntarily" - as he himself admitted - and Ha.cha was duly elected in his place by the Prague Parliament according to the Czecho-Slovak Constitution? The fact is that Benes already knew in London, as head of the so-called "Czecho-Slovak government-in-exile," the conditions under which he could return as "president" of the country which he had first cowardly abandoned to Hitler in 1938, and then formally to Stalin in 1943. And what does Mr. Dulles mean by saying that "some" pro-Communist emigres "flooded" back to their home country? All of them, including Benes and his band-picked political entourage, "flooded" back only because all were proSoviet and pro-Communist, and all had agreed to play the roles "pre-assigned to them by the Kremlin," as Dulles tells it. "When the parliamentary government of President Benes was actually reconstituted," Mr. Dulles continues, "the anti-Communist forces were badly divided among four or more parties. The Communist Party, as usual, presented a monolithic front." But the fact is that no anti-Communist and anti-Socialist forces were allowed· to organize in a political party by Benes and his government. The national Front Government of the Benes-Gottwald coalition was dominated by the Czech Nazis of Benes (Czech National Socialists) and the Czech Communists headed by Gottwald, the former collaborating wholeheartedly with the latter to suppress and 4 SLOVAKIA liquidate all anti-Communist and anti-Socialist elements in the country. The Benes Czechs might be called non-Communist forces, but never "anti-Communist." The same applies to the so-called Slovak "democrats" - the Judas Slovaks headed by Dr. Joseph Lettrich who collaborated so closely with the Communists and the Benes Czechs. The vast majority of the Slovak nation, however, which was not permitted to organize in a political party but was forced to join either the Communists or the Lettrich "democrats," was truly anti-Communist and not merely nonCommunist. "Under these conditions," Mr. Dulles continues, "the elections of 1946 gave the Communists 38 percent of the votes. Thus they became the largest single party, their leader Gottwald was named Prime Minister, and the Communists were able to take over key ministries, including Interior, Information and Finance, with a crypto-Communjst in charge of Defense." SLOVAKS VOTED ANTI-RED Mr. Dulles, however, does not explain who gave the Communists the votes: the people of the Czech lands (Behemia and Moravia), or the people of Slovakia? Of course, informed persons know that the votes of the Czech lands did - and they gave more than 38 percent of the total number of votes to the Communists. In Slovakia the Communists were decisively beaten, getting less than 30 percent of the votes cast, despite the fact that thousands of patriotic Slovaks were not permitted to vote while some 200,000 Czech army and administrative personnel in Slovakia did vote. And another thing, Mr. Allen Dulles states that as a result of the 1946 elections "the Communists were able to take over key ministries" in Czecho-Slovakia. Informed persons, including the Benes Czechs- themselves, however, know that the Czech Reds had already taken over "key ministries" in 1945, as agreed upon by Benes and Stalin in Moscow. Is it possible that the director of our Central Intelligence Agency did not know this, that even today he does SLOVAKIA 5 not understand the difference between a Slovak and a Czech? Or that the Reds, even though they were thoroughly trounced in Slovakia in the May, 1946, elections, nevertheless retained all key positions in that country, thanks to Benes and his government and the weakness and cowardly behavior of Dr. Joseph Lettrich and his "democratic" lieutenants? "During all this period," Mr. Dulles rambles on, "Stalin had cultivated President Benes and lulled him into a feeling of security as to Moscow's intentions. Meanwhile the Communists were building up their control of the Czech military forces, the trade unions, and the internal security policy. "Finally, one of Moscow's principal 'expediters,' Valerian Zarin, now Soviet ambassador to Bonn, was sent to Prague, and the minority Communist Party seized power in February, 1948, without firing a shot." Dr. Edward Benes - frequently hailed as "the smartest statesman in Europe - the world's foremost democrat - Europe's wisest politician" and "brilliant diplomat" - the man who was supposed to know Stalin and Soviet Russia better than any man in Europe, the man who saw what the USSR did in Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and other countries, was, we are supposed to believe, "lulled into a feeling of security as to Moscow's intentions by Stalin! The fact is that the Reds were in control of the key posts in Czecho-Slovakia before the elections of 1946; the latter made them more secure and, hence, more aggressive. GAVE UP WITHOUT A SHOT T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes were largely responsible for the conduct of the Czechs in regard to the Soviet Union and materialistic Communism; Dr. Edward Benes and his political clique had lulled the Czech people into a feeling of security as to Moscow's intentions. Even many Czechs admit this today. The Czechs, who controlled government in Czech-Slovakia, promoted materialistic Socialism and the pro-Soviet policy of Benes and, hence, Czecho-Slovakia could wind up only as she did: The Czechs did not fire a shot at Hitler ti SLOVAKIA in 1938, and they gave up to the Communists without firing a shot in 1948. C. L. Sulzberger's article in The New York Times of March 10, 1956, based on information received from Czechs in Prague, aptly described the Czechs: The Czech people under T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes, had been transformed into a nation of 'Schweiks' ( clowns or buffoons). The Czechs never had to fight for anything, everything being handed to them on a platter, including CzechoSlovakia, and hence, had no real sense of appreciation for freedom. "The · principal Czech anti-Communist leaders," according to Dulles, "either escaped abroad, committed suicide, or were eliminated by arrest. Non-Communist parties were liquidated by the armed seizure of their headquarters and newspapers. A purge commission dealt with all so-called ' unreliable political leaders." leaders" that esanti-Communist Who the "principal It is generally say. not caped abroad were, Mr. Dulles does anti"principal" any, if known, however, that very few, CommunCommunist leaders are able to escape from any ist-controlled country. Does Mr. Dulles mean the members of Dr. Benes's political family, who escaped "wholesale" from Czecho-Slovakia in 1948 and today form the so-called "Council of Free Czecho-Slovakia" and are regarded as The New York Times stated, as a sort of "Czecho-Slovak government-inexile" by official Washington, "reliable enough to exercise significant influence in and on various United States Government agencies (USIA, State Department, Army, C.I.C., C.I.A., etc.), and even on Congress and the White House? If he does, he is dead wrong in applying the appellation "principal Czech anti-Communist leaders" to them. They promoted the pro-Soviet policy of Dr. Edward Benes and collaborated with the Communists: some of them have frankly admitted this regretfully, most of them have not, and all of them would rather not be questioned about it. We know that non-Communist, and particularly antiOommunist, parties are generally liquidated in every coun- SLOVAKIA 7 try in which Communists gain control. We know, too, that Reds sometimes purge Reds themselves: everi in CzechoSlovakia the Czech Reds liquidated or rendered useless leading Slovak Reds and then even purged their own ranks. Who liquidated the anti-Communist and anti-Socialist parties in Czecho-Slovakia? Benes and his handpicked and Moscow-blessed government and, mind you, after - as Mr. Dulles puts it - "the parliamentary government of President Benes was actually reconstituted" in 1945 ! The Benes-Gottwald regime controlled everything in CzechoSlovakia: political parties, the press, radio, army, etc. In the lands of the Czechs four political parties were permitted by the government to exist, while only two were allowed in Slovakia (later, just before the 1946 elections, two more were permitted to help the Reds). So, in CzechoSlovakia, anti-Soviet and anti-Red elements and parties were liquidated by both the "non-Communist" and also the "Communist" parties which were allowed to organize by the Prague government of the Benes-Gottwald coalition of 1945. BENl!S FORCED TO DO EVERYTHING "President Benes," Mr. Dulles states categorically, "was forced to resign in June, 1948, and the Communists took over and ever since have maintained supreme control." Benes, according to his apologists, C. I. A. Director Allen Dulles included, was always "forced" to do things: he was forced to give in to England and France and surrender to Hitler in Munich; he was forced to take on the presidency after he had resigned; he was forced to go to Moscow and sign a treaty, without a mandate from the Slovaks and the Czechs, whereby he formally sold out the peoples of Czecho-Slovakia to Stalin; he was forced to return to Czecho-Slovakia behind the Red Army after he had cowardly fled the country in 1938; he was forced to surrender the great Skoda Works to the Nazis and then to the Communists; he was forced to hoodwink President Roosevelt, convincing him that Stalin was "a good old Joe" and really a democrat at heart; he was forced to hang Dr. Joseph Tiso, president of the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), and to imprison and put to trial all his Czech and Slovak 8 SLOVAKIA political opponents, including President Ha.cha, whom he had -congratulated after he was elected his successor; he was forced to eliminate all anti-Communist and anti-Socialist leaders in post-war Czecho-Slovakia; he was forced to decree the establishment of "people's courts" in CzechoSlovakia; he was forced to nationalize just about everything, including ecclesiastical property; he was forced to dispossess and deport some 3,500,000 Germans and 500,000 Magyars; he was forced to accept the resignation of nonCommunist ministers in February 1948; he was forced to consent to the creation of a Cabinet under full control of the Communist Party; he was forced to resign in June, 1948; and in September, 1948, he was forced to die! In 1945, after the end of the war in Europe, the world press told us that Dr. Edward Benes had the backing of all the people of Czecho-Slovakia and that on his return to that country he was joyously and wildly acclaimed by Slovaks and Czechs. And yet, we are supposed to believe that this man Benes was forced to do practically everything during his political life, except possibly to promote socialism and friendship for the Soviet Union in his country! C. I. A. DULLES IS BADLY INFORMED Mr. Dulles concludes his commentary on Czecho-Slovakia with these obfuscated words of wisdom: "There are many lessons to be learned from this historical precedent. When the Communists obtain an effective minority position in any parliamentary body, it is a sign of danger. "If, in addition to that, they have important places in the government and, in particular, control of the ministries of defense and interior, then that danger is greatly augmented and the country in question is ripe for a Communist take-over." The director of the C. I. A. undoubtedly could have done better, if he were better informed. How did the Communists in Czecho-Slovakia obtain "an effective minority position" in the government or the Prague parliament? How did they happen to be in "important places" and, in particular, in control of the Ministries of Defense and Interior? SLOVAKIA 9 Benes we were told, had everything under control. The Communists, we know, could not obtain an "effective minority position" and control of any ministry in the wartime Slovak Republic, for example, because they were outlawed by the Slovak government under Dr. Joseph Tiso. Benes, on the other hand, after his return to Czecho-Slovakia, stated unequivocally that he would not govern the state without the Communists. The world knows what happened - and at this late date, so should the head of our Central Intelligence Agency. If Mr. Dulles is thoroughly informed on the subject, he could have pointed out the one lesson to be learned from Czecho-Slovakia, or rather from the conduct of the Benes Czechs: you cannot tolerate Communism, you cannot collaborate with Communists and expect to retain the blessings of freedom. It appears that what Mr. Allen W. Dulles said about Czecho-Slovakia was prepared by a Benes apologist, probably a Benes Czech of the so-called "Council of Free Czecho-Slovakia," and, possibly, by a Benes Czech employed by him in the C. I. A. itself. The Benes Czechs have prepared many speeches and briefs for men in the United States Government and its various agencies. And that probably explains why the American public is so misinformed on Czecho-Slovakia. • • • WHO SAID IT? "Today, in vain are the followers of Benes trying to justify thei:r coHalb.oraJbion with the Bolsh0V.iiks and their crimes a:gainst humarrtty during 1945-1948 with the desperate claim that they did so !because the USA wanted them to do it. That is not only a lie, ,b ut a coarse and ibase insult to the government and the naition of the US·A. The freedom and laiw-aJbiding democratic American peo,ple hitherto had no idea of the terrible crimes the Bolsheviks with their collrubo-rator;s had committed in our country. Only now is the American people slowly learning the truth, that terrible truth and ma•k ing itself heard. It does not want criminals and the agents of Moscow in its country." - (J. Horny, BOHEMIA, Dec. 1952).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource C. I. A. Dulles and the Beneš Czechs Description An account of the resource Philip A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2 (23), June 1957 pp. 1-9 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1957 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/cc5da19c756175994df02b515c92e008.pdf 6b86170de436bd3268e0d249815d2636 PDF Text Text 61 SLOVAKIA For the Slovak nation statehood is a vital question not so much because of the need to put an end to the injustices suffered at the hands of other nations in alien state formations, but largely because it is striving to attain a new political order suited to its own national individuality and mentality. Such a positive viewpoint prevails over negative arguments. Czech internationalism, Schweik opportunism, and the honoring of foreign prophets from Marx to Chruscev are all alien to the Slovak national character. The Slovaks did not go beyond the boundaries of Hungary so that they might get stuck in the swamps of Czech imperialism. The Slovak nation wants cultural and political freedom, because ultimately it wants to be itself - a national entity interested in its preservation. It is in this that the substance of Martin Razus's political message manifests itself to us for our generation. • • • Castles of Slovakia: HUBERT MACKO, 0.5.B. CASTLE GELNICA There is not much to tell about Gelnica; all that remains of it is a .pile of stone and the bare foundation of what was perhaps once the "ne:'bojsa v e z·a " (Do not be afraid Tower). 'Dhere can be ,f ound no authentic data aJbout the founder of hrad Gelnica. However, it is known for certain Juraj (George) Beibek, who also owned the neighboring and vastly more importaTut fortress "Krasna Horka" (Beautiful Mount) . In the year 1527 Zapofisky tooik Geinica from Bebeik by force. Later on Thurzo beeame its master, the same Thurzo whose family played such an important part in the early history of Slo;va:kia. During the very trying, uncertain, and bloody years of the great uprisings of Stephen Bocskay, Stephen Bethlen, GeoPge RaJk6czi, Imrich Th6kbly and Francis Ra!lrnczi , lasting upwards of 150 years, Gelnica changed hands many times. From each successive exchange, Gelnica suffered, and, since it was never too important strategically few re1 �62 SLOVAKIA pairs were made, finally it became uninh abitable and was abandoned to time and the elements. As about all other castles, so aibout Gelnica people wove a legend, which could be entitled: "The last days of Gelnica." The last owner of the castle people say, was a very beautiful widow. Her husband died a hero's death on the field of glory and left her with only a small garrison for protection. 1Soon wo.rd s.pread among the greedy soldiers of the king that Gelnica contained untold treasures - gold, silver, precious stones - and no soldiers to guard this treasure. Thin!king that no opposition would be met with, the king's army advanced on the fortress in a disorderly fashion. To their suriprise, a salvo of shots greeted them and moved down the advance guard. After reorganizing, the soldiers attacked. 'Ehe small garrison inside fortress Gelnica gave a good account of itself. Wave after wa'Ve of the enemy was thrown back with great losses. However, with each enemy onslaught, the ranks of the garrison dwindled. After many days of hard fighting, hungry and tired unto death, the garriJSon was over.powered. The castle was destroyed and every living creature in it killed. B efore the fatal hour, however, the beautiful wido,w, seeing that a11 was lost, had her valuables gathered and thrown into the castle's deep well. And lest a fate wors-e than death befall her, she jumped into the well. The king's army found neither treasure nor the beautiful widow. Not far from the castle flo,w s the sma:11 river Gelnica, which in some way was connected underground with the castle's deep well. After a time fishermen found the 1body of the owner of Gelnica and, in the presence of the people of the neighborhood , buried her under the ruins of the castle. These then, according to the legend. were the last days of Gelnica. From the pile of stones that was once fortress Gelnica, one has a fine view of the surrounding hills and valleys. And if one listens attentively when the wind is low, one can hear a soft sobbing. People will teU you it is the beautiful widow, sobbing for her beloved husband, who died on the field of g}ory. You will bless yourself and murmur a fervent: "Requiescant in peace!" �SLOVAKIA 63 HRAD BACKOV In the old Zemplin province, in a northwes terly direction from the beautiful town of Secovce, and not far from the small vallIDge of Backov, stood in the ancent fortress of Ba{!1kov. AH that we can S8iy about i,t is that it was once a fortress of some proportio ns. Now only a few ditches and small piles of lichened stone mark the spot. The only reason we write albout it is that Slovak people wove around it a legend from pre-sChristian times, when many of our forefathers still worshipp ed Parom, Morena, and the other Slav pagan gods. It is not known when the fortress was erected, but during the Tatar invasions , it was the prQPerty of the king. Many of the fortresse s in those hectic days were held in fief by so-called "hrnciari ", frontiersm en, who were in the service of the <king as guardsme n of the frontiers and were responsib le for the upikeep and repairs of the fo.rbress. Some times for outstandi ng services, the :king would grant to such a frontiersm an a smal[ ipiece of ground, conferrin g on him the questiona ble title of "zeman" (landown er), making him the boss of the fortress. When the "Order of Frontiers men" was aJbolished, the kings gave these fortresses , with much land, to individua ls usually as a compensa tion for services rendered. These services were either in money for the prosecuti on of war against neighbori ng !kings, or for military he'1p against the enemy. At the beginning of the 14th century, the king ga•ve Bacikov to a family named Petenovec . When, for some unrecoo-ded reason, the family fell from grace, the king confiscated the castle. Im the year 1321, King Robert Charles traded Bookov for another castle to a family named Macko. Ba,,okov then passed into the possessio n of the Bycksove c family and with the fortress the villages of Sefovce, Ve~' ky a Maly Backov, KerepYa, Tri ¥isnove, Kahainovce. Pol'anka, Petrusovc e, Parno, Albin, and many others. Members of this family divided the estate in the year 1329, Baokov with a few villages becoming the property �64 SLOVAKIA of Done. During the next 270 years the o·Nnership of Backov changed hands many times, becoming in the year 1598 the property of four men: Bockaj, Francis Rak6czi, Stephen Kecera, and Peter Sokol. In the 17th century we find as owners of Baakov: Fischer, Semer, Mari.as, Puky, Kolnas, and Forgac. The last name figured largely in the history of many Slovak castles, as also the name Rak6czi, and others. In the year 1688 BMkov was destroyed and abandoned. Its glory passed. forever. Where once was heard the clang of armor, jingle of the sword, the hoofbeats of the finest horses; where once the wealthy masters lived vigorously but riotously - today reigns a depressing emptiness and quiet, disturbed only by the raven and the oiwl. The people of the vicinity will tell you the following legend, S1Wearing by all that is holy that what they say is the truth. At one time the owner of the fortress was a certain DU'ke Draik. He was a cruel master to the hapless people who toiled in the fields for him. He was a miser and nothing could be hidden from him. Woe to the unfortunate who would take so much as a handful of grain from the field! Drak found everything and took everything, whether it belonged to him or not. Although e~tremely rich, he wais never satisfied. When merchants from other countries 1passed in the vicinity, Drak would swoop upon them like a bird of prey and they were fortunate if they got away with their lives. Consequently merchants gavE:r wide berth to BackOJV. People will tell you that when Drak was dying, lightning struck the fortress thirty times, as if the devil was impatient to carry off the soul of the tyrant Drak to the deepest pit in hell. When Drak finally died, the people sacked the fortress and carried away everything that could be carried. The devil was not satisfied merely with the soul of Dralk, the people will tell you, but he also wanted some of Drruk's possessions. Not knowing that the castle was sacked and destroyed, the devil returned one dark night to carry olff some of its treas,ures. He soon fiHed his sack with what he thought was gold, but in reality large pieces of stone from the destroyed castle. Since the stones were very heavy, the devil rested not far from the village of Vihorl'at �SLOVAKIA 66 and soon fell asleep. When the bright rays of the rising sun awalkened him, he was so startled that he jumped into the valley below. The ground where he fell, opened and swallowed him up, leaving a huge hole which soon filled with water. Even to this day the ,people of Vihorl'at wiU show the traveller the bottomless laike, "morsike oko," to them. • • • HRA.'D JELSAVA The Jelsava Castle was in reality two fortresses. The older one was ,probaJbly an ancient Slovak provincial fortress made of wood. Nothing remains of it except several large moats and there are no signs oif any stone. The first mention of the older Jelsava fortress is contained in a document of King Bela IV, in 1243, to Bebek whose holdings bordered on Jelsava, which belonged to the king. In the year 1283 the fortress was given to one Dezider Ra1boldi, whose family came from Ita,l y in 1109. The family name was later changed to Tisvai. Later the fortress was besieged by John Jisikra of Brandys, and since that time no other mention ,w as made of it. It was ,proba:bly destroyed during that rsiege and never rebuilt. In the chronicles of the Hussite wars, there is mention made of another "hrad Je1sava," situated about one half hour's journey from the town ,b earing the same name. This fortress was made of stone. It wais not a large fortress, but in places the walls were over two meters in thickness. It is not known exactly when this second fortress was built, but in 1299 it is referred to as a "destroyed" fortress. It was rebuilt and passed into possession of the Knights Templars. Eventually, for some unrecorded reason, the Templars were driven out. They built a monastery on the site where the Palace now stands. King Louis of Anjou gave the fortress as gift to his court-chancellor, Lestar of Jelsava, who repaired the fortress and moved into it, leaving the court of Louis, which did not please the king at all. Being a man of enterprising spirit, his motto being "nothing ventured, nothing gained," he invited tradesmen, businessmen, miners, and craftsmen �SLOVAKIA 66 to Je1sava. Soon Je1sava became a thriving community and Lestar became immensely wealthy. Upon Lestar's deaJth the fortress passed into the possession. of one George Jolsavy, a very fickle and scatterbrained bachelor, who cared more for a bottle of wine and gay company than he did for affairs of buisness. He was surrounded at all times with men and women of his ilk, who lived rioutously and spent friend Jolsavy's money in quick order. When the last gold piece was gone, Jolsvay mortgaged the fortress to Dominic Bebek for 7,707 pieces of mortgaged money. Since he died without heirs, the family name died with him, a name which played some very important roles in the early history of Slovakia. After Jolsvay's death, litigatio!l1 was started against Bebek by Perenyi, who also claimed possession of Jelsava. Queen :IDlizwbeth did not recognize the claims of Beibek or Perenyi and confiscated the fortress. Later she leased it to Perenyi for a yearly rental of 6,007 gold pieces. In 1440 John Jiskra conquered a greated part of Gerner and took control of aJ.l the fortresses on the territory he occupied. Among them was hrad Jelsava. In 1453, after Jiskra was defeated, King Ladislav V gave the fortress to Perenyi. Here the history of Jelsava is somewhat muddled. Although Perenyi is said to have rebuilt JelsaJVa in the year 1461, it is mentioned in the chronicles as a "castellum" belonging to Bebek. For five moire years the two families fought for the possession of the fortress. In 1466 Bebek won the suit, and the family remained in possession of J elsava until it died out. During the Turkish invasions, Jelsava was destroyed and never again rebuilt. The land passed into the possession of the owners of Muran Castle. In 1720, King Charles ID gave Muran and all the land to the Kohany family. By marriage the land passed into the ·p ossession of the present Coburg family. • • • WANT TO LEARN SLOVAK? Order the "-SLOVAK LESSONS" {$3.50) and the ENGLlSH-SLOVAK DICTIONARY {$4.00) by Hrobak today! � 61 SLOVAKIA For the Slovak nation statehood is a vital question not so much because of the need to put an end to the injustices suffered at the hands of other nations in alien state formations, but largely because it is striving to attain a new political order suited to its own national individuality and mentality. Such a positive viewpoint prevails over negative arguments. Czech internationalism, Schweik opportunism, and the honoring of foreign prophets from Marx to Chruscev are all alien to the Slovak national character. The Slovaks did not go beyond the boundaries of Hungary so that they might get stuck in the swamps of Czech imperialism. The Slovak nation wants cultural and political freedom, because ultimately it wants to be itself - a national entity interested in its preservation. It is in this that the substance of Martin Razus's political message manifests itself to us for our generation. • • • Castles of Slovakia: HUBERT MACKO, 0.5.B. CASTLE GELNICA There is not much to tell about Gelnica; all that remains of it is a .pile of stone and the bare foundation of what was perhaps once the "ne:'bojsa v e z·a " (Do not be afraid Tower). 'Dhere can be ,f ound no authentic data aJbout the founder of hrad Gelnica. However, it is known for certain Juraj (George) Beibek, who also owned the neighboring and vastly more importaTut fortress "Krasna Horka" (Beautiful Mount) . In the year 1527 Zapofisky tooik Geinica from Bebeik by force. Later on Thurzo beeame its master, the same Thurzo whose family played such an important part in the early history of Slo;va:kia. During the very trying, uncertain, and bloody years of the great uprisings of Stephen Bocskay, Stephen Bethlen, GeoPge RaJk6czi, Imrich Th6kbly and Francis Ra!lrnczi , lasting upwards of 150 years, Gelnica changed hands many times. From each successive exchange, Gelnica suffered, and, since it was never too important strategically few re1 �62 SLOVAKIA pairs were made, finally it became uninh abitable and was abandoned to time and the elements. As about all other castles, so aibout Gelnica people wove a legend, which could be entitled: "The last days of Gelnica." The last owner of the castle people say, was a very beautiful widow. Her husband died a hero's death on the field of glory and left her with only a small garrison for protection. 1Soon wo.rd s.pread among the greedy soldiers of the king that Gelnica contained untold treasures - gold, silver, precious stones - and no soldiers to guard this treasure. Thin!king that no opposition would be met with, the king's army advanced on the fortress in a disorderly fashion. To their suriprise, a salvo of shots greeted them and moved down the advance guard. After reorganizing, the soldiers attacked. 'Ehe small garrison inside fortress Gelnica gave a good account of itself. Wave after wa'Ve of the enemy was thrown back with great losses. However, with each enemy onslaught, the ranks of the garrison dwindled. After many days of hard fighting, hungry and tired unto death, the garriJSon was over.powered. The castle was destroyed and every living creature in it killed. B efore the fatal hour, however, the beautiful wido,w, seeing that a11 was lost, had her valuables gathered and thrown into the castle's deep well. And lest a fate wors-e than death befall her, she jumped into the well. The king's army found neither treasure nor the beautiful widow. Not far from the castle flo,w s the sma:11 river Gelnica, which in some way was connected underground with the castle's deep well. After a time fishermen found the 1body of the owner of Gelnica and, in the presence of the people of the neighborhood , buried her under the ruins of the castle. These then, according to the legend. were the last days of Gelnica. From the pile of stones that was once fortress Gelnica, one has a fine view of the surrounding hills and valleys. And if one listens attentively when the wind is low, one can hear a soft sobbing. People will teU you it is the beautiful widow, sobbing for her beloved husband, who died on the field of g}ory. You will bless yourself and murmur a fervent: "Requiescant in peace!" �SLOVAKIA 63 HRAD BACKOV In the old Zemplin province, in a northwes terly direction from the beautiful town of Secovce, and not far from the small vallIDge of Backov, stood in the ancent fortress of Ba{!1kov. AH that we can S8iy about i,t is that it was once a fortress of some proportio ns. Now only a few ditches and small piles of lichened stone mark the spot. The only reason we write albout it is that Slovak people wove around it a legend from pre-sChristian times, when many of our forefathers still worshipp ed Parom, Morena, and the other Slav pagan gods. It is not known when the fortress was erected, but during the Tatar invasions , it was the prQPerty of the king. Many of the fortresse s in those hectic days were held in fief by so-called "hrnciari ", frontiersm en, who were in the service of the <king as guardsme n of the frontiers and were responsib le for the upikeep and repairs of the fo.rbress. Some times for outstandi ng services, the :king would grant to such a frontiersm an a smal[ ipiece of ground, conferrin g on him the questiona ble title of "zeman" (landown er), making him the boss of the fortress. When the "Order of Frontiers men" was aJbolished, the kings gave these fortresses , with much land, to individua ls usually as a compensa tion for services rendered. These services were either in money for the prosecuti on of war against neighbori ng !kings, or for military he'1p against the enemy. At the beginning of the 14th century, the king ga•ve Bacikov to a family named Petenovec . When, for some unrecoo-ded reason, the family fell from grace, the king confiscated the castle. Im the year 1321, King Robert Charles traded Bookov for another castle to a family named Macko. Ba,,okov then passed into the possessio n of the Bycksove c family and with the fortress the villages of Sefovce, Ve~' ky a Maly Backov, KerepYa, Tri ¥isnove, Kahainovce. Pol'anka, Petrusovc e, Parno, Albin, and many others. Members of this family divided the estate in the year 1329, Baokov with a few villages becoming the property �64 SLOVAKIA of Done. During the next 270 years the o·Nnership of Backov changed hands many times, becoming in the year 1598 the property of four men: Bockaj, Francis Rak6czi, Stephen Kecera, and Peter Sokol. In the 17th century we find as owners of Baakov: Fischer, Semer, Mari.as, Puky, Kolnas, and Forgac. The last name figured largely in the history of many Slovak castles, as also the name Rak6czi, and others. In the year 1688 BMkov was destroyed and abandoned. Its glory passed. forever. Where once was heard the clang of armor, jingle of the sword, the hoofbeats of the finest horses; where once the wealthy masters lived vigorously but riotously - today reigns a depressing emptiness and quiet, disturbed only by the raven and the oiwl. The people of the vicinity will tell you the following legend, S1Wearing by all that is holy that what they say is the truth. At one time the owner of the fortress was a certain DU'ke Draik. He was a cruel master to the hapless people who toiled in the fields for him. He was a miser and nothing could be hidden from him. Woe to the unfortunate who would take so much as a handful of grain from the field! Drak found everything and took everything, whether it belonged to him or not. Although e~tremely rich, he wais never satisfied. When merchants from other countries 1passed in the vicinity, Drak would swoop upon them like a bird of prey and they were fortunate if they got away with their lives. Consequently merchants gavE:r wide berth to BackOJV. People will tell you that when Drak was dying, lightning struck the fortress thirty times, as if the devil was impatient to carry off the soul of the tyrant Drak to the deepest pit in hell. When Drak finally died, the people sacked the fortress and carried away everything that could be carried. The devil was not satisfied merely with the soul of Dralk, the people will tell you, but he also wanted some of Drruk's possessions. Not knowing that the castle was sacked and destroyed, the devil returned one dark night to carry olff some of its treas,ures. He soon fiHed his sack with what he thought was gold, but in reality large pieces of stone from the destroyed castle. Since the stones were very heavy, the devil rested not far from the village of Vihorl'at �SLOVAKIA 66 and soon fell asleep. When the bright rays of the rising sun awalkened him, he was so startled that he jumped into the valley below. The ground where he fell, opened and swallowed him up, leaving a huge hole which soon filled with water. Even to this day the ,people of Vihorl'at wiU show the traveller the bottomless laike, "morsike oko," to them. • • • HRA.'D JELSAVA The Jelsava Castle was in reality two fortresses. The older one was ,probaJbly an ancient Slovak provincial fortress made of wood. Nothing remains of it except several large moats and there are no signs oif any stone. The first mention of the older Jelsava fortress is contained in a document of King Bela IV, in 1243, to Bebek whose holdings bordered on Jelsava, which belonged to the king. In the year 1283 the fortress was given to one Dezider Ra1boldi, whose family came from Ita,l y in 1109. The family name was later changed to Tisvai. Later the fortress was besieged by John Jisikra of Brandys, and since that time no other mention ,w as made of it. It was ,proba:bly destroyed during that rsiege and never rebuilt. In the chronicles of the Hussite wars, there is mention made of another "hrad Je1sava," situated about one half hour's journey from the town ,b earing the same name. This fortress was made of stone. It wais not a large fortress, but in places the walls were over two meters in thickness. It is not known exactly when this second fortress was built, but in 1299 it is referred to as a "destroyed" fortress. It was rebuilt and passed into possession of the Knights Templars. Eventually, for some unrecorded reason, the Templars were driven out. They built a monastery on the site where the Palace now stands. King Louis of Anjou gave the fortress as gift to his court-chancellor, Lestar of Jelsava, who repaired the fortress and moved into it, leaving the court of Louis, which did not please the king at all. Being a man of enterprising spirit, his motto being "nothing ventured, nothing gained," he invited tradesmen, businessmen, miners, and craftsmen �SLOVAKIA 66 to Je1sava. Soon Je1sava became a thriving community and Lestar became immensely wealthy. Upon Lestar's deaJth the fortress passed into the possession. of one George Jolsavy, a very fickle and scatterbrained bachelor, who cared more for a bottle of wine and gay company than he did for affairs of buisness. He was surrounded at all times with men and women of his ilk, who lived rioutously and spent friend Jolsavy's money in quick order. When the last gold piece was gone, Jolsvay mortgaged the fortress to Dominic Bebek for 7,707 pieces of mortgaged money. Since he died without heirs, the family name died with him, a name which played some very important roles in the early history of Slovakia. After Jolsvay's death, litigatio!l1 was started against Bebek by Perenyi, who also claimed possession of Jelsava. Queen :IDlizwbeth did not recognize the claims of Beibek or Perenyi and confiscated the fortress. Later she leased it to Perenyi for a yearly rental of 6,007 gold pieces. In 1440 John Jiskra conquered a greated part of Gerner and took control of aJ.l the fortresses on the territory he occupied. Among them was hrad Jelsava. In 1453, after Jiskra was defeated, King Ladislav V gave the fortress to Perenyi. Here the history of Jelsava is somewhat muddled. Although Perenyi is said to have rebuilt JelsaJVa in the year 1461, it is mentioned in the chronicles as a "castellum" belonging to Bebek. For five moire years the two families fought for the possession of the fortress. In 1466 Bebek won the suit, and the family remained in possession of J elsava until it died out. During the Turkish invasions, Jelsava was destroyed and never again rebuilt. The land passed into the possession of the owners of Muran Castle. In 1720, King Charles ID gave Muran and all the land to the Kohany family. By marriage the land passed into the ·p ossession of the present Coburg family. • • • WANT TO LEARN SLOVAK? Order the "-SLOVAK LESSONS" {$3.50) and the ENGLlSH-SLOVAK DICTIONARY {$4.00) by Hrobak today! � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 61 SLOVAKIA For the Slovak nation statehood is a vital question not so much because of the need to put an end to the injustices suffered at the hands of other nations in alien state formations, but largely because it is striving to attain a new political order suited to its own national individuality and mentality. Such a positive viewpoint prevails over negative arguments. Czech internationalism, Schweik opportunism, and the honoring of foreign prophets from Marx to Chruscev are all alien to the Slovak national character. The Slovaks did not go beyond the boundaries of Hungary so that they might get stuck in the swamps of Czech imperialism. The Slovak nation wants cultural and political freedom, because ultimately it wants to be itself - a national entity interested in its preservation. It is in this that the substance of Martin Razus's political message manifests itself to us for our generation. • • • Castles of Slovakia: HUBERT MACKO, 0.5.B. CASTLE GELNICA There is not much to tell about Gelnica; all that remains of it is a .pile of stone and the bare foundation of what was perhaps once the "ne:'bojsa v e z·a " (Do not be afraid Tower). 'Dhere can be ,f ound no authentic data aJbout the founder of hrad Gelnica. However, it is known for certain Juraj (George) Beibek, who also owned the neighboring and vastly more importaTut fortress "Krasna Horka" (Beautiful Mount) . In the year 1527 Zapofisky tooik Geinica from Bebeik by force. Later on Thurzo beeame its master, the same Thurzo whose family played such an important part in the early history of Slo;va:kia. During the very trying, uncertain, and bloody years of the great uprisings of Stephen Bocskay, Stephen Bethlen, GeoPge RaJk6czi, Imrich Th6kbly and Francis Ra!lrnczi , lasting upwards of 150 years, Gelnica changed hands many times. From each successive exchange, Gelnica suffered, and, since it was never too important strategically few re1 62 SLOVAKIA pairs were made, finally it became uninh abitable and was abandoned to time and the elements. As about all other castles, so aibout Gelnica people wove a legend, which could be entitled: "The last days of Gelnica." The last owner of the castle people say, was a very beautiful widow. Her husband died a hero's death on the field of glory and left her with only a small garrison for protection. 1Soon wo.rd s.pread among the greedy soldiers of the king that Gelnica contained untold treasures - gold, silver, precious stones - and no soldiers to guard this treasure. Thin!king that no opposition would be met with, the king's army advanced on the fortress in a disorderly fashion. To their suriprise, a salvo of shots greeted them and moved down the advance guard. After reorganizing, the soldiers attacked. 'Ehe small garrison inside fortress Gelnica gave a good account of itself. Wave after wa'Ve of the enemy was thrown back with great losses. However, with each enemy onslaught, the ranks of the garrison dwindled. After many days of hard fighting, hungry and tired unto death, the garriJSon was over.powered. The castle was destroyed and every living creature in it killed. B efore the fatal hour, however, the beautiful wido,w, seeing that a11 was lost, had her valuables gathered and thrown into the castle's deep well. And lest a fate wors-e than death befall her, she jumped into the well. The king's army found neither treasure nor the beautiful widow. Not far from the castle flo,w s the sma:11 river Gelnica, which in some way was connected underground with the castle's deep well. After a time fishermen found the 1body of the owner of Gelnica and, in the presence of the people of the neighborhood , buried her under the ruins of the castle. These then, according to the legend. were the last days of Gelnica. From the pile of stones that was once fortress Gelnica, one has a fine view of the surrounding hills and valleys. And if one listens attentively when the wind is low, one can hear a soft sobbing. People will teU you it is the beautiful widow, sobbing for her beloved husband, who died on the field of g}ory. You will bless yourself and murmur a fervent: "Requiescant in peace!" SLOVAKIA 63 HRAD BACKOV In the old Zemplin province, in a northwes terly direction from the beautiful town of Secovce, and not far from the small vallIDge of Backov, stood in the ancent fortress of Ba{!1kov. AH that we can S8iy about i,t is that it was once a fortress of some proportio ns. Now only a few ditches and small piles of lichened stone mark the spot. The only reason we write albout it is that Slovak people wove around it a legend from pre-sChristian times, when many of our forefathers still worshipp ed Parom, Morena, and the other Slav pagan gods. It is not known when the fortress was erected, but during the Tatar invasions , it was the prQPerty of the king. Many of the fortresse s in those hectic days were held in fief by so-called "hrnciari ", frontiersm en, who were in the service of the <king as guardsme n of the frontiers and were responsib le for the upikeep and repairs of the fo.rbress. Some times for outstandi ng services, the :king would grant to such a frontiersm an a smal[ ipiece of ground, conferrin g on him the questiona ble title of "zeman" (landown er), making him the boss of the fortress. When the "Order of Frontiers men" was aJbolished, the kings gave these fortresses , with much land, to individua ls usually as a compensa tion for services rendered. These services were either in money for the prosecuti on of war against neighbori ng !kings, or for military he'1p against the enemy. At the beginning of the 14th century, the king ga•ve Bacikov to a family named Petenovec . When, for some unrecoo-ded reason, the family fell from grace, the king confiscated the castle. Im the year 1321, King Robert Charles traded Bookov for another castle to a family named Macko. Ba,,okov then passed into the possessio n of the Bycksove c family and with the fortress the villages of Sefovce, Ve~' ky a Maly Backov, KerepYa, Tri ¥isnove, Kahainovce. Pol'anka, Petrusovc e, Parno, Albin, and many others. Members of this family divided the estate in the year 1329, Baokov with a few villages becoming the property 64 SLOVAKIA of Done. During the next 270 years the o·Nnership of Backov changed hands many times, becoming in the year 1598 the property of four men: Bockaj, Francis Rak6czi, Stephen Kecera, and Peter Sokol. In the 17th century we find as owners of Baakov: Fischer, Semer, Mari.as, Puky, Kolnas, and Forgac. The last name figured largely in the history of many Slovak castles, as also the name Rak6czi, and others. In the year 1688 BMkov was destroyed and abandoned. Its glory passed. forever. Where once was heard the clang of armor, jingle of the sword, the hoofbeats of the finest horses; where once the wealthy masters lived vigorously but riotously - today reigns a depressing emptiness and quiet, disturbed only by the raven and the oiwl. The people of the vicinity will tell you the following legend, S1Wearing by all that is holy that what they say is the truth. At one time the owner of the fortress was a certain DU'ke Draik. He was a cruel master to the hapless people who toiled in the fields for him. He was a miser and nothing could be hidden from him. Woe to the unfortunate who would take so much as a handful of grain from the field! Drak found everything and took everything, whether it belonged to him or not. Although e~tremely rich, he wais never satisfied. When merchants from other countries 1passed in the vicinity, Drak would swoop upon them like a bird of prey and they were fortunate if they got away with their lives. Consequently merchants gavE:r wide berth to BackOJV. People will tell you that when Drak was dying, lightning struck the fortress thirty times, as if the devil was impatient to carry off the soul of the tyrant Drak to the deepest pit in hell. When Drak finally died, the people sacked the fortress and carried away everything that could be carried. The devil was not satisfied merely with the soul of Dralk, the people will tell you, but he also wanted some of Drruk's possessions. Not knowing that the castle was sacked and destroyed, the devil returned one dark night to carry olff some of its treas,ures. He soon fiHed his sack with what he thought was gold, but in reality large pieces of stone from the destroyed castle. Since the stones were very heavy, the devil rested not far from the village of Vihorl'at SLOVAKIA 66 and soon fell asleep. When the bright rays of the rising sun awalkened him, he was so startled that he jumped into the valley below. The ground where he fell, opened and swallowed him up, leaving a huge hole which soon filled with water. Even to this day the ,people of Vihorl'at wiU show the traveller the bottomless laike, "morsike oko," to them. • • • HRA.'D JELSAVA The Jelsava Castle was in reality two fortresses. The older one was ,probaJbly an ancient Slovak provincial fortress made of wood. Nothing remains of it except several large moats and there are no signs oif any stone. The first mention of the older Jelsava fortress is contained in a document of King Bela IV, in 1243, to Bebek whose holdings bordered on Jelsava, which belonged to the king. In the year 1283 the fortress was given to one Dezider Ra1boldi, whose family came from Ita,l y in 1109. The family name was later changed to Tisvai. Later the fortress was besieged by John Jisikra of Brandys, and since that time no other mention ,w as made of it. It was ,proba:bly destroyed during that rsiege and never rebuilt. In the chronicles of the Hussite wars, there is mention made of another "hrad Je1sava," situated about one half hour's journey from the town ,b earing the same name. This fortress was made of stone. It wais not a large fortress, but in places the walls were over two meters in thickness. It is not known exactly when this second fortress was built, but in 1299 it is referred to as a "destroyed" fortress. It was rebuilt and passed into possession of the Knights Templars. Eventually, for some unrecorded reason, the Templars were driven out. They built a monastery on the site where the Palace now stands. King Louis of Anjou gave the fortress as gift to his court-chancellor, Lestar of Jelsava, who repaired the fortress and moved into it, leaving the court of Louis, which did not please the king at all. Being a man of enterprising spirit, his motto being "nothing ventured, nothing gained," he invited tradesmen, businessmen, miners, and craftsmen SLOVAKIA 66 to Je1sava. Soon Je1sava became a thriving community and Lestar became immensely wealthy. Upon Lestar's deaJth the fortress passed into the possession. of one George Jolsavy, a very fickle and scatterbrained bachelor, who cared more for a bottle of wine and gay company than he did for affairs of buisness. He was surrounded at all times with men and women of his ilk, who lived rioutously and spent friend Jolsavy's money in quick order. When the last gold piece was gone, Jolsvay mortgaged the fortress to Dominic Bebek for 7,707 pieces of mortgaged money. Since he died without heirs, the family name died with him, a name which played some very important roles in the early history of Slovakia. After Jolsvay's death, litigatio!l1 was started against Bebek by Perenyi, who also claimed possession of Jelsava. Queen :IDlizwbeth did not recognize the claims of Beibek or Perenyi and confiscated the fortress. Later she leased it to Perenyi for a yearly rental of 6,007 gold pieces. In 1440 John Jiskra conquered a greated part of Gerner and took control of aJ.l the fortresses on the territory he occupied. Among them was hrad Jelsava. In 1453, after Jiskra was defeated, King Ladislav V gave the fortress to Perenyi. Here the history of Jelsava is somewhat muddled. Although Perenyi is said to have rebuilt JelsaJVa in the year 1461, it is mentioned in the chronicles as a "castellum" belonging to Bebek. For five moire years the two families fought for the possession of the fortress. In 1466 Bebek won the suit, and the family remained in possession of J elsava until it died out. During the Turkish invasions, Jelsava was destroyed and never again rebuilt. The land passed into the possession of the owners of Muran Castle. In 1720, King Charles ID gave Muran and all the land to the Kohany family. By marriage the land passed into the ·p ossession of the present Coburg family. • • • WANT TO LEARN SLOVAK? Order the "-SLOVAK LESSONS" {$3.50) and the ENGLlSH-SLOVAK DICTIONARY {$4.00) by Hrobak today!  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Castles of Slovakia: Castle Gelnica - Hrad Báčkov - Hrad Jelšava Description An account of the resource Hubert Macko, O.S.B. Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25), September-December 1957 pp. 61-66 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Macko, Hubert Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 castles name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/1780c8c8875468092d608726118d7938.pdf 79be0422d89a74320eb8e0e71e5d30a9 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 50 (27) (28) (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37) (38) (39) (40) (41) (42) (43) (44) "Slovak" 1941, 105. "Slovak" 1940, 186. "Slovak" 1938, 243. "Slovak" 1938, 283. "Slovak" 1940, 186. "Slovak" 1939, 44. "Slovak" 1939, 44. "Slovak" 1941, 37. "Slovak" 1939, 44. Ibidem. Ibidem. Ibidem. "Slovak" 1941, 37. "Kultura" 1933, 9. "Slovak" 1932, 237. "Slovak" 1941, 17. Vatican Radio April 28, 1947. Congressman Alvin O'Konski May 31, 1948, at Bedford, 0 . • • Castles of Slovakia: ILA VA The name Ila va may be more familar to the outside world, because it has been mentioned more frequently than names of other castles and citadels of Slovakia. Political prisoners, "enemies of the state," are confined within its walls today by the communist regime of Prague. Just when the Ilava Castle was built is not definitely known; but we do know that it already existed at the end of the twelfth century. The first known written account of Ilava from that time states that "Castrum Ilava" was the property of the Knights Templars, who also occupied other castles in the Vah Valley. Ilava (Trencin County) was held by the Templars until the Order was abolished in 1312. The castle is situated on the left bank of the Vah near the railroad station. Its origin may go back to the times of the Great Moravian Empire. After the dissolution of the Knights Templars, Ilava Castle passed into the hands of the "mighty Lord of the Vah and the Tatras," Matthew Cak (Tchak) of Trencin, who made of it a mighty fortress. It remained in his possession to his death, when all of Ca.k's holdings were seized by the �51 SLOVAKIA king. Thomas Transilvanus, one of the imperial "castle captains," resided in Ilava in about 1339, according to historical records, which also state that about fifty years later, the king donated Ilava to one Bukovec, whose son Henry (Imrich) joined up with Ladislaus of Naples against the king. As a result, the king seized all of Henry's holdings, including !lava. The Hussites under Procopius Holy plundered northern sections of Slovakia and took !lava, but did not hold it long. The army of King Sigmond under Nicholas Rozhanovsky stormed the castle and seized it after a bloody battle in which 5000 men perished. Sigmond ordered !lava demolished. Several years later, however, the !lava Castale was rebuilt and presented to Queen Barbara; after her Queen Elizabeth resided there. During the second invasion of Slovakia by the Hussites, under John Jiskra of Brandys, !lava was besieged and then taken. The Hussites, however, were again evicted and !lava enjoyed a comparatively peaceful time even though its owners were changed often. Ladislaus Hunady, Blaze Mad'ar and Stephen Zapol'sky occupied it in that order. At the end of the 15th century, angered at John Zapol'sky, Stephen's son, the king sent General Katzianer to take over !lava. After a short siege !lava fell. In 1571, Ilava and its suroundings were given to the Ostrozic brothers, who were of Croatian origin; the king, however, won this back after the rebellion in which the Ostrozic brothers participated was squelched. General Heister of the imperial army stormed !lava in 1670 and shortly thereafter sold it to Count Braeuner for 80,00 Goldens. The Count added a twin-towered church and had the upper part of !lava rebuilt into a monastery and then called in the Trinitarian Monks to occupy it, keeping the lower part of the castle for himself. The Trinitarians resided in the !lava Castle until their Order was dissolved in 1725. After the defeat of Count Braeuner, his heirs sold Ilava to the Hungarian State, which converted it into a state prison; more additions to !lava have been made since that time. Ilava is the "Alcatraz" of Slovakia . • • • � SLOVAKIA 50 (27) (28) (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37) (38) (39) (40) (41) (42) (43) (44) "Slovak" 1941, 105. "Slovak" 1940, 186. "Slovak" 1938, 243. "Slovak" 1938, 283. "Slovak" 1940, 186. "Slovak" 1939, 44. "Slovak" 1939, 44. "Slovak" 1941, 37. "Slovak" 1939, 44. Ibidem. Ibidem. Ibidem. "Slovak" 1941, 37. "Kultura" 1933, 9. "Slovak" 1932, 237. "Slovak" 1941, 17. Vatican Radio April 28, 1947. Congressman Alvin O'Konski May 31, 1948, at Bedford, 0 . • • Castles of Slovakia: ILA VA The name Ila va may be more familar to the outside world, because it has been mentioned more frequently than names of other castles and citadels of Slovakia. Political prisoners, "enemies of the state," are confined within its walls today by the communist regime of Prague. Just when the Ilava Castle was built is not definitely known; but we do know that it already existed at the end of the twelfth century. The first known written account of Ilava from that time states that "Castrum Ilava" was the property of the Knights Templars, who also occupied other castles in the Vah Valley. Ilava (Trencin County) was held by the Templars until the Order was abolished in 1312. The castle is situated on the left bank of the Vah near the railroad station. Its origin may go back to the times of the Great Moravian Empire. After the dissolution of the Knights Templars, Ilava Castle passed into the hands of the "mighty Lord of the Vah and the Tatras," Matthew Cak (Tchak) of Trencin, who made of it a mighty fortress. It remained in his possession to his death, when all of Ca.k's holdings were seized by the �51 SLOVAKIA king. Thomas Transilvanus, one of the imperial "castle captains," resided in Ilava in about 1339, according to historical records, which also state that about fifty years later, the king donated Ilava to one Bukovec, whose son Henry (Imrich) joined up with Ladislaus of Naples against the king. As a result, the king seized all of Henry's holdings, including !lava. The Hussites under Procopius Holy plundered northern sections of Slovakia and took !lava, but did not hold it long. The army of King Sigmond under Nicholas Rozhanovsky stormed the castle and seized it after a bloody battle in which 5000 men perished. Sigmond ordered !lava demolished. Several years later, however, the !lava Castale was rebuilt and presented to Queen Barbara; after her Queen Elizabeth resided there. During the second invasion of Slovakia by the Hussites, under John Jiskra of Brandys, !lava was besieged and then taken. The Hussites, however, were again evicted and !lava enjoyed a comparatively peaceful time even though its owners were changed often. Ladislaus Hunady, Blaze Mad'ar and Stephen Zapol'sky occupied it in that order. At the end of the 15th century, angered at John Zapol'sky, Stephen's son, the king sent General Katzianer to take over !lava. After a short siege !lava fell. In 1571, Ilava and its suroundings were given to the Ostrozic brothers, who were of Croatian origin; the king, however, won this back after the rebellion in which the Ostrozic brothers participated was squelched. General Heister of the imperial army stormed !lava in 1670 and shortly thereafter sold it to Count Braeuner for 80,00 Goldens. The Count added a twin-towered church and had the upper part of !lava rebuilt into a monastery and then called in the Trinitarian Monks to occupy it, keeping the lower part of the castle for himself. The Trinitarians resided in the !lava Castle until their Order was dissolved in 1725. After the defeat of Count Braeuner, his heirs sold Ilava to the Hungarian State, which converted it into a state prison; more additions to !lava have been made since that time. Ilava is the "Alcatraz" of Slovakia . • • • � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 50 (27) (28) (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37) (38) (39) (40) (41) (42) (43) (44) "Slovak" 1941, 105. "Slovak" 1940, 186. "Slovak" 1938, 243. "Slovak" 1938, 283. "Slovak" 1940, 186. "Slovak" 1939, 44. "Slovak" 1939, 44. "Slovak" 1941, 37. "Slovak" 1939, 44. Ibidem. Ibidem. Ibidem. "Slovak" 1941, 37. "Kultura" 1933, 9. "Slovak" 1932, 237. "Slovak" 1941, 17. Vatican Radio April 28, 1947. Congressman Alvin O'Konski May 31, 1948, at Bedford, 0 . • • Castles of Slovakia: ILA VA The name Ila va may be more familar to the outside world, because it has been mentioned more frequently than names of other castles and citadels of Slovakia. Political prisoners, "enemies of the state," are confined within its walls today by the communist regime of Prague. Just when the Ilava Castle was built is not definitely known; but we do know that it already existed at the end of the twelfth century. The first known written account of Ilava from that time states that "Castrum Ilava" was the property of the Knights Templars, who also occupied other castles in the Vah Valley. Ilava (Trencin County) was held by the Templars until the Order was abolished in 1312. The castle is situated on the left bank of the Vah near the railroad station. Its origin may go back to the times of the Great Moravian Empire. After the dissolution of the Knights Templars, Ilava Castle passed into the hands of the "mighty Lord of the Vah and the Tatras," Matthew Cak (Tchak) of Trencin, who made of it a mighty fortress. It remained in his possession to his death, when all of Ca.k's holdings were seized by the 51 SLOVAKIA king. Thomas Transilvanus, one of the imperial "castle captains," resided in Ilava in about 1339, according to historical records, which also state that about fifty years later, the king donated Ilava to one Bukovec, whose son Henry (Imrich) joined up with Ladislaus of Naples against the king. As a result, the king seized all of Henry's holdings, including !lava. The Hussites under Procopius Holy plundered northern sections of Slovakia and took !lava, but did not hold it long. The army of King Sigmond under Nicholas Rozhanovsky stormed the castle and seized it after a bloody battle in which 5000 men perished. Sigmond ordered !lava demolished. Several years later, however, the !lava Castale was rebuilt and presented to Queen Barbara; after her Queen Elizabeth resided there. During the second invasion of Slovakia by the Hussites, under John Jiskra of Brandys, !lava was besieged and then taken. The Hussites, however, were again evicted and !lava enjoyed a comparatively peaceful time even though its owners were changed often. Ladislaus Hunady, Blaze Mad'ar and Stephen Zapol'sky occupied it in that order. At the end of the 15th century, angered at John Zapol'sky, Stephen's son, the king sent General Katzianer to take over !lava. After a short siege !lava fell. In 1571, Ilava and its suroundings were given to the Ostrozic brothers, who were of Croatian origin; the king, however, won this back after the rebellion in which the Ostrozic brothers participated was squelched. General Heister of the imperial army stormed !lava in 1670 and shortly thereafter sold it to Count Braeuner for 80,00 Goldens. The Count added a twin-towered church and had the upper part of !lava rebuilt into a monastery and then called in the Trinitarian Monks to occupy it, keeping the lower part of the castle for himself. The Trinitarians resided in the !lava Castle until their Order was dissolved in 1725. After the defeat of Count Braeuner, his heirs sold Ilava to the Hungarian State, which converted it into a state prison; more additions to !lava have been made since that time. Ilava is the "Alcatraz" of Slovakia . • • •  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Castles of Slovakia: Ilava Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2 (23), June 1957 pp. 50-51 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1957 castles https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/7b2aec6cfb355c412f5c2249098659fc.pdf 5b181452e9a4fd694829f643e849b9c1 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA Pub I ished VOL. V II quart erly by the Slovak League SEPTEMBER- DECEMBER, 195 7 of America NO. 3-4(24-25) DR. JOSEPH TISO AND THE JEWISH PROBLEM IN SLOVAKIA MILAN S. DURI CA The fact that, during the period when Dr. Joseph Tiso was at the head of the Slova)k Republic as its president, there ,w ere "liqttidated" in an inhumane manner, in Nazi concentration camps, per.haps also severa1 tens of thousands of Jews from Slovakia, has tempted many authors either to hold Dr. Tiso directly responsible for these crimes, or at -least to consider this point as t,h e real weaJkness of Tiso's policy and his defense< 1 >. We are convinced that the so1ution of the Jewish problem in Slovakia is a very complicated proiblem and, therefore, it is necessary to gather in an objective study all existing documents so that the _true state of affairs might become known (2) . While awaiting the results of such a study, we are attempting here to focalize some of the actualities which already h ave been documented - facts which can put some light on definite, shadowy sides of this problem and also note in what direction it is necessary to move in making a further study so that we might arrive at an objective statement of the facts that had taken iplace and thus also at a correct moral evaluation of them. J EW RY IN S LOVAK IA Already in the past century, native and foreign observers were stunned by the great influx of Jews to Hungary and especially to the part of Hungary inhabited by the Slovaks from time immemorial. While Caplovic noted 6,850 J ews in the Trencin area h efore 1829, according to. the census of 1869 there already were 13,365 of them among 237,702 SlavaJks. Sveto,z ar Hurban, writing in 1881, said: A hundred years ago, there were 75,098 Jews in Hun- �2 SLOVAKJA gary; 55 years later there were already 241,632 of them (the increase burdened Slovakia mostly); in 1'870 they numbered 552,133 and now there are more than 600,000 of them in Hungary!" (Slovenske Pohl'ady, 1881, p. 291). The Czech writer Rudolph Pokorny, who reproduces these figures from direct eX:perience, describes the methods of Jewish immigrants in SlovaJkia as parasitical and exploitative (3). It would be very interesting to study in detaril the relations between the influx of Jews to Slovakia by the strengthening of their economic position and the economic decline orf the Slovak in1halbitants which resulted in an increasing exodus of Slovaks into foreign lands especially to the United States. According to our impressions from Hterature already reviewed, such a study would most li!kely lead to the conclusion that the exodus of the Sl()IVaks was in part caused by the great influx of Jews into rSl()IVaJkia. The strengthened economic positions of t:he Jews in Slovakia gave them the opportunity to exert stronger politicai influence and to propagate their ideology. A Polish observer A:gaton GiHer, ,w riting in 1876, described how the Jews in Slovalkia systematically worked against the Catholic Church and against Christianity in general( 4) under the aegis of the liberalism that was preached lby t:he Hungarian government ,o f the same Colman Tisza who, at the same time (1875) , denied the fact that the Slovak nation existed.(5). Jif we bear in mind the eX:tent and the constant increase of these mentioned effects of the Jewish minority in Slovak,ia, we shall more readily understand the spontaneous psychological reaction of the intelligentsia and the broad masses of the SloviaJk people. This reaction expressed itself, first of aill, in response to the tolerant nature of the SlovaJks and the fact that they laciked means of -power, in a blood-perspir~ng effort to save their own economic situation, ( with dollars made in American mines, the Slovak peasant tried to secure his livelihood in his native 'land) , then in t:he effort to emancipate themselves from dependence on the Jews in commerce to provide the daily necessities of life (by establishnig self-help cooperatives), amd also by an intensive building of institutions to preserve �SLOVAKIA 3 and •f .urther their original national culture both in a general and also in a specifically Christian sense (it suffices to mention the -Matica .Slovenska •a nd the Society of St. Adalbert). The situation did not change substantially even after the c,r eation oif the Czecho-Slova:k Republic in 1918(6). In 1923, a !French observer wa'S amazed \by the dis:proportion., ate preponderance of Jewish students in the universities and trade schools(7) and he foresaw that the Jews would thus soon capture the best positions in the new State(8). This prediction was if'll'lfilled, especiaUy a'S far as Slovakia was concerned. After the Vienna Arbitration, when the Jews constituted only 3.3'5 % of the population in S1ov,alkia(9), they owned almost one-half of the entire nation.a{ wealth(l0) and occupied most of the econ.omicaHy and civically important pwbl:i!c functionsO1). That this fact influenced the daily press and cultural production in general is evidence which needs no special proof(J2). It was only natural that the Slovak with all his legendary peace-loving characteristics, lbore the situation with difficulty; and the :Slovalk demands for autonomy, whicih characterized Slovak activities in the twenties and thirties of thi:s century, were accompanied by demands for a solution of the Jewish !problem. The current of anti-Semitism, which had overtalken many countries on the initiative of German Nazism, even such countries in whi·c h objectively suppositions fo'!" anti-Jew,i sh feeling were really insignificant if not directly fictitious, definitely did 1ha;ve some inf1uence even in 'Slova;kia(13). But who could stop Hitler at that time? It is not the fau~t •o f the Slovalks that many arguments of anti-Jewish :propaganda, originating outside of Slovalkia but ascribed to ,Slovakia, found at iJeast partial su!bstantiation in fact. THE JEWISH PROBLEM AND THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC Dr. Joseph Tiso took over the government of Sl01Vakia under the most difficult circumstances. His first worry was to preserve order and to prevent arbitray acts of usurpers even in the so,l ution of the Jewish .problem<14). Conscious of his responsibility to the nation, whose public opinion 1 �SLOVAKIA already for a longer time impatiently demanded radical regulations with regard to the privileged Czec,h and Jewish minority in Slovarkia(15), Dr. Tiso sought a legal solution of the matter already in federated Czecho-Slovakia(l6), as well as after March 14, 1919, in the Slova;k Republic. For an objectively moral evaluation of Tiso's conduct in the solution of the Jewish problem in .Slovakia, is is necessary to clearly distinguish ,various time periods, during which the legal and practical possibilities of Dr. Tiso to decide this question personally changed substantially. 1. From October 6, 1938, to October 26, 1939: Dr. Joseph Tiso, as Prime Mini:ster of the Slo,vaJk Go,vernment, had broad ;possiibilities oif legislative and executive intrative and, therefore, also dir,e ct, personal responsibility in this regard(17 ). 2. From October 26, 1939, to July 28, 1940: As President of the Slova:k Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso could intervene in the legislative acti,viby of the Assembly and influence the executive power reserived to the government, which was responsible to the Assembly and not to the President, only within the limits prescribed by the Constitution of the S'lovaJk Republic(18) . During this ,p eriod, we cannot regard Dr. Tiso directly res,ponsible for the various initiatives in the solution of the Jewis'h problem, but only for the acts of his office as prescrilbed by the Constitution: whether and how he used the rights of intervention., ·a s defined 'by the Constitution, in regard to legislative and exec,utirve acts which required his appm,val. For the latter, as head of the State, Dr. Tiso carries the responsibility, dividing it with the respective Constitutional organs. 3. From July 28, 1940, to August 30, 1944: at the Salziburg meeting with Germany's intervention in the internal affairs of 'Slova'kia(19) - Dr. Tiso lost a definite part of the effective possibilities to exercise his Constitutional rights in regard to persons who were forced by Hitler into the Slovaik Government, especially with regard to expressed demands of the Germans upon the Slova;k Government(20). Such was the problem of e~pelling or liquidating the Jew:? <21) . In this period we can hold Tiso as responsible, as in the previous period, only in proportion 1 1 �SLOVAKIA 5 to the effective possibilities of free action which remained open to him after !Hitler's intervention at Salzburg. 4. From August 30, 1944, to April 5, 1945: Slovakia was to a great extent a battleground, where actual governmental power was exercised by various fighting units, most of the time completely independent of civil governmental organs, nay even expressly in opposition to them. (22). Here the responsibility of Dr. Tiso is limited to those acts, which - aliWays within the extent of this Constitutional rights and duties - took ·p lace on the territory and at ra time when the Government of the SlovaJk Republic still go;verned there and had effective 1possibility to exercise its power. TISO'S SOLUTION Despite the critical political - internal and international - situation and the revolutionary events of October, 1938, and of March, 1939, with his resolute influence, Dr. Joseph Tiso checked all violent intervention of incited masses of ,people in the solution of the Jewish problem (23) and consistently in;volked a legal courne to- solve this problem. Such a course, while it secured for the Slovaks time for the necessary study of the various aspects of the complicated situation and for a democratic negotation .o f various motions, with regard to the Jews themselves, it eliminated the typically Nazi factor of surprise(2-!), giving them time and opportunity to prepare themselves psychologically and to make necessary provisions, including financial(25) in the face of the new situation. After such a preliminary preparation, the first Slo;vruk governmental regulation was issued April 30, 1939, with the force of law, the object of which was to solve the Jewish pro1blem (26). This regulation defined the concept of a confessional and civic viewpoint, without considering racial motives at all. Its aim was to reduce the disproportionate preponderance of Jews in the economic life of Slovakia. The Jews could continue to manage their enterprises if they allowed a 51 % per cent ,participation of Slovaks the 51 % not being confiscated, but lbought in a regular manner by Slovak participants (shareholders). The participation of Jews in the legal, medical, and other important �6 SLOVAKIA and profitable professions was to be regulated gradually in proportion to the total number of the Jewish minority. Besides this, the Slovak Government of Dr. Joseph Tiso supported. the voluntary emigration of Jews to Palestine in all possible ways< 27) . If we consider all the facts of the matter objecttvely, we must admit that in these regulations there really was nothing w'hich, under the given circumstances, would exceed the normal competency of a legislator that did not emanate from the natural law itself, or that would be opposed to the principles of justice and humanity(28). The first 'S lovak resolution of the J ewish question - and tihe only one which, in the full sense, we can call Tiso's solution - contained and realized the attributes proposed by Tiso when he ,proclaimed. that "t'he Jewish question in Slovakia shall be solved justly, socially, and humanly"( 29) . THE SLOVAK "JEWISH LAW" These :provisions clearly, but not altogether effectively because they left wide possibilities to evade the law(30), proved to be insufficient in attaining their aim. 'Dherefore, but probably also under German pressure(31), the Slovak Parliament prepared. a new so-catled "Jewish Law," which was approved on iFeb11uary 29, 1940(32). Fundamentally, this law differed little from the previous provision; it defined more accurately many details and fixed the principle of participation o.f the Jews in economic, civic, and cultural life in proportion to their number of the tdtal population, that is, 4 percent(33) . The confessional and civic principle remained in force, therefore not that of racial discrimination; so did the principle of selling 51 % of the shares of Jewish ente11prises to companion SloJVaks freely chosen lby them. This .principle of "Aryani:zation" Dr. Tiso defended consistently, even by using his constitutional authority as President(34) . GERMAN INTERVENTION AND THE "JEWISH CODE" It aippears t'hat even these new legal dispositions were not sufficient in practice to attain the goal. Several loopholes were left open for escape from the consequences of �SLOVAKIA 7 the [aw - and those affected naturally did not hesitate to use them in every way(35) - so t:Jhat the more radical circles in Slovakia expressed their dissatisfaction with such a solution. However, it was chiefly in Germany that the Slovak solution of the Jewish question was bitterly criticized as being basiically in conflict with the German Jewish !aws(36). It was this consistent originality and independence of Dr. Tiso and his government in regard to the so1ution of the Jewish question that was one of the reasons for intervention o,f Adol'ph Hitler in the internal affairs of the Slovak Republic at SalzJburg on July 28, 1940(37). There Dr. Tiso was forced to drop Dr. Ferdinand :Durcansky, Minister of the Interior and Foreign Affairs, who collorborated with him in the independent solution of the Jewish question. Dr. Vojtech T,uik,a, who was ,g reatly influenced by the Germans, was forced on tJhe Slova,k Government as Minister of Fo·r eign Affairs against the will of President Tiso(38), as was journalist Alexander Mach, who became the executor of German dictates especially in the Jewish question as Minister of the Interior(39) . For Dr. Joseph Tiso, Salzburg meant personally such a blow that he was determined to, tender his resignation( 40). It was only at the insistence of moderate SloivaJk ciroles, nay, even the Jews themselves, that he remained at his post to use his authority to check the radical group which was under the influence of the Germans(41). Tiso's position after SalaJbur,g, therefore, became substantially a defensi'Ve one: not only did he lose in notable measure the possibility of concrete intiative in regard to the Jewish question, but also his constitutional authority of intervention was ,partially reduced by t:Jhe facts of this new political situation. Thus it happened that on September 10, Prime Minister Tuika could force the parliament to pass an enabling law for the solution of the Jewish question by the government. This "emandpated" ,goivernment of Dr. T,uka issued in the form of a goivernment regulation - without the signature of the President of the Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso - the so-called "Jewish Code"< 42 >, Wihich copied the Ger~ man Nuremberg Laiw. Apparently the Germans were de- �8 SLOVAKIA termined to impose Hitler's order in SlovaJkia - the same imperial imposition of Hitler's Germaniy to which all the governments of states in the German sphere of influence had succumbed. In comparison with the Jewish laws of Germany and the other States (iltaly, France, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Holland, Denmark, Norway - and even annexed Austria, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the General Governorship of Poland), the "Jewish Code" of S1ovakia contained two lucid points which were hers exclusive ly: the first reserved to the Preside nt of the Repulblic the right of direct administrational "exception" of anyone from the power of this law <43), while the second confirmed the validity of all exce ptions alre ady granted according to the aforementioned Slovak law(44 ). These two paragraphs, leaving tJhe head of the State an open possibility to protect in the face of an avalanche of force which evidently it was impossible to oppose, were the motive why Dr. Joseiph Tiso finally decided not to resign his office after the .promulgation of the "Jewish Code"< 45 ). PRESIDENT TISO'S STAND The question was a real "ca:sus conscientiae," which today ,w e can reconstruct in its main outlines. Dr. Tiso was opposed to any violent solution of the Jewish question; he was ready to .p rotest against it by resigning his office. The following realities, however , came into ,c onsideration: if Tiso did resign, it was c ertain that Tu.ka would be put into his office - and it was generally !known that Tu!ka was strongly under German influences. I,f this would have happened, not only all the Jews of SlovaJkia would ha'Ve been completely subject to German inte:vventions, but even government power of all Slovakia would practically have passed ()IVer completely into German hands and this w·o uld have had catastrophic consequences for the entire nation. Let it suffice here to mention the forced participation in the war and the system of National 1Socialism promoted b.y Dr. Tutka. Under such circumstances, the resignation o;f Dr. Tiso would have meant deserting from a position of responsi- �SLOVAKIA 9 bility, disappointing the h0ipes of all the people who sa,w in him the salvation of the nation in a critical world situation and a ,g uarantee aigainst the 'Very actual ideological danger of Nazi,sm(46). By retaining t:Jhe funcUon o.f the President of the Republic, Dr. Tiso had a hoipe not only of continuing the defensive policy of Slova!kia a,gainst Nazism, but a:lso to sarve, if not all, at least as many as possible Jews of Slovakia who were persecuted by Nazism. Were these ihoipes however, sUJbstantiated? The answer to this question is very impo,r tant for the moral qualification of the stand of Dr. Joseph Tiso and thereby of his entire relationship to the proiblem orf the Jews in SlovaJkia. It is not difficult to answer the first part of the question: It has been proved that by remaining President of the Republic, Dr. Tiso not only sruved the SlovaJk nation from threatened occupation and division, from the flood of Nazi ideolo,gy, from most of the economic and social consequences of the world rwar, but, despite the exceptional circumstances, he also organized Slovakia legally, culturally and economically as an independent State and thereby demonstrated t:Jhat Sloiva,kia had all the ;prerequisites orf developmernt as an independent State. Under his guidance Slovalk ia attained "brilliant results and the elan of autonomous life was reaHy wonderful"< 47). So that we could answer the second part of the question, we must objecti'Ve1y examine the cause of Jewish provisions and their exeoution in Slovakia in the third and fourth periods (1941-1945). After the promulgation of the "Jewish Code," the Jews were supposed to be transferred from Slovakia to the territory between the Visla and t:Jhe Bug in former Poland, where there was to be found some kind of state creation reserved for them. Here it is necessary to, note that the project of a separate territory for European Jews presented a solution which was seriously studied not only in Ckrmany( 48), but ,a iso iby other powers, such as, for example, the United States (4 9). To:l. order to ascertain the situation the SlovaJk Gov•e rnment sent to Poland a representatiive of the Ministry of the Interior, Isidore Koso, to whom they 1, 1 �10 SLOVAKIA actually did show the Jewish city of Sosnowitz, Oppel, with its own administration, police, etc. Well, even .after this the SlovaJk Government did not begin to transfer Jews, but arranged labor camps for them in Slovakia, where they were to be gradually concentrated. This course, which Reitlinger explains as motivated by economy(50), is apparently 1b etter ex.plained as a reaction of the Slovak Government to the Memorandum of the Slovak Catholic Bishops of October 7, 1941(51), and to the reminders of the Holy See of Novemfber 12, 1941 (52). In both these doouments ecclesiastical representatives protested against the racist principle which inspired governmentrul regulation No. 198--1941 of the Slova!k Code, especiaUy however rugainst those ,p oints which were out of line with the teachings of the Church (outlawing mixed marriages, ex:pulsion from schools) and called upon the SlovaJk G()IVernment to recall or at least change the mentioned regulations in this seinse. The Holy See, wihich was for apparent reasons generally regarded as "the best informed political center of the world"(53 ), at the same time manifested its understanding for the situation of the ,Slov,a;k Government when it concluded its note with these words,: "The Holy See hopes that the Slovak Government, as long as the government regulations are not repealed or amended, will try to ex;plain and to validate the issued regulations in suoh a measUTe and in such a manner so that they mig1ht become as far as is possible least harmful to the needs (demands) of Catholic conscience"(54). These words appear to be the norm and therefore the explanation of the course not only of Dr. Tiso, but also that of the :SloIVaJk gOIVemment followed in practice until the end of their activities. Thus it was that despite the Nuremberg t01J1e of the "Jewish Code," the f,unda:mental :points of that code were not practically applied until March 10, 1942. Thus far it has not been conclusively ascertained, whether under German pressure or not(5,5), Minister of the Interior Alexander Mach issued the decree on March 7, 1942, which confined all the Jews of Slovakia to their homes until their transfer to the East(5&) . This provision, which was soon followed by the first transports of Jews from Slo- �SLOVAKIA 11 vakia to Galicia (March 10, 1942), inspired a strong opposition of public opinion, new protests of ecclesiastical circles (.57), nay, even dissent of the rest of the members of the government.(5<8). But it has been safely ascertained that Germany did pressure the Slovak Government to adopt the solution of the Jewish question in the form of transferring the Jews which had been accepted by the other States (Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Hungary). To this end Heydrich himself came to Bratislava on April 10, 1942, to tell Tuka that the Jews of Slovakia would be transferred to the Lublin area where they would be settled permanently. Separate settlements were to be arranged for baptized Jews (59). After repeated insistence and assurances from the German side that Jewish families would be respected and that they would be dealt with decently(·60), the Slovak Government began to send to the East the members of the families of those young, able-to-work Jews who had been transported the previous month. In this second intervention of the Slovak Government, it is possible to see an effort to correct in some way the mistake of the first transfer by which many Jewish families were broken up. It became tragic that the promises of Heydrich and Eichmann were the treacherous trap which was not without effect(&l). At that time the Slovak Government could not know about the real intentions of the Nazis: Wisliceny himself found this out, as we shall see, only several months later. Nevertheless Dr. Tuka insisted that he might send an inspection mission to ascertain on the spot just how the transferred Jews were being dealt with. The Slovak Government presented this demand also formally in the form of a note addressed to the German Government(,62) - but received only an evasive reply. It was this, most likely, that roused suspicions on the Slovak side. Therefore already on May 15, 1942, the Slovak parliament approved a constitutional law by which it practically repealed the power given the government in September, 1941, and legally set the course for the problem of emigration. The substance of this law was, however, the practical cessation of deportations; the law, that is, sanctioned all the previously granted presidential and minis- �12 SLOVAKIA terial "exceptions" and established a new general exception for Jews baptized before March 14, 1939(63) . Furthermore, it established that Jews, affected by the law, would be concentrated in labor camps in Slovakia. In July, 1942, when the representative of the Holy See in Bratislava notified President Tiso that the Jews in the Lublin area were being murdered, Dr. Tiso with absolute determination insisted on the realization of a Slovak inspection mission - or else there would be no further transfer of Jews from Slovakia. In August, Wisliceny went to Berlin with the matter. There Eichmann told him that Tiso was asking an impossible thing because those Jews were no longer alive. Thereupon he showed him a secret order, issued by the will of Hitler and signed by Himmler, according to which the entire Jewish race was to be gradually destroyed(64). Wisliceny returned to Bratislava again with an evasive reply. After this deportations from Slovakia were completely stopped. From what has been said it is quite clear that the Slovak Government allowed the transfer of a part of the Jews from Slovakia under the imperialistic pressure of Germany - in the face of guarantees to respect basic human rights and humanitarian treatment. As soon as there arose a reason to doubt that the Nazis were fulfilling the guarantees given, the parliament of the Slovak Republic with the strength of a constitutional law stood up to protect the Jewish citizens of Slovakia. The fact that it is necessary to explain the law of May 15, 1942, in this maner, is also supported by the following realities : 1. The motive for voting this law was the merciless exportation of the Jews on the basis of the decree of Minister Mach of March 7, 1942 (65). 2. By this law, constitutionally, were sanctioned all the exceptions granted by the President of the Republic and the resort Ministers ; also a new general exception was established by which a confessional criterion was given priority - which the Germans sharply criticized already in 1940 as opposed to the racist principles of Nuremberg. 3. The real aim of concentrating the Jews, who did not have the mentioned exceptions, in Slovak labor camps was �SLOVAKIA 13 to save them from possible transfer elsewhere on the initiative of radical circles around Minister Mach behind which stood the power of Germany. This was evident from the way these camps were set up - the living conditions of which were but little different from complete freedom(66). 4. Despite repeated insistence from the side of the Germans, nay, even despite the intervention of Hitler himself with President Tiso(67), Slovakia did not retreat from her position and protected the Jews with all means of political tactics(68) and her own State power. 5. After September 1, 1944, when Slovakia became a battlefield and governmental power was factually exercised by the fighting armies, despite German occupation of practically the whole of Slovakia, the new Minister of National Defense and State Security of the Slovak Republic, Stephen Hrussik, ordered the abolishment of all concentration camps and of all anti-Jewish administrational regulations(69). 6. When German army commanders defied the above order and by force transported to Germany all Jews that fell into their hands during military operations, the new Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Stephen Tiso, energetically protested to the German Government(70). 7. Later, when the commander of the occupation army and "the only representative of the Reich in Slovakia"(71), SS-General Berger forced the Slovak Government regulation in regard to concentrating the Jews (Nov. 16, 1944), the provision had practically no effect because the Slovak Government and Slovak officials silently agreed that the Jews be free to hide themselves(72). From the given facts it is quite clear that despite some drastic interventions of the Nazis and their several Slovak collaborators in the spring of 1942, for which they gained partial accord of the Slovak Government by cunning, the great part of the Jewish minority could remain in Slovakia and there be effectively protected to such an extent that the Slovak Republic in certain periods was regarded as a relative asylum even for the Jews from other countries, especially those from Poland and Hungary(73). The stand of the Slovak Republic in regard to the "definite solution" (Endlosung) of the Jewish question, pres- �14 SLOVAKIA sured by the Nazis, immediately from the first moments of suspicion about the real aim of these " regulations," was unanimously and consistently so rejective that it really presents "the story of the first outright failure of the 'Final Solution' and a failure at a time when there was no glimmer of hope for Jewry in Axis-controlled Europe" (74). The fact that the small Slovak State, even though it could not prevent all violence, knew how to stand up against it - and with such a determination that an objective historian can today talk about "a challenge to war" and about "a revolt" of the Slovak Government(75) - proves t hat t he Slovak Government even in this r egard not only did not accept without reservations the principles of Hitler's National Socialism, but even knew how to defend itself against them, nay, even to repudiate them forcefully, as long as it was not completely overpowered by the brutal preponderance of military occupation and frontal operations. This important fact has thus far not been properly evaluated in world literature which concerns itself with this historical period. If we pause now in our search for the reasons of the described facts, we shall come to the conclusion that one of the most decisive factors in the course of events in Slovakia was the personality of President Dr. Joseph Tiso. To this conclusion we are led by the following facts: 1. While Dr. Joseph Tiso held the initiative of solving the Jewish question in Slovakia( we saw that he solved it in a sense of strict justice, in a legal way, and in a most human manner. 2. As President of the Republic he used his constitutional right in order that the laws proposed by the parliament remained within the confines of the same principles which were in opposition to the Nazi anti-Jewish laws( 7,6). 3. When he could not prevent the issuance of the "Jewish Codex," he reserved the right for himself to limit its effectiveness as much as possible by personal "exceptions." That this was the intent of the mentioned paragraph 225 is confirmed by the fact ascertained by the court that Dr. Joseph Tiso used his authority as a matter of principle for every case placed before him, by which in a short time he �SLOVAKIA 15 liberated a great part of the Jewish inhabitants of Slovakia from the "Jewish Codex"(77). 4. It was generally known that the initiative of proGerman politics was held by the ministers forced on Tiso (Dr. Tuka and A. Mach) - and that there were basic conflicts between them and President Tiso. If, therefore, the Slovak parliament could pass the constitutional law of May 15, 1942 - which was in fact aimed against German Nazis and the executors of their influence in Slovakia this is understandable only if we allow that it did so not only within the support of the authority of the President of the Republic and the chairman of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, Dr. Joseph Tiso, but, as it has been safely ascertained: directly on his initiative (78) . 5. Finally, only such a consistently anti-Nazi stand of President Tiso in regard to the Jewish question can explain the fact that, even despite the regulations of the government and the Minister of the Interior, some of the regional representatives of state power could during that entire time take positions of open protection of the Jewish inhabitants, nay, even actually intervene in the initiative of government trustees in the Jewish question on territory administered by them( 79) . CONCLUSION As we emphasized at the outset, in this study we were interested in focalizing some of the facts that are important and pertinent for a correct evaluation of the relationship of Dr. Joseph Tiso to the Jewish problem in Slovakia. Intentionally we have not touched upon some undoubtedly interesting and relatively important aspects of this complicated problem which require a separate study (e.g., the question of statistical data, the question of the legal and moral side of the individual regulations and respective responsibilities, etc.) . This study, we believe, does prove that we cannot honestly regard Dr. Joseph Tiso as a persecutor of the Jews or as a collaborator of the Nazis in their inhuman work of genocide of the Jewish nation. It is necessary, however, to acknowledge that the President of the Slovak Republic did prove himself an eminent opponent of every injustice against the Jews, whether perpetrated by �16 SLOVAKIA the German Nazis or by others in their service. Dr. Tiso did everything in his power to save them - and we say, without fear of contradiction, that he did for the Jews what no other statesman dared to do in the Europe controlled by Hitler at that time. If, despite this, a part of the Jews of Slovakia was taken out of Slovakia by violent intervention of brute force, it is certain that this happened without any direct participation of Dr. Joseph Tiso - nay, against his will - and, hence, we cannot hold him responsible for it. Dr. Tiso found himself face to face with a current "which it was possible to impede and probably even to influence, but not stop," as he himself had said during his trial in Bratislava <SO) . There is no evidence to prove that Dr. Tiso aided or abetted, motivated or approved in any way, the brutal treatment of Jews in Slovakia or anywhere else. To lie in the face of death is not easy. So much the less can we allow that Dr. Joseph Tiso could do so - the same Dr. Tiso who could proclaim before the entire nation that never in his life did he utter an untruth intentionally. And he did not fear that someone might be able to prove the opposite. Would that the world were managed by politicians and statesmen who would follow the noble example of the President of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso! REFERENCES: 1. The first opm10n is practically current in encyclopedic and scientific literature; some Slovak authors are inclined to the second; e.g., Th. J. Zubek ("Monsignor Jozef Tiso - Controversial Personality" - The Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Nov. 1955, p. 125). 2. Dr. Joseph Pauco: Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe, Passaic, N. J ., 1952; pp. 323-323. 3. R. Pokorny: Z potulek po Slovensku, Prague, 1884, Vol. I, pp. 56-. 4. It was not by accident that the German translation of Rabbi Benjamin Halvey's Hebrew pasquinade "Das leben Jesu. Zurn ersten Male historisch bearbeitet nach neuentdeckten jiidisch orientalischen Quellen" was published in Bratislava (Pressburg) in 1875. According to the translator, who personally offered it to Giller in Trencianske Teplice, it surpassed by far the dilettante attempts of Strauss, Voltaire and other blasphemous pseudo-historians. See A. Giller - Z podrozy po kraju slowackim" - Lw6w, -876; pp. 197-. 5. Th. G. Locher: Die nationale Differenzeirung und lntegrie• rung der Slowaken und Tschechen in ihren geschichtlichen Verlauf bis 1848 - Haarlem, 1931; p. 196. 6. J. A. Mikus: La Slovaquie dans le drame de l'Europe - Paris, 1955; p. 133. 7. While Hungary, for example, had a "numerus clausus" estab- �SLOVAKIA 17 lished by law, in Czecho-Slova kia, where the number of J ews was estimated at 3--4 percent of the population, the secondary schools became practically the exclusive domain of the Jews. In Prague itself over half the students were Jewish; the State Gymnazium for girls bad 163 Jewish pupils out of a total of 248; in several gymnaziums for boys the relationship of Jews to non-Jews was: 116 out of 254; 123 out of 250; 185 out of 240. At the university for every three nonJewish professors there was one Jewish professor. See: J. Boubee Tcheco-Slova quie - in "ETUDES," Paris, Vol. 60, No. 174, 1923; pp. 225-. 8. Ibidem. 9. G. Reitlinger: The Final Solution - London, 1953; p. 386. 10. The value of Jewish properties was evaluated at 3,150 million Slovak Crowns; besides this, the Jews controlled over 12,000 industrial enterprises with a capital of 1,250 million Slovak Crowns, especially the textile industry where they controlled 90 percent oi the production. The situation was much the same in the wood and alcohol industries. See the article "La Slovacchia e gli Ebrei" in the periodical RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI, Milan, Vol. 8, No. 34, 1942; p , 902. 11. Ibidem: 72 percent of the lawyers and 64 percent of the medics were Jews, while 58 percent of all restaurant and liquor concessions was in their hands. 12. See the statement, e.g., of P . R. Mikus in the SLOVAK, Bratislava, Vol. XXI, No. 34, February 10, 1939; p. 1. 13. Here we do not have in mind only States, such as Italy, for example, which did adopt various anti-Jewish regulations. Count Ciano noted that on January 13, 1939, in a conversation with Mussolini, Chamberlain expressed grave fears that "further immigration of Jews into England would incite anti-Semitism which is already being planned in many sectors of the country." Besides the Jewish minority in England was negligible: according to Chamberlain , 60,000 (Mussolini stated that it was over 200,000) - G. Ciano, "Diario, 1939-1940," Milan, 1946; p. 22. - In regard to the anti-Jewish mood in other States, see "Les archives secre de la Wilhelmstras se" - Vol V, Book II, Paris, 1954, Documents Nos. 469-493, pp. 113-. 14. Dr. Tiso stressed this in general in his first speech after taking over government in Slovakia, Oct. 8, 1938 (K. Culen: Po Svatoplukovi druha nasa hlava," Middletown, Pa., 1948; p. 215). Later, on March 15, 1939, in a broadcast he warned all who would be guilty of such acts and threatened that the government would prosecute all culprits ("SLOVAK" - Bratislava, Vol. XXI, No. 63, 1939; p . 4). 15. "SLOVAK" - Vol. XXI, No. 25, Jan. 31, 1939. 16. "SLOVAK" - Vol XXI, No. 28, Feb. 3, 1939; p. 3. Compare also the government declaration of Feb. 22, 1939 ("SLOVAK," Vol. XXI, Nos. 44-45, Feb. 22-23, 1939). 17. Speech of Dr. Tiso at the Eighth Convention of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party at Trencin, Oct. 1, 1939 ("SLOVAK" - Vol. XXI, No. 227, Oct. 3, 1939; pp. 3-4). 18. An analysis of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic by H. Schimani: "Die Verfassun~ der Slowakischen Republik" - Vienna, 1947. 19. Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky: Pravo Slovakov na samostatnost' vo svetle dokumentov - Vol. I, Buenos Aires, 1954; p. 196. 20. Dr. J. Pauco: op. cit., p. 55. �18 SLOVAKIA Dr. F. Durcansky: op. cit., p. 237. J. A. Mikus: op. cit., pp. 185-; F. Durcansky: op. cit.; pp. 475: In an official pronouncement, Feb. 21, 1939, Tiso declared: "It is proof of the maturity of our nation that despite all incitements the Slovak nation waited for the legal solution of the Jewish question" (stenographic report of the second meeting of the Slovak Assembly, Bratislava, Feb. 21-23, 1939, p. 9). 24. That this was the expressed intention of Dr. Tiso is attested to by his statement to the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraph Agency, J. Frankel, Feb. 8, 1939: "The coming Jewish law will certainly serve the purpose that the Jews might not be caught by surprises and would know just how far they will be able to go in economic life" (SLOVAK, Feb. 10, 1939, p. 3). 25. Memorandum of the British Consul in Bratislava, Mr. P. Pares, Feb. 3, 1939, in the "DOCUMENTS ON BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY 1919-1939" - Third Series, Vol. IV, No. 97, 1951, London; p. 96. 26. No. 63-39 SLOVAK CODE; No. 102-39 Ur. nov. (Official News). 27. It approved the transfer and emigration plan of Dr. S. E. Soskin (SLOVAK, Feb. 10, 1939, p. 3). Innsbruck28. Compare, e.g., J. Messner: Das Naturrecht Vienna, 1950, pp. 365-366 - and: P. Pavan: l.'.uomo nella communita internazionale - Rome, s.d., p. 47. 29. SLOVAK, Feb. 10, 1939, p. 3. 30. RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI, op. cit., p. 902. 31. We did not find documents which would definitely confirm such pressure in this period, but the testimony of F. Durcansky inclines us to believe that pressures were exercised. He said: "secret influences of the Germans did not validate themselves anywhere to such an extent as they did in the attempt to attain the solution of the Jewish question in Slovakia according to the desires of the National Socialistic circles. . . . " (Speaking of the period prior to July 28, 1940) - F. Durcansky, op. cit., p. 237. 32. No. 46-40, SLOVAK CODE. 33. Commenting on this law on March 10, 1940, Tiso stressed that we are here concerned "with our own reasonable course. This is not an imitation of foreign patterns." - (SLOVAK, March 13, 21. 22. 23. 1940, p. 3). 34. Thus, e.g., in April, 1940, he returned to the Parliament for renewed debate on the draft of the law about Jewish enterprises with his own remarks and reminders; the parliament then approved the law with Tiso's recommendations on April 25, 1940 (SLOVAK, April 26, 1940), p. 2). 35. The amount which the Jews transferred abroad at that time was estimated at 2,000 million Slovak Crowns. Even in the "Aryan- only ized" enterprises "the Jews frequently remained bosses names changed on paper" (GARDISTA, June 14, 1941, p. 3). 36. Compare the study of the German legal expert for Slovak affairs, K. 0. Rabl, "Verfassungsrecht und Verfassungsleben in der neuen Slowakei" (in the periodical: ZEITSCHRIFT fur auslandisches offentliches Recht und Volkerrecht - Berlin, Vol. IX, No. 4, 1940), which concludes categorically: "The Jewish problem in Slovakia is practically, therefore, according to previous provisions, not solved at all. Mainly the economic and imperial position of Jewry remains the same as it was before" (p. 867). �SLOVAKIA 37. 38. 39. 40, 41. l!} F. Durcansky, op. cit., p. 237. K. Culen, op. cit., pp. 263-; p. 480; J . A. Mikus, op. cit. p. 163. G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. 386. J. Pauco, op. cit., p. 35; K. Culen, op. cit., p. 380. Minister Gejza Medricky's testimony during the Tiso trial ; this is reproduced by K. Culen, op. cit., p. 480. 42. SLOVAK CODE, part 52, No. 198, September 10, 1941. 43. "Jewish Codex" - part X, par. 255. 44. Ibidem, par. 256. 45. J . Pauco, op. cit., footnote 92, p. 323. 46. Compare the testimony of Archbishop Kmet'ko before the National Court in Bratislava, January 6, 1947; K. Culen, op. cit. pp. 369-370. 47. A. Giannini: Monsignor Tiso (in "Rivista di studi politici internazionali" - Firenze, Vol. XIX, No. 3, 1952, p. 451); a wealth of documentaton is produced also by F . Durcansky, op. cit., pp. 166-169, 190-248. 48. Dr. Ley, German Minister, informed Count Ciano about the project in Rome, Dec. 6, 1939. In 1940, Ribbentrop told Ciano about Hitler's plan to create a Jewish free state on the island of Madagascar, where all the Jews of Europe were supposed to be concentrated. (l!Europa verso la catastrofe - Verona, 1948; G. Ciano, Diario 19391943, Milan, 1946, Vol. I, p. 280). 49. On December 7, 1938, President Roosevelt sent Mussolini a personal letter in which he proposed that a part of the south and southwest territory of Abyssinia be reserved for the Jews. Mussolini declared that personally he sympathized with the idea of creating a Jewish state, but decidely not in Abyssinia, nor anywhere in Africa. He proposed Russia, Brazil or the United States of America (Les Archives Secretes de la Wilhelmstrasse, Vol. IV, Les suites de Munich, Paris, 1953, doc. No. 341, pp. 498-500; compare also Vol. V, Book II, Paris, 1954, doc. Nos. 469-493, pp. 113-158). 50. G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. -387. 51. Partially reproduced in K. Sidor's "~est' rokov pri Vatik'• ne" - Scranton, Pa., 1947, pp. 135-138. 52. In the note of the State Secretariate to His Holiness, No. 8355-41 , published in Sidor's op. cit., pp. 138-140. 53. W. Theimer: Lexicon der Politik, Bern, 1947, under "Vatikan" - p. 482. 54. K. Sidor, op. cit., p. 140. Sidor used the Slovak word "potrebam" (needs) in translating the Italian "esigenze," but the latter would probably be better expressed by "poziadavkam" (demands). 55. G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 387. 56. At a press conference, March 27, 1942, Minister A. Mach declared that "the ultimate aim is to transfer all Jews to a territory, which would be ordered for the settlement within the framework of a new European order" (SLOVAK, March 28, 1942, p. 3). 57. The Vatican protested with the note of the State Secretariate of His Holiness, No. 2027-42 ,dated March 14, 1942. At the end of March, the Slovak Minister at the Vatican, Karol Sidor, personally was in Bratislava with a demand to stop deportations (K. Sidor, op. cit., pp. 141-142). 58. G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 388; from this reaction, as well as from the declaration of Minister A. Mach at the press conference �20 SLOVAKIA mentioned above (56), it is apparent that the personal intervention of the minister forced by Ribbentrop on Tiso was concerned and/ or his group of Slovak extremists. Mach publicly repudiated "speeches (which implied) that we had been somehow asked from the outside or forced to this solution. We ourselves have undertaken everything possible to have the opportunity to get rid of the Jews" (SLOVAK, March 28, 1942). According to the note of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bratislava, No. 8.325/ 1/ 42, of May 8, 1942, addressed to the Slovak Embassy at the Vatican (concerning the reply to the mentioned interventions of the Vatican of Nov. 12, 1941, and March 14, 1942), at that time " there were negotiations between the factors of the Slovak Republic and the Greman Reich in regard to the problem of the European Jews," in the sense of which "the Jews of Slovakia would be placed in several areas in the vicinity of Lublin ... where they would remain permanently" (K. Sidor, op. cit., pp. 142-143). This connection of matters appears to be more probable. 59. F . Steiner: Tragedy of Slovak Jewry - Bratislava, 1949, p. 6; reprod. from G. Reitlinger, op. cit. 60. At the beginning of May, Eichmann negotiated in this sense with Dr. Tuka and A. Mach. 61. G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. 388. 62. Wisliceny admitted this before the Nuremberg Court The Trial of the Major War Criminals - Vol. ill, pp. 276-278; reprod . .bY G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 390). 63. "In practice the way was open in this intensely Catholic country for any professed convert to demand protection" (B. Shub: Hitler's Ten-Year War on the Jews, New York, 1943, p . 54;reprod. by G. Reitlingeh ,op. cit. , p. 390). 64. G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 390. 65. Compare the testimony of Minister G. Medricky before the National Court in Bratislava, Feb. 21, 1947; K. Culen, op. cit., p . 482. 66. The official report of the International Red Cross describes them thusly: " ... les camps qui presentaient des conditions de nouriture et de logement passables, les internes etaient admis a travailler moyennant salaire dans des conditio se rapprochant de :Ueconomie libre" (Rapport du Comite international de la Croix-Rouge sur son action pendant la seconde guerre mondiale, Geneve, 1948, p. 674). 67. After various messengers and plenipotentiaries had pressured Tiso and the Slovak Government, Tiso was called to Salzburg in May, 1943, where Hitler angrily marked the Slovak resolution of the Jewish question 'insufficient." 68. In the light of realities, such would appear to be the various public manifestations (as, e.g., the anti-Jewish speech of Min. A. Mach in Ruzomberok, Feb. 7, 1943) and the conditioned promises of President Tiso (in December, 1943, to Himmler's special agent E. Weesenmayer) which, however, were never fulfilled . Compare Sidor's account, op. cit., pp. 146-147, and G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. 390. 69. According to unpublished testimonies in manuscript which are in the hands of the author. 70. K. Sidor, op. cit., p. 148. 71. It was thus that he presented himself to President Tiso on his arrival to Bratislava "as the accredited agent of Hitler" at the end of August, 1944. See: J . Pauco, op. cit., p. 293. 72. The regulation was formulated as a summons to come to a �SLOVAKIA 21 definite place on Nov. 24. A delegate of the International Red Cr oss ascertained on the spot that the summons was answered only by about 50 Jews: "Comme les Autorites slovaques l'avaient d'ailleurs prevu" he relates literally - "les Israelites se cachaient" (Rapport du Comite .. . . op. cit., p. 674). The hidden Jews could be aided not only by the population, but also by the International Red Cross with the help of the Slovak Red Cross and the Catholic Church (p. 675). 73. Intern. Red Cross Report, op. cit., p. 674; F. Durcansky, op. cit., p. 239. 74. G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 385. 75. "Yet as early as July, 1942, this Government rebelled" writes G. Reitlinger (op. cit., p. 385). We note, apparent as it is from the foregoing, that it is necessary to see this "rebellion" already in the constitutional law of May 15, 1942. The same autor says in another place: "We have seen in the case of Slovakia, how a Government which defied German pressure and abandoned the Final Solution, was forced to return to it, when, on the eve of capitulation to the enemy, the country was occupied by German troops" (p. 412). 76. It is worthy of note here that Tiso's insistence on a per centual participation of the Jews in the economy of Slovakia in relation to their number of the entire population could in no way be regarded as a repressive regulation, inasmuch as the principle concerned here was the same as that which Tiso ordered to be applied even in regards to the other minorities, not even excluding the Germans themselves. It has been ascertained, e.g. , that in official State positions the Germans could not occupy more than 5 percent of them (K. Culen , op. cit., p. 432); the same applied in regards to the "aryanization" of Jewish enterprises - their participation was limited percentually (J. Pauco, op. cit., p. 238). 77. The actual number of "Presidential exceptions" granted by Tiso has thus far not been accurately ascertained. Some authors estimate the number "above 9,000" (J. Pauco, who bases his account on the statements of lawyers during the Tiso trial; op. cit., p. 323); Dr. J. A. Mikus gives the figure 9,964 without, however, quoting any document or source (op . cit., p. 135); Minister Stephen Hassik estimated "about 15,000" (manuscript in author's possession). The report of J. Luther to Ribbentrop, August 17, 1942, indicates a greater number; according to that report, at that time 35,000 Jews in Slovakia were already safeguarded "by special legitimation" (G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. 390); a greater number is also indicated by the fact that the presiding judge of the National Court in Bratislava, Dr. Igor Daxner, in the trial against Dr. Tiso and his associates, did not allow an accurate ascertainment of the number of "exceptions"; he did this as a rule whenever it came to ascertaining matters that were favorable for Dr. Tiso (compare K. Culen, op. cit.). 78. Already on March 23, 1942, Dr. Tiso had Monsignor John Postenyi present the question to the State Council to sound out the ground and to gain a basis for his further intervention, which he later realized by means of the parliament (Dr. Zabkaj, in the National Court in Bratislava, March 15, 1947, according to mimeographed reports of the Slovak Press Bureau, Bratislava). 79. Typical is the example of Nitra Province, which in 1940-1944 was administered by Stephen Hassik, where the Jews were consistently protected and where, in 1943, the administrator, even though �22 SLOVAKIA not present, was able to obstruct the transfer of a certain number of Jews into Germany even after the action had begun (Manuscript in author's hands). 80. J. Pauco Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe), op. cit., p. 322. SOURCES: CIANO, Galeazzo: Diario - Volume primo, 1939-1940; Milano, Rizzoli, 1946; L'Europa verso la catastrofe; 184 colloqui con Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Sumner Welles, Rustu Aras, Stoiadinovic, Goring, Zog, Francois-Poncet ecc. verbalizzati da Galeazzo Ciano, con 40 documenti diplomatici inediti; (Verona), A. Mondadori, 1948. CULEN, Konstantin: Po Svatoplukovi druha nasa hlava (Zivot Dr. Jozefa Tisu); Middletown, Pa. , Prva Katolicka Slovenska Jednota, 1947-1948; 2Vols. DOCUMENTS ON BRITISH FOREIGN :POLICY 1919--1939, Third Series; London, His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1951. DURCANSKY, Ferdinand: Pravo Slovakov na samostatnost' vo svetle dokumentov, Vol. 1, Biela kniha; Buenos Aires, Slovensky Oslobodzovaci Vybor, 1954. GILLER, Agaton, Z podr6zy po kraju slowackim; Lw6w, Gubrynowicz and Schmidt, 1876. ·HAssiK, Stefan: Prispevok O rieseni iidovskej otazky V Sloven• skei republike (unpublished manuscript). INSTITUTE OF JEWISH AFFAffiS: Hitler's Ten-Year War on the Jews; New York, 1943. LES ARCHIVES SECRETES DE LA WILHELMSTRASSE: Documents traduits de l' allemand par Michael TOURNIER; Paris, Librairie Plon, 1950. Les Juives en Europe 1939-1945; Paris, CDJC, 1947. MIKUS, Joseph A., La Slovaquie dans le drame de I' Europe (Histoire politique de 1918 a 1950); Paris, Les Iles d' Or, 1955. POKORNY, Rudolf: Z potulek po Slovensku; Praha, 1884-1885, 2 Vols .. RAPPORT DU COMITE INTERNATIONAL DE LA CROIXROUGE sur son activite pendant la seconde guerre mondiale (ler septembre 1939 - 30 juin 1947); Geneve, 1948. REITLINGER, Gerald: The Final Solution. The Attempt to Ex• ter~inate the Jews of Europe 1939-1945; London, Vallentine-Mitchell, 1953. SIDOR, Karol: ~est' rokov pri Vatikane; Scranton, Pa., Obrana Press, Inc., 1947. STEINER, Frederick: The Tragedy of Slovak Jewry; Bratislava, 1949; (Documentation Centre CUJCR). TISO, Jozef : Obhajobna rec pred Narodnym sudom v Bratislave dna 17. a 18. marca 1947; edited by Dr. Jozef PAUCO : Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe; Passaic, N. J ., Slovensky Katolicky Sokol, 1952. PERIODICALS: ETUDES, Paris. GARDISTA, Bratislava-Zilina. RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI, Milano. RIVISTA DI STUD! POLITIC! INTERNAZIONALI, Firenze. SLOVAK, Bratislava. ZEITSCHRIFT FUR AUSLANDISCHES OFFENTLICHES RECHT UND VOLKERRECHT, Berlin. � SLOVAKIA Pub I ished VOL. V II quart erly by the Slovak League SEPTEMBER- DECEMBER, 195 7 of America NO. 3-4(24-25) DR. JOSEPH TISO AND THE JEWISH PROBLEM IN SLOVAKIA MILAN S. DURI CA The fact that, during the period when Dr. Joseph Tiso was at the head of the Slova)k Republic as its president, there ,w ere "liqttidated" in an inhumane manner, in Nazi concentration camps, per.haps also severa1 tens of thousands of Jews from Slovakia, has tempted many authors either to hold Dr. Tiso directly responsible for these crimes, or at -least to consider this point as t,h e real weaJkness of Tiso's policy and his defense< 1 >. We are convinced that the so1ution of the Jewish problem in Slovakia is a very complicated proiblem and, therefore, it is necessary to gather in an objective study all existing documents so that the _true state of affairs might become known (2) . While awaiting the results of such a study, we are attempting here to focalize some of the actualities which already h ave been documented - facts which can put some light on definite, shadowy sides of this problem and also note in what direction it is necessary to move in making a further study so that we might arrive at an objective statement of the facts that had taken iplace and thus also at a correct moral evaluation of them. J EW RY IN S LOVAK IA Already in the past century, native and foreign observers were stunned by the great influx of Jews to Hungary and especially to the part of Hungary inhabited by the Slovaks from time immemorial. While Caplovic noted 6,850 J ews in the Trencin area h efore 1829, according to. the census of 1869 there already were 13,365 of them among 237,702 SlavaJks. Sveto,z ar Hurban, writing in 1881, said: A hundred years ago, there were 75,098 Jews in Hun- �2 SLOVAKJA gary; 55 years later there were already 241,632 of them (the increase burdened Slovakia mostly); in 1'870 they numbered 552,133 and now there are more than 600,000 of them in Hungary!" (Slovenske Pohl'ady, 1881, p. 291). The Czech writer Rudolph Pokorny, who reproduces these figures from direct eX:perience, describes the methods of Jewish immigrants in SlovaJkia as parasitical and exploitative (3). It would be very interesting to study in detaril the relations between the influx of Jews to Slovakia by the strengthening of their economic position and the economic decline orf the Slovak in1halbitants which resulted in an increasing exodus of Slovaks into foreign lands especially to the United States. According to our impressions from Hterature already reviewed, such a study would most li!kely lead to the conclusion that the exodus of the Sl()IVaks was in part caused by the great influx of Jews into rSl()IVaJkia. The strengthened economic positions of t:he Jews in Slovakia gave them the opportunity to exert stronger politicai influence and to propagate their ideology. A Polish observer A:gaton GiHer, ,w riting in 1876, described how the Jews in Slovalkia systematically worked against the Catholic Church and against Christianity in general( 4) under the aegis of the liberalism that was preached lby t:he Hungarian government ,o f the same Colman Tisza who, at the same time (1875) , denied the fact that the Slovak nation existed.(5). Jif we bear in mind the eX:tent and the constant increase of these mentioned effects of the Jewish minority in Slovak,ia, we shall more readily understand the spontaneous psychological reaction of the intelligentsia and the broad masses of the SloviaJk people. This reaction expressed itself, first of aill, in response to the tolerant nature of the SlovaJks and the fact that they laciked means of -power, in a blood-perspir~ng effort to save their own economic situation, ( with dollars made in American mines, the Slovak peasant tried to secure his livelihood in his native 'land) , then in t:he effort to emancipate themselves from dependence on the Jews in commerce to provide the daily necessities of life (by establishnig self-help cooperatives), amd also by an intensive building of institutions to preserve �SLOVAKIA 3 and •f .urther their original national culture both in a general and also in a specifically Christian sense (it suffices to mention the -Matica .Slovenska •a nd the Society of St. Adalbert). The situation did not change substantially even after the c,r eation oif the Czecho-Slova:k Republic in 1918(6). In 1923, a !French observer wa'S amazed \by the dis:proportion., ate preponderance of Jewish students in the universities and trade schools(7) and he foresaw that the Jews would thus soon capture the best positions in the new State(8). This prediction was if'll'lfilled, especiaUy a'S far as Slovakia was concerned. After the Vienna Arbitration, when the Jews constituted only 3.3'5 % of the population in S1ov,alkia(9), they owned almost one-half of the entire nation.a{ wealth(l0) and occupied most of the econ.omicaHy and civically important pwbl:i!c functionsO1). That this fact influenced the daily press and cultural production in general is evidence which needs no special proof(J2). It was only natural that the Slovak with all his legendary peace-loving characteristics, lbore the situation with difficulty; and the :Slovalk demands for autonomy, whicih characterized Slovak activities in the twenties and thirties of thi:s century, were accompanied by demands for a solution of the Jewish !problem. The current of anti-Semitism, which had overtalken many countries on the initiative of German Nazism, even such countries in whi·c h objectively suppositions fo'!" anti-Jew,i sh feeling were really insignificant if not directly fictitious, definitely did 1ha;ve some inf1uence even in 'Slova;kia(13). But who could stop Hitler at that time? It is not the fau~t •o f the Slovalks that many arguments of anti-Jewish :propaganda, originating outside of Slovalkia but ascribed to ,Slovakia, found at iJeast partial su!bstantiation in fact. THE JEWISH PROBLEM AND THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC Dr. Joseph Tiso took over the government of Sl01Vakia under the most difficult circumstances. His first worry was to preserve order and to prevent arbitray acts of usurpers even in the so,l ution of the Jewish .problem<14). Conscious of his responsibility to the nation, whose public opinion 1 �SLOVAKIA already for a longer time impatiently demanded radical regulations with regard to the privileged Czec,h and Jewish minority in Slovarkia(15), Dr. Tiso sought a legal solution of the matter already in federated Czecho-Slovakia(l6), as well as after March 14, 1919, in the Slova;k Republic. For an objectively moral evaluation of Tiso's conduct in the solution of the Jewish problem in .Slovakia, is is necessary to clearly distinguish ,various time periods, during which the legal and practical possibilities of Dr. Tiso to decide this question personally changed substantially. 1. From October 6, 1938, to October 26, 1939: Dr. Joseph Tiso, as Prime Mini:ster of the Slo,vaJk Go,vernment, had broad ;possiibilities oif legislative and executive intrative and, therefore, also dir,e ct, personal responsibility in this regard(17 ). 2. From October 26, 1939, to July 28, 1940: As President of the Slova:k Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso could intervene in the legislative acti,viby of the Assembly and influence the executive power reserived to the government, which was responsible to the Assembly and not to the President, only within the limits prescribed by the Constitution of the S'lovaJk Republic(18) . During this ,p eriod, we cannot regard Dr. Tiso directly res,ponsible for the various initiatives in the solution of the Jewis'h problem, but only for the acts of his office as prescrilbed by the Constitution: whether and how he used the rights of intervention., ·a s defined 'by the Constitution, in regard to legislative and exec,utirve acts which required his appm,val. For the latter, as head of the State, Dr. Tiso carries the responsibility, dividing it with the respective Constitutional organs. 3. From July 28, 1940, to August 30, 1944: at the Salziburg meeting with Germany's intervention in the internal affairs of 'Slova'kia(19) - Dr. Tiso lost a definite part of the effective possibilities to exercise his Constitutional rights in regard to persons who were forced by Hitler into the Slovaik Government, especially with regard to expressed demands of the Germans upon the Slova;k Government(20). Such was the problem of e~pelling or liquidating the Jew:? <21) . In this period we can hold Tiso as responsible, as in the previous period, only in proportion 1 1 �SLOVAKIA 5 to the effective possibilities of free action which remained open to him after !Hitler's intervention at Salzburg. 4. From August 30, 1944, to April 5, 1945: Slovakia was to a great extent a battleground, where actual governmental power was exercised by various fighting units, most of the time completely independent of civil governmental organs, nay even expressly in opposition to them. (22). Here the responsibility of Dr. Tiso is limited to those acts, which - aliWays within the extent of this Constitutional rights and duties - took ·p lace on the territory and at ra time when the Government of the SlovaJk Republic still go;verned there and had effective 1possibility to exercise its power. TISO'S SOLUTION Despite the critical political - internal and international - situation and the revolutionary events of October, 1938, and of March, 1939, with his resolute influence, Dr. Joseph Tiso checked all violent intervention of incited masses of ,people in the solution of the Jewish problem (23) and consistently in;volked a legal courne to- solve this problem. Such a course, while it secured for the Slovaks time for the necessary study of the various aspects of the complicated situation and for a democratic negotation .o f various motions, with regard to the Jews themselves, it eliminated the typically Nazi factor of surprise(2-!), giving them time and opportunity to prepare themselves psychologically and to make necessary provisions, including financial(25) in the face of the new situation. After such a preliminary preparation, the first Slo;vruk governmental regulation was issued April 30, 1939, with the force of law, the object of which was to solve the Jewish pro1blem (26). This regulation defined the concept of a confessional and civic viewpoint, without considering racial motives at all. Its aim was to reduce the disproportionate preponderance of Jews in the economic life of Slovakia. The Jews could continue to manage their enterprises if they allowed a 51 % per cent ,participation of Slovaks the 51 % not being confiscated, but lbought in a regular manner by Slovak participants (shareholders). The participation of Jews in the legal, medical, and other important �6 SLOVAKIA and profitable professions was to be regulated gradually in proportion to the total number of the Jewish minority. Besides this, the Slovak Government of Dr. Joseph Tiso supported. the voluntary emigration of Jews to Palestine in all possible ways< 27) . If we consider all the facts of the matter objecttvely, we must admit that in these regulations there really was nothing w'hich, under the given circumstances, would exceed the normal competency of a legislator that did not emanate from the natural law itself, or that would be opposed to the principles of justice and humanity(28). The first 'S lovak resolution of the J ewish question - and tihe only one which, in the full sense, we can call Tiso's solution - contained and realized the attributes proposed by Tiso when he ,proclaimed. that "t'he Jewish question in Slovakia shall be solved justly, socially, and humanly"( 29) . THE SLOVAK "JEWISH LAW" These :provisions clearly, but not altogether effectively because they left wide possibilities to evade the law(30), proved to be insufficient in attaining their aim. 'Dherefore, but probably also under German pressure(31), the Slovak Parliament prepared. a new so-catled "Jewish Law," which was approved on iFeb11uary 29, 1940(32). Fundamentally, this law differed little from the previous provision; it defined more accurately many details and fixed the principle of participation o.f the Jews in economic, civic, and cultural life in proportion to their number of the tdtal population, that is, 4 percent(33) . The confessional and civic principle remained in force, therefore not that of racial discrimination; so did the principle of selling 51 % of the shares of Jewish ente11prises to companion SloJVaks freely chosen lby them. This .principle of "Aryani:zation" Dr. Tiso defended consistently, even by using his constitutional authority as President(34) . GERMAN INTERVENTION AND THE "JEWISH CODE" It aippears t'hat even these new legal dispositions were not sufficient in practice to attain the goal. Several loopholes were left open for escape from the consequences of �SLOVAKIA 7 the [aw - and those affected naturally did not hesitate to use them in every way(35) - so t:Jhat the more radical circles in Slovakia expressed their dissatisfaction with such a solution. However, it was chiefly in Germany that the Slovak solution of the Jewish question was bitterly criticized as being basiically in conflict with the German Jewish !aws(36). It was this consistent originality and independence of Dr. Tiso and his government in regard to the so1ution of the Jewish question that was one of the reasons for intervention o,f Adol'ph Hitler in the internal affairs of the Slovak Republic at SalzJburg on July 28, 1940(37). There Dr. Tiso was forced to drop Dr. Ferdinand :Durcansky, Minister of the Interior and Foreign Affairs, who collorborated with him in the independent solution of the Jewish question. Dr. Vojtech T,uik,a, who was ,g reatly influenced by the Germans, was forced on tJhe Slova,k Government as Minister of Fo·r eign Affairs against the will of President Tiso(38), as was journalist Alexander Mach, who became the executor of German dictates especially in the Jewish question as Minister of the Interior(39) . For Dr. Joseph Tiso, Salzburg meant personally such a blow that he was determined to, tender his resignation( 40). It was only at the insistence of moderate SloivaJk ciroles, nay, even the Jews themselves, that he remained at his post to use his authority to check the radical group which was under the influence of the Germans(41). Tiso's position after SalaJbur,g, therefore, became substantially a defensi'Ve one: not only did he lose in notable measure the possibility of concrete intiative in regard to the Jewish question, but also his constitutional authority of intervention was ,partially reduced by t:Jhe facts of this new political situation. Thus it happened that on September 10, Prime Minister Tuika could force the parliament to pass an enabling law for the solution of the Jewish question by the government. This "emandpated" ,goivernment of Dr. T,uka issued in the form of a goivernment regulation - without the signature of the President of the Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso - the so-called "Jewish Code"< 42 >, Wihich copied the Ger~ man Nuremberg Laiw. Apparently the Germans were de- �8 SLOVAKIA termined to impose Hitler's order in SlovaJkia - the same imperial imposition of Hitler's Germaniy to which all the governments of states in the German sphere of influence had succumbed. In comparison with the Jewish laws of Germany and the other States (iltaly, France, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Holland, Denmark, Norway - and even annexed Austria, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the General Governorship of Poland), the "Jewish Code" of S1ovakia contained two lucid points which were hers exclusive ly: the first reserved to the Preside nt of the Repulblic the right of direct administrational "exception" of anyone from the power of this law <43), while the second confirmed the validity of all exce ptions alre ady granted according to the aforementioned Slovak law(44 ). These two paragraphs, leaving tJhe head of the State an open possibility to protect in the face of an avalanche of force which evidently it was impossible to oppose, were the motive why Dr. Joseiph Tiso finally decided not to resign his office after the .promulgation of the "Jewish Code"< 45 ). PRESIDENT TISO'S STAND The question was a real "ca:sus conscientiae," which today ,w e can reconstruct in its main outlines. Dr. Tiso was opposed to any violent solution of the Jewish question; he was ready to .p rotest against it by resigning his office. The following realities, however , came into ,c onsideration: if Tiso did resign, it was c ertain that Tu.ka would be put into his office - and it was generally !known that Tu!ka was strongly under German influences. I,f this would have happened, not only all the Jews of SlovaJkia would ha'Ve been completely subject to German inte:vventions, but even government power of all Slovakia would practically have passed ()IVer completely into German hands and this w·o uld have had catastrophic consequences for the entire nation. Let it suffice here to mention the forced participation in the war and the system of National 1Socialism promoted b.y Dr. Tutka. Under such circumstances, the resignation o;f Dr. Tiso would have meant deserting from a position of responsi- �SLOVAKIA 9 bility, disappointing the h0ipes of all the people who sa,w in him the salvation of the nation in a critical world situation and a ,g uarantee aigainst the 'Very actual ideological danger of Nazi,sm(46). By retaining t:Jhe funcUon o.f the President of the Republic, Dr. Tiso had a hoipe not only of continuing the defensive policy of Slova!kia a,gainst Nazism, but a:lso to sarve, if not all, at least as many as possible Jews of Slovakia who were persecuted by Nazism. Were these ihoipes however, sUJbstantiated? The answer to this question is very impo,r tant for the moral qualification of the stand of Dr. Joseph Tiso and thereby of his entire relationship to the proiblem orf the Jews in SlovaJkia. It is not difficult to answer the first part of the question: It has been proved that by remaining President of the Republic, Dr. Tiso not only sruved the SlovaJk nation from threatened occupation and division, from the flood of Nazi ideolo,gy, from most of the economic and social consequences of the world rwar, but, despite the exceptional circumstances, he also organized Slovakia legally, culturally and economically as an independent State and thereby demonstrated t:Jhat Sloiva,kia had all the ;prerequisites orf developmernt as an independent State. Under his guidance Slovalk ia attained "brilliant results and the elan of autonomous life was reaHy wonderful"< 47). So that we could answer the second part of the question, we must objecti'Ve1y examine the cause of Jewish provisions and their exeoution in Slovakia in the third and fourth periods (1941-1945). After the promulgation of the "Jewish Code," the Jews were supposed to be transferred from Slovakia to the territory between the Visla and t:Jhe Bug in former Poland, where there was to be found some kind of state creation reserved for them. Here it is necessary to, note that the project of a separate territory for European Jews presented a solution which was seriously studied not only in Ckrmany( 48), but ,a iso iby other powers, such as, for example, the United States (4 9). To:l. order to ascertain the situation the SlovaJk Gov•e rnment sent to Poland a representatiive of the Ministry of the Interior, Isidore Koso, to whom they 1, 1 �10 SLOVAKIA actually did show the Jewish city of Sosnowitz, Oppel, with its own administration, police, etc. Well, even .after this the SlovaJk Government did not begin to transfer Jews, but arranged labor camps for them in Slovakia, where they were to be gradually concentrated. This course, which Reitlinger explains as motivated by economy(50), is apparently 1b etter ex.plained as a reaction of the Slovak Government to the Memorandum of the Slovak Catholic Bishops of October 7, 1941(51), and to the reminders of the Holy See of Novemfber 12, 1941 (52). In both these doouments ecclesiastical representatives protested against the racist principle which inspired governmentrul regulation No. 198--1941 of the Slova!k Code, especiaUy however rugainst those ,p oints which were out of line with the teachings of the Church (outlawing mixed marriages, ex:pulsion from schools) and called upon the SlovaJk G()IVernment to recall or at least change the mentioned regulations in this seinse. The Holy See, wihich was for apparent reasons generally regarded as "the best informed political center of the world"(53 ), at the same time manifested its understanding for the situation of the ,Slov,a;k Government when it concluded its note with these words,: "The Holy See hopes that the Slovak Government, as long as the government regulations are not repealed or amended, will try to ex;plain and to validate the issued regulations in suoh a measUTe and in such a manner so that they mig1ht become as far as is possible least harmful to the needs (demands) of Catholic conscience"(54). These words appear to be the norm and therefore the explanation of the course not only of Dr. Tiso, but also that of the :SloIVaJk gOIVemment followed in practice until the end of their activities. Thus it was that despite the Nuremberg t01J1e of the "Jewish Code," the f,unda:mental :points of that code were not practically applied until March 10, 1942. Thus far it has not been conclusively ascertained, whether under German pressure or not(5,5), Minister of the Interior Alexander Mach issued the decree on March 7, 1942, which confined all the Jews of Slovakia to their homes until their transfer to the East(5&) . This provision, which was soon followed by the first transports of Jews from Slo- �SLOVAKIA 11 vakia to Galicia (March 10, 1942), inspired a strong opposition of public opinion, new protests of ecclesiastical circles (.57), nay, even dissent of the rest of the members of the government.(5<8). But it has been safely ascertained that Germany did pressure the Slovak Government to adopt the solution of the Jewish question in the form of transferring the Jews which had been accepted by the other States (Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Hungary). To this end Heydrich himself came to Bratislava on April 10, 1942, to tell Tuka that the Jews of Slovakia would be transferred to the Lublin area where they would be settled permanently. Separate settlements were to be arranged for baptized Jews (59). After repeated insistence and assurances from the German side that Jewish families would be respected and that they would be dealt with decently(·60), the Slovak Government began to send to the East the members of the families of those young, able-to-work Jews who had been transported the previous month. In this second intervention of the Slovak Government, it is possible to see an effort to correct in some way the mistake of the first transfer by which many Jewish families were broken up. It became tragic that the promises of Heydrich and Eichmann were the treacherous trap which was not without effect(&l). At that time the Slovak Government could not know about the real intentions of the Nazis: Wisliceny himself found this out, as we shall see, only several months later. Nevertheless Dr. Tuka insisted that he might send an inspection mission to ascertain on the spot just how the transferred Jews were being dealt with. The Slovak Government presented this demand also formally in the form of a note addressed to the German Government(,62) - but received only an evasive reply. It was this, most likely, that roused suspicions on the Slovak side. Therefore already on May 15, 1942, the Slovak parliament approved a constitutional law by which it practically repealed the power given the government in September, 1941, and legally set the course for the problem of emigration. The substance of this law was, however, the practical cessation of deportations; the law, that is, sanctioned all the previously granted presidential and minis- �12 SLOVAKIA terial "exceptions" and established a new general exception for Jews baptized before March 14, 1939(63) . Furthermore, it established that Jews, affected by the law, would be concentrated in labor camps in Slovakia. In July, 1942, when the representative of the Holy See in Bratislava notified President Tiso that the Jews in the Lublin area were being murdered, Dr. Tiso with absolute determination insisted on the realization of a Slovak inspection mission - or else there would be no further transfer of Jews from Slovakia. In August, Wisliceny went to Berlin with the matter. There Eichmann told him that Tiso was asking an impossible thing because those Jews were no longer alive. Thereupon he showed him a secret order, issued by the will of Hitler and signed by Himmler, according to which the entire Jewish race was to be gradually destroyed(64). Wisliceny returned to Bratislava again with an evasive reply. After this deportations from Slovakia were completely stopped. From what has been said it is quite clear that the Slovak Government allowed the transfer of a part of the Jews from Slovakia under the imperialistic pressure of Germany - in the face of guarantees to respect basic human rights and humanitarian treatment. As soon as there arose a reason to doubt that the Nazis were fulfilling the guarantees given, the parliament of the Slovak Republic with the strength of a constitutional law stood up to protect the Jewish citizens of Slovakia. The fact that it is necessary to explain the law of May 15, 1942, in this maner, is also supported by the following realities : 1. The motive for voting this law was the merciless exportation of the Jews on the basis of the decree of Minister Mach of March 7, 1942 (65). 2. By this law, constitutionally, were sanctioned all the exceptions granted by the President of the Republic and the resort Ministers ; also a new general exception was established by which a confessional criterion was given priority - which the Germans sharply criticized already in 1940 as opposed to the racist principles of Nuremberg. 3. The real aim of concentrating the Jews, who did not have the mentioned exceptions, in Slovak labor camps was �SLOVAKIA 13 to save them from possible transfer elsewhere on the initiative of radical circles around Minister Mach behind which stood the power of Germany. This was evident from the way these camps were set up - the living conditions of which were but little different from complete freedom(66). 4. Despite repeated insistence from the side of the Germans, nay, even despite the intervention of Hitler himself with President Tiso(67), Slovakia did not retreat from her position and protected the Jews with all means of political tactics(68) and her own State power. 5. After September 1, 1944, when Slovakia became a battlefield and governmental power was factually exercised by the fighting armies, despite German occupation of practically the whole of Slovakia, the new Minister of National Defense and State Security of the Slovak Republic, Stephen Hrussik, ordered the abolishment of all concentration camps and of all anti-Jewish administrational regulations(69). 6. When German army commanders defied the above order and by force transported to Germany all Jews that fell into their hands during military operations, the new Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Stephen Tiso, energetically protested to the German Government(70). 7. Later, when the commander of the occupation army and "the only representative of the Reich in Slovakia"(71), SS-General Berger forced the Slovak Government regulation in regard to concentrating the Jews (Nov. 16, 1944), the provision had practically no effect because the Slovak Government and Slovak officials silently agreed that the Jews be free to hide themselves(72). From the given facts it is quite clear that despite some drastic interventions of the Nazis and their several Slovak collaborators in the spring of 1942, for which they gained partial accord of the Slovak Government by cunning, the great part of the Jewish minority could remain in Slovakia and there be effectively protected to such an extent that the Slovak Republic in certain periods was regarded as a relative asylum even for the Jews from other countries, especially those from Poland and Hungary(73). The stand of the Slovak Republic in regard to the "definite solution" (Endlosung) of the Jewish question, pres- �14 SLOVAKIA sured by the Nazis, immediately from the first moments of suspicion about the real aim of these " regulations," was unanimously and consistently so rejective that it really presents "the story of the first outright failure of the 'Final Solution' and a failure at a time when there was no glimmer of hope for Jewry in Axis-controlled Europe" (74). The fact that the small Slovak State, even though it could not prevent all violence, knew how to stand up against it - and with such a determination that an objective historian can today talk about "a challenge to war" and about "a revolt" of the Slovak Government(75) - proves t hat t he Slovak Government even in this r egard not only did not accept without reservations the principles of Hitler's National Socialism, but even knew how to defend itself against them, nay, even to repudiate them forcefully, as long as it was not completely overpowered by the brutal preponderance of military occupation and frontal operations. This important fact has thus far not been properly evaluated in world literature which concerns itself with this historical period. If we pause now in our search for the reasons of the described facts, we shall come to the conclusion that one of the most decisive factors in the course of events in Slovakia was the personality of President Dr. Joseph Tiso. To this conclusion we are led by the following facts: 1. While Dr. Joseph Tiso held the initiative of solving the Jewish question in Slovakia( we saw that he solved it in a sense of strict justice, in a legal way, and in a most human manner. 2. As President of the Republic he used his constitutional right in order that the laws proposed by the parliament remained within the confines of the same principles which were in opposition to the Nazi anti-Jewish laws( 7,6). 3. When he could not prevent the issuance of the "Jewish Codex," he reserved the right for himself to limit its effectiveness as much as possible by personal "exceptions." That this was the intent of the mentioned paragraph 225 is confirmed by the fact ascertained by the court that Dr. Joseph Tiso used his authority as a matter of principle for every case placed before him, by which in a short time he �SLOVAKIA 15 liberated a great part of the Jewish inhabitants of Slovakia from the "Jewish Codex"(77). 4. It was generally known that the initiative of proGerman politics was held by the ministers forced on Tiso (Dr. Tuka and A. Mach) - and that there were basic conflicts between them and President Tiso. If, therefore, the Slovak parliament could pass the constitutional law of May 15, 1942 - which was in fact aimed against German Nazis and the executors of their influence in Slovakia this is understandable only if we allow that it did so not only within the support of the authority of the President of the Republic and the chairman of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, Dr. Joseph Tiso, but, as it has been safely ascertained: directly on his initiative (78) . 5. Finally, only such a consistently anti-Nazi stand of President Tiso in regard to the Jewish question can explain the fact that, even despite the regulations of the government and the Minister of the Interior, some of the regional representatives of state power could during that entire time take positions of open protection of the Jewish inhabitants, nay, even actually intervene in the initiative of government trustees in the Jewish question on territory administered by them( 79) . CONCLUSION As we emphasized at the outset, in this study we were interested in focalizing some of the facts that are important and pertinent for a correct evaluation of the relationship of Dr. Joseph Tiso to the Jewish problem in Slovakia. Intentionally we have not touched upon some undoubtedly interesting and relatively important aspects of this complicated problem which require a separate study (e.g., the question of statistical data, the question of the legal and moral side of the individual regulations and respective responsibilities, etc.) . This study, we believe, does prove that we cannot honestly regard Dr. Joseph Tiso as a persecutor of the Jews or as a collaborator of the Nazis in their inhuman work of genocide of the Jewish nation. It is necessary, however, to acknowledge that the President of the Slovak Republic did prove himself an eminent opponent of every injustice against the Jews, whether perpetrated by �16 SLOVAKIA the German Nazis or by others in their service. Dr. Tiso did everything in his power to save them - and we say, without fear of contradiction, that he did for the Jews what no other statesman dared to do in the Europe controlled by Hitler at that time. If, despite this, a part of the Jews of Slovakia was taken out of Slovakia by violent intervention of brute force, it is certain that this happened without any direct participation of Dr. Joseph Tiso - nay, against his will - and, hence, we cannot hold him responsible for it. Dr. Tiso found himself face to face with a current "which it was possible to impede and probably even to influence, but not stop," as he himself had said during his trial in Bratislava <SO) . There is no evidence to prove that Dr. Tiso aided or abetted, motivated or approved in any way, the brutal treatment of Jews in Slovakia or anywhere else. To lie in the face of death is not easy. So much the less can we allow that Dr. Joseph Tiso could do so - the same Dr. Tiso who could proclaim before the entire nation that never in his life did he utter an untruth intentionally. And he did not fear that someone might be able to prove the opposite. Would that the world were managed by politicians and statesmen who would follow the noble example of the President of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso! REFERENCES: 1. The first opm10n is practically current in encyclopedic and scientific literature; some Slovak authors are inclined to the second; e.g., Th. J. Zubek ("Monsignor Jozef Tiso - Controversial Personality" - The Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Nov. 1955, p. 125). 2. Dr. Joseph Pauco: Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe, Passaic, N. J ., 1952; pp. 323-323. 3. R. Pokorny: Z potulek po Slovensku, Prague, 1884, Vol. I, pp. 56-. 4. It was not by accident that the German translation of Rabbi Benjamin Halvey's Hebrew pasquinade "Das leben Jesu. Zurn ersten Male historisch bearbeitet nach neuentdeckten jiidisch orientalischen Quellen" was published in Bratislava (Pressburg) in 1875. According to the translator, who personally offered it to Giller in Trencianske Teplice, it surpassed by far the dilettante attempts of Strauss, Voltaire and other blasphemous pseudo-historians. See A. Giller - Z podrozy po kraju slowackim" - Lw6w, -876; pp. 197-. 5. Th. G. Locher: Die nationale Differenzeirung und lntegrie• rung der Slowaken und Tschechen in ihren geschichtlichen Verlauf bis 1848 - Haarlem, 1931; p. 196. 6. J. A. Mikus: La Slovaquie dans le drame de l'Europe - Paris, 1955; p. 133. 7. While Hungary, for example, had a "numerus clausus" estab- �SLOVAKIA 17 lished by law, in Czecho-Slova kia, where the number of J ews was estimated at 3--4 percent of the population, the secondary schools became practically the exclusive domain of the Jews. In Prague itself over half the students were Jewish; the State Gymnazium for girls bad 163 Jewish pupils out of a total of 248; in several gymnaziums for boys the relationship of Jews to non-Jews was: 116 out of 254; 123 out of 250; 185 out of 240. At the university for every three nonJewish professors there was one Jewish professor. See: J. Boubee Tcheco-Slova quie - in "ETUDES," Paris, Vol. 60, No. 174, 1923; pp. 225-. 8. Ibidem. 9. G. Reitlinger: The Final Solution - London, 1953; p. 386. 10. The value of Jewish properties was evaluated at 3,150 million Slovak Crowns; besides this, the Jews controlled over 12,000 industrial enterprises with a capital of 1,250 million Slovak Crowns, especially the textile industry where they controlled 90 percent oi the production. The situation was much the same in the wood and alcohol industries. See the article "La Slovacchia e gli Ebrei" in the periodical RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI, Milan, Vol. 8, No. 34, 1942; p , 902. 11. Ibidem: 72 percent of the lawyers and 64 percent of the medics were Jews, while 58 percent of all restaurant and liquor concessions was in their hands. 12. See the statement, e.g., of P . R. Mikus in the SLOVAK, Bratislava, Vol. XXI, No. 34, February 10, 1939; p. 1. 13. Here we do not have in mind only States, such as Italy, for example, which did adopt various anti-Jewish regulations. Count Ciano noted that on January 13, 1939, in a conversation with Mussolini, Chamberlain expressed grave fears that "further immigration of Jews into England would incite anti-Semitism which is already being planned in many sectors of the country." Besides the Jewish minority in England was negligible: according to Chamberlain , 60,000 (Mussolini stated that it was over 200,000) - G. Ciano, "Diario, 1939-1940," Milan, 1946; p. 22. - In regard to the anti-Jewish mood in other States, see "Les archives secre de la Wilhelmstras se" - Vol V, Book II, Paris, 1954, Documents Nos. 469-493, pp. 113-. 14. Dr. Tiso stressed this in general in his first speech after taking over government in Slovakia, Oct. 8, 1938 (K. Culen: Po Svatoplukovi druha nasa hlava," Middletown, Pa., 1948; p. 215). Later, on March 15, 1939, in a broadcast he warned all who would be guilty of such acts and threatened that the government would prosecute all culprits ("SLOVAK" - Bratislava, Vol. XXI, No. 63, 1939; p . 4). 15. "SLOVAK" - Vol. XXI, No. 25, Jan. 31, 1939. 16. "SLOVAK" - Vol XXI, No. 28, Feb. 3, 1939; p. 3. Compare also the government declaration of Feb. 22, 1939 ("SLOVAK," Vol. XXI, Nos. 44-45, Feb. 22-23, 1939). 17. Speech of Dr. Tiso at the Eighth Convention of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party at Trencin, Oct. 1, 1939 ("SLOVAK" - Vol. XXI, No. 227, Oct. 3, 1939; pp. 3-4). 18. An analysis of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic by H. Schimani: "Die Verfassun~ der Slowakischen Republik" - Vienna, 1947. 19. Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky: Pravo Slovakov na samostatnost' vo svetle dokumentov - Vol. I, Buenos Aires, 1954; p. 196. 20. Dr. J. Pauco: op. cit., p. 55. �18 SLOVAKIA Dr. F. Durcansky: op. cit., p. 237. J. A. Mikus: op. cit., pp. 185-; F. Durcansky: op. cit.; pp. 475: In an official pronouncement, Feb. 21, 1939, Tiso declared: "It is proof of the maturity of our nation that despite all incitements the Slovak nation waited for the legal solution of the Jewish question" (stenographic report of the second meeting of the Slovak Assembly, Bratislava, Feb. 21-23, 1939, p. 9). 24. That this was the expressed intention of Dr. Tiso is attested to by his statement to the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraph Agency, J. Frankel, Feb. 8, 1939: "The coming Jewish law will certainly serve the purpose that the Jews might not be caught by surprises and would know just how far they will be able to go in economic life" (SLOVAK, Feb. 10, 1939, p. 3). 25. Memorandum of the British Consul in Bratislava, Mr. P. Pares, Feb. 3, 1939, in the "DOCUMENTS ON BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY 1919-1939" - Third Series, Vol. IV, No. 97, 1951, London; p. 96. 26. No. 63-39 SLOVAK CODE; No. 102-39 Ur. nov. (Official News). 27. It approved the transfer and emigration plan of Dr. S. E. Soskin (SLOVAK, Feb. 10, 1939, p. 3). Innsbruck28. Compare, e.g., J. Messner: Das Naturrecht Vienna, 1950, pp. 365-366 - and: P. Pavan: l.'.uomo nella communita internazionale - Rome, s.d., p. 47. 29. SLOVAK, Feb. 10, 1939, p. 3. 30. RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI, op. cit., p. 902. 31. We did not find documents which would definitely confirm such pressure in this period, but the testimony of F. Durcansky inclines us to believe that pressures were exercised. He said: "secret influences of the Germans did not validate themselves anywhere to such an extent as they did in the attempt to attain the solution of the Jewish question in Slovakia according to the desires of the National Socialistic circles. . . . " (Speaking of the period prior to July 28, 1940) - F. Durcansky, op. cit., p. 237. 32. No. 46-40, SLOVAK CODE. 33. Commenting on this law on March 10, 1940, Tiso stressed that we are here concerned "with our own reasonable course. This is not an imitation of foreign patterns." - (SLOVAK, March 13, 21. 22. 23. 1940, p. 3). 34. Thus, e.g., in April, 1940, he returned to the Parliament for renewed debate on the draft of the law about Jewish enterprises with his own remarks and reminders; the parliament then approved the law with Tiso's recommendations on April 25, 1940 (SLOVAK, April 26, 1940), p. 2). 35. The amount which the Jews transferred abroad at that time was estimated at 2,000 million Slovak Crowns. Even in the "Aryan- only ized" enterprises "the Jews frequently remained bosses names changed on paper" (GARDISTA, June 14, 1941, p. 3). 36. Compare the study of the German legal expert for Slovak affairs, K. 0. Rabl, "Verfassungsrecht und Verfassungsleben in der neuen Slowakei" (in the periodical: ZEITSCHRIFT fur auslandisches offentliches Recht und Volkerrecht - Berlin, Vol. IX, No. 4, 1940), which concludes categorically: "The Jewish problem in Slovakia is practically, therefore, according to previous provisions, not solved at all. Mainly the economic and imperial position of Jewry remains the same as it was before" (p. 867). �SLOVAKIA 37. 38. 39. 40, 41. l!} F. Durcansky, op. cit., p. 237. K. Culen, op. cit., pp. 263-; p. 480; J . A. Mikus, op. cit. p. 163. G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. 386. J. Pauco, op. cit., p. 35; K. Culen, op. cit., p. 380. Minister Gejza Medricky's testimony during the Tiso trial ; this is reproduced by K. Culen, op. cit., p. 480. 42. SLOVAK CODE, part 52, No. 198, September 10, 1941. 43. "Jewish Codex" - part X, par. 255. 44. Ibidem, par. 256. 45. J . Pauco, op. cit., footnote 92, p. 323. 46. Compare the testimony of Archbishop Kmet'ko before the National Court in Bratislava, January 6, 1947; K. Culen, op. cit. pp. 369-370. 47. A. Giannini: Monsignor Tiso (in "Rivista di studi politici internazionali" - Firenze, Vol. XIX, No. 3, 1952, p. 451); a wealth of documentaton is produced also by F . Durcansky, op. cit., pp. 166-169, 190-248. 48. Dr. Ley, German Minister, informed Count Ciano about the project in Rome, Dec. 6, 1939. In 1940, Ribbentrop told Ciano about Hitler's plan to create a Jewish free state on the island of Madagascar, where all the Jews of Europe were supposed to be concentrated. (l!Europa verso la catastrofe - Verona, 1948; G. Ciano, Diario 19391943, Milan, 1946, Vol. I, p. 280). 49. On December 7, 1938, President Roosevelt sent Mussolini a personal letter in which he proposed that a part of the south and southwest territory of Abyssinia be reserved for the Jews. Mussolini declared that personally he sympathized with the idea of creating a Jewish state, but decidely not in Abyssinia, nor anywhere in Africa. He proposed Russia, Brazil or the United States of America (Les Archives Secretes de la Wilhelmstrasse, Vol. IV, Les suites de Munich, Paris, 1953, doc. No. 341, pp. 498-500; compare also Vol. V, Book II, Paris, 1954, doc. Nos. 469-493, pp. 113-158). 50. G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. -387. 51. Partially reproduced in K. Sidor's "~est' rokov pri Vatik'• ne" - Scranton, Pa., 1947, pp. 135-138. 52. In the note of the State Secretariate to His Holiness, No. 8355-41 , published in Sidor's op. cit., pp. 138-140. 53. W. Theimer: Lexicon der Politik, Bern, 1947, under "Vatikan" - p. 482. 54. K. Sidor, op. cit., p. 140. Sidor used the Slovak word "potrebam" (needs) in translating the Italian "esigenze," but the latter would probably be better expressed by "poziadavkam" (demands). 55. G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 387. 56. At a press conference, March 27, 1942, Minister A. Mach declared that "the ultimate aim is to transfer all Jews to a territory, which would be ordered for the settlement within the framework of a new European order" (SLOVAK, March 28, 1942, p. 3). 57. The Vatican protested with the note of the State Secretariate of His Holiness, No. 2027-42 ,dated March 14, 1942. At the end of March, the Slovak Minister at the Vatican, Karol Sidor, personally was in Bratislava with a demand to stop deportations (K. Sidor, op. cit., pp. 141-142). 58. G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 388; from this reaction, as well as from the declaration of Minister A. Mach at the press conference �20 SLOVAKIA mentioned above (56), it is apparent that the personal intervention of the minister forced by Ribbentrop on Tiso was concerned and/ or his group of Slovak extremists. Mach publicly repudiated "speeches (which implied) that we had been somehow asked from the outside or forced to this solution. We ourselves have undertaken everything possible to have the opportunity to get rid of the Jews" (SLOVAK, March 28, 1942). According to the note of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bratislava, No. 8.325/ 1/ 42, of May 8, 1942, addressed to the Slovak Embassy at the Vatican (concerning the reply to the mentioned interventions of the Vatican of Nov. 12, 1941, and March 14, 1942), at that time " there were negotiations between the factors of the Slovak Republic and the Greman Reich in regard to the problem of the European Jews," in the sense of which "the Jews of Slovakia would be placed in several areas in the vicinity of Lublin ... where they would remain permanently" (K. Sidor, op. cit., pp. 142-143). This connection of matters appears to be more probable. 59. F . Steiner: Tragedy of Slovak Jewry - Bratislava, 1949, p. 6; reprod. from G. Reitlinger, op. cit. 60. At the beginning of May, Eichmann negotiated in this sense with Dr. Tuka and A. Mach. 61. G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. 388. 62. Wisliceny admitted this before the Nuremberg Court The Trial of the Major War Criminals - Vol. ill, pp. 276-278; reprod . .bY G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 390). 63. "In practice the way was open in this intensely Catholic country for any professed convert to demand protection" (B. Shub: Hitler's Ten-Year War on the Jews, New York, 1943, p . 54;reprod. by G. Reitlingeh ,op. cit. , p. 390). 64. G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 390. 65. Compare the testimony of Minister G. Medricky before the National Court in Bratislava, Feb. 21, 1947; K. Culen, op. cit., p . 482. 66. The official report of the International Red Cross describes them thusly: " ... les camps qui presentaient des conditions de nouriture et de logement passables, les internes etaient admis a travailler moyennant salaire dans des conditio se rapprochant de :Ueconomie libre" (Rapport du Comite international de la Croix-Rouge sur son action pendant la seconde guerre mondiale, Geneve, 1948, p. 674). 67. After various messengers and plenipotentiaries had pressured Tiso and the Slovak Government, Tiso was called to Salzburg in May, 1943, where Hitler angrily marked the Slovak resolution of the Jewish question 'insufficient." 68. In the light of realities, such would appear to be the various public manifestations (as, e.g., the anti-Jewish speech of Min. A. Mach in Ruzomberok, Feb. 7, 1943) and the conditioned promises of President Tiso (in December, 1943, to Himmler's special agent E. Weesenmayer) which, however, were never fulfilled . Compare Sidor's account, op. cit., pp. 146-147, and G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. 390. 69. According to unpublished testimonies in manuscript which are in the hands of the author. 70. K. Sidor, op. cit., p. 148. 71. It was thus that he presented himself to President Tiso on his arrival to Bratislava "as the accredited agent of Hitler" at the end of August, 1944. See: J . Pauco, op. cit., p. 293. 72. The regulation was formulated as a summons to come to a �SLOVAKIA 21 definite place on Nov. 24. A delegate of the International Red Cr oss ascertained on the spot that the summons was answered only by about 50 Jews: "Comme les Autorites slovaques l'avaient d'ailleurs prevu" he relates literally - "les Israelites se cachaient" (Rapport du Comite .. . . op. cit., p. 674). The hidden Jews could be aided not only by the population, but also by the International Red Cross with the help of the Slovak Red Cross and the Catholic Church (p. 675). 73. Intern. Red Cross Report, op. cit., p. 674; F. Durcansky, op. cit., p. 239. 74. G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 385. 75. "Yet as early as July, 1942, this Government rebelled" writes G. Reitlinger (op. cit., p. 385). We note, apparent as it is from the foregoing, that it is necessary to see this "rebellion" already in the constitutional law of May 15, 1942. The same autor says in another place: "We have seen in the case of Slovakia, how a Government which defied German pressure and abandoned the Final Solution, was forced to return to it, when, on the eve of capitulation to the enemy, the country was occupied by German troops" (p. 412). 76. It is worthy of note here that Tiso's insistence on a per centual participation of the Jews in the economy of Slovakia in relation to their number of the entire population could in no way be regarded as a repressive regulation, inasmuch as the principle concerned here was the same as that which Tiso ordered to be applied even in regards to the other minorities, not even excluding the Germans themselves. It has been ascertained, e.g. , that in official State positions the Germans could not occupy more than 5 percent of them (K. Culen , op. cit., p. 432); the same applied in regards to the "aryanization" of Jewish enterprises - their participation was limited percentually (J. Pauco, op. cit., p. 238). 77. The actual number of "Presidential exceptions" granted by Tiso has thus far not been accurately ascertained. Some authors estimate the number "above 9,000" (J. Pauco, who bases his account on the statements of lawyers during the Tiso trial; op. cit., p. 323); Dr. J. A. Mikus gives the figure 9,964 without, however, quoting any document or source (op . cit., p. 135); Minister Stephen Hassik estimated "about 15,000" (manuscript in author's possession). The report of J. Luther to Ribbentrop, August 17, 1942, indicates a greater number; according to that report, at that time 35,000 Jews in Slovakia were already safeguarded "by special legitimation" (G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. 390); a greater number is also indicated by the fact that the presiding judge of the National Court in Bratislava, Dr. Igor Daxner, in the trial against Dr. Tiso and his associates, did not allow an accurate ascertainment of the number of "exceptions"; he did this as a rule whenever it came to ascertaining matters that were favorable for Dr. Tiso (compare K. Culen, op. cit.). 78. Already on March 23, 1942, Dr. Tiso had Monsignor John Postenyi present the question to the State Council to sound out the ground and to gain a basis for his further intervention, which he later realized by means of the parliament (Dr. Zabkaj, in the National Court in Bratislava, March 15, 1947, according to mimeographed reports of the Slovak Press Bureau, Bratislava). 79. Typical is the example of Nitra Province, which in 1940-1944 was administered by Stephen Hassik, where the Jews were consistently protected and where, in 1943, the administrator, even though �22 SLOVAKIA not present, was able to obstruct the transfer of a certain number of Jews into Germany even after the action had begun (Manuscript in author's hands). 80. J. Pauco Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe), op. cit., p. 322. SOURCES: CIANO, Galeazzo: Diario - Volume primo, 1939-1940; Milano, Rizzoli, 1946; L'Europa verso la catastrofe; 184 colloqui con Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Sumner Welles, Rustu Aras, Stoiadinovic, Goring, Zog, Francois-Poncet ecc. verbalizzati da Galeazzo Ciano, con 40 documenti diplomatici inediti; (Verona), A. Mondadori, 1948. CULEN, Konstantin: Po Svatoplukovi druha nasa hlava (Zivot Dr. Jozefa Tisu); Middletown, Pa. , Prva Katolicka Slovenska Jednota, 1947-1948; 2Vols. DOCUMENTS ON BRITISH FOREIGN :POLICY 1919--1939, Third Series; London, His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1951. DURCANSKY, Ferdinand: Pravo Slovakov na samostatnost' vo svetle dokumentov, Vol. 1, Biela kniha; Buenos Aires, Slovensky Oslobodzovaci Vybor, 1954. GILLER, Agaton, Z podr6zy po kraju slowackim; Lw6w, Gubrynowicz and Schmidt, 1876. ·HAssiK, Stefan: Prispevok O rieseni iidovskej otazky V Sloven• skei republike (unpublished manuscript). INSTITUTE OF JEWISH AFFAffiS: Hitler's Ten-Year War on the Jews; New York, 1943. LES ARCHIVES SECRETES DE LA WILHELMSTRASSE: Documents traduits de l' allemand par Michael TOURNIER; Paris, Librairie Plon, 1950. Les Juives en Europe 1939-1945; Paris, CDJC, 1947. MIKUS, Joseph A., La Slovaquie dans le drame de I' Europe (Histoire politique de 1918 a 1950); Paris, Les Iles d' Or, 1955. POKORNY, Rudolf: Z potulek po Slovensku; Praha, 1884-1885, 2 Vols .. RAPPORT DU COMITE INTERNATIONAL DE LA CROIXROUGE sur son activite pendant la seconde guerre mondiale (ler septembre 1939 - 30 juin 1947); Geneve, 1948. REITLINGER, Gerald: The Final Solution. The Attempt to Ex• ter~inate the Jews of Europe 1939-1945; London, Vallentine-Mitchell, 1953. SIDOR, Karol: ~est' rokov pri Vatikane; Scranton, Pa., Obrana Press, Inc., 1947. STEINER, Frederick: The Tragedy of Slovak Jewry; Bratislava, 1949; (Documentation Centre CUJCR). TISO, Jozef : Obhajobna rec pred Narodnym sudom v Bratislave dna 17. a 18. marca 1947; edited by Dr. Jozef PAUCO : Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe; Passaic, N. J ., Slovensky Katolicky Sokol, 1952. PERIODICALS: ETUDES, Paris. GARDISTA, Bratislava-Zilina. RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI, Milano. RIVISTA DI STUD! POLITIC! INTERNAZIONALI, Firenze. SLOVAK, Bratislava. ZEITSCHRIFT FUR AUSLANDISCHES OFFENTLICHES RECHT UND VOLKERRECHT, Berlin. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA Pub I ished VOL. V II quart erly by the Slovak League SEPTEMBER- DECEMBER, 195 7 of America NO. 3-4(24-25) DR. JOSEPH TISO AND THE JEWISH PROBLEM IN SLOVAKIA MILAN S. DURI CA The fact that, during the period when Dr. Joseph Tiso was at the head of the Slova)k Republic as its president, there ,w ere "liqttidated" in an inhumane manner, in Nazi concentration camps, per.haps also severa1 tens of thousands of Jews from Slovakia, has tempted many authors either to hold Dr. Tiso directly responsible for these crimes, or at -least to consider this point as t,h e real weaJkness of Tiso's policy and his defense< 1 >. We are convinced that the so1ution of the Jewish problem in Slovakia is a very complicated proiblem and, therefore, it is necessary to gather in an objective study all existing documents so that the _true state of affairs might become known (2) . While awaiting the results of such a study, we are attempting here to focalize some of the actualities which already h ave been documented - facts which can put some light on definite, shadowy sides of this problem and also note in what direction it is necessary to move in making a further study so that we might arrive at an objective statement of the facts that had taken iplace and thus also at a correct moral evaluation of them. J EW RY IN S LOVAK IA Already in the past century, native and foreign observers were stunned by the great influx of Jews to Hungary and especially to the part of Hungary inhabited by the Slovaks from time immemorial. While Caplovic noted 6,850 J ews in the Trencin area h efore 1829, according to. the census of 1869 there already were 13,365 of them among 237,702 SlavaJks. Sveto,z ar Hurban, writing in 1881, said: A hundred years ago, there were 75,098 Jews in Hun- 2 SLOVAKJA gary; 55 years later there were already 241,632 of them (the increase burdened Slovakia mostly); in 1'870 they numbered 552,133 and now there are more than 600,000 of them in Hungary!" (Slovenske Pohl'ady, 1881, p. 291). The Czech writer Rudolph Pokorny, who reproduces these figures from direct eX:perience, describes the methods of Jewish immigrants in SlovaJkia as parasitical and exploitative (3). It would be very interesting to study in detaril the relations between the influx of Jews to Slovakia by the strengthening of their economic position and the economic decline orf the Slovak in1halbitants which resulted in an increasing exodus of Slovaks into foreign lands especially to the United States. According to our impressions from Hterature already reviewed, such a study would most li!kely lead to the conclusion that the exodus of the Sl()IVaks was in part caused by the great influx of Jews into rSl()IVaJkia. The strengthened economic positions of t:he Jews in Slovakia gave them the opportunity to exert stronger politicai influence and to propagate their ideology. A Polish observer A:gaton GiHer, ,w riting in 1876, described how the Jews in Slovalkia systematically worked against the Catholic Church and against Christianity in general( 4) under the aegis of the liberalism that was preached lby t:he Hungarian government ,o f the same Colman Tisza who, at the same time (1875) , denied the fact that the Slovak nation existed.(5). Jif we bear in mind the eX:tent and the constant increase of these mentioned effects of the Jewish minority in Slovak,ia, we shall more readily understand the spontaneous psychological reaction of the intelligentsia and the broad masses of the SloviaJk people. This reaction expressed itself, first of aill, in response to the tolerant nature of the SlovaJks and the fact that they laciked means of -power, in a blood-perspir~ng effort to save their own economic situation, ( with dollars made in American mines, the Slovak peasant tried to secure his livelihood in his native 'land) , then in t:he effort to emancipate themselves from dependence on the Jews in commerce to provide the daily necessities of life (by establishnig self-help cooperatives), amd also by an intensive building of institutions to preserve SLOVAKIA 3 and •f .urther their original national culture both in a general and also in a specifically Christian sense (it suffices to mention the -Matica .Slovenska •a nd the Society of St. Adalbert). The situation did not change substantially even after the c,r eation oif the Czecho-Slova:k Republic in 1918(6). In 1923, a !French observer wa'S amazed \by the dis:proportion., ate preponderance of Jewish students in the universities and trade schools(7) and he foresaw that the Jews would thus soon capture the best positions in the new State(8). This prediction was if'll'lfilled, especiaUy a'S far as Slovakia was concerned. After the Vienna Arbitration, when the Jews constituted only 3.3'5 % of the population in S1ov,alkia(9), they owned almost one-half of the entire nation.a{ wealth(l0) and occupied most of the econ.omicaHy and civically important pwbl:i!c functionsO1). That this fact influenced the daily press and cultural production in general is evidence which needs no special proof(J2). It was only natural that the Slovak with all his legendary peace-loving characteristics, lbore the situation with difficulty; and the :Slovalk demands for autonomy, whicih characterized Slovak activities in the twenties and thirties of thi:s century, were accompanied by demands for a solution of the Jewish !problem. The current of anti-Semitism, which had overtalken many countries on the initiative of German Nazism, even such countries in whi·c h objectively suppositions fo'!" anti-Jew,i sh feeling were really insignificant if not directly fictitious, definitely did 1ha;ve some inf1uence even in 'Slova;kia(13). But who could stop Hitler at that time? It is not the fau~t •o f the Slovalks that many arguments of anti-Jewish :propaganda, originating outside of Slovalkia but ascribed to ,Slovakia, found at iJeast partial su!bstantiation in fact. THE JEWISH PROBLEM AND THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC Dr. Joseph Tiso took over the government of Sl01Vakia under the most difficult circumstances. His first worry was to preserve order and to prevent arbitray acts of usurpers even in the so,l ution of the Jewish .problem<14). Conscious of his responsibility to the nation, whose public opinion 1 SLOVAKIA already for a longer time impatiently demanded radical regulations with regard to the privileged Czec,h and Jewish minority in Slovarkia(15), Dr. Tiso sought a legal solution of the matter already in federated Czecho-Slovakia(l6), as well as after March 14, 1919, in the Slova;k Republic. For an objectively moral evaluation of Tiso's conduct in the solution of the Jewish problem in .Slovakia, is is necessary to clearly distinguish ,various time periods, during which the legal and practical possibilities of Dr. Tiso to decide this question personally changed substantially. 1. From October 6, 1938, to October 26, 1939: Dr. Joseph Tiso, as Prime Mini:ster of the Slo,vaJk Go,vernment, had broad ;possiibilities oif legislative and executive intrative and, therefore, also dir,e ct, personal responsibility in this regard(17 ). 2. From October 26, 1939, to July 28, 1940: As President of the Slova:k Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso could intervene in the legislative acti,viby of the Assembly and influence the executive power reserived to the government, which was responsible to the Assembly and not to the President, only within the limits prescribed by the Constitution of the S'lovaJk Republic(18) . During this ,p eriod, we cannot regard Dr. Tiso directly res,ponsible for the various initiatives in the solution of the Jewis'h problem, but only for the acts of his office as prescrilbed by the Constitution: whether and how he used the rights of intervention., ·a s defined 'by the Constitution, in regard to legislative and exec,utirve acts which required his appm,val. For the latter, as head of the State, Dr. Tiso carries the responsibility, dividing it with the respective Constitutional organs. 3. From July 28, 1940, to August 30, 1944: at the Salziburg meeting with Germany's intervention in the internal affairs of 'Slova'kia(19) - Dr. Tiso lost a definite part of the effective possibilities to exercise his Constitutional rights in regard to persons who were forced by Hitler into the Slovaik Government, especially with regard to expressed demands of the Germans upon the Slova;k Government(20). Such was the problem of e~pelling or liquidating the Jew:? <21) . In this period we can hold Tiso as responsible, as in the previous period, only in proportion 1 1 SLOVAKIA 5 to the effective possibilities of free action which remained open to him after !Hitler's intervention at Salzburg. 4. From August 30, 1944, to April 5, 1945: Slovakia was to a great extent a battleground, where actual governmental power was exercised by various fighting units, most of the time completely independent of civil governmental organs, nay even expressly in opposition to them. (22). Here the responsibility of Dr. Tiso is limited to those acts, which - aliWays within the extent of this Constitutional rights and duties - took ·p lace on the territory and at ra time when the Government of the SlovaJk Republic still go;verned there and had effective 1possibility to exercise its power. TISO'S SOLUTION Despite the critical political - internal and international - situation and the revolutionary events of October, 1938, and of March, 1939, with his resolute influence, Dr. Joseph Tiso checked all violent intervention of incited masses of ,people in the solution of the Jewish problem (23) and consistently in;volked a legal courne to- solve this problem. Such a course, while it secured for the Slovaks time for the necessary study of the various aspects of the complicated situation and for a democratic negotation .o f various motions, with regard to the Jews themselves, it eliminated the typically Nazi factor of surprise(2-!), giving them time and opportunity to prepare themselves psychologically and to make necessary provisions, including financial(25) in the face of the new situation. After such a preliminary preparation, the first Slo;vruk governmental regulation was issued April 30, 1939, with the force of law, the object of which was to solve the Jewish pro1blem (26). This regulation defined the concept of a confessional and civic viewpoint, without considering racial motives at all. Its aim was to reduce the disproportionate preponderance of Jews in the economic life of Slovakia. The Jews could continue to manage their enterprises if they allowed a 51 % per cent ,participation of Slovaks the 51 % not being confiscated, but lbought in a regular manner by Slovak participants (shareholders). The participation of Jews in the legal, medical, and other important 6 SLOVAKIA and profitable professions was to be regulated gradually in proportion to the total number of the Jewish minority. Besides this, the Slovak Government of Dr. Joseph Tiso supported. the voluntary emigration of Jews to Palestine in all possible ways< 27) . If we consider all the facts of the matter objecttvely, we must admit that in these regulations there really was nothing w'hich, under the given circumstances, would exceed the normal competency of a legislator that did not emanate from the natural law itself, or that would be opposed to the principles of justice and humanity(28). The first 'S lovak resolution of the J ewish question - and tihe only one which, in the full sense, we can call Tiso's solution - contained and realized the attributes proposed by Tiso when he ,proclaimed. that "t'he Jewish question in Slovakia shall be solved justly, socially, and humanly"( 29) . THE SLOVAK "JEWISH LAW" These :provisions clearly, but not altogether effectively because they left wide possibilities to evade the law(30), proved to be insufficient in attaining their aim. 'Dherefore, but probably also under German pressure(31), the Slovak Parliament prepared. a new so-catled "Jewish Law," which was approved on iFeb11uary 29, 1940(32). Fundamentally, this law differed little from the previous provision; it defined more accurately many details and fixed the principle of participation o.f the Jews in economic, civic, and cultural life in proportion to their number of the tdtal population, that is, 4 percent(33) . The confessional and civic principle remained in force, therefore not that of racial discrimination; so did the principle of selling 51 % of the shares of Jewish ente11prises to companion SloJVaks freely chosen lby them. This .principle of "Aryani:zation" Dr. Tiso defended consistently, even by using his constitutional authority as President(34) . GERMAN INTERVENTION AND THE "JEWISH CODE" It aippears t'hat even these new legal dispositions were not sufficient in practice to attain the goal. Several loopholes were left open for escape from the consequences of SLOVAKIA 7 the [aw - and those affected naturally did not hesitate to use them in every way(35) - so t:Jhat the more radical circles in Slovakia expressed their dissatisfaction with such a solution. However, it was chiefly in Germany that the Slovak solution of the Jewish question was bitterly criticized as being basiically in conflict with the German Jewish !aws(36). It was this consistent originality and independence of Dr. Tiso and his government in regard to the so1ution of the Jewish question that was one of the reasons for intervention o,f Adol'ph Hitler in the internal affairs of the Slovak Republic at SalzJburg on July 28, 1940(37). There Dr. Tiso was forced to drop Dr. Ferdinand :Durcansky, Minister of the Interior and Foreign Affairs, who collorborated with him in the independent solution of the Jewish question. Dr. Vojtech T,uik,a, who was ,g reatly influenced by the Germans, was forced on tJhe Slova,k Government as Minister of Fo·r eign Affairs against the will of President Tiso(38), as was journalist Alexander Mach, who became the executor of German dictates especially in the Jewish question as Minister of the Interior(39) . For Dr. Joseph Tiso, Salzburg meant personally such a blow that he was determined to, tender his resignation( 40). It was only at the insistence of moderate SloivaJk ciroles, nay, even the Jews themselves, that he remained at his post to use his authority to check the radical group which was under the influence of the Germans(41). Tiso's position after SalaJbur,g, therefore, became substantially a defensi'Ve one: not only did he lose in notable measure the possibility of concrete intiative in regard to the Jewish question, but also his constitutional authority of intervention was ,partially reduced by t:Jhe facts of this new political situation. Thus it happened that on September 10, Prime Minister Tuika could force the parliament to pass an enabling law for the solution of the Jewish question by the government. This "emandpated" ,goivernment of Dr. T,uka issued in the form of a goivernment regulation - without the signature of the President of the Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso - the so-called "Jewish Code"< 42 >, Wihich copied the Ger~ man Nuremberg Laiw. Apparently the Germans were de- 8 SLOVAKIA termined to impose Hitler's order in SlovaJkia - the same imperial imposition of Hitler's Germaniy to which all the governments of states in the German sphere of influence had succumbed. In comparison with the Jewish laws of Germany and the other States (iltaly, France, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Holland, Denmark, Norway - and even annexed Austria, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the General Governorship of Poland), the "Jewish Code" of S1ovakia contained two lucid points which were hers exclusive ly: the first reserved to the Preside nt of the Repulblic the right of direct administrational "exception" of anyone from the power of this law <43), while the second confirmed the validity of all exce ptions alre ady granted according to the aforementioned Slovak law(44 ). These two paragraphs, leaving tJhe head of the State an open possibility to protect in the face of an avalanche of force which evidently it was impossible to oppose, were the motive why Dr. Joseiph Tiso finally decided not to resign his office after the .promulgation of the "Jewish Code"< 45 ). PRESIDENT TISO'S STAND The question was a real "ca:sus conscientiae," which today ,w e can reconstruct in its main outlines. Dr. Tiso was opposed to any violent solution of the Jewish question; he was ready to .p rotest against it by resigning his office. The following realities, however , came into ,c onsideration: if Tiso did resign, it was c ertain that Tu.ka would be put into his office - and it was generally !known that Tu!ka was strongly under German influences. I,f this would have happened, not only all the Jews of SlovaJkia would ha'Ve been completely subject to German inte:vventions, but even government power of all Slovakia would practically have passed ()IVer completely into German hands and this w·o uld have had catastrophic consequences for the entire nation. Let it suffice here to mention the forced participation in the war and the system of National 1Socialism promoted b.y Dr. Tutka. Under such circumstances, the resignation o;f Dr. Tiso would have meant deserting from a position of responsi- SLOVAKIA 9 bility, disappointing the h0ipes of all the people who sa,w in him the salvation of the nation in a critical world situation and a ,g uarantee aigainst the 'Very actual ideological danger of Nazi,sm(46). By retaining t:Jhe funcUon o.f the President of the Republic, Dr. Tiso had a hoipe not only of continuing the defensive policy of Slova!kia a,gainst Nazism, but a:lso to sarve, if not all, at least as many as possible Jews of Slovakia who were persecuted by Nazism. Were these ihoipes however, sUJbstantiated? The answer to this question is very impo,r tant for the moral qualification of the stand of Dr. Joseph Tiso and thereby of his entire relationship to the proiblem orf the Jews in SlovaJkia. It is not difficult to answer the first part of the question: It has been proved that by remaining President of the Republic, Dr. Tiso not only sruved the SlovaJk nation from threatened occupation and division, from the flood of Nazi ideolo,gy, from most of the economic and social consequences of the world rwar, but, despite the exceptional circumstances, he also organized Slovakia legally, culturally and economically as an independent State and thereby demonstrated t:Jhat Sloiva,kia had all the ;prerequisites orf developmernt as an independent State. Under his guidance Slovalk ia attained "brilliant results and the elan of autonomous life was reaHy wonderful"< 47). So that we could answer the second part of the question, we must objecti'Ve1y examine the cause of Jewish provisions and their exeoution in Slovakia in the third and fourth periods (1941-1945). After the promulgation of the "Jewish Code," the Jews were supposed to be transferred from Slovakia to the territory between the Visla and t:Jhe Bug in former Poland, where there was to be found some kind of state creation reserved for them. Here it is necessary to, note that the project of a separate territory for European Jews presented a solution which was seriously studied not only in Ckrmany( 48), but ,a iso iby other powers, such as, for example, the United States (4 9). To:l. order to ascertain the situation the SlovaJk Gov•e rnment sent to Poland a representatiive of the Ministry of the Interior, Isidore Koso, to whom they 1, 1 10 SLOVAKIA actually did show the Jewish city of Sosnowitz, Oppel, with its own administration, police, etc. Well, even .after this the SlovaJk Government did not begin to transfer Jews, but arranged labor camps for them in Slovakia, where they were to be gradually concentrated. This course, which Reitlinger explains as motivated by economy(50), is apparently 1b etter ex.plained as a reaction of the Slovak Government to the Memorandum of the Slovak Catholic Bishops of October 7, 1941(51), and to the reminders of the Holy See of Novemfber 12, 1941 (52). In both these doouments ecclesiastical representatives protested against the racist principle which inspired governmentrul regulation No. 198--1941 of the Slova!k Code, especiaUy however rugainst those ,p oints which were out of line with the teachings of the Church (outlawing mixed marriages, ex:pulsion from schools) and called upon the SlovaJk G()IVernment to recall or at least change the mentioned regulations in this seinse. The Holy See, wihich was for apparent reasons generally regarded as "the best informed political center of the world"(53 ), at the same time manifested its understanding for the situation of the ,Slov,a;k Government when it concluded its note with these words,: "The Holy See hopes that the Slovak Government, as long as the government regulations are not repealed or amended, will try to ex;plain and to validate the issued regulations in suoh a measUTe and in such a manner so that they mig1ht become as far as is possible least harmful to the needs (demands) of Catholic conscience"(54). These words appear to be the norm and therefore the explanation of the course not only of Dr. Tiso, but also that of the :SloIVaJk gOIVemment followed in practice until the end of their activities. Thus it was that despite the Nuremberg t01J1e of the "Jewish Code," the f,unda:mental :points of that code were not practically applied until March 10, 1942. Thus far it has not been conclusively ascertained, whether under German pressure or not(5,5), Minister of the Interior Alexander Mach issued the decree on March 7, 1942, which confined all the Jews of Slovakia to their homes until their transfer to the East(5&) . This provision, which was soon followed by the first transports of Jews from Slo- SLOVAKIA 11 vakia to Galicia (March 10, 1942), inspired a strong opposition of public opinion, new protests of ecclesiastical circles (.57), nay, even dissent of the rest of the members of the government.(5<8). But it has been safely ascertained that Germany did pressure the Slovak Government to adopt the solution of the Jewish question in the form of transferring the Jews which had been accepted by the other States (Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Hungary). To this end Heydrich himself came to Bratislava on April 10, 1942, to tell Tuka that the Jews of Slovakia would be transferred to the Lublin area where they would be settled permanently. Separate settlements were to be arranged for baptized Jews (59). After repeated insistence and assurances from the German side that Jewish families would be respected and that they would be dealt with decently(·60), the Slovak Government began to send to the East the members of the families of those young, able-to-work Jews who had been transported the previous month. In this second intervention of the Slovak Government, it is possible to see an effort to correct in some way the mistake of the first transfer by which many Jewish families were broken up. It became tragic that the promises of Heydrich and Eichmann were the treacherous trap which was not without effect(&l). At that time the Slovak Government could not know about the real intentions of the Nazis: Wisliceny himself found this out, as we shall see, only several months later. Nevertheless Dr. Tuka insisted that he might send an inspection mission to ascertain on the spot just how the transferred Jews were being dealt with. The Slovak Government presented this demand also formally in the form of a note addressed to the German Government(,62) - but received only an evasive reply. It was this, most likely, that roused suspicions on the Slovak side. Therefore already on May 15, 1942, the Slovak parliament approved a constitutional law by which it practically repealed the power given the government in September, 1941, and legally set the course for the problem of emigration. The substance of this law was, however, the practical cessation of deportations; the law, that is, sanctioned all the previously granted presidential and minis- 12 SLOVAKIA terial "exceptions" and established a new general exception for Jews baptized before March 14, 1939(63) . Furthermore, it established that Jews, affected by the law, would be concentrated in labor camps in Slovakia. In July, 1942, when the representative of the Holy See in Bratislava notified President Tiso that the Jews in the Lublin area were being murdered, Dr. Tiso with absolute determination insisted on the realization of a Slovak inspection mission - or else there would be no further transfer of Jews from Slovakia. In August, Wisliceny went to Berlin with the matter. There Eichmann told him that Tiso was asking an impossible thing because those Jews were no longer alive. Thereupon he showed him a secret order, issued by the will of Hitler and signed by Himmler, according to which the entire Jewish race was to be gradually destroyed(64). Wisliceny returned to Bratislava again with an evasive reply. After this deportations from Slovakia were completely stopped. From what has been said it is quite clear that the Slovak Government allowed the transfer of a part of the Jews from Slovakia under the imperialistic pressure of Germany - in the face of guarantees to respect basic human rights and humanitarian treatment. As soon as there arose a reason to doubt that the Nazis were fulfilling the guarantees given, the parliament of the Slovak Republic with the strength of a constitutional law stood up to protect the Jewish citizens of Slovakia. The fact that it is necessary to explain the law of May 15, 1942, in this maner, is also supported by the following realities : 1. The motive for voting this law was the merciless exportation of the Jews on the basis of the decree of Minister Mach of March 7, 1942 (65). 2. By this law, constitutionally, were sanctioned all the exceptions granted by the President of the Republic and the resort Ministers ; also a new general exception was established by which a confessional criterion was given priority - which the Germans sharply criticized already in 1940 as opposed to the racist principles of Nuremberg. 3. The real aim of concentrating the Jews, who did not have the mentioned exceptions, in Slovak labor camps was SLOVAKIA 13 to save them from possible transfer elsewhere on the initiative of radical circles around Minister Mach behind which stood the power of Germany. This was evident from the way these camps were set up - the living conditions of which were but little different from complete freedom(66). 4. Despite repeated insistence from the side of the Germans, nay, even despite the intervention of Hitler himself with President Tiso(67), Slovakia did not retreat from her position and protected the Jews with all means of political tactics(68) and her own State power. 5. After September 1, 1944, when Slovakia became a battlefield and governmental power was factually exercised by the fighting armies, despite German occupation of practically the whole of Slovakia, the new Minister of National Defense and State Security of the Slovak Republic, Stephen Hrussik, ordered the abolishment of all concentration camps and of all anti-Jewish administrational regulations(69). 6. When German army commanders defied the above order and by force transported to Germany all Jews that fell into their hands during military operations, the new Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Stephen Tiso, energetically protested to the German Government(70). 7. Later, when the commander of the occupation army and "the only representative of the Reich in Slovakia"(71), SS-General Berger forced the Slovak Government regulation in regard to concentrating the Jews (Nov. 16, 1944), the provision had practically no effect because the Slovak Government and Slovak officials silently agreed that the Jews be free to hide themselves(72). From the given facts it is quite clear that despite some drastic interventions of the Nazis and their several Slovak collaborators in the spring of 1942, for which they gained partial accord of the Slovak Government by cunning, the great part of the Jewish minority could remain in Slovakia and there be effectively protected to such an extent that the Slovak Republic in certain periods was regarded as a relative asylum even for the Jews from other countries, especially those from Poland and Hungary(73). The stand of the Slovak Republic in regard to the "definite solution" (Endlosung) of the Jewish question, pres- 14 SLOVAKIA sured by the Nazis, immediately from the first moments of suspicion about the real aim of these " regulations," was unanimously and consistently so rejective that it really presents "the story of the first outright failure of the 'Final Solution' and a failure at a time when there was no glimmer of hope for Jewry in Axis-controlled Europe" (74). The fact that the small Slovak State, even though it could not prevent all violence, knew how to stand up against it - and with such a determination that an objective historian can today talk about "a challenge to war" and about "a revolt" of the Slovak Government(75) - proves t hat t he Slovak Government even in this r egard not only did not accept without reservations the principles of Hitler's National Socialism, but even knew how to defend itself against them, nay, even to repudiate them forcefully, as long as it was not completely overpowered by the brutal preponderance of military occupation and frontal operations. This important fact has thus far not been properly evaluated in world literature which concerns itself with this historical period. If we pause now in our search for the reasons of the described facts, we shall come to the conclusion that one of the most decisive factors in the course of events in Slovakia was the personality of President Dr. Joseph Tiso. To this conclusion we are led by the following facts: 1. While Dr. Joseph Tiso held the initiative of solving the Jewish question in Slovakia( we saw that he solved it in a sense of strict justice, in a legal way, and in a most human manner. 2. As President of the Republic he used his constitutional right in order that the laws proposed by the parliament remained within the confines of the same principles which were in opposition to the Nazi anti-Jewish laws( 7,6). 3. When he could not prevent the issuance of the "Jewish Codex," he reserved the right for himself to limit its effectiveness as much as possible by personal "exceptions." That this was the intent of the mentioned paragraph 225 is confirmed by the fact ascertained by the court that Dr. Joseph Tiso used his authority as a matter of principle for every case placed before him, by which in a short time he SLOVAKIA 15 liberated a great part of the Jewish inhabitants of Slovakia from the "Jewish Codex"(77). 4. It was generally known that the initiative of proGerman politics was held by the ministers forced on Tiso (Dr. Tuka and A. Mach) - and that there were basic conflicts between them and President Tiso. If, therefore, the Slovak parliament could pass the constitutional law of May 15, 1942 - which was in fact aimed against German Nazis and the executors of their influence in Slovakia this is understandable only if we allow that it did so not only within the support of the authority of the President of the Republic and the chairman of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, Dr. Joseph Tiso, but, as it has been safely ascertained: directly on his initiative (78) . 5. Finally, only such a consistently anti-Nazi stand of President Tiso in regard to the Jewish question can explain the fact that, even despite the regulations of the government and the Minister of the Interior, some of the regional representatives of state power could during that entire time take positions of open protection of the Jewish inhabitants, nay, even actually intervene in the initiative of government trustees in the Jewish question on territory administered by them( 79) . CONCLUSION As we emphasized at the outset, in this study we were interested in focalizing some of the facts that are important and pertinent for a correct evaluation of the relationship of Dr. Joseph Tiso to the Jewish problem in Slovakia. Intentionally we have not touched upon some undoubtedly interesting and relatively important aspects of this complicated problem which require a separate study (e.g., the question of statistical data, the question of the legal and moral side of the individual regulations and respective responsibilities, etc.) . This study, we believe, does prove that we cannot honestly regard Dr. Joseph Tiso as a persecutor of the Jews or as a collaborator of the Nazis in their inhuman work of genocide of the Jewish nation. It is necessary, however, to acknowledge that the President of the Slovak Republic did prove himself an eminent opponent of every injustice against the Jews, whether perpetrated by 16 SLOVAKIA the German Nazis or by others in their service. Dr. Tiso did everything in his power to save them - and we say, without fear of contradiction, that he did for the Jews what no other statesman dared to do in the Europe controlled by Hitler at that time. If, despite this, a part of the Jews of Slovakia was taken out of Slovakia by violent intervention of brute force, it is certain that this happened without any direct participation of Dr. Joseph Tiso - nay, against his will - and, hence, we cannot hold him responsible for it. Dr. Tiso found himself face to face with a current "which it was possible to impede and probably even to influence, but not stop," as he himself had said during his trial in Bratislava <SO) . There is no evidence to prove that Dr. Tiso aided or abetted, motivated or approved in any way, the brutal treatment of Jews in Slovakia or anywhere else. To lie in the face of death is not easy. So much the less can we allow that Dr. Joseph Tiso could do so - the same Dr. Tiso who could proclaim before the entire nation that never in his life did he utter an untruth intentionally. And he did not fear that someone might be able to prove the opposite. Would that the world were managed by politicians and statesmen who would follow the noble example of the President of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso! REFERENCES: 1. The first opm10n is practically current in encyclopedic and scientific literature; some Slovak authors are inclined to the second; e.g., Th. J. Zubek ("Monsignor Jozef Tiso - Controversial Personality" - The Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Nov. 1955, p. 125). 2. Dr. Joseph Pauco: Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe, Passaic, N. J ., 1952; pp. 323-323. 3. R. Pokorny: Z potulek po Slovensku, Prague, 1884, Vol. I, pp. 56-. 4. It was not by accident that the German translation of Rabbi Benjamin Halvey's Hebrew pasquinade "Das leben Jesu. Zurn ersten Male historisch bearbeitet nach neuentdeckten jiidisch orientalischen Quellen" was published in Bratislava (Pressburg) in 1875. According to the translator, who personally offered it to Giller in Trencianske Teplice, it surpassed by far the dilettante attempts of Strauss, Voltaire and other blasphemous pseudo-historians. See A. Giller - Z podrozy po kraju slowackim" - Lw6w, -876; pp. 197-. 5. Th. G. Locher: Die nationale Differenzeirung und lntegrie• rung der Slowaken und Tschechen in ihren geschichtlichen Verlauf bis 1848 - Haarlem, 1931; p. 196. 6. J. A. Mikus: La Slovaquie dans le drame de l'Europe - Paris, 1955; p. 133. 7. While Hungary, for example, had a "numerus clausus" estab- SLOVAKIA 17 lished by law, in Czecho-Slova kia, where the number of J ews was estimated at 3--4 percent of the population, the secondary schools became practically the exclusive domain of the Jews. In Prague itself over half the students were Jewish; the State Gymnazium for girls bad 163 Jewish pupils out of a total of 248; in several gymnaziums for boys the relationship of Jews to non-Jews was: 116 out of 254; 123 out of 250; 185 out of 240. At the university for every three nonJewish professors there was one Jewish professor. See: J. Boubee Tcheco-Slova quie - in "ETUDES," Paris, Vol. 60, No. 174, 1923; pp. 225-. 8. Ibidem. 9. G. Reitlinger: The Final Solution - London, 1953; p. 386. 10. The value of Jewish properties was evaluated at 3,150 million Slovak Crowns; besides this, the Jews controlled over 12,000 industrial enterprises with a capital of 1,250 million Slovak Crowns, especially the textile industry where they controlled 90 percent oi the production. The situation was much the same in the wood and alcohol industries. See the article "La Slovacchia e gli Ebrei" in the periodical RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI, Milan, Vol. 8, No. 34, 1942; p , 902. 11. Ibidem: 72 percent of the lawyers and 64 percent of the medics were Jews, while 58 percent of all restaurant and liquor concessions was in their hands. 12. See the statement, e.g., of P . R. Mikus in the SLOVAK, Bratislava, Vol. XXI, No. 34, February 10, 1939; p. 1. 13. Here we do not have in mind only States, such as Italy, for example, which did adopt various anti-Jewish regulations. Count Ciano noted that on January 13, 1939, in a conversation with Mussolini, Chamberlain expressed grave fears that "further immigration of Jews into England would incite anti-Semitism which is already being planned in many sectors of the country." Besides the Jewish minority in England was negligible: according to Chamberlain , 60,000 (Mussolini stated that it was over 200,000) - G. Ciano, "Diario, 1939-1940," Milan, 1946; p. 22. - In regard to the anti-Jewish mood in other States, see "Les archives secre de la Wilhelmstras se" - Vol V, Book II, Paris, 1954, Documents Nos. 469-493, pp. 113-. 14. Dr. Tiso stressed this in general in his first speech after taking over government in Slovakia, Oct. 8, 1938 (K. Culen: Po Svatoplukovi druha nasa hlava," Middletown, Pa., 1948; p. 215). Later, on March 15, 1939, in a broadcast he warned all who would be guilty of such acts and threatened that the government would prosecute all culprits ("SLOVAK" - Bratislava, Vol. XXI, No. 63, 1939; p . 4). 15. "SLOVAK" - Vol. XXI, No. 25, Jan. 31, 1939. 16. "SLOVAK" - Vol XXI, No. 28, Feb. 3, 1939; p. 3. Compare also the government declaration of Feb. 22, 1939 ("SLOVAK," Vol. XXI, Nos. 44-45, Feb. 22-23, 1939). 17. Speech of Dr. Tiso at the Eighth Convention of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party at Trencin, Oct. 1, 1939 ("SLOVAK" - Vol. XXI, No. 227, Oct. 3, 1939; pp. 3-4). 18. An analysis of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic by H. Schimani: "Die Verfassun~ der Slowakischen Republik" - Vienna, 1947. 19. Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky: Pravo Slovakov na samostatnost' vo svetle dokumentov - Vol. I, Buenos Aires, 1954; p. 196. 20. Dr. J. Pauco: op. cit., p. 55. 18 SLOVAKIA Dr. F. Durcansky: op. cit., p. 237. J. A. Mikus: op. cit., pp. 185-; F. Durcansky: op. cit.; pp. 475: In an official pronouncement, Feb. 21, 1939, Tiso declared: "It is proof of the maturity of our nation that despite all incitements the Slovak nation waited for the legal solution of the Jewish question" (stenographic report of the second meeting of the Slovak Assembly, Bratislava, Feb. 21-23, 1939, p. 9). 24. That this was the expressed intention of Dr. Tiso is attested to by his statement to the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraph Agency, J. Frankel, Feb. 8, 1939: "The coming Jewish law will certainly serve the purpose that the Jews might not be caught by surprises and would know just how far they will be able to go in economic life" (SLOVAK, Feb. 10, 1939, p. 3). 25. Memorandum of the British Consul in Bratislava, Mr. P. Pares, Feb. 3, 1939, in the "DOCUMENTS ON BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY 1919-1939" - Third Series, Vol. IV, No. 97, 1951, London; p. 96. 26. No. 63-39 SLOVAK CODE; No. 102-39 Ur. nov. (Official News). 27. It approved the transfer and emigration plan of Dr. S. E. Soskin (SLOVAK, Feb. 10, 1939, p. 3). Innsbruck28. Compare, e.g., J. Messner: Das Naturrecht Vienna, 1950, pp. 365-366 - and: P. Pavan: l.'.uomo nella communita internazionale - Rome, s.d., p. 47. 29. SLOVAK, Feb. 10, 1939, p. 3. 30. RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI, op. cit., p. 902. 31. We did not find documents which would definitely confirm such pressure in this period, but the testimony of F. Durcansky inclines us to believe that pressures were exercised. He said: "secret influences of the Germans did not validate themselves anywhere to such an extent as they did in the attempt to attain the solution of the Jewish question in Slovakia according to the desires of the National Socialistic circles. . . . " (Speaking of the period prior to July 28, 1940) - F. Durcansky, op. cit., p. 237. 32. No. 46-40, SLOVAK CODE. 33. Commenting on this law on March 10, 1940, Tiso stressed that we are here concerned "with our own reasonable course. This is not an imitation of foreign patterns." - (SLOVAK, March 13, 21. 22. 23. 1940, p. 3). 34. Thus, e.g., in April, 1940, he returned to the Parliament for renewed debate on the draft of the law about Jewish enterprises with his own remarks and reminders; the parliament then approved the law with Tiso's recommendations on April 25, 1940 (SLOVAK, April 26, 1940), p. 2). 35. The amount which the Jews transferred abroad at that time was estimated at 2,000 million Slovak Crowns. Even in the "Aryan- only ized" enterprises "the Jews frequently remained bosses names changed on paper" (GARDISTA, June 14, 1941, p. 3). 36. Compare the study of the German legal expert for Slovak affairs, K. 0. Rabl, "Verfassungsrecht und Verfassungsleben in der neuen Slowakei" (in the periodical: ZEITSCHRIFT fur auslandisches offentliches Recht und Volkerrecht - Berlin, Vol. IX, No. 4, 1940), which concludes categorically: "The Jewish problem in Slovakia is practically, therefore, according to previous provisions, not solved at all. Mainly the economic and imperial position of Jewry remains the same as it was before" (p. 867). SLOVAKIA 37. 38. 39. 40, 41. l!} F. Durcansky, op. cit., p. 237. K. Culen, op. cit., pp. 263-; p. 480; J . A. Mikus, op. cit. p. 163. G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. 386. J. Pauco, op. cit., p. 35; K. Culen, op. cit., p. 380. Minister Gejza Medricky's testimony during the Tiso trial ; this is reproduced by K. Culen, op. cit., p. 480. 42. SLOVAK CODE, part 52, No. 198, September 10, 1941. 43. "Jewish Codex" - part X, par. 255. 44. Ibidem, par. 256. 45. J . Pauco, op. cit., footnote 92, p. 323. 46. Compare the testimony of Archbishop Kmet'ko before the National Court in Bratislava, January 6, 1947; K. Culen, op. cit. pp. 369-370. 47. A. Giannini: Monsignor Tiso (in "Rivista di studi politici internazionali" - Firenze, Vol. XIX, No. 3, 1952, p. 451); a wealth of documentaton is produced also by F . Durcansky, op. cit., pp. 166-169, 190-248. 48. Dr. Ley, German Minister, informed Count Ciano about the project in Rome, Dec. 6, 1939. In 1940, Ribbentrop told Ciano about Hitler's plan to create a Jewish free state on the island of Madagascar, where all the Jews of Europe were supposed to be concentrated. (l!Europa verso la catastrofe - Verona, 1948; G. Ciano, Diario 19391943, Milan, 1946, Vol. I, p. 280). 49. On December 7, 1938, President Roosevelt sent Mussolini a personal letter in which he proposed that a part of the south and southwest territory of Abyssinia be reserved for the Jews. Mussolini declared that personally he sympathized with the idea of creating a Jewish state, but decidely not in Abyssinia, nor anywhere in Africa. He proposed Russia, Brazil or the United States of America (Les Archives Secretes de la Wilhelmstrasse, Vol. IV, Les suites de Munich, Paris, 1953, doc. No. 341, pp. 498-500; compare also Vol. V, Book II, Paris, 1954, doc. Nos. 469-493, pp. 113-158). 50. G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. -387. 51. Partially reproduced in K. Sidor's "~est' rokov pri Vatik'• ne" - Scranton, Pa., 1947, pp. 135-138. 52. In the note of the State Secretariate to His Holiness, No. 8355-41 , published in Sidor's op. cit., pp. 138-140. 53. W. Theimer: Lexicon der Politik, Bern, 1947, under "Vatikan" - p. 482. 54. K. Sidor, op. cit., p. 140. Sidor used the Slovak word "potrebam" (needs) in translating the Italian "esigenze," but the latter would probably be better expressed by "poziadavkam" (demands). 55. G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 387. 56. At a press conference, March 27, 1942, Minister A. Mach declared that "the ultimate aim is to transfer all Jews to a territory, which would be ordered for the settlement within the framework of a new European order" (SLOVAK, March 28, 1942, p. 3). 57. The Vatican protested with the note of the State Secretariate of His Holiness, No. 2027-42 ,dated March 14, 1942. At the end of March, the Slovak Minister at the Vatican, Karol Sidor, personally was in Bratislava with a demand to stop deportations (K. Sidor, op. cit., pp. 141-142). 58. G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 388; from this reaction, as well as from the declaration of Minister A. Mach at the press conference 20 SLOVAKIA mentioned above (56), it is apparent that the personal intervention of the minister forced by Ribbentrop on Tiso was concerned and/ or his group of Slovak extremists. Mach publicly repudiated "speeches (which implied) that we had been somehow asked from the outside or forced to this solution. We ourselves have undertaken everything possible to have the opportunity to get rid of the Jews" (SLOVAK, March 28, 1942). According to the note of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bratislava, No. 8.325/ 1/ 42, of May 8, 1942, addressed to the Slovak Embassy at the Vatican (concerning the reply to the mentioned interventions of the Vatican of Nov. 12, 1941, and March 14, 1942), at that time " there were negotiations between the factors of the Slovak Republic and the Greman Reich in regard to the problem of the European Jews," in the sense of which "the Jews of Slovakia would be placed in several areas in the vicinity of Lublin ... where they would remain permanently" (K. Sidor, op. cit., pp. 142-143). This connection of matters appears to be more probable. 59. F . Steiner: Tragedy of Slovak Jewry - Bratislava, 1949, p. 6; reprod. from G. Reitlinger, op. cit. 60. At the beginning of May, Eichmann negotiated in this sense with Dr. Tuka and A. Mach. 61. G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. 388. 62. Wisliceny admitted this before the Nuremberg Court The Trial of the Major War Criminals - Vol. ill, pp. 276-278; reprod . .bY G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 390). 63. "In practice the way was open in this intensely Catholic country for any professed convert to demand protection" (B. Shub: Hitler's Ten-Year War on the Jews, New York, 1943, p . 54;reprod. by G. Reitlingeh ,op. cit. , p. 390). 64. G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 390. 65. Compare the testimony of Minister G. Medricky before the National Court in Bratislava, Feb. 21, 1947; K. Culen, op. cit., p . 482. 66. The official report of the International Red Cross describes them thusly: " ... les camps qui presentaient des conditions de nouriture et de logement passables, les internes etaient admis a travailler moyennant salaire dans des conditio se rapprochant de :Ueconomie libre" (Rapport du Comite international de la Croix-Rouge sur son action pendant la seconde guerre mondiale, Geneve, 1948, p. 674). 67. After various messengers and plenipotentiaries had pressured Tiso and the Slovak Government, Tiso was called to Salzburg in May, 1943, where Hitler angrily marked the Slovak resolution of the Jewish question 'insufficient." 68. In the light of realities, such would appear to be the various public manifestations (as, e.g., the anti-Jewish speech of Min. A. Mach in Ruzomberok, Feb. 7, 1943) and the conditioned promises of President Tiso (in December, 1943, to Himmler's special agent E. Weesenmayer) which, however, were never fulfilled . Compare Sidor's account, op. cit., pp. 146-147, and G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. 390. 69. According to unpublished testimonies in manuscript which are in the hands of the author. 70. K. Sidor, op. cit., p. 148. 71. It was thus that he presented himself to President Tiso on his arrival to Bratislava "as the accredited agent of Hitler" at the end of August, 1944. See: J . Pauco, op. cit., p. 293. 72. The regulation was formulated as a summons to come to a SLOVAKIA 21 definite place on Nov. 24. A delegate of the International Red Cr oss ascertained on the spot that the summons was answered only by about 50 Jews: "Comme les Autorites slovaques l'avaient d'ailleurs prevu" he relates literally - "les Israelites se cachaient" (Rapport du Comite .. . . op. cit., p. 674). The hidden Jews could be aided not only by the population, but also by the International Red Cross with the help of the Slovak Red Cross and the Catholic Church (p. 675). 73. Intern. Red Cross Report, op. cit., p. 674; F. Durcansky, op. cit., p. 239. 74. G. Reitlinger, op. cit. , p. 385. 75. "Yet as early as July, 1942, this Government rebelled" writes G. Reitlinger (op. cit., p. 385). We note, apparent as it is from the foregoing, that it is necessary to see this "rebellion" already in the constitutional law of May 15, 1942. The same autor says in another place: "We have seen in the case of Slovakia, how a Government which defied German pressure and abandoned the Final Solution, was forced to return to it, when, on the eve of capitulation to the enemy, the country was occupied by German troops" (p. 412). 76. It is worthy of note here that Tiso's insistence on a per centual participation of the Jews in the economy of Slovakia in relation to their number of the entire population could in no way be regarded as a repressive regulation, inasmuch as the principle concerned here was the same as that which Tiso ordered to be applied even in regards to the other minorities, not even excluding the Germans themselves. It has been ascertained, e.g. , that in official State positions the Germans could not occupy more than 5 percent of them (K. Culen , op. cit., p. 432); the same applied in regards to the "aryanization" of Jewish enterprises - their participation was limited percentually (J. Pauco, op. cit., p. 238). 77. The actual number of "Presidential exceptions" granted by Tiso has thus far not been accurately ascertained. Some authors estimate the number "above 9,000" (J. Pauco, who bases his account on the statements of lawyers during the Tiso trial; op. cit., p. 323); Dr. J. A. Mikus gives the figure 9,964 without, however, quoting any document or source (op . cit., p. 135); Minister Stephen Hassik estimated "about 15,000" (manuscript in author's possession). The report of J. Luther to Ribbentrop, August 17, 1942, indicates a greater number; according to that report, at that time 35,000 Jews in Slovakia were already safeguarded "by special legitimation" (G. Reitlinger, op. cit., p. 390); a greater number is also indicated by the fact that the presiding judge of the National Court in Bratislava, Dr. Igor Daxner, in the trial against Dr. Tiso and his associates, did not allow an accurate ascertainment of the number of "exceptions"; he did this as a rule whenever it came to ascertaining matters that were favorable for Dr. Tiso (compare K. Culen, op. cit.). 78. Already on March 23, 1942, Dr. Tiso had Monsignor John Postenyi present the question to the State Council to sound out the ground and to gain a basis for his further intervention, which he later realized by means of the parliament (Dr. Zabkaj, in the National Court in Bratislava, March 15, 1947, according to mimeographed reports of the Slovak Press Bureau, Bratislava). 79. Typical is the example of Nitra Province, which in 1940-1944 was administered by Stephen Hassik, where the Jews were consistently protected and where, in 1943, the administrator, even though 22 SLOVAKIA not present, was able to obstruct the transfer of a certain number of Jews into Germany even after the action had begun (Manuscript in author's hands). 80. J. Pauco Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe), op. cit., p. 322. SOURCES: CIANO, Galeazzo: Diario - Volume primo, 1939-1940; Milano, Rizzoli, 1946; L'Europa verso la catastrofe; 184 colloqui con Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Sumner Welles, Rustu Aras, Stoiadinovic, Goring, Zog, Francois-Poncet ecc. verbalizzati da Galeazzo Ciano, con 40 documenti diplomatici inediti; (Verona), A. Mondadori, 1948. CULEN, Konstantin: Po Svatoplukovi druha nasa hlava (Zivot Dr. Jozefa Tisu); Middletown, Pa. , Prva Katolicka Slovenska Jednota, 1947-1948; 2Vols. DOCUMENTS ON BRITISH FOREIGN :POLICY 1919--1939, Third Series; London, His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1951. DURCANSKY, Ferdinand: Pravo Slovakov na samostatnost' vo svetle dokumentov, Vol. 1, Biela kniha; Buenos Aires, Slovensky Oslobodzovaci Vybor, 1954. GILLER, Agaton, Z podr6zy po kraju slowackim; Lw6w, Gubrynowicz and Schmidt, 1876. ·HAssiK, Stefan: Prispevok O rieseni iidovskej otazky V Sloven• skei republike (unpublished manuscript). INSTITUTE OF JEWISH AFFAffiS: Hitler's Ten-Year War on the Jews; New York, 1943. LES ARCHIVES SECRETES DE LA WILHELMSTRASSE: Documents traduits de l' allemand par Michael TOURNIER; Paris, Librairie Plon, 1950. Les Juives en Europe 1939-1945; Paris, CDJC, 1947. MIKUS, Joseph A., La Slovaquie dans le drame de I' Europe (Histoire politique de 1918 a 1950); Paris, Les Iles d' Or, 1955. POKORNY, Rudolf: Z potulek po Slovensku; Praha, 1884-1885, 2 Vols .. RAPPORT DU COMITE INTERNATIONAL DE LA CROIXROUGE sur son activite pendant la seconde guerre mondiale (ler septembre 1939 - 30 juin 1947); Geneve, 1948. REITLINGER, Gerald: The Final Solution. The Attempt to Ex• ter~inate the Jews of Europe 1939-1945; London, Vallentine-Mitchell, 1953. SIDOR, Karol: ~est' rokov pri Vatikane; Scranton, Pa., Obrana Press, Inc., 1947. STEINER, Frederick: The Tragedy of Slovak Jewry; Bratislava, 1949; (Documentation Centre CUJCR). TISO, Jozef : Obhajobna rec pred Narodnym sudom v Bratislave dna 17. a 18. marca 1947; edited by Dr. Jozef PAUCO : Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe; Passaic, N. J ., Slovensky Katolicky Sokol, 1952. PERIODICALS: ETUDES, Paris. GARDISTA, Bratislava-Zilina. RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI, Milano. RIVISTA DI STUD! POLITIC! INTERNAZIONALI, Firenze. SLOVAK, Bratislava. ZEITSCHRIFT FUR AUSLANDISCHES OFFENTLICHES RECHT UND VOLKERRECHT, Berlin.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dr. Joseph Tiso and the Jewish Problem in Slovakia Description An account of the resource Milan S. Ďurica Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25), September-December 1957 pp. 1-22 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ďurica, Milan S., 1925- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/82be9684b63163d7ebd33f880bcd018b.pdf 7c970814af7f74bde39e8c666f1cb284 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 37 DR. JOSEPH TISO: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT Dr. Joseph Pauco The President of the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), who was executed by a pro-Communist regime on April 18, 1947, ranks among the outstanding figures of the centralEuropean Christian Democratic movement. He was Dr. Joseph Tiso, ideologist of the Slovak Populist Party, which fought for the independence of Slovakia and since 1925 represented the majority of Slovak voting power. The philosophy motivating the Slovak Populist Party was For God and Nation, and it was in the spirit of this principle that Dr. Tiso embodied all his Christian Democratic politics. "Let no one pause to wonder," he wrote, "that we work with God for the nation. God does not need the nation. God will be God even without a nation whether we admit the fact or not, but without God there can be no nation .... There is no sinful failing against God in allying the concepts 'For God, For Nation.' It means the binding of human values to values that are eternal, that are divine."(!) Dr. Tiso affirmed that this clarion call "For God, for Nation" should intensify Christian idealism. His own words are: "Putting it in a practical way, this simply means that one (who cultivates Christian idealism) will not frustrate the influence of Christianity upon the life of a nation in its schools, its literature, its parliament; he will, on the contrary, use every opportunity to help Christianity enter more and more significantly into classrooms and lecture halls, into family life and into public life, for it is Christianity alone that can preserve the roots of idealism without which no nation can survive.''(2) Idealism and Christian morality are the sine qua non of the life of nations and society. "I rely on a weak analogy," declared Dr. Tiso, "when I say that if nature cannot survive without the beneficence of heat and sun, neither can human life endure without faith, without moral philosophy. The histories of nations and our personal experiences furnish evidence to substantiate the fact that whatever the light of faith and Christian morals was extinguished, there followed not only a decline in culture, truth and art, but also �38 SLOVAKIA a decay that affected the nation's economic system as well. A social order grounded in gross materialism, devoid of Christian idealism, cannot long endure, and a nation bred in materialism, grasping for matter alone, becomes like a withered shrub that stands in the midst of luxuriant verdure, a thing alien and repulsive to other nations."(3) Christianity imposes the obligation of love for one's nation. "Love for the nation is a religious precept, and anyone who does not foster a love for his nation violates the fourth commandment. He is branded not only as an earthly traitor, but also as a transgressor who profanes the law of God."(4) Chauvinism, on the other hand, he denounced as can be seen from these extracts: "A regulated love of self is the foundation of Christian charity. From this basic tenet there also evolves the proper concept of Christian nationalism. First comes love of one's own nation, then an extension of charity to others. Non-Christian nationalism is of an entirely different stock, loving self and hybridizing into chauvinism. " (5) "Nationalism, a kind of centering on self diffused on a national scale, is not only the indispensable drive in service for the nation, it is also the natural measure of obligation on the part of one nation toward other nations, just as love of self becomes the stimulating force or the incentive for self-improvement and the gauge of human relations. But in order to prevent self-love as well as nationalism from degenerating into formidable media of destruction, there must be an obligation which is expressed in the universally known precept: Love thy neighbor as thyself."(6) According to the teaching of the Church, "nationalism loves its own but it must not hate what is other than its own; it builds its own but it may not destroy another's; it strengthens its own but it does not divide the whole."(7) One who is a believing Christian and a patriot works for the freedom of his nation because "the independence of a nation is a natural good which substantially affects not only the individual and his material and spiritual interests, but it concerns the entire national commonwealth. Since national freedom is then such a natural good that affects the �SLOVAKIA individual, the family and the entire national community, there can be nothing inappropriate in the gratitude which is shown to God in return for it.... "For a nation to exist and yet not be independent means sentencing it to its extinction. If a nation is to exist, and there is proof of this in the fact that it now does exist, then that nation, by the will of God, must be free .... "A nation must be granted its freedom, for without liberty it would in vain have the God-given gift of language; it would be unable to use it. In vain would it have a Godgiven territory; it would be unable to cultivate its land and make a living on it. Consequently if a nation is to live according to its intellectual endowments and character, it must be free in order to fulfill its destiny. The Divine Will, therefore, is for a nation to be independent and free."(8) The liberty of a nation is protected by the State. As Tiso sees it, "The State is an organized body established for the welfare of the citizens. It is founded on the natural law, therefore on the will of the Creator, Who so created man that he can live and develop his mental and moral faculties only in association with other men. The State is a means to an end and not the end of man. It is for the State to serve the welfare of man, not for man to serve the State. This is the original design of the Creator from which, however, the developmental periphery of human society has steadily departed more and more. "The State is founded on the individuality of its citizens whose interests it promotes rather than absorbs. The State does not assume the obligations of individuals but it discharges those functions that are essential for the life of all, tasks for which the capacities of the individual alone are not commensurate. Always and everywhere it must be the individual first and as far as his abilities can reach and only beyond that point may the State enter as a collective unit of strength. It is for the State to serve society, not society the State. The organization of the State is determined by the moral disposition, the physical capacity and the material potential of the nation. What holds in regard to the relationship of the individual to the State, likewise holds in regard to the family and the nation as a biological unit and �40 SLOVAKIA of the Church as a supernatur al institution. The State does not assume and absorb their rights and their functioning ; contrarywis e, it reinforces and as a collective organism it merely supplement s whatever the family or the nation alone cannot provide or whatever would hinder the Church from attaining her mission. The State therefore should be the organ of the nation and not a medium of the arrogance, aggressiven ess and violence of its representat ives in authority. By its collective instrument ality it should promote individual enterprise and not thwart the developmen t of the vigor of the nation by imposing excessive financial burdens. It is an institution of temporal welfare which does not interfere with supernatur al aspirations but respects them because of their delicate bearing on the temporal wellbeing of society."(9) The State should respect the natural law and should not interfere in Church matters: "God is a power greater than man; the Church is more than the State. The State may not meddle in ecclesiastic al affairs."(10 ) The State must submit to Christian ideals. "We subordinate the powers of the State to the laws of morality and justice. In keeping with this principle, the State must respect the rights of individuals, of families, of society and of local self-govern ing entities. It regards as sacred the right of parents to educate their children and the privilege of free religious profession. It guarantees the right of private ownership and insures the peaceful co-existenc e of empolyer and employee."(11) It was only natural for Dr. Tiso as the ideologist of the Slovak Populist Party to conceive of the democratic structure of the State. "Just as it is an axiom for political activity to be concerned above all about the public good and about the common welfare," writes Dr. Tiso, "so it is likewise true that political activity of such a nature is carried on more successfull y on a democratic basis than on any other kind of foundation. The very root of the word, demos - people, signifies the universalit y of all the members of a nation, incidentally of a State, who are to be not merely passive but truly active in this common functioning . A democratic system brings up people for universality , for it �SLOVAKIA 41 draws the widest possible public to share in the governing of the State, and thereby more and more come to be identified with the State. Consequently there is not only an awakening of responsibility in wide circles, but there is also established a definite degree of confidence in the directives that are promulgated, for in them the citizens see an expression of their will and of their effort to attain a better future. It is true that democracy presupposes a people educated for public service lest it degenerate into a mass easily swayed in the hands of oligarchs or political parties. Hence democracy can thrive only under Utopian or eminently ideal conditions. A foundation based on materialism will educe class struggle incited by selfishness and before long it will evolve into a dictatorship. In a democracy, however, this counterbalanc e of an ideally educated people insures a rich burgeoning of life and secures the firm consolidation of the State. "(12) In defining the duties of a democratic government, Dr. Tiso stated: "A democracy is a regime according to the will of the people. It is a regime which makes it possible for the will of the people to be manifest in all that affects public life. Democracy in this sense implies that the citizens do not merely express their will or their preferences in regard to organization and government at election time or in various types of balloting, but in the interests of the people and in the spirit of true democracy as such, the educated stratum, the intellectuals, fully explain to the people the program proposed and the objectives of the political party and thus instruct the citizens."(13) "Democracy means putting into effective use every creative force in the State as well as appraising its every component unit according to its moral worth even in the event that the ruling power does not demand this."(14) Dr. Tiso dedicated himself to service in a Christian democracy: "We uphold the principle of democracy because democracy is consonant with Christian teaching and we will not permit it to become corrupted with Marixist and socialistic appendages."(15) "We Slovaks are from our very souls adherents to this Christian democracy and we condemn every form of dictatorship regardless of the label under �42 SLOVAKIA . which it may try to hide its true nature or identity. We pledge ourselves to stand for democracy but for democracy of the proper stamp." Not a mystified or mystifying democracy. "In the maelstrom of views and opinions on democracy, it seems that there is developing a conscious tendency. Out of an indefinite conception of democracy there is being shaped a mystique of democracy which would affect people and command their reluctant respect; none may dare to voice any question or to protest once the statement is made that democracy requires this or that; none may presume to question an arrangement, for if it is a democratic arrangement, it is the best possible arrangement. And thus there is fabricated the mystique of democracy."(16) In a Christian democracy whatever holds in general extends also into individual departments, branches of public service and activity. Nor is it otherwise in the Christian democracy of Tiso. It may be helpful to examine in this connection a matter as weighty as the social problem. For the Slovak nation which had been so long the victim of foreign exploitation, this question bearing on the disposition of social affairs has been, and even after the overthrow of Communism it will still remain, a vital issue. Prime importance attaches especially to the relation between worker and employer; to the valuation attached not merely to property worth but also to labor; to the extent to which the government will identify itself with private initiative, and similar matters. The Church has long since made a clear pronouncement on this subject. Both the Rerum Novarum and the Quadragesimo Anno are well known encyclicals containing for modern Christian democracy the entire teaching of the Church on socio-economic affairs. Slovak Populists have likewise built on these social encyclicals of the Popes. Hence it was but natural that Dr. Tiso made application from these documents of the Church in the light of Christian philosophy rather than from any other sources when he set about his task of settling the long neglected problem of economics and social justice in Slovakia. He opposed class struggle and class hatred. "Instead of class warfare, we must. cultivate mutual and national �SLOVAKIA 43 Christian charity; by humility, simplicity and industry we must supplant rapaciousness, materialism and voluptousness. "(17) "To every man his due and injustice to none! That is our watchword - no hollow-sounding catchword but an honored principle. If we do not wish to violate tradition, we must tolerate no privileged classes, no privileges of any kind whatever, no indulgence of prerogatives, whatever their origin may have been."(18) Dr. Tiso interprets Christian social politics as "founded on realistic assumption: it takes into account the nature of man composed of body and soul and conscious of this dual basis it classifies among the most potent agencies of the social order not mere material forces but rather spiritual and moral incentives, giving these precedence, in fact. Hence, it is not concerned solely about a crust of bread; it cares also for every man's spirit, for sheer materialism can never satisfy man completely."(19) Christian socialism has always defended man's right to own private property. Dr. Tiso realized that sometimes capitalism can go to extremes, since capitalists are in the money and on occasion "they use wealth only for self aggrandizement and not for the general good."(20) On the other hand, although Dr. Tiso appreciated the deficiencies of capitalism, he consistently defended the principle of private ownership because he knew that the abrogation of ownership "would endanger both economic and cultural progress to a greater extent than does the capitalistic system, hedged about as it is by social policies.' (21) "In regard to the great question of individual ownership, considering it, for example, from the one extreme of liberalism to the opposite extreme of socialist communism," Dr. Tiso emphasized, "we juxtapose our principle which asserts the sacredness of private ownership and the uninviolable right of the individual."(22) On the other hand, however, "let him who has capital make just returns; let him distribute it with labor, and satisfy labor with decent civic gain." (23) A Christian view of capital and the income derived from it differs from that of other systems. "Former systems of liberalism and capitalism," Tiso wrote, "were al- �44 SLOVAKIA ways ready to calculate the profit trhat would accrue from an enterprise or a plant. Superficially it appears that income is the natural end of enterprise, but Catholic morality has long since taught that all the estates and properties of this world exist for man, for life. This truth is supported by the natural law also. Life is of higher value than gain. The theory that gain is of utmost value and importance must be invalidated. What is the world and everything in it for? For life, not for gain. Gain is subordinated to life and it may become an end only to the extent that it promotes life." (24) And where is capital to be sought? "Out of the strong spiritual resources of our national character," declared Dr. Tiso, "not by any exploitation of those who are socially weaker than we ourselves. It is not an international capital, not impersonalized, not embodied in the worship of gold, but the capital of individuals happily at work in the interests of their nation and their State; a capital which is evidenced in morally strong individuals, in numerous families socially secure, in a contented society united in social justice, in the harmonious commerce of all the citizens who work under the aegis of an organized State."(25) Capital and income are not produced except as the fruit of the laborer's toil. "We look upon work in an enlightened manner," Dr. Tiso asserted. "In it we see not only the creative force of economic values but the animate expression of human personality which has moral and social obligations; which a workingman therefore performs as his required contribution for the communal good and for which a wage is paid not only as the countervalue of energy expended or economic income achieved, but rather as a medium which in turn enables the laborer to satisfy all his obligations."(26) "In the light of Christian teaching, work is not a burden; it is not a means for effecting gain; it is rather the life expression of a man who is the inevitable agent under all circumstances. Christianity proceeds from man and says 'God endowed you with physical, spiritual, and intellectual powers and faculties so that you might use them to advantage.' This is a noble and holy thought. Work is a requisite �SLOVAKIA 45 for man even when he is already provided with sufficient resources for his livelihood."(27) He who works is entitled to a just wage. Humanity, in Dr. Tiso's words, "drew out of our venerable Christian socio-national spirit many a fresh impetus for fulfilling the words of Scripture 'The laborer is worthy of his hire'; to abide by the dictum of the same Scripture, 'He who does not work, let him not eat'; to demolish the idol of the golden calf in imitation of the example of Scripture; to measure with the same measure of justice to all, as the Scripture commands for we are all the children of one Father Who is in heaven."(28) Everyone has a claim to work. And "we shall distribute pay only for work." Dr. Tiso stresses this point, adding however, "We shall tolerate no unreasonable fomenting against capital. A workingman must not regard the capitalist as his enemy; on the other hand, a capitalist must realize that the capital, over which he is in reality only an administrator, essentially belongs to the nation in order to provide work and sustenance for all."(29) In short, the Christian-democratic system really "unites all - employers arnd workers - on the groundwork of a common interest: the material and moral well-being of the Slovak nation." (30) In all undertakings there must be effected an attitude in which "each one, regardless of what type of work he does, will come to regard the work as his own and will perform it with that devotion which he would lavish on his own."(31) It is the Christian democracy more than any other political system that cares for "the fundamental cell of the State and of society in general: the family," for the family "is the source from which all life is derived; it is the first school which educates one to think; it is the first temple which teaches one to pray; it is the first workshop which trains one to work; and it is also the first social bond which instructs one to live in the company of others in the spirit of love and equity. For this reason we must resist anything that may tend to ruin or impair the family and we must support everything that shall contribute to its unity and solidarity.... �46 SLOVAKIA "Therefore one prime concern shall be to foster the establishment of the family and to insure the material prerequisites for its existence. For the benefit of every type of employee, then, but especially for the laborer, measures must be taken to legislate a so-called family wage or familial pay to enable a young man to contract marriage and by a suitable scale of subsidies for wife and children (a scale graduated acording to their number) be assured a decent livelihood and proper education. Obviously this measure is also intended to provide a solution to the problem of married women now under employment. The ideal is to return married women to the family circle, for they are called to manage and maintain the government of the household and their proper place is the home."(32) Mankind as a Christian-democratic entity requires for its social security not only a family wage but also a settlement of housing policies. On this score Dr. Tiso observed, "Family life must be encouraged also by providing healthful and reasonably priced living quarters ... . A reasonable and hygienic housing unit is just as essential to family life as a decent income earned by the breadwinner."(33) "A family will be placed on the foundations where it properly belongs only when it has respectable quarters. When I say 'respectable quarters,' I mean that the home must qualify for the occupation of a family. . . . A guiding principle must be: to have a home in keeping with one's social standing."(34) "We must devote considerable attention to educate our people in regard to housing culture. The general cultural level of a nation is often judged by its housing culture and this also enters into the reasons why we are concerned about the living conditions of our Slovak residents in small towns and in the suburbs. Without improving housing conditions, one can hardly raise the level of the population or improve the position of the family."(35) In a Christian State, the family must be an exemplary unit in every respect. That is the reason why so much attention is devoted to preparation for family living. This was Dr. Tiso's attitude on the subject: "We shall provide for the family by supporting the �SLOVAKIA 47 education of youth designedly for family living, by providing moral safeguards for children and by arranging sociomedical conferences for those contemplating marriage as well as for those who are married, especially mothers."(36) Also: "We regard solicitude for the Slovak child as the most .s ublime aspect of social care."(37) The Christian-democratic State watchfully takes note -0f all social problems. It resolves difficulties and extends help to every level of its inhabitants that may require the support of State authority. In this manner it seems even to encroach upon private ownership. But this is really no encroachment in the usually accepted sense of the word; it is rather a kind of mediation and vigilance. Dr. Tiso advocates, fo rexample, that the government "should provide for the unemployed by creating jobs for them" or even by "introducing a working obligation." "The government considers it a duty to feel responsible for the employed as well as for the unemployed. Protection for the workers will be perfected by more thorough supervision in regard to the wage claims of employees as well as in the matter of safety and security measures to safeguard the health and the lives of the workers, but, above all, in provisions to protect the existence of the employees .... "(38) If projects are not managed in accordance with the natural law, the government calls for mediation or collective bargaining. "True, it is not easy to translate the natural law into action. Herein devolves a difficult assignment for the State. The State must put the natural law into concrete expression, an application appropriate to prevailing circumstances. Allow me to illustrate this point by an example: A family wage is obligatory under the natural law. Realizing this and anxious to secure the greatest possible success in his business, a manufacturer plans to hire single men only. This amounts to cudgelling life. The State must find a remedy for such a situation, some means by which to help large families and likewise to secure the prosperity of enterprising business. In some states all the workers are allotted the same pay but a definite portion of their earnings is withheld. Out of this reserve, compensation is then distributed to workers with large families. In other states, a �48 SLOVAKIA financing administration supplements the work of the laborers to effect a family wage. It covers its own replacement for this outlay out of taxes that accrue from the entire ., national collective."(39) In a word, the role of a Christian democracy - according to Dr. Tiso - is to build "a State of Christian order in which laws are carried out in spirit of responsibility to the supreme authority of God; in which Christian thoughts of justice and charity are the basic pillars of social and moral order; in which the training of children is carried out in keeping with the eternal principles of Christ, the supreme Pedagogue; in which the fundamental cell of social life, the family, is protected by the defense of unity and indissolubility; in which there reigns not the terror of brute force and physical violence, but the spirit of true moral liberty. "(40) Dr. Tiso ardently promoted a Christian democracy which was supported by both of the Christian components of the Slovak nation, for he was convinced that "along with Catholic universality and Catholic idealism, Lutheran individualism and realism can be used beneficially in politics. When all these attributes are combined then not even the gates of hell can prevail against our common front. Catholic populists and Lutheran Nationalists, we must cooperate and neither covet nor seize. Let us not forget that we are allying ourselves in the cause of national politics and that there is here no possibility of joining with Catholics of other nationalities."(41) What motives prompted this alliance and this insistence that the independent Slovak Republic be organized on Christian-democratic principles? This alone that a Christian world-view and Christian democracy contain lasting values. Dr. Tiso declared: "We do not design our ideological activity for a week or for a month, but we come and we look always - and this is our peculiar characteristic - in a manner which is intended for the ages - eternally. Eternally, as the Slovak nation is to last, and from this eternal existence of the Slovak nation we derive practical applications for our temporal problems and tasks .... Whoever prides himself on being a �SLOVAKIA 49 loyal son of the nation must also consider what he contributes to the nation: whether it is an infection which induces fever, or germs which destroy and can bring the nation to its grave, or labor which abides in the nation eternally like a cell of healthy social and cultural development."( 42) Because of this peculiar feature of Christian democracy, we must return to it repeatedly and draw upon it always. Naturally, the Communists regarded a political leader of this caliber as their key enemy and, consequently, Msgr. Joseph Tiso was the first Catholic prelate from behind the Iron Curtain singled out to make the supreme sacrifice in the struggle with Communism. However, "as a martyr to his love for the nation, Dr. Tiso will continue to live in the nation."(43) Dr. Tiso is a martyr for the cause of freedom and fittingly he ranks with Washington and many other great men of history."(44) ( 1) Daily "Slovak" 1939, No. 189, Bratislava, Slovakia. ( 2) "Slovak" 1924, 92. ( 3) "Tatransky Orol", Vol. VI, No. 4. ( 4) "Slovak" 1939, 197. ( 5) "Slovak" 1934, 113. ( 6) Ideol6gia Slovenskej :Uudovej Strany, pg. 25. ( 7) "Kult ura" 1933, No. 9, Trnava, Slovakia. ( 8) " Slovak" 1940, 227. ( 9) "Slovak" 1938, 293. (10) "Slovak" 1934, 221. (11) "Slovak" 1939, 44. (12) Ideol6gia, pg. 123-124. (13) "Slovak" 1935, 150. (14) "Slovenska Pravda" 1937, No. 74, Bratislava. (15) "Slovak" 1938, 243. (16) "Slovak" 1936, 178. (17) "Slovak" 1924, 92. (18) "Slovak" 1938, 249. (19) Ideol6gia, pg. 118-119. (20) "Slovak" 1938, 283. (21) Ideol6gia, p. 118. (22) "Slovak" 1925, 278. (23) "Slovak" 1938, 283. (24) "Slovak" 1941, 13. (25) Prve Posolstvo. (26) Posolstvo. �SLOVAKIA 50 (27) (28) (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37) (38) (39) (40) (41) (42) (43) (44) "Slovak" 1941, 105. "Slovak" 1940, 186. "Slovak" 1938, 243. "Slovak" 1938, 283. "Slovak" 1940, 186. "Slovak" 1939, 44. "Slovak" 1939, 44. "Slovak" 1941, 37. "Slovak" 1939, 44. Ibidem. Ibidem. Ibidem. "Slovak" 1941, 37. "Kultura" 1933, 9. "Slovak" 1932, 237. "Slovak" 1941, 17. Vatican Radio April 28, 1947. Congressman Alvin O'Konski May 31, 1948, at Bedford, 0 . • • Castles of Slovakia: ILA VA The name Ila va may be more familar to the outside world, because it has been mentioned more frequently than names of other castles and citadels of Slovakia. Political prisoners, "enemies of the state," are confined within its walls today by the communist regime of Prague. Just when the Ilava Castle was built is not definitely known; but we do know that it already existed at the end of the twelfth century. The first known written account of Ilava from that time states that "Castrum Ilava" was the property of the Knights Templars, who also occupied other castles in the Vah Valley. Ilava (Trencin County) was held by the Templars until the Order was abolished in 1312. The castle is situated on the left bank of the Vah near the railroad station. Its origin may go back to the times of the Great Moravian Empire. After the dissolution of the Knights Templars, Ilava Castle passed into the hands of the "mighty Lord of the Vah and the Tatras," Matthew Cak (Tchak) of Trencin, who made of it a mighty fortress. It remained in his possession to his death, when all of Ca.k's holdings were seized by the � SLOVAKIA 37 DR. JOSEPH TISO: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT Dr. Joseph Pauco The President of the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), who was executed by a pro-Communist regime on April 18, 1947, ranks among the outstanding figures of the centralEuropean Christian Democratic movement. He was Dr. Joseph Tiso, ideologist of the Slovak Populist Party, which fought for the independence of Slovakia and since 1925 represented the majority of Slovak voting power. The philosophy motivating the Slovak Populist Party was For God and Nation, and it was in the spirit of this principle that Dr. Tiso embodied all his Christian Democratic politics. "Let no one pause to wonder," he wrote, "that we work with God for the nation. God does not need the nation. God will be God even without a nation whether we admit the fact or not, but without God there can be no nation .... There is no sinful failing against God in allying the concepts 'For God, For Nation.' It means the binding of human values to values that are eternal, that are divine."(!) Dr. Tiso affirmed that this clarion call "For God, for Nation" should intensify Christian idealism. His own words are: "Putting it in a practical way, this simply means that one (who cultivates Christian idealism) will not frustrate the influence of Christianity upon the life of a nation in its schools, its literature, its parliament; he will, on the contrary, use every opportunity to help Christianity enter more and more significantly into classrooms and lecture halls, into family life and into public life, for it is Christianity alone that can preserve the roots of idealism without which no nation can survive.''(2) Idealism and Christian morality are the sine qua non of the life of nations and society. "I rely on a weak analogy," declared Dr. Tiso, "when I say that if nature cannot survive without the beneficence of heat and sun, neither can human life endure without faith, without moral philosophy. The histories of nations and our personal experiences furnish evidence to substantiate the fact that whatever the light of faith and Christian morals was extinguished, there followed not only a decline in culture, truth and art, but also �38 SLOVAKIA a decay that affected the nation's economic system as well. A social order grounded in gross materialism, devoid of Christian idealism, cannot long endure, and a nation bred in materialism, grasping for matter alone, becomes like a withered shrub that stands in the midst of luxuriant verdure, a thing alien and repulsive to other nations."(3) Christianity imposes the obligation of love for one's nation. "Love for the nation is a religious precept, and anyone who does not foster a love for his nation violates the fourth commandment. He is branded not only as an earthly traitor, but also as a transgressor who profanes the law of God."(4) Chauvinism, on the other hand, he denounced as can be seen from these extracts: "A regulated love of self is the foundation of Christian charity. From this basic tenet there also evolves the proper concept of Christian nationalism. First comes love of one's own nation, then an extension of charity to others. Non-Christian nationalism is of an entirely different stock, loving self and hybridizing into chauvinism. " (5) "Nationalism, a kind of centering on self diffused on a national scale, is not only the indispensable drive in service for the nation, it is also the natural measure of obligation on the part of one nation toward other nations, just as love of self becomes the stimulating force or the incentive for self-improvement and the gauge of human relations. But in order to prevent self-love as well as nationalism from degenerating into formidable media of destruction, there must be an obligation which is expressed in the universally known precept: Love thy neighbor as thyself."(6) According to the teaching of the Church, "nationalism loves its own but it must not hate what is other than its own; it builds its own but it may not destroy another's; it strengthens its own but it does not divide the whole."(7) One who is a believing Christian and a patriot works for the freedom of his nation because "the independence of a nation is a natural good which substantially affects not only the individual and his material and spiritual interests, but it concerns the entire national commonwealth. Since national freedom is then such a natural good that affects the �SLOVAKIA individual, the family and the entire national community, there can be nothing inappropriate in the gratitude which is shown to God in return for it.... "For a nation to exist and yet not be independent means sentencing it to its extinction. If a nation is to exist, and there is proof of this in the fact that it now does exist, then that nation, by the will of God, must be free .... "A nation must be granted its freedom, for without liberty it would in vain have the God-given gift of language; it would be unable to use it. In vain would it have a Godgiven territory; it would be unable to cultivate its land and make a living on it. Consequently if a nation is to live according to its intellectual endowments and character, it must be free in order to fulfill its destiny. The Divine Will, therefore, is for a nation to be independent and free."(8) The liberty of a nation is protected by the State. As Tiso sees it, "The State is an organized body established for the welfare of the citizens. It is founded on the natural law, therefore on the will of the Creator, Who so created man that he can live and develop his mental and moral faculties only in association with other men. The State is a means to an end and not the end of man. It is for the State to serve the welfare of man, not for man to serve the State. This is the original design of the Creator from which, however, the developmental periphery of human society has steadily departed more and more. "The State is founded on the individuality of its citizens whose interests it promotes rather than absorbs. The State does not assume the obligations of individuals but it discharges those functions that are essential for the life of all, tasks for which the capacities of the individual alone are not commensurate. Always and everywhere it must be the individual first and as far as his abilities can reach and only beyond that point may the State enter as a collective unit of strength. It is for the State to serve society, not society the State. The organization of the State is determined by the moral disposition, the physical capacity and the material potential of the nation. What holds in regard to the relationship of the individual to the State, likewise holds in regard to the family and the nation as a biological unit and �40 SLOVAKIA of the Church as a supernatur al institution. The State does not assume and absorb their rights and their functioning ; contrarywis e, it reinforces and as a collective organism it merely supplement s whatever the family or the nation alone cannot provide or whatever would hinder the Church from attaining her mission. The State therefore should be the organ of the nation and not a medium of the arrogance, aggressiven ess and violence of its representat ives in authority. By its collective instrument ality it should promote individual enterprise and not thwart the developmen t of the vigor of the nation by imposing excessive financial burdens. It is an institution of temporal welfare which does not interfere with supernatur al aspirations but respects them because of their delicate bearing on the temporal wellbeing of society."(9) The State should respect the natural law and should not interfere in Church matters: "God is a power greater than man; the Church is more than the State. The State may not meddle in ecclesiastic al affairs."(10 ) The State must submit to Christian ideals. "We subordinate the powers of the State to the laws of morality and justice. In keeping with this principle, the State must respect the rights of individuals, of families, of society and of local self-govern ing entities. It regards as sacred the right of parents to educate their children and the privilege of free religious profession. It guarantees the right of private ownership and insures the peaceful co-existenc e of empolyer and employee."(11) It was only natural for Dr. Tiso as the ideologist of the Slovak Populist Party to conceive of the democratic structure of the State. "Just as it is an axiom for political activity to be concerned above all about the public good and about the common welfare," writes Dr. Tiso, "so it is likewise true that political activity of such a nature is carried on more successfull y on a democratic basis than on any other kind of foundation. The very root of the word, demos - people, signifies the universalit y of all the members of a nation, incidentally of a State, who are to be not merely passive but truly active in this common functioning . A democratic system brings up people for universality , for it �SLOVAKIA 41 draws the widest possible public to share in the governing of the State, and thereby more and more come to be identified with the State. Consequently there is not only an awakening of responsibility in wide circles, but there is also established a definite degree of confidence in the directives that are promulgated, for in them the citizens see an expression of their will and of their effort to attain a better future. It is true that democracy presupposes a people educated for public service lest it degenerate into a mass easily swayed in the hands of oligarchs or political parties. Hence democracy can thrive only under Utopian or eminently ideal conditions. A foundation based on materialism will educe class struggle incited by selfishness and before long it will evolve into a dictatorship. In a democracy, however, this counterbalanc e of an ideally educated people insures a rich burgeoning of life and secures the firm consolidation of the State. "(12) In defining the duties of a democratic government, Dr. Tiso stated: "A democracy is a regime according to the will of the people. It is a regime which makes it possible for the will of the people to be manifest in all that affects public life. Democracy in this sense implies that the citizens do not merely express their will or their preferences in regard to organization and government at election time or in various types of balloting, but in the interests of the people and in the spirit of true democracy as such, the educated stratum, the intellectuals, fully explain to the people the program proposed and the objectives of the political party and thus instruct the citizens."(13) "Democracy means putting into effective use every creative force in the State as well as appraising its every component unit according to its moral worth even in the event that the ruling power does not demand this."(14) Dr. Tiso dedicated himself to service in a Christian democracy: "We uphold the principle of democracy because democracy is consonant with Christian teaching and we will not permit it to become corrupted with Marixist and socialistic appendages."(15) "We Slovaks are from our very souls adherents to this Christian democracy and we condemn every form of dictatorship regardless of the label under �42 SLOVAKIA . which it may try to hide its true nature or identity. We pledge ourselves to stand for democracy but for democracy of the proper stamp." Not a mystified or mystifying democracy. "In the maelstrom of views and opinions on democracy, it seems that there is developing a conscious tendency. Out of an indefinite conception of democracy there is being shaped a mystique of democracy which would affect people and command their reluctant respect; none may dare to voice any question or to protest once the statement is made that democracy requires this or that; none may presume to question an arrangement, for if it is a democratic arrangement, it is the best possible arrangement. And thus there is fabricated the mystique of democracy."(16) In a Christian democracy whatever holds in general extends also into individual departments, branches of public service and activity. Nor is it otherwise in the Christian democracy of Tiso. It may be helpful to examine in this connection a matter as weighty as the social problem. For the Slovak nation which had been so long the victim of foreign exploitation, this question bearing on the disposition of social affairs has been, and even after the overthrow of Communism it will still remain, a vital issue. Prime importance attaches especially to the relation between worker and employer; to the valuation attached not merely to property worth but also to labor; to the extent to which the government will identify itself with private initiative, and similar matters. The Church has long since made a clear pronouncement on this subject. Both the Rerum Novarum and the Quadragesimo Anno are well known encyclicals containing for modern Christian democracy the entire teaching of the Church on socio-economic affairs. Slovak Populists have likewise built on these social encyclicals of the Popes. Hence it was but natural that Dr. Tiso made application from these documents of the Church in the light of Christian philosophy rather than from any other sources when he set about his task of settling the long neglected problem of economics and social justice in Slovakia. He opposed class struggle and class hatred. "Instead of class warfare, we must. cultivate mutual and national �SLOVAKIA 43 Christian charity; by humility, simplicity and industry we must supplant rapaciousness, materialism and voluptousness. "(17) "To every man his due and injustice to none! That is our watchword - no hollow-sounding catchword but an honored principle. If we do not wish to violate tradition, we must tolerate no privileged classes, no privileges of any kind whatever, no indulgence of prerogatives, whatever their origin may have been."(18) Dr. Tiso interprets Christian social politics as "founded on realistic assumption: it takes into account the nature of man composed of body and soul and conscious of this dual basis it classifies among the most potent agencies of the social order not mere material forces but rather spiritual and moral incentives, giving these precedence, in fact. Hence, it is not concerned solely about a crust of bread; it cares also for every man's spirit, for sheer materialism can never satisfy man completely."(19) Christian socialism has always defended man's right to own private property. Dr. Tiso realized that sometimes capitalism can go to extremes, since capitalists are in the money and on occasion "they use wealth only for self aggrandizement and not for the general good."(20) On the other hand, although Dr. Tiso appreciated the deficiencies of capitalism, he consistently defended the principle of private ownership because he knew that the abrogation of ownership "would endanger both economic and cultural progress to a greater extent than does the capitalistic system, hedged about as it is by social policies.' (21) "In regard to the great question of individual ownership, considering it, for example, from the one extreme of liberalism to the opposite extreme of socialist communism," Dr. Tiso emphasized, "we juxtapose our principle which asserts the sacredness of private ownership and the uninviolable right of the individual."(22) On the other hand, however, "let him who has capital make just returns; let him distribute it with labor, and satisfy labor with decent civic gain." (23) A Christian view of capital and the income derived from it differs from that of other systems. "Former systems of liberalism and capitalism," Tiso wrote, "were al- �44 SLOVAKIA ways ready to calculate the profit trhat would accrue from an enterprise or a plant. Superficially it appears that income is the natural end of enterprise, but Catholic morality has long since taught that all the estates and properties of this world exist for man, for life. This truth is supported by the natural law also. Life is of higher value than gain. The theory that gain is of utmost value and importance must be invalidated. What is the world and everything in it for? For life, not for gain. Gain is subordinated to life and it may become an end only to the extent that it promotes life." (24) And where is capital to be sought? "Out of the strong spiritual resources of our national character," declared Dr. Tiso, "not by any exploitation of those who are socially weaker than we ourselves. It is not an international capital, not impersonalized, not embodied in the worship of gold, but the capital of individuals happily at work in the interests of their nation and their State; a capital which is evidenced in morally strong individuals, in numerous families socially secure, in a contented society united in social justice, in the harmonious commerce of all the citizens who work under the aegis of an organized State."(25) Capital and income are not produced except as the fruit of the laborer's toil. "We look upon work in an enlightened manner," Dr. Tiso asserted. "In it we see not only the creative force of economic values but the animate expression of human personality which has moral and social obligations; which a workingman therefore performs as his required contribution for the communal good and for which a wage is paid not only as the countervalue of energy expended or economic income achieved, but rather as a medium which in turn enables the laborer to satisfy all his obligations."(26) "In the light of Christian teaching, work is not a burden; it is not a means for effecting gain; it is rather the life expression of a man who is the inevitable agent under all circumstances. Christianity proceeds from man and says 'God endowed you with physical, spiritual, and intellectual powers and faculties so that you might use them to advantage.' This is a noble and holy thought. Work is a requisite �SLOVAKIA 45 for man even when he is already provided with sufficient resources for his livelihood."(27) He who works is entitled to a just wage. Humanity, in Dr. Tiso's words, "drew out of our venerable Christian socio-national spirit many a fresh impetus for fulfilling the words of Scripture 'The laborer is worthy of his hire'; to abide by the dictum of the same Scripture, 'He who does not work, let him not eat'; to demolish the idol of the golden calf in imitation of the example of Scripture; to measure with the same measure of justice to all, as the Scripture commands for we are all the children of one Father Who is in heaven."(28) Everyone has a claim to work. And "we shall distribute pay only for work." Dr. Tiso stresses this point, adding however, "We shall tolerate no unreasonable fomenting against capital. A workingman must not regard the capitalist as his enemy; on the other hand, a capitalist must realize that the capital, over which he is in reality only an administrator, essentially belongs to the nation in order to provide work and sustenance for all."(29) In short, the Christian-democratic system really "unites all - employers arnd workers - on the groundwork of a common interest: the material and moral well-being of the Slovak nation." (30) In all undertakings there must be effected an attitude in which "each one, regardless of what type of work he does, will come to regard the work as his own and will perform it with that devotion which he would lavish on his own."(31) It is the Christian democracy more than any other political system that cares for "the fundamental cell of the State and of society in general: the family," for the family "is the source from which all life is derived; it is the first school which educates one to think; it is the first temple which teaches one to pray; it is the first workshop which trains one to work; and it is also the first social bond which instructs one to live in the company of others in the spirit of love and equity. For this reason we must resist anything that may tend to ruin or impair the family and we must support everything that shall contribute to its unity and solidarity.... �46 SLOVAKIA "Therefore one prime concern shall be to foster the establishment of the family and to insure the material prerequisites for its existence. For the benefit of every type of employee, then, but especially for the laborer, measures must be taken to legislate a so-called family wage or familial pay to enable a young man to contract marriage and by a suitable scale of subsidies for wife and children (a scale graduated acording to their number) be assured a decent livelihood and proper education. Obviously this measure is also intended to provide a solution to the problem of married women now under employment. The ideal is to return married women to the family circle, for they are called to manage and maintain the government of the household and their proper place is the home."(32) Mankind as a Christian-democratic entity requires for its social security not only a family wage but also a settlement of housing policies. On this score Dr. Tiso observed, "Family life must be encouraged also by providing healthful and reasonably priced living quarters ... . A reasonable and hygienic housing unit is just as essential to family life as a decent income earned by the breadwinner."(33) "A family will be placed on the foundations where it properly belongs only when it has respectable quarters. When I say 'respectable quarters,' I mean that the home must qualify for the occupation of a family. . . . A guiding principle must be: to have a home in keeping with one's social standing."(34) "We must devote considerable attention to educate our people in regard to housing culture. The general cultural level of a nation is often judged by its housing culture and this also enters into the reasons why we are concerned about the living conditions of our Slovak residents in small towns and in the suburbs. Without improving housing conditions, one can hardly raise the level of the population or improve the position of the family."(35) In a Christian State, the family must be an exemplary unit in every respect. That is the reason why so much attention is devoted to preparation for family living. This was Dr. Tiso's attitude on the subject: "We shall provide for the family by supporting the �SLOVAKIA 47 education of youth designedly for family living, by providing moral safeguards for children and by arranging sociomedical conferences for those contemplating marriage as well as for those who are married, especially mothers."(36) Also: "We regard solicitude for the Slovak child as the most .s ublime aspect of social care."(37) The Christian-democratic State watchfully takes note -0f all social problems. It resolves difficulties and extends help to every level of its inhabitants that may require the support of State authority. In this manner it seems even to encroach upon private ownership. But this is really no encroachment in the usually accepted sense of the word; it is rather a kind of mediation and vigilance. Dr. Tiso advocates, fo rexample, that the government "should provide for the unemployed by creating jobs for them" or even by "introducing a working obligation." "The government considers it a duty to feel responsible for the employed as well as for the unemployed. Protection for the workers will be perfected by more thorough supervision in regard to the wage claims of employees as well as in the matter of safety and security measures to safeguard the health and the lives of the workers, but, above all, in provisions to protect the existence of the employees .... "(38) If projects are not managed in accordance with the natural law, the government calls for mediation or collective bargaining. "True, it is not easy to translate the natural law into action. Herein devolves a difficult assignment for the State. The State must put the natural law into concrete expression, an application appropriate to prevailing circumstances. Allow me to illustrate this point by an example: A family wage is obligatory under the natural law. Realizing this and anxious to secure the greatest possible success in his business, a manufacturer plans to hire single men only. This amounts to cudgelling life. The State must find a remedy for such a situation, some means by which to help large families and likewise to secure the prosperity of enterprising business. In some states all the workers are allotted the same pay but a definite portion of their earnings is withheld. Out of this reserve, compensation is then distributed to workers with large families. In other states, a �48 SLOVAKIA financing administration supplements the work of the laborers to effect a family wage. It covers its own replacement for this outlay out of taxes that accrue from the entire ., national collective."(39) In a word, the role of a Christian democracy - according to Dr. Tiso - is to build "a State of Christian order in which laws are carried out in spirit of responsibility to the supreme authority of God; in which Christian thoughts of justice and charity are the basic pillars of social and moral order; in which the training of children is carried out in keeping with the eternal principles of Christ, the supreme Pedagogue; in which the fundamental cell of social life, the family, is protected by the defense of unity and indissolubility; in which there reigns not the terror of brute force and physical violence, but the spirit of true moral liberty. "(40) Dr. Tiso ardently promoted a Christian democracy which was supported by both of the Christian components of the Slovak nation, for he was convinced that "along with Catholic universality and Catholic idealism, Lutheran individualism and realism can be used beneficially in politics. When all these attributes are combined then not even the gates of hell can prevail against our common front. Catholic populists and Lutheran Nationalists, we must cooperate and neither covet nor seize. Let us not forget that we are allying ourselves in the cause of national politics and that there is here no possibility of joining with Catholics of other nationalities."(41) What motives prompted this alliance and this insistence that the independent Slovak Republic be organized on Christian-democratic principles? This alone that a Christian world-view and Christian democracy contain lasting values. Dr. Tiso declared: "We do not design our ideological activity for a week or for a month, but we come and we look always - and this is our peculiar characteristic - in a manner which is intended for the ages - eternally. Eternally, as the Slovak nation is to last, and from this eternal existence of the Slovak nation we derive practical applications for our temporal problems and tasks .... Whoever prides himself on being a �SLOVAKIA 49 loyal son of the nation must also consider what he contributes to the nation: whether it is an infection which induces fever, or germs which destroy and can bring the nation to its grave, or labor which abides in the nation eternally like a cell of healthy social and cultural development."( 42) Because of this peculiar feature of Christian democracy, we must return to it repeatedly and draw upon it always. Naturally, the Communists regarded a political leader of this caliber as their key enemy and, consequently, Msgr. Joseph Tiso was the first Catholic prelate from behind the Iron Curtain singled out to make the supreme sacrifice in the struggle with Communism. However, "as a martyr to his love for the nation, Dr. Tiso will continue to live in the nation."(43) Dr. Tiso is a martyr for the cause of freedom and fittingly he ranks with Washington and many other great men of history."(44) ( 1) Daily "Slovak" 1939, No. 189, Bratislava, Slovakia. ( 2) "Slovak" 1924, 92. ( 3) "Tatransky Orol", Vol. VI, No. 4. ( 4) "Slovak" 1939, 197. ( 5) "Slovak" 1934, 113. ( 6) Ideol6gia Slovenskej :Uudovej Strany, pg. 25. ( 7) "Kult ura" 1933, No. 9, Trnava, Slovakia. ( 8) " Slovak" 1940, 227. ( 9) "Slovak" 1938, 293. (10) "Slovak" 1934, 221. (11) "Slovak" 1939, 44. (12) Ideol6gia, pg. 123-124. (13) "Slovak" 1935, 150. (14) "Slovenska Pravda" 1937, No. 74, Bratislava. (15) "Slovak" 1938, 243. (16) "Slovak" 1936, 178. (17) "Slovak" 1924, 92. (18) "Slovak" 1938, 249. (19) Ideol6gia, pg. 118-119. (20) "Slovak" 1938, 283. (21) Ideol6gia, p. 118. (22) "Slovak" 1925, 278. (23) "Slovak" 1938, 283. (24) "Slovak" 1941, 13. (25) Prve Posolstvo. (26) Posolstvo. �SLOVAKIA 50 (27) (28) (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37) (38) (39) (40) (41) (42) (43) (44) "Slovak" 1941, 105. "Slovak" 1940, 186. "Slovak" 1938, 243. "Slovak" 1938, 283. "Slovak" 1940, 186. "Slovak" 1939, 44. "Slovak" 1939, 44. "Slovak" 1941, 37. "Slovak" 1939, 44. Ibidem. Ibidem. Ibidem. "Slovak" 1941, 37. "Kultura" 1933, 9. "Slovak" 1932, 237. "Slovak" 1941, 17. Vatican Radio April 28, 1947. Congressman Alvin O'Konski May 31, 1948, at Bedford, 0 . • • Castles of Slovakia: ILA VA The name Ila va may be more familar to the outside world, because it has been mentioned more frequently than names of other castles and citadels of Slovakia. Political prisoners, "enemies of the state," are confined within its walls today by the communist regime of Prague. Just when the Ilava Castle was built is not definitely known; but we do know that it already existed at the end of the twelfth century. The first known written account of Ilava from that time states that "Castrum Ilava" was the property of the Knights Templars, who also occupied other castles in the Vah Valley. Ilava (Trencin County) was held by the Templars until the Order was abolished in 1312. The castle is situated on the left bank of the Vah near the railroad station. Its origin may go back to the times of the Great Moravian Empire. After the dissolution of the Knights Templars, Ilava Castle passed into the hands of the "mighty Lord of the Vah and the Tatras," Matthew Cak (Tchak) of Trencin, who made of it a mighty fortress. It remained in his possession to his death, when all of Ca.k's holdings were seized by the � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 37 DR. JOSEPH TISO: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT Dr. Joseph Pauco The President of the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), who was executed by a pro-Communist regime on April 18, 1947, ranks among the outstanding figures of the centralEuropean Christian Democratic movement. He was Dr. Joseph Tiso, ideologist of the Slovak Populist Party, which fought for the independence of Slovakia and since 1925 represented the majority of Slovak voting power. The philosophy motivating the Slovak Populist Party was For God and Nation, and it was in the spirit of this principle that Dr. Tiso embodied all his Christian Democratic politics. "Let no one pause to wonder," he wrote, "that we work with God for the nation. God does not need the nation. God will be God even without a nation whether we admit the fact or not, but without God there can be no nation .... There is no sinful failing against God in allying the concepts 'For God, For Nation.' It means the binding of human values to values that are eternal, that are divine."(!) Dr. Tiso affirmed that this clarion call "For God, for Nation" should intensify Christian idealism. His own words are: "Putting it in a practical way, this simply means that one (who cultivates Christian idealism) will not frustrate the influence of Christianity upon the life of a nation in its schools, its literature, its parliament; he will, on the contrary, use every opportunity to help Christianity enter more and more significantly into classrooms and lecture halls, into family life and into public life, for it is Christianity alone that can preserve the roots of idealism without which no nation can survive.''(2) Idealism and Christian morality are the sine qua non of the life of nations and society. "I rely on a weak analogy," declared Dr. Tiso, "when I say that if nature cannot survive without the beneficence of heat and sun, neither can human life endure without faith, without moral philosophy. The histories of nations and our personal experiences furnish evidence to substantiate the fact that whatever the light of faith and Christian morals was extinguished, there followed not only a decline in culture, truth and art, but also 38 SLOVAKIA a decay that affected the nation's economic system as well. A social order grounded in gross materialism, devoid of Christian idealism, cannot long endure, and a nation bred in materialism, grasping for matter alone, becomes like a withered shrub that stands in the midst of luxuriant verdure, a thing alien and repulsive to other nations."(3) Christianity imposes the obligation of love for one's nation. "Love for the nation is a religious precept, and anyone who does not foster a love for his nation violates the fourth commandment. He is branded not only as an earthly traitor, but also as a transgressor who profanes the law of God."(4) Chauvinism, on the other hand, he denounced as can be seen from these extracts: "A regulated love of self is the foundation of Christian charity. From this basic tenet there also evolves the proper concept of Christian nationalism. First comes love of one's own nation, then an extension of charity to others. Non-Christian nationalism is of an entirely different stock, loving self and hybridizing into chauvinism. " (5) "Nationalism, a kind of centering on self diffused on a national scale, is not only the indispensable drive in service for the nation, it is also the natural measure of obligation on the part of one nation toward other nations, just as love of self becomes the stimulating force or the incentive for self-improvement and the gauge of human relations. But in order to prevent self-love as well as nationalism from degenerating into formidable media of destruction, there must be an obligation which is expressed in the universally known precept: Love thy neighbor as thyself."(6) According to the teaching of the Church, "nationalism loves its own but it must not hate what is other than its own; it builds its own but it may not destroy another's; it strengthens its own but it does not divide the whole."(7) One who is a believing Christian and a patriot works for the freedom of his nation because "the independence of a nation is a natural good which substantially affects not only the individual and his material and spiritual interests, but it concerns the entire national commonwealth. Since national freedom is then such a natural good that affects the SLOVAKIA individual, the family and the entire national community, there can be nothing inappropriate in the gratitude which is shown to God in return for it.... "For a nation to exist and yet not be independent means sentencing it to its extinction. If a nation is to exist, and there is proof of this in the fact that it now does exist, then that nation, by the will of God, must be free .... "A nation must be granted its freedom, for without liberty it would in vain have the God-given gift of language; it would be unable to use it. In vain would it have a Godgiven territory; it would be unable to cultivate its land and make a living on it. Consequently if a nation is to live according to its intellectual endowments and character, it must be free in order to fulfill its destiny. The Divine Will, therefore, is for a nation to be independent and free."(8) The liberty of a nation is protected by the State. As Tiso sees it, "The State is an organized body established for the welfare of the citizens. It is founded on the natural law, therefore on the will of the Creator, Who so created man that he can live and develop his mental and moral faculties only in association with other men. The State is a means to an end and not the end of man. It is for the State to serve the welfare of man, not for man to serve the State. This is the original design of the Creator from which, however, the developmental periphery of human society has steadily departed more and more. "The State is founded on the individuality of its citizens whose interests it promotes rather than absorbs. The State does not assume the obligations of individuals but it discharges those functions that are essential for the life of all, tasks for which the capacities of the individual alone are not commensurate. Always and everywhere it must be the individual first and as far as his abilities can reach and only beyond that point may the State enter as a collective unit of strength. It is for the State to serve society, not society the State. The organization of the State is determined by the moral disposition, the physical capacity and the material potential of the nation. What holds in regard to the relationship of the individual to the State, likewise holds in regard to the family and the nation as a biological unit and 40 SLOVAKIA of the Church as a supernatur al institution. The State does not assume and absorb their rights and their functioning ; contrarywis e, it reinforces and as a collective organism it merely supplement s whatever the family or the nation alone cannot provide or whatever would hinder the Church from attaining her mission. The State therefore should be the organ of the nation and not a medium of the arrogance, aggressiven ess and violence of its representat ives in authority. By its collective instrument ality it should promote individual enterprise and not thwart the developmen t of the vigor of the nation by imposing excessive financial burdens. It is an institution of temporal welfare which does not interfere with supernatur al aspirations but respects them because of their delicate bearing on the temporal wellbeing of society."(9) The State should respect the natural law and should not interfere in Church matters: "God is a power greater than man; the Church is more than the State. The State may not meddle in ecclesiastic al affairs."(10 ) The State must submit to Christian ideals. "We subordinate the powers of the State to the laws of morality and justice. In keeping with this principle, the State must respect the rights of individuals, of families, of society and of local self-govern ing entities. It regards as sacred the right of parents to educate their children and the privilege of free religious profession. It guarantees the right of private ownership and insures the peaceful co-existenc e of empolyer and employee."(11) It was only natural for Dr. Tiso as the ideologist of the Slovak Populist Party to conceive of the democratic structure of the State. "Just as it is an axiom for political activity to be concerned above all about the public good and about the common welfare," writes Dr. Tiso, "so it is likewise true that political activity of such a nature is carried on more successfull y on a democratic basis than on any other kind of foundation. The very root of the word, demos - people, signifies the universalit y of all the members of a nation, incidentally of a State, who are to be not merely passive but truly active in this common functioning . A democratic system brings up people for universality , for it SLOVAKIA 41 draws the widest possible public to share in the governing of the State, and thereby more and more come to be identified with the State. Consequently there is not only an awakening of responsibility in wide circles, but there is also established a definite degree of confidence in the directives that are promulgated, for in them the citizens see an expression of their will and of their effort to attain a better future. It is true that democracy presupposes a people educated for public service lest it degenerate into a mass easily swayed in the hands of oligarchs or political parties. Hence democracy can thrive only under Utopian or eminently ideal conditions. A foundation based on materialism will educe class struggle incited by selfishness and before long it will evolve into a dictatorship. In a democracy, however, this counterbalanc e of an ideally educated people insures a rich burgeoning of life and secures the firm consolidation of the State. "(12) In defining the duties of a democratic government, Dr. Tiso stated: "A democracy is a regime according to the will of the people. It is a regime which makes it possible for the will of the people to be manifest in all that affects public life. Democracy in this sense implies that the citizens do not merely express their will or their preferences in regard to organization and government at election time or in various types of balloting, but in the interests of the people and in the spirit of true democracy as such, the educated stratum, the intellectuals, fully explain to the people the program proposed and the objectives of the political party and thus instruct the citizens."(13) "Democracy means putting into effective use every creative force in the State as well as appraising its every component unit according to its moral worth even in the event that the ruling power does not demand this."(14) Dr. Tiso dedicated himself to service in a Christian democracy: "We uphold the principle of democracy because democracy is consonant with Christian teaching and we will not permit it to become corrupted with Marixist and socialistic appendages."(15) "We Slovaks are from our very souls adherents to this Christian democracy and we condemn every form of dictatorship regardless of the label under 42 SLOVAKIA . which it may try to hide its true nature or identity. We pledge ourselves to stand for democracy but for democracy of the proper stamp." Not a mystified or mystifying democracy. "In the maelstrom of views and opinions on democracy, it seems that there is developing a conscious tendency. Out of an indefinite conception of democracy there is being shaped a mystique of democracy which would affect people and command their reluctant respect; none may dare to voice any question or to protest once the statement is made that democracy requires this or that; none may presume to question an arrangement, for if it is a democratic arrangement, it is the best possible arrangement. And thus there is fabricated the mystique of democracy."(16) In a Christian democracy whatever holds in general extends also into individual departments, branches of public service and activity. Nor is it otherwise in the Christian democracy of Tiso. It may be helpful to examine in this connection a matter as weighty as the social problem. For the Slovak nation which had been so long the victim of foreign exploitation, this question bearing on the disposition of social affairs has been, and even after the overthrow of Communism it will still remain, a vital issue. Prime importance attaches especially to the relation between worker and employer; to the valuation attached not merely to property worth but also to labor; to the extent to which the government will identify itself with private initiative, and similar matters. The Church has long since made a clear pronouncement on this subject. Both the Rerum Novarum and the Quadragesimo Anno are well known encyclicals containing for modern Christian democracy the entire teaching of the Church on socio-economic affairs. Slovak Populists have likewise built on these social encyclicals of the Popes. Hence it was but natural that Dr. Tiso made application from these documents of the Church in the light of Christian philosophy rather than from any other sources when he set about his task of settling the long neglected problem of economics and social justice in Slovakia. He opposed class struggle and class hatred. "Instead of class warfare, we must. cultivate mutual and national SLOVAKIA 43 Christian charity; by humility, simplicity and industry we must supplant rapaciousness, materialism and voluptousness. "(17) "To every man his due and injustice to none! That is our watchword - no hollow-sounding catchword but an honored principle. If we do not wish to violate tradition, we must tolerate no privileged classes, no privileges of any kind whatever, no indulgence of prerogatives, whatever their origin may have been."(18) Dr. Tiso interprets Christian social politics as "founded on realistic assumption: it takes into account the nature of man composed of body and soul and conscious of this dual basis it classifies among the most potent agencies of the social order not mere material forces but rather spiritual and moral incentives, giving these precedence, in fact. Hence, it is not concerned solely about a crust of bread; it cares also for every man's spirit, for sheer materialism can never satisfy man completely."(19) Christian socialism has always defended man's right to own private property. Dr. Tiso realized that sometimes capitalism can go to extremes, since capitalists are in the money and on occasion "they use wealth only for self aggrandizement and not for the general good."(20) On the other hand, although Dr. Tiso appreciated the deficiencies of capitalism, he consistently defended the principle of private ownership because he knew that the abrogation of ownership "would endanger both economic and cultural progress to a greater extent than does the capitalistic system, hedged about as it is by social policies.' (21) "In regard to the great question of individual ownership, considering it, for example, from the one extreme of liberalism to the opposite extreme of socialist communism," Dr. Tiso emphasized, "we juxtapose our principle which asserts the sacredness of private ownership and the uninviolable right of the individual."(22) On the other hand, however, "let him who has capital make just returns; let him distribute it with labor, and satisfy labor with decent civic gain." (23) A Christian view of capital and the income derived from it differs from that of other systems. "Former systems of liberalism and capitalism," Tiso wrote, "were al- 44 SLOVAKIA ways ready to calculate the profit trhat would accrue from an enterprise or a plant. Superficially it appears that income is the natural end of enterprise, but Catholic morality has long since taught that all the estates and properties of this world exist for man, for life. This truth is supported by the natural law also. Life is of higher value than gain. The theory that gain is of utmost value and importance must be invalidated. What is the world and everything in it for? For life, not for gain. Gain is subordinated to life and it may become an end only to the extent that it promotes life." (24) And where is capital to be sought? "Out of the strong spiritual resources of our national character," declared Dr. Tiso, "not by any exploitation of those who are socially weaker than we ourselves. It is not an international capital, not impersonalized, not embodied in the worship of gold, but the capital of individuals happily at work in the interests of their nation and their State; a capital which is evidenced in morally strong individuals, in numerous families socially secure, in a contented society united in social justice, in the harmonious commerce of all the citizens who work under the aegis of an organized State."(25) Capital and income are not produced except as the fruit of the laborer's toil. "We look upon work in an enlightened manner," Dr. Tiso asserted. "In it we see not only the creative force of economic values but the animate expression of human personality which has moral and social obligations; which a workingman therefore performs as his required contribution for the communal good and for which a wage is paid not only as the countervalue of energy expended or economic income achieved, but rather as a medium which in turn enables the laborer to satisfy all his obligations."(26) "In the light of Christian teaching, work is not a burden; it is not a means for effecting gain; it is rather the life expression of a man who is the inevitable agent under all circumstances. Christianity proceeds from man and says 'God endowed you with physical, spiritual, and intellectual powers and faculties so that you might use them to advantage.' This is a noble and holy thought. Work is a requisite SLOVAKIA 45 for man even when he is already provided with sufficient resources for his livelihood."(27) He who works is entitled to a just wage. Humanity, in Dr. Tiso's words, "drew out of our venerable Christian socio-national spirit many a fresh impetus for fulfilling the words of Scripture 'The laborer is worthy of his hire'; to abide by the dictum of the same Scripture, 'He who does not work, let him not eat'; to demolish the idol of the golden calf in imitation of the example of Scripture; to measure with the same measure of justice to all, as the Scripture commands for we are all the children of one Father Who is in heaven."(28) Everyone has a claim to work. And "we shall distribute pay only for work." Dr. Tiso stresses this point, adding however, "We shall tolerate no unreasonable fomenting against capital. A workingman must not regard the capitalist as his enemy; on the other hand, a capitalist must realize that the capital, over which he is in reality only an administrator, essentially belongs to the nation in order to provide work and sustenance for all."(29) In short, the Christian-democratic system really "unites all - employers arnd workers - on the groundwork of a common interest: the material and moral well-being of the Slovak nation." (30) In all undertakings there must be effected an attitude in which "each one, regardless of what type of work he does, will come to regard the work as his own and will perform it with that devotion which he would lavish on his own."(31) It is the Christian democracy more than any other political system that cares for "the fundamental cell of the State and of society in general: the family," for the family "is the source from which all life is derived; it is the first school which educates one to think; it is the first temple which teaches one to pray; it is the first workshop which trains one to work; and it is also the first social bond which instructs one to live in the company of others in the spirit of love and equity. For this reason we must resist anything that may tend to ruin or impair the family and we must support everything that shall contribute to its unity and solidarity.... 46 SLOVAKIA "Therefore one prime concern shall be to foster the establishment of the family and to insure the material prerequisites for its existence. For the benefit of every type of employee, then, but especially for the laborer, measures must be taken to legislate a so-called family wage or familial pay to enable a young man to contract marriage and by a suitable scale of subsidies for wife and children (a scale graduated acording to their number) be assured a decent livelihood and proper education. Obviously this measure is also intended to provide a solution to the problem of married women now under employment. The ideal is to return married women to the family circle, for they are called to manage and maintain the government of the household and their proper place is the home."(32) Mankind as a Christian-democratic entity requires for its social security not only a family wage but also a settlement of housing policies. On this score Dr. Tiso observed, "Family life must be encouraged also by providing healthful and reasonably priced living quarters ... . A reasonable and hygienic housing unit is just as essential to family life as a decent income earned by the breadwinner."(33) "A family will be placed on the foundations where it properly belongs only when it has respectable quarters. When I say 'respectable quarters,' I mean that the home must qualify for the occupation of a family. . . . A guiding principle must be: to have a home in keeping with one's social standing."(34) "We must devote considerable attention to educate our people in regard to housing culture. The general cultural level of a nation is often judged by its housing culture and this also enters into the reasons why we are concerned about the living conditions of our Slovak residents in small towns and in the suburbs. Without improving housing conditions, one can hardly raise the level of the population or improve the position of the family."(35) In a Christian State, the family must be an exemplary unit in every respect. That is the reason why so much attention is devoted to preparation for family living. This was Dr. Tiso's attitude on the subject: "We shall provide for the family by supporting the SLOVAKIA 47 education of youth designedly for family living, by providing moral safeguards for children and by arranging sociomedical conferences for those contemplating marriage as well as for those who are married, especially mothers."(36) Also: "We regard solicitude for the Slovak child as the most .s ublime aspect of social care."(37) The Christian-democratic State watchfully takes note -0f all social problems. It resolves difficulties and extends help to every level of its inhabitants that may require the support of State authority. In this manner it seems even to encroach upon private ownership. But this is really no encroachment in the usually accepted sense of the word; it is rather a kind of mediation and vigilance. Dr. Tiso advocates, fo rexample, that the government "should provide for the unemployed by creating jobs for them" or even by "introducing a working obligation." "The government considers it a duty to feel responsible for the employed as well as for the unemployed. Protection for the workers will be perfected by more thorough supervision in regard to the wage claims of employees as well as in the matter of safety and security measures to safeguard the health and the lives of the workers, but, above all, in provisions to protect the existence of the employees .... "(38) If projects are not managed in accordance with the natural law, the government calls for mediation or collective bargaining. "True, it is not easy to translate the natural law into action. Herein devolves a difficult assignment for the State. The State must put the natural law into concrete expression, an application appropriate to prevailing circumstances. Allow me to illustrate this point by an example: A family wage is obligatory under the natural law. Realizing this and anxious to secure the greatest possible success in his business, a manufacturer plans to hire single men only. This amounts to cudgelling life. The State must find a remedy for such a situation, some means by which to help large families and likewise to secure the prosperity of enterprising business. In some states all the workers are allotted the same pay but a definite portion of their earnings is withheld. Out of this reserve, compensation is then distributed to workers with large families. In other states, a 48 SLOVAKIA financing administration supplements the work of the laborers to effect a family wage. It covers its own replacement for this outlay out of taxes that accrue from the entire ., national collective."(39) In a word, the role of a Christian democracy - according to Dr. Tiso - is to build "a State of Christian order in which laws are carried out in spirit of responsibility to the supreme authority of God; in which Christian thoughts of justice and charity are the basic pillars of social and moral order; in which the training of children is carried out in keeping with the eternal principles of Christ, the supreme Pedagogue; in which the fundamental cell of social life, the family, is protected by the defense of unity and indissolubility; in which there reigns not the terror of brute force and physical violence, but the spirit of true moral liberty. "(40) Dr. Tiso ardently promoted a Christian democracy which was supported by both of the Christian components of the Slovak nation, for he was convinced that "along with Catholic universality and Catholic idealism, Lutheran individualism and realism can be used beneficially in politics. When all these attributes are combined then not even the gates of hell can prevail against our common front. Catholic populists and Lutheran Nationalists, we must cooperate and neither covet nor seize. Let us not forget that we are allying ourselves in the cause of national politics and that there is here no possibility of joining with Catholics of other nationalities."(41) What motives prompted this alliance and this insistence that the independent Slovak Republic be organized on Christian-democratic principles? This alone that a Christian world-view and Christian democracy contain lasting values. Dr. Tiso declared: "We do not design our ideological activity for a week or for a month, but we come and we look always - and this is our peculiar characteristic - in a manner which is intended for the ages - eternally. Eternally, as the Slovak nation is to last, and from this eternal existence of the Slovak nation we derive practical applications for our temporal problems and tasks .... Whoever prides himself on being a SLOVAKIA 49 loyal son of the nation must also consider what he contributes to the nation: whether it is an infection which induces fever, or germs which destroy and can bring the nation to its grave, or labor which abides in the nation eternally like a cell of healthy social and cultural development."( 42) Because of this peculiar feature of Christian democracy, we must return to it repeatedly and draw upon it always. Naturally, the Communists regarded a political leader of this caliber as their key enemy and, consequently, Msgr. Joseph Tiso was the first Catholic prelate from behind the Iron Curtain singled out to make the supreme sacrifice in the struggle with Communism. However, "as a martyr to his love for the nation, Dr. Tiso will continue to live in the nation."(43) Dr. Tiso is a martyr for the cause of freedom and fittingly he ranks with Washington and many other great men of history."(44) ( 1) Daily "Slovak" 1939, No. 189, Bratislava, Slovakia. ( 2) "Slovak" 1924, 92. ( 3) "Tatransky Orol", Vol. VI, No. 4. ( 4) "Slovak" 1939, 197. ( 5) "Slovak" 1934, 113. ( 6) Ideol6gia Slovenskej :Uudovej Strany, pg. 25. ( 7) "Kult ura" 1933, No. 9, Trnava, Slovakia. ( 8) " Slovak" 1940, 227. ( 9) "Slovak" 1938, 293. (10) "Slovak" 1934, 221. (11) "Slovak" 1939, 44. (12) Ideol6gia, pg. 123-124. (13) "Slovak" 1935, 150. (14) "Slovenska Pravda" 1937, No. 74, Bratislava. (15) "Slovak" 1938, 243. (16) "Slovak" 1936, 178. (17) "Slovak" 1924, 92. (18) "Slovak" 1938, 249. (19) Ideol6gia, pg. 118-119. (20) "Slovak" 1938, 283. (21) Ideol6gia, p. 118. (22) "Slovak" 1925, 278. (23) "Slovak" 1938, 283. (24) "Slovak" 1941, 13. (25) Prve Posolstvo. (26) Posolstvo. SLOVAKIA 50 (27) (28) (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37) (38) (39) (40) (41) (42) (43) (44) "Slovak" 1941, 105. "Slovak" 1940, 186. "Slovak" 1938, 243. "Slovak" 1938, 283. "Slovak" 1940, 186. "Slovak" 1939, 44. "Slovak" 1939, 44. "Slovak" 1941, 37. "Slovak" 1939, 44. Ibidem. Ibidem. Ibidem. "Slovak" 1941, 37. "Kultura" 1933, 9. "Slovak" 1932, 237. "Slovak" 1941, 17. Vatican Radio April 28, 1947. Congressman Alvin O'Konski May 31, 1948, at Bedford, 0 . • • Castles of Slovakia: ILA VA The name Ila va may be more familar to the outside world, because it has been mentioned more frequently than names of other castles and citadels of Slovakia. Political prisoners, "enemies of the state," are confined within its walls today by the communist regime of Prague. Just when the Ilava Castle was built is not definitely known; but we do know that it already existed at the end of the twelfth century. The first known written account of Ilava from that time states that "Castrum Ilava" was the property of the Knights Templars, who also occupied other castles in the Vah Valley. Ilava (Trencin County) was held by the Templars until the Order was abolished in 1312. The castle is situated on the left bank of the Vah near the railroad station. Its origin may go back to the times of the Great Moravian Empire. After the dissolution of the Knights Templars, Ilava Castle passed into the hands of the "mighty Lord of the Vah and the Tatras," Matthew Cak (Tchak) of Trencin, who made of it a mighty fortress. It remained in his possession to his death, when all of Ca.k's holdings were seized by the  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dr. Joseph Tiso: Christian Democrat Description An account of the resource Dr. Joseph Paučo Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2 (23), June 1957 pp. 37-50 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Paučo, Jozef, 1914-1975 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1957 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/c247e2c7570f7bf2de98c9cec570ebf9.pdf 3fdf69d96d085d8b8c30e45e7af4efc8 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 35 A. R. NYKL: "EDVARD BENES ON MUNICH DAYS" The article "Edvard Benes on Munich Days" in the "Journal of Central European Affairs," (January, 1957 pp. 384-393), reveals that the author, Otokar Odlozilik, was not an eyewitness of the days between September 4 and 25, 1938, in Bohemia, and especially in the capital. "Rigid precepts of historical scholarship" cannot be applied to documents, even if the latter were bona fide and not doctored up post factum by captious commentaries. Both Edvard Benes and his mentor T. G. Masaryk were great hindsight wizards. It would be idle to cite proofs of this phenomenon here, because hundreds of quotations have appeared and are still appearing in the publications of the Slovak League of America. The diplomats mentioned in the article very wisely kept, and those who are living still keep, quiet which is, they perhaps believe, better than lying. In my opinion Frantisek Chvalkovsky, who with Ha.cha went through the terrible ordeal in Berlin before they finally signed their consent to Hitler's ultimatum of March 14, 1939, at 3 a. m., was the most reliable and honest person whose story might have cleared up many doubts, surmises, and suspicions. Krofta could unfortunately not go beyond the spring of 1938, when in May the first rumors of war began to spread. Henlein and his right hand man Frank were feverishly preparing the ground for autonomy and secession, by speeches and press campaigns, in which they constantly harped on Benes's doctoral thesis, published in 1907 at Dijon, wherein he advocated a complete separation of the German-speaking and the Czech-speaking regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. During the summer months Lord Runciman was sent to the Sudetenland by Chamberlain with the special mission to find the right solution by "fact finding." For the most part he was the guest of German nobility and paid no attention to the claims of the Czech "hranicari," inhabitants of the frontier regions. The Sudeten Germans knew perfectly well that he was �36 SLOVAKIA merely playing a comedy and facetiously spoke of him as Lord "Runzelmann." Because of my absolute command of the German tongue, and as an American visitor, I could engage in countless conversations with the natives of Karlovy Vary, where I was writing a book on Japan and curing my nervous stomach by drinking MUhlbrunn - "Mlynsky prame" - hot alkaline water. Among the Egerlander there reigned an atmosphere of calm optimism: to them the annexation of the Sudeten by the Third Reich was a foregone , conclusion. Some of them even hinted already at a further step - the Protectorate - anticipating March 14, 1939. Nervousness reigned only in the small Czech minority, which was being increasingly frightened by occasional "blackout" exercises and talk about air raid shelters. To me it was quite plain that the Germans were being supplied with oral propaganda, which they called Fllisterpropaganda, and were absolutely convinced that Runciman's antics were a subterfuge to hide a fait accompli: a perfect agreement of the English and French - the latter somewhat sheepishly and reluctantly - that the "phantom" republic should be trimmed to suit the Nazis and the Magyars, in connivance with Mr. Beck, the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs whose contempt for Benes knew no bounds. This I knew from my trip through Poland in August, 1936, where Czechs were talked about as "lajdaci" (loafers). Goring was Beck's honored guest, Benes the "cackling pygmy." At Cracow, Moscicki was helping to raise the Pilsudski mound: was he likely to listen to Benes 's plea in 1938? In July 1935, I wrote an article for the "Narodni Listy," recommending a solid steel wall from the Carpathians to Gdynia with a friendly Polish nation, whom Benes and Masaryk, however, regarded as Fascists. Later I was told that the article was suppressed at Benes's orders, who bypassed the Poles and went to see Stalin about that time. It is evident that the ambassadors named in the Odlozilik article (Osusky, Masaryk, Mastny, Chvalkovsky, Hurban, Slavik) must have known the real state of affairs and �SLOVAKIA 37 therefore kept silent. With the help of German and Italian aviation the Nationalists in Spain were pushing the socalled "Loyalists" toward the Pyrenees, ·and Daladier was worried about the impending invasion of the defeated 300,000 "Reds" into southern France, while Charles Maurras in "EAction Francaise" was ridiculing the idea of a war "pour les Tcheques." In the Kurhaus or Lazensky Dum, I could read the "Daily Mail" and "Corriere della Sera." I recall distinctly a map in the former showing the distribution of the three and one-half million Sudeten-Germans along the frontier as reported by Lord Runciman - and an article by Mussolini stating that the artificial and unnatural "sausage" state in Central Europe should be dismembered in the same way as the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy had been. Where is Odlozilik's "authentic description" of events by Benes? If Benes had a "unique knowledge of the situation," he would have had to admit that he knew full well in August that England and France were determined to back Hitler's claims. Krofta wisely kept silent in order not to implicate himself. The important documents sent abroad in the early days of October, 1938, most likely were destroyed, in order not to compromise the guilty parties. It would seem that the German and Italian military aviation was so formidable that the French and still less the British, aviation was no match for it at the time. Mr. Beck's clique in Poland was maliciously rejoicing at Benes's defeat. And Stalin, of course, was not going to help a dying man. My own estimate of the situation, on the basis of my observations and reading of the foreign press - English, French, Italian, Scandinavian, Polish, Rumanian, Yugoslav - was that there would be no war, because the sellout by England and F r ance was an obvious fait accompli. Hence I finished my manuscript and went by bus to Prague, in order to arrange with the publisher the printing of my book. For all eventualities I bought a second-class ticket to Praha-Merano, because my friends recommended to me the "Traubenkur" in Merano as the best thing for a nervous stomach. It consisted in eating plenty of ripe blue grapes and walking in the hills. Another friend - a phy- �38 SLOVAKIA sician - took a good look into my stomach, and finding nothing really serious, recommended that I should go to the Riesengebirge (Krkonose) to a place called Benecko and drink plenty of radioactive water. While the Sudeten-Germans were calm and smiling, awaiting their revanche, the Czech population was naturally feeling uneasy in the expectation of the great Hitler harangue at Nuremberg, listed for September 12. There was a tense atmosphere in Prague. The Communists were dreaming of a great Russian airborne army which would destroy Berlin and of making every town and hamlet in Bohemia a fortress like the "Loyalists" were doing in Spain who, by the way, were being painted as heroes in the Benes-controlled press. Only the "Narodni Listy," the organ of the Czech National Democrats, was favorable to Mussolini and to Franco. The journey on Sunday, September 4, through the fertile fields promising a good harvest, via Chlumec natl Cidlinou, where the peasants once were beaten by the noblemen ("vyhrajes jako sedlak v Chlumce"), north to the Krkonose, was calm and uneventful. After Trutnov-Trautenau, we began to enter the mixed Sudeten region. From what I could see and hear, the German agrarians had no sympathy with the Nazis at all, although in the last moment they joined the Henlein group so as to save themselves from reprisals and persecutions. This very step indicated that Henlein was certain of winning without war. Benecko proved to be a combined summer and winter resort. The summer guests were all gone, and I was the only guest at the hotel. In winter, the place changed into a ski resort. The owner was a sincere man, a great admirer of Kramar, and a great, scathing critic of Benes. The Germans had a nice new school building in the village, "Deutsche Volkschule." Hitler's ravings about the suffer- . ings of the Germans were the invention of his maniacal imagination. The hotel and its immediate neighborhood formed a Czech enclave in a region which further north was inhabited by Sudeten-Germans. From the far distance one could hear the noise of their Henlein meetings. But otherwise, �SLOVAKIA 39 perfect peace reigned in the pine forests and on the green meadows, where I spent most of my time walking between meals and drinking radioactive water. Within a few days my nervous stomach was restored to its normal functions. Sunday, the 11th of September, being a pleasantly warm, sunny day, I decided in the afternoon to walk to the summit of the wooded hill which I well remembered from my school days, reading about the sad departure of Czech Protestants in the years which followed the battle of the White Mountain, in 1620-1628. These emigres had to leave everything behind and seek refuge in the Protestant regions of Germany northeast of the Krkonose. Jan Amos Komensky, later bishop of the Moravian Brethren, was among them. On this hill, named Zaly, according to the legend, they were taking the last look of their native country, and were kissing the snow-covered ground goodbye in tears. Nevzali jsme se sebou nic, nic, po vsem veta jen Bibli Kralickou, Labyrint sveta. "We took nothing along, nothing, all is lost; only the Kraliky Bible, and the Labyrinth of the World." Reference is maqe to the Protestant version of the Bible made at Kraliky (German Grulich) on the Bohemian-Silesian frontier, and the well-known work of Comenius. These memories came to my mind as I slowly walked to the summit where I found a tourist restaurant and a lookout tower. The atmosphere was gloomy, very much in keeping with the name 2aly: the presentiment of grave events reminded me of what it must have been like in 1628 - three centuries ago. The sufferings of the Czech nation were of no concern to France, and still less to England. The large wooden structure of the hotel was silent, when I returned. For supper I had the last but one real Wiener Schnitzel in my memory - or shall I call it costoletta alla milanese? Or vidensky rizek? The owner of the hotel who knew very little German asked me whether I would listen to the radio the next day and tell him what Adolf was going to broadcast from Ntirnberg. Since I was not to be directly affected, I could sleep soundly and in the forenoon take another long walk in the pine woods. �40 SLOVAKIA The great speech was booked for about 2 p. m. sun time, since Germany had not adopted the foolish fad of daylight saving time. If I had my notes at hand, I could recall the situation with more precision, but since I was more intersted in "kava a buchty" (coffee and doughnuts) , my recollection is rather hazy at present. First of all, the reception was very weak and spoiled by frequent static due to thick thunder clouds hanging over the mountain range. Second, Hitler's speeches on the Sudeten question, the same as on the Klajpeda and Gdansk question, were a repetition of dramatically worded accusations of the same content : the Volksgenossen were being persecuted and mistreated, hence they were fleeing in constantly increasing numbers across the border: five thousand, ten thousand, fifty thousand; Long afterwards I saw in the contemporary lliustrierte Zeitung file pictures of these "refugees" being lovingly provided with food and clothing by their brethren in the Third Reich. There could be no doubt as to Adolf's purpose, namely, to convince France and England of the absolute justice of the Nazi position. "We do not ask except what is ours on the basis of selfdetermination - not one inch of a foreign territory. The Czechs will have theirs and we will have ours: after that we will have no further demands. " The next day at night we could hear the rumbling of a thunderstorm in the direction of Harrach's Glass Works at the frontier, but my host and his family were so frightened that they took it for the rumbling of heavy artillery. On Thursday, September 15, I decided that there was no use prolonging my stay and inviting another spell of stomach nervousness: after lunch I took the bus to the railway station and from there the train to Prague. Though there was no panic anywhere, the train was already filled with refugees: the wealthier and white-collared class. In Prague I returned to my hotel on Namesti Petra Osvoboditele (the Square of Peter, the Liberator) - formerly Komensky Square - in the Vinohrady district, where I paid 20 crowns for a single room, the equivalent of 70 cents. Excellent regular meals cost 10 crowns - 35 cents - and read all the Czech, German, French, and English �SLOYAKIA 41 newspapers while sipping excellent coffee. In one of the rooms they had a permanent guest - a frequently tipsy female of unpleasant appearance. She was one of the ten Communist deputies in the Parliament. Unfortunately for me, moratorium had been proclaimed with regard to withdrawals from bank accounts and I could only draw 5000 crowns at the Zivnobanka. One rapid transaction became imperative and unavoidable: I had to go to Karlovy Vary and have several trunks of my books shipped from there to Prague. The dream of staying in the pleasant spa and writing books vanished: where were the solemn promises of "enduring peace" after fighting "the war to end all wars" in 1919? On Friday afternoon I took the "rychlovlak" (express) and arrived at the Karlovy Vary station, which is located at some distance from the center of the town, in the evening. Detachments of Czech troops were already stationed round. No bus was operating. After showing my passport I was allowed to go to the town on foot and there I found another detachment of youthful-looking soldiers round some sort of war machinery, near Park Street. For reasons, which would take long to explain, I decided to go to one of the Kurgas1; rooming houses on Park Street. In situations of this kind one must act with lightning speed and complete calm. I was able to arrange with a shipper to forward my trunks to Prague next Monday, "express," at the fabulous cost of 2000 crowns. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I spent eating the best food and spending as many crowns as I could, buying the best shirts, socks, a light overcoat, and other articles of clothing at Nastopil's on Alte Wiese. Why not, when I could buy the best shirts at 16 crowns (50 cents) which in America would cost five dollars? I still have two of those. When one sees an inevitable debacle in the offing one can easily adopt the philosophy of "you can't take it with you." While consuming an excellent chicken dinner for 25 crowns (70 cents) in the restaurant of the house "Schwedischer Hof," I was discussing the situation with the waiter, who happened to be a Pole, in Polish. He admired my remarkable calm and sound judgement, and made me the compliment "Pan jest okropny czlowiek." All the Germans I spoke with, showed smiling optimism. �42 SLOVAKIA On Monday evening, September 19th, I was in the "rychlovlak" Eger-Prague, in the company of two lieutenants of the Czechoslovak army, both Czechs less than 25 years of age, hence products of the MasarykBenes regime. There also was a captain of the frontier constabulary (strazmistr - cetnik), a former legionnaire, less than fifty years of age. The "porucici" (second lieutenants) were not exactly in a merry mood, but seemed to face the facts without whimpering and with a sort of grim humor. I knew nothing of what was going on in diplomatic circles, but I can repeat that all the Germans in Karlovy Vary, with whom I spoke about the future , were gloriously optimistic. They already knew that the Nazis would give them 1 mark for ten crowns instead of eight, yet seemed to be quite willing to take the loss. I recall one instance particularly, when I said: "Ich sehe Wolken am Horizont," and my interlocutor said: "Im Gegenthal, ich sehe alles rosig." This opinion was general. Now an expellee in Germany, my young friend may remember our conversation. If the scheme mentioned by Odlozilik on p. 387 ( "to avoid war") was worked out on September 18, "after the conference in London of French and British statesmen," it must have already been known throughout the Sudeten on September 19. And this was also the reason why I met the elderly cetnik on this train; he was leaving his post in Jachymov and was on his way to Slovakia, like the rest of Czech "cetnici" (gendarmes), because it was already known that the territory in which they were employed would be ceded to the Third Reich. This cetnik was very sad and spoke of his ruined existence, with a son in school, and with no future ahead of him. The two "porucici" stated to me emphatically what I later heard so much in Prague: "Uz je to ujednano a uz jsme prodani" (it's all settled and we are already sold out). And their comments on this "noble" action of France and England were rather scathing. Two days later in Prague the Czech legionnaires were in front of the French Legation discarding the medals which they had received from France in 1919. If Mr. Benes devotes a fairly long passage in his "Mnichovske dny" to �SLOVAKIA -13 an audience when "on Wednesday, September 21, in the small hours of that morning the British and French envoys requested it," to me it is quite clear that he is telling a story to cover up what already was a fait accompli. The people in the Sudeten knew that the matter had been settled, and the Czechs living there knew it also. To speak of collecting statements made by Benes and his critics and to "evaluate them in accordance with rigid precepts of historical scholarship" is as idle a talk as that about the authenticity of the Kensington stone and many other legends which need not be mentioned here. Furthermore I, as a personal witness, can say that the news of the sellout was already known in Prague that very evening, September 19, which in my memory is a terrible accusation of the treacherous action of British and French diplomats, not their respective nations. That evening, at about 10 o'clock, Prague was a city of stunned ghosts groping in the darkness under the impact of a deadly blow. I have seen through many situations when a family was suddenly stunned by a tragic blow, but here a whole ancient city with a glorious history, and a trusting people, had been stabbed in the back by those who professed to be their allies. The streets were almost deserted - deadly anguish was visible on all faces. Being a Czech, I fully felt their despair. They already visualized the return of the German conqueror to Praga caput regni, left at the mercy of a horde of fanaticists. The anguish was gripping the souls of the Czechs, together with a hatred of Masaryk and Benes, whose lies had brought the nation into this horrible plight. Only one who has once found himself at the brink of death could approximately realize that tragic, silent grief coupled with dread of an impending, yet inevitable peril. La nu.it porte conseil is a proverb fraught with a deep significance. The morning will· bring a solution. September 20 found the streets filled with milling crowds, hardly listening to the blaring loudspeakers. When passing by the barracks where young soldiers looked nonchalantly from the windows, a group of patriots would yell occasionally: �.J4 SLOVAKIA "Af z1Je armada!" (Long live the army). But there was no real enthusiasm - it seemed as if the soldiers knew that there was not to be any fighting. The anguish and terror of the previous night gave way to the real Czech calm fatalism, bred into the nation by centuries of hard knocks. Hemmed in, right in the heart of Europe, by hostile neighbors, the Czechs were always governed by one uppermost thought, namely, holding their own against terrible odds and in the end surviving their enemies. No one knew anything about what was going on in diplomatic circles, but all the intelligent people with whom I discussed the situation, unanimously and with a quiet, also typically Czech resignation, were saying: "Uz je to ujednano. Uz jsme prodani." In the evening I walked on the Vaclavske namesti (Wenceslaus Square) which was literally packed with people going to and fro without any passionate outbursts. Round the pedestal of Myslbek's famous St. Wenceslaus group, a solid mass of young Communists from Nusle was sitting with a defiant expression on their faces. "Co zde delate"? (What are you doing here?) I asked a group of young men and women. "My chceme bojovat a hajit svateho Vaclava." (We want to fight and to defend St. Wenceslaus). The streets were guarded by a special force of policemen with black helmets calm, young, determined men. I asked one of them: "Prosim vas, co ti mladi blazni zde delaji ?" (Pardon me, what are those young fools doing here?) His answer was typical of a Czech who has seen too many upheavals in his time to be surprised at anything. Just one word: "Para!" If a dictionary linguist would search in a number of volumes, in order to get the full meaning of this simple word, he might find such equivalents as "vapor, steam, fog, mist," but these would not give him the inner vibration. The nearest equivalent in American English would be : "Just generating so much worthless hot air!". The same milling of crowds and blaring of loudspeakers to which no one listened went on the two following days, namely, on Wednesday and Thursday, September 21 and 22. Whatever Mr. Benes says about his conferences and �SLOVAKIA 45 plans must be set aside as a legend and post factum invention to cover up the incontrovertible fact that the final decision had already been made in London on September 18; all these so-called conferences were a mere comedy to deceive the nation, which however, was not deceived at all. I listened to Mr. Benes's broadcast at 7 p. m., on Thursday, September 22. This was the second and last time I ever heard the sound of his voice and his halting way of reading from a typewritten text with his dark-rimmed glasses on his clumsy nose. The first time was on Sunday, September 19, 1937, at Masaryk's funeral. He was either unable or afraid to say anything powerful and sonorous ex-tempore. "Mluvil jako kdyz by to tahal z chlupate rukavice." (He talked as if he were pulling it out of a shaggy glove). Utterly insipid was the boast about having made a plan: "Mam plan pro vsechny pripady." (I have a plan for all eventualities). Then he also said, or rather read something in Slovak in such a poor way that Slovaks must have laughed at his pronunciation. Though the two languages are quite similar, it is extremely difficult for a Czech to speak Slovak with a Slovak intonation, just like a Spaniard is utterly unable to speak Portuguese with a Portuguese intonation. People laughed and repeated in the Prague dialect: "A Benes ma plan a usme prodany," i.e., uz jsme prodani: "Benes has a plan and we are already sold out." This reminded me of Paris and Pichegru. During the night the "civil defense" observers were frequently yelling: "Zhasnout svetla !" (lights out), in order to have a complete blackout. It was utterly amusing - almost as amusing as were the blackouts in Cambridge, Mass., in 1943 - because no sane person could have expected an air attack, which would have killed not only the Czechs, but the VolksgenossE)n as well. Nevertheless, on Friday the 23rd, people were being scared into buying gas masks, and I saw a long line on Betlemske namesti (Bethlehem Square) near the chapel where Hus used to preach in 1400 A.D., waiting to get a gas mask for 150 crowns! However, their number was insignificant in comparison with the whole population. �46 SLOVAKIA The librarian of the Naprstek Museum was to take care of my books, because I planned to leave by the express to Vienna on Saturday afternoon. I visited a few friends at the Orientalni Ustav. In the evening, when walking on Jecna ulice near Karlovo namesti (Charles Square), I met my great friend, the late professor Bedrich Hrozny, who was very calm; he knew as I did that there would be no war and no bombing, because to challenge the German Air Force would have meant useless suicide. He never mentioned anything about Benes's "plan." My publisher, the printer, my physician, repeated colloquially the same refrain "uz jsme prodany." The legionnaires, as I said before, were discarding their French medals in front of the legation. But there was no panic, no passionate outbursts. We are told that general mobilization was promulgated at 10 p. m. that evening. In view of the situation it was an amusing comedy of which I saw a part on Saturday and Sunday. What Benes says is a novelesque invention, calculated to mislead posterity into the belief of his great powers as a thinker: this method he copied from his master and from the French historians who dramatized the German retreat on September 6, 1914, into a great victory on the Marne. The night for me was indeed hectic: All of a sudden bed bugs appeared from nowhere, and the night clerk had to give me another mattress; the night was completely dark, except for an isolated little light that appeared in an attic, and some "civil defense" fool was constantly and uselessly yelling somewhere on the roof "Zhasnete svetlo" (Put out the light) ! When Mr. Benes writes, and the author of the article (Odlozilik) muses on a supposed tenseness in Prague that night, they are telling a story. The tenseness existed only on Monday evening, September 19th: after that the people were fully aware of the great comedy "uz jsme prodani." Friday noon I had my last "pecena husa s knedliky a zelim" (roast goose with dumplings and kraut) in the P. R. D. - Prazsky representacni dfun) - with the usual first class waiter service in coat tails, with Pilsen beer for 35 crowns, about one dollar. At �S LOVAKIA 47 that time we had no inkling of the "vseobecna mobilisace" (general mobilization) being thought of or planned by the great Edvard. As I perfectly recall it, the people as a whole were resigned to see the occupation of the Sudeten as a fait accompli since September 18th. On Saturday morning, when I came down to the cafe, I saw myself in a queer predicament. General mobilization was in progress and, as a consequence, there were no taxis, and even the street cars did not seem to function. Suddenly I saw a familiar face coming into the parlor: Vojta Benes - whom I knew so well since the time he made fiery speeches against Austria, in 1916-1918, in America - then lived like a satrap in a beautiful villa in Jevany as a great Socialist Minister of Education, who fought the Roman Catholic Church, while his brother was a matriculated "paper" Catholic. He was surrounded by a number of friends and they were talking about going abroad. I had to take my two hand bags and walk all the way to the Masaryk - former Franz Josef - station using the trusty power of my arm muscles. The streets were swarming with silent reservists on their way to the railroad stations, each carrying a small hand bag. There was no military preparedness among them: they looked more like excursionists. The whole station was likewise swarming with men between thirty and fifty years of age. Toward noon it became somewhat warm, and these masses of men were quenching their thirst with steins of beer, laughing and joking. The "rychlovlak" Berlin-Vienna was to arrive at about 2 p. m., and was to be the last train leaving the country in that direction. My only concern were my books. At about 1:30 p. m., I telephoned to the shipping agency and was told that my books had arrived in good order and were to be delivered the next week at their destination. The express did not arrive on time and there was an hourly announcement of its being late. If the Czecho-Slovak generals were wondering why the Luftwaffe did not bomb Ceska Trebova - Bohumin, on September 23rd, they must have been completely misled by Benes's comedy. The Luftwaffe knew full well that the occupation of the Sudeten was a fait accompli. The �48 SLOVAKIA whole inside of the station, with thousands of reservists drinking beer, eating frankfurters, and joking, bespoke a total confidence that there would be no war, no air raid, no shooting. The express finally arrived at about six p. m. I had a second class ticket, but found at once that this meant nothing, because all the compartments were being taken by reservists; all seats were occupied and the gangways were likewise filled. In a second class compartment I found two foreigners, a South African of Jewish origin and a young German dancing girl from Budapest. The express soon started on its way in the twilight through the central part of Bohemia, via Kolin and Pardubice to Ceska Trebova. In the fields and meadows the peasants were still working and were waving "Na zdaaar!" (Success!) to the occupants of the train - the defenders of the fatherland on their way to the frontier. As I think of it now, I cannot refrain from shedding tears at recalling how these simple folks were being deceived and sold down the river by England and France as if they were an African Zulu tribe or Gurkhas of India, or Bambaras. These were my people: here I was born, here I grew up, and I knew the simple soul and the good heart of these country people who foolishly trusted Masaryk and Benes. Now I recall that on Friday voices were heard: "Povesit Benese na brane hradu" (Hang Benes on the castle gate). And if, on Monday, General Syrovy urged Benes to leave Prague, it was not because of any fear of the Luftwaffe, but because of the wrath of the people. One of the tricks of the general mobilization was to send the German reservists to Slovakia and the Slovaks to the Sudeten regions. Standing in the gangway, while the express was speeding forward to Ceska Trebova without intermediate stops, I listened to the story of a young German reservist. He seemed to be quite loyal to the Republic and no Nazi enthusiast, but he explained to me the situation which faced all non-Czechs, namely, that of obtaining positions to make a living. The Germans could never hope to become as perfect in Czech as the Czechs and, therefore, where a �SLOVAKIA 49 perfect knowledge of Czech was required, they never could obtain the most advantageous job. Many of the young Sudeten Germans were trying to obtain work in the Third Reich. This was really the primary determining factor of the defection of the Germans, Magyars and Slovaks. Remedy? Either birth control or emigration. The young dancer was quite optimistic: "That whole thing will be settled in two weeks. I am now going to Budapest, and then I will come back to Prague." I had to stand all the way to Brno. There most of the crowd dispersed. From Brno we were to continue to Breclava-Lundenburg, and then on to Vienna. At Breclava we were told that the frontier was closed. We could go to Bratislava if we so wished. The South African found in me a willing cicerone. We had to pay additional fare of some 20 crowns. We arrived in Bratislava about midnight. The station was literally swarming with reservists, each with his little bag, moving to and fro like a mob without any organization. When an elderly man with a small baggage cart came along, in the scanty light, I engaged him to take my two bags and the South African's baggage to the nearest hotel opposite the station. When we arrived there the night clerk told us that all rooms were occupied by Czecho-Slovak army officers. He presumed that all the hotels in the city had been similarly taken over as a mobilization measure, but he volunteered to telephone to Hotel Carlton and find out what the situation was. We were lucky: there were still two single rooms available at 20 crowns (75 cents) with "raiiajky" (breakfast). Carlton Hotel was to send a taxi to bring us downtown which was quite a distance from the station. It was about one a. m., and the city, scantily lighted, was remarkably quiet: one would not have suspected at all that the station was swarming with reservists speeding to their destination, to the frontier. The hotel proved to be quite modern and well appointed. In the morning, when at about 9 a. m. - it was Sunday, September 25th - I came down to have my breakfast, I saw the South African leaving in a great hurry in a taxi. He said he had a visa for Hungary and had tOI �50 SLOVAKIA make haste to reach the frontier before it might be closed. The hotel personnel could not give me any information as to what the situation was on the Austrian frontier. Since March, Austria was a part of the Third Reich. Consequently, I had to set out in an adventurous quest of information by taking the electric tramway to Petrzalka and then walk along the highway to where the frontier could be distinguished by curious quonsset-like structures. Detachments of soldiers were distributed along the road. They were all Magyars and not perturbed in the least: certainly not like troops expecting a sudden attack from anywhere. It was about eleven a. m. and fairly warm, the sun was brightly shining. When I came to a quonsset and asked where I could cross the frontier, I was waved back and asked to try the other quonsset about half a mile further to the right. There I was told that the queer structures were "military objects" or a part of a chain of fortifications. The Czecho-Slovak Magyar soldiers seemed to be quite amused at my confusion seeing me going up and down across fields, but, even though it was quite obvious that I was a foreigner, no one stopped me to ask for identification papers. Finally I emerged from the fields on another main highway which seemed to lose itself among tall poplar trees in the distance. It was about one p. m. The whole countryside was completely deserted. Suddenly I espied a hatless young man walking toward me from the Austrian frontier; he proved to be a German from Vienna who had to escape from the police - he said - because he was a Socialist and not friendly to the Nazis. He hoped to be able to reach Reichenberg (Liberec) in Bohemia where he had friends. This certainly was a lucky encounter. First of all, he told me that the frontier was open, though barricaded on the Slovak side, and that the tramway to Vienna was functioning. Furthermore, he had about 8 marks and needed Czecho-Slovak crowns. I had only 5 marks and about 200 crowns left. I offered to ·buy his marks at 8 crowns. We walked to a restaurant on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Stefanik monument, and had a good lunch of roast pork, dumplings, and sauerkraut at 10 crowns each, �SLOVAKIA 51 and some beer. After I paid the bill, we crossed the river on a ferry to the monument. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and everything was perfectly calm. I returned to the hotel and told the young man to meet me at 3 p. m., when I expected to be ready to leave by taxi for the frontier: the chauffeur asked double fare, because it was Sunday, namely, 66 crowns. The fugitive came to the hotel punctually at 3 p. m. I gave him 60 crowns for his eight marks and he gave me an envelope with a key which he said was from his room in Vienna: all I had to do was to drop it in a post office box after reaching Vienna. We parted. I paid my bill at the hotel, and the taxi took less than half an hour to reach the Austrian frontier. The Czech custom officers at the barricade let me go through after looking at my passport; then I had to carry my two bags to the German Customs quite a ways off. The commanding officer was a Prussian from Berlin; he was supposed to wean the Austrians from their Gemlitlickeit and make them fast and efficient. Occasionally, an airplane lazily crossed the horizon. Not a sign of any soldiers or prepartions for warlike movements. The Berliner looked at my passport, did not even ask me to open my bags. All he wanted to know was what was going on in Bratislava. "General mobilization," I said. He wanted to know whether I had noticed the numbers of the regiments. "I noticed nothing; all I wanted to do was to cross the frontier and go to Vienna by the electric tramway." "Danke, mein Herr," he said very politely, "die elektrische Bahn geht um ungefiihr flinf Uhr ab." I took my bags to a sort of an open waiting room where I found other passengers waiting: Austrians who had the appearance of excursionists, curious about what was going on. During the two-hour wait, which was rather tedious, I noticed another plane lazily patroling the sky. In comparison with the swarming crowds of reservists I had seen on the night previous, this Austrian countryside looked like a calm picnic park. We left toward six p. m. and in all the stations Sunday excursionists were boarding the train. My interrupted ticket to Merano was valid. At about 8 p. m. we were in Vienna. One solitary airplane was circling �52 SLOVAKIA about the city. I took the streetcar to the Slidbahnhof and went to a hotel which I knew from my previous trips. The rooms which formerly cost 6 shillings now cost 6 marks: the clerk told me on the sly that the liberation and incorporation in the Great Fatherland had been a rather costly affair for the gemlitliche Austrians. In the morning, before boarding the train for San Candido (formerly Innichen) in the Dolomites - formerly a part of the Austrian Tyrol - I dropped the envelope containing the key in the post office box. Then the train transported me from a congested military atmosphere into the old time freedom which my soul always craved ever since I left Austria-Hungary in 1903. In many ways it was a memorable day for me this Monday, September 26th. In the soft beams of the morning sun I could see old Vienna for the last time in its stiU gemtitlich aspect - this Vindobona, where Marcus Aurelius jotted down his thoughts in Greek, the Imperial city, saved in 1683 from the Turkish hordes of Kara Mustafa by Czech defenders and Jan Sobieski's Polish army, and the merry center of West-Eastern melodies of Mozart and the Lustige Witwe in 1909, with the rumblings of the first world war in the distance. The city of many races and languages and strange love habits which a Moravian Jewish medic mistook for something universal. Before leaving the hotel at Bratislava on the foregoing Sunday afternoon, I could read my last feuilleton in the Narodni Listy, in which I pleaded for keeping Karlovy Vary free from all political strife and agitation. As the train was speeding through the Austrian and later Styrian country side, I mused over my recollections. The parade in Prague on the first of May, 1934, when at the very end of a long defile of Workers Socialist organizations I was looking, on the corner of Jecna ulice and Karlovo namesti, at the small motley group of Communists guarded by two policemen. They stopped right in front of my vantage point, because the defile had to stop marching somewhere on Vodickova ulice. There must have been a silent mockery in my look which provoked one of the Commies to step forward and come near me with a some- �SLOVAKIA 53 what menacing look. But he had to moderate himself in the policeman's presence. " Co se tak posmesne usmivate ?" (What are you smiling so scoffingly) he asked with a Podskalak accent mixed with Jewish intonation. "Coz kdybych vam tak jednu lajsknul ?" (Suppose I smack you one?) he went on and added: "No jste starej clovek .. .. " (But you are an old man). This was rather ludricous fanfarronade, but indicated how daring a Commie could be at the time, knowing that old Masaryk needed the ten Communist votes in the Parliament for his reelection which was to take place on May 24th. I asked the little Jew what he was so angry about - and he said: "If you had six kids at home and not much to eat ... " and I said - "Why have six kids?" The policeman motioned to him to join his group - about fifty in all - and the defile resumed its march. Who could have dreamt then that this little group of riffraff would one day rule Bohemia? And I recalled October, 1934, when I saw between six and ten thousand German Socialists march along the main street of Karlovy Vary, Vfidelni ulice, with their red flags, boldly sticking out their clenched fists and shouting "Freiheit!" The Czech state police protected their march, a very provocative gesture in a 100 percent rightist, bourgeois city. I asked the policeman: "Proc je zde nechali pochodovat ?" (Why did they let them march here?) - "Protoze jsou statotvorna strana" (because they are a regular political party in the State). This was perhaps intended to discourage the Germans in Karlovy Vary from becoming partisans of Konrad Henlein, Hitler's agent. But the Sudeten Germans had only three choices: Caor as they called it tholic, Socialist or Nationalist "schwarz, Sozi oder Nazi," and this was the reason why a large number voted Nazi without being exactly admirers of Adolf Hitler. To me this Socialist defile was a surprise I had seen the same type of people march in Madrid on May first the year before with clenched fists and shouting: "U Ache Pe" - which stood for "Unios Hermanos Proletarios" or "Proletarians of all lands unite!" And three weeks later after the Socialist march in Karlovy Vary, I happened to be in Munich on the Parteitag, November 8th, �54 SLOVAKIA when that great Catholic city was flooded with huge red flags with the Swastika or Hakenkreuz. On the 9th I was told that university professors had to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler: "Wie werden auf Hitler vereidigt!" After the vote on January 13, 1935, when I was in Rome, France let Hitler occupy the Saar; in March, France and England allowed Hitler to rearm and no energetic steps were taken against the projected invasion of Ethiopia which started on October 3rd. On February 16, 1936, I saw the elections in Spain in Granada. I saw how the socalled Republican government did not stop violent acts against the Rightists, and I left for France at the end of May when I saw that a conflict was imminent. It actually started on July 18th when Berlin was beflagged on the occasion of Olympic games. Paris blamed London quite rightly, but had no courage to act independently And I especially thought of that evening at WUrzburg on May 25, 1935, when I had to sit out the whole radio address by Adolf Hitler about the immense danger which an unarmed Germany was exposed to in view of the Bolshevik menace. Hitler was enumerating the warships which Germany had to sink in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles and emphasized her present helplessness to face the great menace from the East. In view of the mighty Republic of Poland and the Little Entente no such danger existed. One phrase I remember well with all the inner vibration of Hitler's voice: "Wir Nazionalsozialisten sind fanatische Gegner des Bolschewismus: zwischen uns und den Bolschewiken kann nie eine Freundschaft bestehen." (We National Socialists are fanatical opponents of Bolshevism: there can never be friendship between us and the Bolsheviks). The hotel guests had to stand up and sing Horst Wessel Lied - I alone remained seated, no one said a word of protest. They knew I was a foreigner and had nothing to do with their national problems. The next day I was discussing the situation with young Germans. _Not only did they not oppose the rearming of Germany, but strangely enough they had the same argument which I have heard the militarists advance everywhere in the world: "Der Militardienst macht einen Kerl �SLOVAKIA 55 aus Einem." (Military service makes a man out of a boy). In Berlin I saw everywhere defiant posters with the legend: "Die feinen Flugmaschinen, die unserm Flihrer dienen." (Fine airplanes that serve our Flihrer) . And trainloads of huge logs were coming to Germany from Carpatho-Russian forests furnishing wood for the airplanes. Could not the English and French diplomats and military attaches see all this? There still was time for a concerted action to stop the Hitler-Goring madness. In Erlangen - Bavaria - the people were expecting the CzechoSlovak army to march in at any rrioment in accordance with the Versailles Treaty. But nothing happened, because the British opposed strong action in order not to spoil good business. And now I saw my native land sacrificed by Western diplomacy, so the brilliant embassy parties and dances and cocktail drinking could go on undisturbed in Paris and London. And what was true of the Bohemian Crown lands was mutatis mutandis true of Slovakia and Carpatho-Russia. Recollections! The train arrived at Klagenfurt, via Graz and Zidani Most, the territory of germanized Slovenes. I was the only foreigner on board, and when we crossed into the Italian territory I was the only passenger from the frontier to San Candido. When we were somewhere between Klagenfurt and the frontier on the Austrian territory, the conductors would quickly sprint inside the station to listen to the radio which between eight and nine in the evening was blaring Hitler's violent attack on Benes at the Sportpalast. Only once was I sufficiently interested to get off and listen to the shrill tones of Hitler's voice familiar to me since the two and one-half hour speech at Wlirzburg three years before. At Benecko it was dampened by static. By chance I caught exactly the passage when Adolf was roaring in his best form, as if he were challenging Edward to a duel: "Hier stehe ich, dort steht Herr Benesch" (here I stand and there stands Benes) and the rest I do not remember because I had to board the train again. At Innichen - San Candido I found myself in the old Austrian atmosphere of my youth. The hotel was an old �56 SLOVAKIA fashioned Tyrolese inn with large and quiet rooms, without any running water, but a huge comfortable bed. Though it was very late - after eleven p. m. - a good Tyrolese housewife made a Wiener Schnitzel for me which was even better than the one I had eaten at Benecko. I slept wonderfully well and in the morning could admire the splendid sight of the Dolomiten without the slightest thought of war. From there I went to Merano and followed the Traubenkur a whole month while the Munich comedy was being played by Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, and Mussolini, who in the end got the most credit in the Corriere della Sera for having saved the peace. Merano was filled with all types of strange refugees, male and female, of the Milena characteristics which might have interested a Kraft-Ebbing. It is to be deplored that many university professors in Europe and America are muckracking in this sort of "literature." In view of the factual observations of an eyewitness possessing a perfect knowledge of Czech, German, Slovak, Polish, Russian, French, English and Italian - namely the languages involved in the great sellout - the idle musings and speculations both of Benes and the reviewer (Odlozilik) of Mnichovske dny, fade into the realm of Hollywood make-believe of Cecil de Mille's Ten Commandments. The general mobilization did not electrify the people at all, but was a huge comedy smacking to some extent of the good soldier Svejk. The reservists drank beer, ate frankfurters, joked, and knew that the whole thing was a picnic. Those of the Sudeten Germans among them, who knew Czech well, acted as Henlein's spies. The chain of fortifi~ations on which Benes spent over a billion crowns was just as useless as the French Maginot line proved to be later. Nothing could have stopped the Nazi tanks and the Czech regions could have been reduced to ashes by the Luftwaffe which had reportedly 15,000 planes, or ten times more than the reputed Czech air force. The 800,000 reservists were merely a mob compared to the disciplined nazi war machine. All this can be clearly seen from the illustrations showing Adolf "the savior" at the head of his Panzers on the Theaterplatz in Karlovy Vary, speaking to the enthusiastic crowds on October 15th. There is only one "author" whose methods resemble �SLOVAKIA 57 those of Benes, namely Harry Truman, when it comes to complete distortion of facts. However, the Czech people of today, just like the American people of today, will not be easily persuaded to believe fairy tales. • • • MARTIN RAZUS (1883-1937) JOSEPH A. MIKUS The era, which opened for the Slovak nation in 1918, marks a rapid advance in the direction of the realization of its political aspirations. This is indubitably connected with the fall of feudalism and with the over-all extension of the significance of national individualities as political realities in Central Europe. To these external factors there are added also internal forces. And here, from among the many personalities which contributed handsomely to the spiritual and political crystallization of conditions in Slovakia, it behooves us today to recall one name: Martin Razus. While Andrew Hlinka, a Catholic priest, was becoming the leading figure of the political movement for Slovak autonomy for rather social reasons, in the meantime his contemporary and friend, Martin Razus, a Lutheran minister, poet and writer, was emerging as a defender of the political individuality of the Slovak nation for cultural and psychological reasons. In another respect, while Andrew Hlinka, as a man of action, engages in the fight against the leftist, religious, moral and political relativism of Masaryk's school and is drawn into the violent whirlpool of national activity, thus becoming top guard of national awareness, in the meantime, Martin Razus, with fire in his soul and the laurel of a man of letters on his head, devotes himself, according to his nature, rather to the spiritual processes of the national development of the Slovaks. With his ear close to the bosom of the nation, he catches the spiritual vibrations of the people in order to present them in his work a bit later to the public whom he chose to serve. It was thus that Razus became the "conscience of the nation." Even though the motives of Hlinka and Razus for po- � SLOVAKIA 35 A. R. NYKL: "EDVARD BENES ON MUNICH DAYS" The article "Edvard Benes on Munich Days" in the "Journal of Central European Affairs," (January, 1957 pp. 384-393), reveals that the author, Otokar Odlozilik, was not an eyewitness of the days between September 4 and 25, 1938, in Bohemia, and especially in the capital. "Rigid precepts of historical scholarship" cannot be applied to documents, even if the latter were bona fide and not doctored up post factum by captious commentaries. Both Edvard Benes and his mentor T. G. Masaryk were great hindsight wizards. It would be idle to cite proofs of this phenomenon here, because hundreds of quotations have appeared and are still appearing in the publications of the Slovak League of America. The diplomats mentioned in the article very wisely kept, and those who are living still keep, quiet which is, they perhaps believe, better than lying. In my opinion Frantisek Chvalkovsky, who with Ha.cha went through the terrible ordeal in Berlin before they finally signed their consent to Hitler's ultimatum of March 14, 1939, at 3 a. m., was the most reliable and honest person whose story might have cleared up many doubts, surmises, and suspicions. Krofta could unfortunately not go beyond the spring of 1938, when in May the first rumors of war began to spread. Henlein and his right hand man Frank were feverishly preparing the ground for autonomy and secession, by speeches and press campaigns, in which they constantly harped on Benes's doctoral thesis, published in 1907 at Dijon, wherein he advocated a complete separation of the German-speaking and the Czech-speaking regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. During the summer months Lord Runciman was sent to the Sudetenland by Chamberlain with the special mission to find the right solution by "fact finding." For the most part he was the guest of German nobility and paid no attention to the claims of the Czech "hranicari," inhabitants of the frontier regions. The Sudeten Germans knew perfectly well that he was �36 SLOVAKIA merely playing a comedy and facetiously spoke of him as Lord "Runzelmann." Because of my absolute command of the German tongue, and as an American visitor, I could engage in countless conversations with the natives of Karlovy Vary, where I was writing a book on Japan and curing my nervous stomach by drinking MUhlbrunn - "Mlynsky prame" - hot alkaline water. Among the Egerlander there reigned an atmosphere of calm optimism: to them the annexation of the Sudeten by the Third Reich was a foregone , conclusion. Some of them even hinted already at a further step - the Protectorate - anticipating March 14, 1939. Nervousness reigned only in the small Czech minority, which was being increasingly frightened by occasional "blackout" exercises and talk about air raid shelters. To me it was quite plain that the Germans were being supplied with oral propaganda, which they called Fllisterpropaganda, and were absolutely convinced that Runciman's antics were a subterfuge to hide a fait accompli: a perfect agreement of the English and French - the latter somewhat sheepishly and reluctantly - that the "phantom" republic should be trimmed to suit the Nazis and the Magyars, in connivance with Mr. Beck, the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs whose contempt for Benes knew no bounds. This I knew from my trip through Poland in August, 1936, where Czechs were talked about as "lajdaci" (loafers). Goring was Beck's honored guest, Benes the "cackling pygmy." At Cracow, Moscicki was helping to raise the Pilsudski mound: was he likely to listen to Benes 's plea in 1938? In July 1935, I wrote an article for the "Narodni Listy," recommending a solid steel wall from the Carpathians to Gdynia with a friendly Polish nation, whom Benes and Masaryk, however, regarded as Fascists. Later I was told that the article was suppressed at Benes's orders, who bypassed the Poles and went to see Stalin about that time. It is evident that the ambassadors named in the Odlozilik article (Osusky, Masaryk, Mastny, Chvalkovsky, Hurban, Slavik) must have known the real state of affairs and �SLOVAKIA 37 therefore kept silent. With the help of German and Italian aviation the Nationalists in Spain were pushing the socalled "Loyalists" toward the Pyrenees, ·and Daladier was worried about the impending invasion of the defeated 300,000 "Reds" into southern France, while Charles Maurras in "EAction Francaise" was ridiculing the idea of a war "pour les Tcheques." In the Kurhaus or Lazensky Dum, I could read the "Daily Mail" and "Corriere della Sera." I recall distinctly a map in the former showing the distribution of the three and one-half million Sudeten-Germans along the frontier as reported by Lord Runciman - and an article by Mussolini stating that the artificial and unnatural "sausage" state in Central Europe should be dismembered in the same way as the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy had been. Where is Odlozilik's "authentic description" of events by Benes? If Benes had a "unique knowledge of the situation," he would have had to admit that he knew full well in August that England and France were determined to back Hitler's claims. Krofta wisely kept silent in order not to implicate himself. The important documents sent abroad in the early days of October, 1938, most likely were destroyed, in order not to compromise the guilty parties. It would seem that the German and Italian military aviation was so formidable that the French and still less the British, aviation was no match for it at the time. Mr. Beck's clique in Poland was maliciously rejoicing at Benes's defeat. And Stalin, of course, was not going to help a dying man. My own estimate of the situation, on the basis of my observations and reading of the foreign press - English, French, Italian, Scandinavian, Polish, Rumanian, Yugoslav - was that there would be no war, because the sellout by England and F r ance was an obvious fait accompli. Hence I finished my manuscript and went by bus to Prague, in order to arrange with the publisher the printing of my book. For all eventualities I bought a second-class ticket to Praha-Merano, because my friends recommended to me the "Traubenkur" in Merano as the best thing for a nervous stomach. It consisted in eating plenty of ripe blue grapes and walking in the hills. Another friend - a phy- �38 SLOVAKIA sician - took a good look into my stomach, and finding nothing really serious, recommended that I should go to the Riesengebirge (Krkonose) to a place called Benecko and drink plenty of radioactive water. While the Sudeten-Germans were calm and smiling, awaiting their revanche, the Czech population was naturally feeling uneasy in the expectation of the great Hitler harangue at Nuremberg, listed for September 12. There was a tense atmosphere in Prague. The Communists were dreaming of a great Russian airborne army which would destroy Berlin and of making every town and hamlet in Bohemia a fortress like the "Loyalists" were doing in Spain who, by the way, were being painted as heroes in the Benes-controlled press. Only the "Narodni Listy," the organ of the Czech National Democrats, was favorable to Mussolini and to Franco. The journey on Sunday, September 4, through the fertile fields promising a good harvest, via Chlumec natl Cidlinou, where the peasants once were beaten by the noblemen ("vyhrajes jako sedlak v Chlumce"), north to the Krkonose, was calm and uneventful. After Trutnov-Trautenau, we began to enter the mixed Sudeten region. From what I could see and hear, the German agrarians had no sympathy with the Nazis at all, although in the last moment they joined the Henlein group so as to save themselves from reprisals and persecutions. This very step indicated that Henlein was certain of winning without war. Benecko proved to be a combined summer and winter resort. The summer guests were all gone, and I was the only guest at the hotel. In winter, the place changed into a ski resort. The owner was a sincere man, a great admirer of Kramar, and a great, scathing critic of Benes. The Germans had a nice new school building in the village, "Deutsche Volkschule." Hitler's ravings about the suffer- . ings of the Germans were the invention of his maniacal imagination. The hotel and its immediate neighborhood formed a Czech enclave in a region which further north was inhabited by Sudeten-Germans. From the far distance one could hear the noise of their Henlein meetings. But otherwise, �SLOVAKIA 39 perfect peace reigned in the pine forests and on the green meadows, where I spent most of my time walking between meals and drinking radioactive water. Within a few days my nervous stomach was restored to its normal functions. Sunday, the 11th of September, being a pleasantly warm, sunny day, I decided in the afternoon to walk to the summit of the wooded hill which I well remembered from my school days, reading about the sad departure of Czech Protestants in the years which followed the battle of the White Mountain, in 1620-1628. These emigres had to leave everything behind and seek refuge in the Protestant regions of Germany northeast of the Krkonose. Jan Amos Komensky, later bishop of the Moravian Brethren, was among them. On this hill, named Zaly, according to the legend, they were taking the last look of their native country, and were kissing the snow-covered ground goodbye in tears. Nevzali jsme se sebou nic, nic, po vsem veta jen Bibli Kralickou, Labyrint sveta. "We took nothing along, nothing, all is lost; only the Kraliky Bible, and the Labyrinth of the World." Reference is maqe to the Protestant version of the Bible made at Kraliky (German Grulich) on the Bohemian-Silesian frontier, and the well-known work of Comenius. These memories came to my mind as I slowly walked to the summit where I found a tourist restaurant and a lookout tower. The atmosphere was gloomy, very much in keeping with the name 2aly: the presentiment of grave events reminded me of what it must have been like in 1628 - three centuries ago. The sufferings of the Czech nation were of no concern to France, and still less to England. The large wooden structure of the hotel was silent, when I returned. For supper I had the last but one real Wiener Schnitzel in my memory - or shall I call it costoletta alla milanese? Or vidensky rizek? The owner of the hotel who knew very little German asked me whether I would listen to the radio the next day and tell him what Adolf was going to broadcast from Ntirnberg. Since I was not to be directly affected, I could sleep soundly and in the forenoon take another long walk in the pine woods. �40 SLOVAKIA The great speech was booked for about 2 p. m. sun time, since Germany had not adopted the foolish fad of daylight saving time. If I had my notes at hand, I could recall the situation with more precision, but since I was more intersted in "kava a buchty" (coffee and doughnuts) , my recollection is rather hazy at present. First of all, the reception was very weak and spoiled by frequent static due to thick thunder clouds hanging over the mountain range. Second, Hitler's speeches on the Sudeten question, the same as on the Klajpeda and Gdansk question, were a repetition of dramatically worded accusations of the same content : the Volksgenossen were being persecuted and mistreated, hence they were fleeing in constantly increasing numbers across the border: five thousand, ten thousand, fifty thousand; Long afterwards I saw in the contemporary lliustrierte Zeitung file pictures of these "refugees" being lovingly provided with food and clothing by their brethren in the Third Reich. There could be no doubt as to Adolf's purpose, namely, to convince France and England of the absolute justice of the Nazi position. "We do not ask except what is ours on the basis of selfdetermination - not one inch of a foreign territory. The Czechs will have theirs and we will have ours: after that we will have no further demands. " The next day at night we could hear the rumbling of a thunderstorm in the direction of Harrach's Glass Works at the frontier, but my host and his family were so frightened that they took it for the rumbling of heavy artillery. On Thursday, September 15, I decided that there was no use prolonging my stay and inviting another spell of stomach nervousness: after lunch I took the bus to the railway station and from there the train to Prague. Though there was no panic anywhere, the train was already filled with refugees: the wealthier and white-collared class. In Prague I returned to my hotel on Namesti Petra Osvoboditele (the Square of Peter, the Liberator) - formerly Komensky Square - in the Vinohrady district, where I paid 20 crowns for a single room, the equivalent of 70 cents. Excellent regular meals cost 10 crowns - 35 cents - and read all the Czech, German, French, and English �SLOYAKIA 41 newspapers while sipping excellent coffee. In one of the rooms they had a permanent guest - a frequently tipsy female of unpleasant appearance. She was one of the ten Communist deputies in the Parliament. Unfortunately for me, moratorium had been proclaimed with regard to withdrawals from bank accounts and I could only draw 5000 crowns at the Zivnobanka. One rapid transaction became imperative and unavoidable: I had to go to Karlovy Vary and have several trunks of my books shipped from there to Prague. The dream of staying in the pleasant spa and writing books vanished: where were the solemn promises of "enduring peace" after fighting "the war to end all wars" in 1919? On Friday afternoon I took the "rychlovlak" (express) and arrived at the Karlovy Vary station, which is located at some distance from the center of the town, in the evening. Detachments of Czech troops were already stationed round. No bus was operating. After showing my passport I was allowed to go to the town on foot and there I found another detachment of youthful-looking soldiers round some sort of war machinery, near Park Street. For reasons, which would take long to explain, I decided to go to one of the Kurgas1; rooming houses on Park Street. In situations of this kind one must act with lightning speed and complete calm. I was able to arrange with a shipper to forward my trunks to Prague next Monday, "express," at the fabulous cost of 2000 crowns. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I spent eating the best food and spending as many crowns as I could, buying the best shirts, socks, a light overcoat, and other articles of clothing at Nastopil's on Alte Wiese. Why not, when I could buy the best shirts at 16 crowns (50 cents) which in America would cost five dollars? I still have two of those. When one sees an inevitable debacle in the offing one can easily adopt the philosophy of "you can't take it with you." While consuming an excellent chicken dinner for 25 crowns (70 cents) in the restaurant of the house "Schwedischer Hof," I was discussing the situation with the waiter, who happened to be a Pole, in Polish. He admired my remarkable calm and sound judgement, and made me the compliment "Pan jest okropny czlowiek." All the Germans I spoke with, showed smiling optimism. �42 SLOVAKIA On Monday evening, September 19th, I was in the "rychlovlak" Eger-Prague, in the company of two lieutenants of the Czechoslovak army, both Czechs less than 25 years of age, hence products of the MasarykBenes regime. There also was a captain of the frontier constabulary (strazmistr - cetnik), a former legionnaire, less than fifty years of age. The "porucici" (second lieutenants) were not exactly in a merry mood, but seemed to face the facts without whimpering and with a sort of grim humor. I knew nothing of what was going on in diplomatic circles, but I can repeat that all the Germans in Karlovy Vary, with whom I spoke about the future , were gloriously optimistic. They already knew that the Nazis would give them 1 mark for ten crowns instead of eight, yet seemed to be quite willing to take the loss. I recall one instance particularly, when I said: "Ich sehe Wolken am Horizont," and my interlocutor said: "Im Gegenthal, ich sehe alles rosig." This opinion was general. Now an expellee in Germany, my young friend may remember our conversation. If the scheme mentioned by Odlozilik on p. 387 ( "to avoid war") was worked out on September 18, "after the conference in London of French and British statesmen," it must have already been known throughout the Sudeten on September 19. And this was also the reason why I met the elderly cetnik on this train; he was leaving his post in Jachymov and was on his way to Slovakia, like the rest of Czech "cetnici" (gendarmes), because it was already known that the territory in which they were employed would be ceded to the Third Reich. This cetnik was very sad and spoke of his ruined existence, with a son in school, and with no future ahead of him. The two "porucici" stated to me emphatically what I later heard so much in Prague: "Uz je to ujednano a uz jsme prodani" (it's all settled and we are already sold out). And their comments on this "noble" action of France and England were rather scathing. Two days later in Prague the Czech legionnaires were in front of the French Legation discarding the medals which they had received from France in 1919. If Mr. Benes devotes a fairly long passage in his "Mnichovske dny" to �SLOVAKIA -13 an audience when "on Wednesday, September 21, in the small hours of that morning the British and French envoys requested it," to me it is quite clear that he is telling a story to cover up what already was a fait accompli. The people in the Sudeten knew that the matter had been settled, and the Czechs living there knew it also. To speak of collecting statements made by Benes and his critics and to "evaluate them in accordance with rigid precepts of historical scholarship" is as idle a talk as that about the authenticity of the Kensington stone and many other legends which need not be mentioned here. Furthermore I, as a personal witness, can say that the news of the sellout was already known in Prague that very evening, September 19, which in my memory is a terrible accusation of the treacherous action of British and French diplomats, not their respective nations. That evening, at about 10 o'clock, Prague was a city of stunned ghosts groping in the darkness under the impact of a deadly blow. I have seen through many situations when a family was suddenly stunned by a tragic blow, but here a whole ancient city with a glorious history, and a trusting people, had been stabbed in the back by those who professed to be their allies. The streets were almost deserted - deadly anguish was visible on all faces. Being a Czech, I fully felt their despair. They already visualized the return of the German conqueror to Praga caput regni, left at the mercy of a horde of fanaticists. The anguish was gripping the souls of the Czechs, together with a hatred of Masaryk and Benes, whose lies had brought the nation into this horrible plight. Only one who has once found himself at the brink of death could approximately realize that tragic, silent grief coupled with dread of an impending, yet inevitable peril. La nu.it porte conseil is a proverb fraught with a deep significance. The morning will· bring a solution. September 20 found the streets filled with milling crowds, hardly listening to the blaring loudspeakers. When passing by the barracks where young soldiers looked nonchalantly from the windows, a group of patriots would yell occasionally: �.J4 SLOVAKIA "Af z1Je armada!" (Long live the army). But there was no real enthusiasm - it seemed as if the soldiers knew that there was not to be any fighting. The anguish and terror of the previous night gave way to the real Czech calm fatalism, bred into the nation by centuries of hard knocks. Hemmed in, right in the heart of Europe, by hostile neighbors, the Czechs were always governed by one uppermost thought, namely, holding their own against terrible odds and in the end surviving their enemies. No one knew anything about what was going on in diplomatic circles, but all the intelligent people with whom I discussed the situation, unanimously and with a quiet, also typically Czech resignation, were saying: "Uz je to ujednano. Uz jsme prodani." In the evening I walked on the Vaclavske namesti (Wenceslaus Square) which was literally packed with people going to and fro without any passionate outbursts. Round the pedestal of Myslbek's famous St. Wenceslaus group, a solid mass of young Communists from Nusle was sitting with a defiant expression on their faces. "Co zde delate"? (What are you doing here?) I asked a group of young men and women. "My chceme bojovat a hajit svateho Vaclava." (We want to fight and to defend St. Wenceslaus). The streets were guarded by a special force of policemen with black helmets calm, young, determined men. I asked one of them: "Prosim vas, co ti mladi blazni zde delaji ?" (Pardon me, what are those young fools doing here?) His answer was typical of a Czech who has seen too many upheavals in his time to be surprised at anything. Just one word: "Para!" If a dictionary linguist would search in a number of volumes, in order to get the full meaning of this simple word, he might find such equivalents as "vapor, steam, fog, mist," but these would not give him the inner vibration. The nearest equivalent in American English would be : "Just generating so much worthless hot air!". The same milling of crowds and blaring of loudspeakers to which no one listened went on the two following days, namely, on Wednesday and Thursday, September 21 and 22. Whatever Mr. Benes says about his conferences and �SLOVAKIA 45 plans must be set aside as a legend and post factum invention to cover up the incontrovertible fact that the final decision had already been made in London on September 18; all these so-called conferences were a mere comedy to deceive the nation, which however, was not deceived at all. I listened to Mr. Benes's broadcast at 7 p. m., on Thursday, September 22. This was the second and last time I ever heard the sound of his voice and his halting way of reading from a typewritten text with his dark-rimmed glasses on his clumsy nose. The first time was on Sunday, September 19, 1937, at Masaryk's funeral. He was either unable or afraid to say anything powerful and sonorous ex-tempore. "Mluvil jako kdyz by to tahal z chlupate rukavice." (He talked as if he were pulling it out of a shaggy glove). Utterly insipid was the boast about having made a plan: "Mam plan pro vsechny pripady." (I have a plan for all eventualities). Then he also said, or rather read something in Slovak in such a poor way that Slovaks must have laughed at his pronunciation. Though the two languages are quite similar, it is extremely difficult for a Czech to speak Slovak with a Slovak intonation, just like a Spaniard is utterly unable to speak Portuguese with a Portuguese intonation. People laughed and repeated in the Prague dialect: "A Benes ma plan a usme prodany," i.e., uz jsme prodani: "Benes has a plan and we are already sold out." This reminded me of Paris and Pichegru. During the night the "civil defense" observers were frequently yelling: "Zhasnout svetla !" (lights out), in order to have a complete blackout. It was utterly amusing - almost as amusing as were the blackouts in Cambridge, Mass., in 1943 - because no sane person could have expected an air attack, which would have killed not only the Czechs, but the VolksgenossE)n as well. Nevertheless, on Friday the 23rd, people were being scared into buying gas masks, and I saw a long line on Betlemske namesti (Bethlehem Square) near the chapel where Hus used to preach in 1400 A.D., waiting to get a gas mask for 150 crowns! However, their number was insignificant in comparison with the whole population. �46 SLOVAKIA The librarian of the Naprstek Museum was to take care of my books, because I planned to leave by the express to Vienna on Saturday afternoon. I visited a few friends at the Orientalni Ustav. In the evening, when walking on Jecna ulice near Karlovo namesti (Charles Square), I met my great friend, the late professor Bedrich Hrozny, who was very calm; he knew as I did that there would be no war and no bombing, because to challenge the German Air Force would have meant useless suicide. He never mentioned anything about Benes's "plan." My publisher, the printer, my physician, repeated colloquially the same refrain "uz jsme prodany." The legionnaires, as I said before, were discarding their French medals in front of the legation. But there was no panic, no passionate outbursts. We are told that general mobilization was promulgated at 10 p. m. that evening. In view of the situation it was an amusing comedy of which I saw a part on Saturday and Sunday. What Benes says is a novelesque invention, calculated to mislead posterity into the belief of his great powers as a thinker: this method he copied from his master and from the French historians who dramatized the German retreat on September 6, 1914, into a great victory on the Marne. The night for me was indeed hectic: All of a sudden bed bugs appeared from nowhere, and the night clerk had to give me another mattress; the night was completely dark, except for an isolated little light that appeared in an attic, and some "civil defense" fool was constantly and uselessly yelling somewhere on the roof "Zhasnete svetlo" (Put out the light) ! When Mr. Benes writes, and the author of the article (Odlozilik) muses on a supposed tenseness in Prague that night, they are telling a story. The tenseness existed only on Monday evening, September 19th: after that the people were fully aware of the great comedy "uz jsme prodani." Friday noon I had my last "pecena husa s knedliky a zelim" (roast goose with dumplings and kraut) in the P. R. D. - Prazsky representacni dfun) - with the usual first class waiter service in coat tails, with Pilsen beer for 35 crowns, about one dollar. At �S LOVAKIA 47 that time we had no inkling of the "vseobecna mobilisace" (general mobilization) being thought of or planned by the great Edvard. As I perfectly recall it, the people as a whole were resigned to see the occupation of the Sudeten as a fait accompli since September 18th. On Saturday morning, when I came down to the cafe, I saw myself in a queer predicament. General mobilization was in progress and, as a consequence, there were no taxis, and even the street cars did not seem to function. Suddenly I saw a familiar face coming into the parlor: Vojta Benes - whom I knew so well since the time he made fiery speeches against Austria, in 1916-1918, in America - then lived like a satrap in a beautiful villa in Jevany as a great Socialist Minister of Education, who fought the Roman Catholic Church, while his brother was a matriculated "paper" Catholic. He was surrounded by a number of friends and they were talking about going abroad. I had to take my two hand bags and walk all the way to the Masaryk - former Franz Josef - station using the trusty power of my arm muscles. The streets were swarming with silent reservists on their way to the railroad stations, each carrying a small hand bag. There was no military preparedness among them: they looked more like excursionists. The whole station was likewise swarming with men between thirty and fifty years of age. Toward noon it became somewhat warm, and these masses of men were quenching their thirst with steins of beer, laughing and joking. The "rychlovlak" Berlin-Vienna was to arrive at about 2 p. m., and was to be the last train leaving the country in that direction. My only concern were my books. At about 1:30 p. m., I telephoned to the shipping agency and was told that my books had arrived in good order and were to be delivered the next week at their destination. The express did not arrive on time and there was an hourly announcement of its being late. If the Czecho-Slovak generals were wondering why the Luftwaffe did not bomb Ceska Trebova - Bohumin, on September 23rd, they must have been completely misled by Benes's comedy. The Luftwaffe knew full well that the occupation of the Sudeten was a fait accompli. The �48 SLOVAKIA whole inside of the station, with thousands of reservists drinking beer, eating frankfurters, and joking, bespoke a total confidence that there would be no war, no air raid, no shooting. The express finally arrived at about six p. m. I had a second class ticket, but found at once that this meant nothing, because all the compartments were being taken by reservists; all seats were occupied and the gangways were likewise filled. In a second class compartment I found two foreigners, a South African of Jewish origin and a young German dancing girl from Budapest. The express soon started on its way in the twilight through the central part of Bohemia, via Kolin and Pardubice to Ceska Trebova. In the fields and meadows the peasants were still working and were waving "Na zdaaar!" (Success!) to the occupants of the train - the defenders of the fatherland on their way to the frontier. As I think of it now, I cannot refrain from shedding tears at recalling how these simple folks were being deceived and sold down the river by England and France as if they were an African Zulu tribe or Gurkhas of India, or Bambaras. These were my people: here I was born, here I grew up, and I knew the simple soul and the good heart of these country people who foolishly trusted Masaryk and Benes. Now I recall that on Friday voices were heard: "Povesit Benese na brane hradu" (Hang Benes on the castle gate). And if, on Monday, General Syrovy urged Benes to leave Prague, it was not because of any fear of the Luftwaffe, but because of the wrath of the people. One of the tricks of the general mobilization was to send the German reservists to Slovakia and the Slovaks to the Sudeten regions. Standing in the gangway, while the express was speeding forward to Ceska Trebova without intermediate stops, I listened to the story of a young German reservist. He seemed to be quite loyal to the Republic and no Nazi enthusiast, but he explained to me the situation which faced all non-Czechs, namely, that of obtaining positions to make a living. The Germans could never hope to become as perfect in Czech as the Czechs and, therefore, where a �SLOVAKIA 49 perfect knowledge of Czech was required, they never could obtain the most advantageous job. Many of the young Sudeten Germans were trying to obtain work in the Third Reich. This was really the primary determining factor of the defection of the Germans, Magyars and Slovaks. Remedy? Either birth control or emigration. The young dancer was quite optimistic: "That whole thing will be settled in two weeks. I am now going to Budapest, and then I will come back to Prague." I had to stand all the way to Brno. There most of the crowd dispersed. From Brno we were to continue to Breclava-Lundenburg, and then on to Vienna. At Breclava we were told that the frontier was closed. We could go to Bratislava if we so wished. The South African found in me a willing cicerone. We had to pay additional fare of some 20 crowns. We arrived in Bratislava about midnight. The station was literally swarming with reservists, each with his little bag, moving to and fro like a mob without any organization. When an elderly man with a small baggage cart came along, in the scanty light, I engaged him to take my two bags and the South African's baggage to the nearest hotel opposite the station. When we arrived there the night clerk told us that all rooms were occupied by Czecho-Slovak army officers. He presumed that all the hotels in the city had been similarly taken over as a mobilization measure, but he volunteered to telephone to Hotel Carlton and find out what the situation was. We were lucky: there were still two single rooms available at 20 crowns (75 cents) with "raiiajky" (breakfast). Carlton Hotel was to send a taxi to bring us downtown which was quite a distance from the station. It was about one a. m., and the city, scantily lighted, was remarkably quiet: one would not have suspected at all that the station was swarming with reservists speeding to their destination, to the frontier. The hotel proved to be quite modern and well appointed. In the morning, when at about 9 a. m. - it was Sunday, September 25th - I came down to have my breakfast, I saw the South African leaving in a great hurry in a taxi. He said he had a visa for Hungary and had tOI �50 SLOVAKIA make haste to reach the frontier before it might be closed. The hotel personnel could not give me any information as to what the situation was on the Austrian frontier. Since March, Austria was a part of the Third Reich. Consequently, I had to set out in an adventurous quest of information by taking the electric tramway to Petrzalka and then walk along the highway to where the frontier could be distinguished by curious quonsset-like structures. Detachments of soldiers were distributed along the road. They were all Magyars and not perturbed in the least: certainly not like troops expecting a sudden attack from anywhere. It was about eleven a. m. and fairly warm, the sun was brightly shining. When I came to a quonsset and asked where I could cross the frontier, I was waved back and asked to try the other quonsset about half a mile further to the right. There I was told that the queer structures were "military objects" or a part of a chain of fortifications. The Czecho-Slovak Magyar soldiers seemed to be quite amused at my confusion seeing me going up and down across fields, but, even though it was quite obvious that I was a foreigner, no one stopped me to ask for identification papers. Finally I emerged from the fields on another main highway which seemed to lose itself among tall poplar trees in the distance. It was about one p. m. The whole countryside was completely deserted. Suddenly I espied a hatless young man walking toward me from the Austrian frontier; he proved to be a German from Vienna who had to escape from the police - he said - because he was a Socialist and not friendly to the Nazis. He hoped to be able to reach Reichenberg (Liberec) in Bohemia where he had friends. This certainly was a lucky encounter. First of all, he told me that the frontier was open, though barricaded on the Slovak side, and that the tramway to Vienna was functioning. Furthermore, he had about 8 marks and needed Czecho-Slovak crowns. I had only 5 marks and about 200 crowns left. I offered to ·buy his marks at 8 crowns. We walked to a restaurant on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Stefanik monument, and had a good lunch of roast pork, dumplings, and sauerkraut at 10 crowns each, �SLOVAKIA 51 and some beer. After I paid the bill, we crossed the river on a ferry to the monument. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and everything was perfectly calm. I returned to the hotel and told the young man to meet me at 3 p. m., when I expected to be ready to leave by taxi for the frontier: the chauffeur asked double fare, because it was Sunday, namely, 66 crowns. The fugitive came to the hotel punctually at 3 p. m. I gave him 60 crowns for his eight marks and he gave me an envelope with a key which he said was from his room in Vienna: all I had to do was to drop it in a post office box after reaching Vienna. We parted. I paid my bill at the hotel, and the taxi took less than half an hour to reach the Austrian frontier. The Czech custom officers at the barricade let me go through after looking at my passport; then I had to carry my two bags to the German Customs quite a ways off. The commanding officer was a Prussian from Berlin; he was supposed to wean the Austrians from their Gemlitlickeit and make them fast and efficient. Occasionally, an airplane lazily crossed the horizon. Not a sign of any soldiers or prepartions for warlike movements. The Berliner looked at my passport, did not even ask me to open my bags. All he wanted to know was what was going on in Bratislava. "General mobilization," I said. He wanted to know whether I had noticed the numbers of the regiments. "I noticed nothing; all I wanted to do was to cross the frontier and go to Vienna by the electric tramway." "Danke, mein Herr," he said very politely, "die elektrische Bahn geht um ungefiihr flinf Uhr ab." I took my bags to a sort of an open waiting room where I found other passengers waiting: Austrians who had the appearance of excursionists, curious about what was going on. During the two-hour wait, which was rather tedious, I noticed another plane lazily patroling the sky. In comparison with the swarming crowds of reservists I had seen on the night previous, this Austrian countryside looked like a calm picnic park. We left toward six p. m. and in all the stations Sunday excursionists were boarding the train. My interrupted ticket to Merano was valid. At about 8 p. m. we were in Vienna. One solitary airplane was circling �52 SLOVAKIA about the city. I took the streetcar to the Slidbahnhof and went to a hotel which I knew from my previous trips. The rooms which formerly cost 6 shillings now cost 6 marks: the clerk told me on the sly that the liberation and incorporation in the Great Fatherland had been a rather costly affair for the gemlitliche Austrians. In the morning, before boarding the train for San Candido (formerly Innichen) in the Dolomites - formerly a part of the Austrian Tyrol - I dropped the envelope containing the key in the post office box. Then the train transported me from a congested military atmosphere into the old time freedom which my soul always craved ever since I left Austria-Hungary in 1903. In many ways it was a memorable day for me this Monday, September 26th. In the soft beams of the morning sun I could see old Vienna for the last time in its stiU gemtitlich aspect - this Vindobona, where Marcus Aurelius jotted down his thoughts in Greek, the Imperial city, saved in 1683 from the Turkish hordes of Kara Mustafa by Czech defenders and Jan Sobieski's Polish army, and the merry center of West-Eastern melodies of Mozart and the Lustige Witwe in 1909, with the rumblings of the first world war in the distance. The city of many races and languages and strange love habits which a Moravian Jewish medic mistook for something universal. Before leaving the hotel at Bratislava on the foregoing Sunday afternoon, I could read my last feuilleton in the Narodni Listy, in which I pleaded for keeping Karlovy Vary free from all political strife and agitation. As the train was speeding through the Austrian and later Styrian country side, I mused over my recollections. The parade in Prague on the first of May, 1934, when at the very end of a long defile of Workers Socialist organizations I was looking, on the corner of Jecna ulice and Karlovo namesti, at the small motley group of Communists guarded by two policemen. They stopped right in front of my vantage point, because the defile had to stop marching somewhere on Vodickova ulice. There must have been a silent mockery in my look which provoked one of the Commies to step forward and come near me with a some- �SLOVAKIA 53 what menacing look. But he had to moderate himself in the policeman's presence. " Co se tak posmesne usmivate ?" (What are you smiling so scoffingly) he asked with a Podskalak accent mixed with Jewish intonation. "Coz kdybych vam tak jednu lajsknul ?" (Suppose I smack you one?) he went on and added: "No jste starej clovek .. .. " (But you are an old man). This was rather ludricous fanfarronade, but indicated how daring a Commie could be at the time, knowing that old Masaryk needed the ten Communist votes in the Parliament for his reelection which was to take place on May 24th. I asked the little Jew what he was so angry about - and he said: "If you had six kids at home and not much to eat ... " and I said - "Why have six kids?" The policeman motioned to him to join his group - about fifty in all - and the defile resumed its march. Who could have dreamt then that this little group of riffraff would one day rule Bohemia? And I recalled October, 1934, when I saw between six and ten thousand German Socialists march along the main street of Karlovy Vary, Vfidelni ulice, with their red flags, boldly sticking out their clenched fists and shouting "Freiheit!" The Czech state police protected their march, a very provocative gesture in a 100 percent rightist, bourgeois city. I asked the policeman: "Proc je zde nechali pochodovat ?" (Why did they let them march here?) - "Protoze jsou statotvorna strana" (because they are a regular political party in the State). This was perhaps intended to discourage the Germans in Karlovy Vary from becoming partisans of Konrad Henlein, Hitler's agent. But the Sudeten Germans had only three choices: Caor as they called it tholic, Socialist or Nationalist "schwarz, Sozi oder Nazi," and this was the reason why a large number voted Nazi without being exactly admirers of Adolf Hitler. To me this Socialist defile was a surprise I had seen the same type of people march in Madrid on May first the year before with clenched fists and shouting: "U Ache Pe" - which stood for "Unios Hermanos Proletarios" or "Proletarians of all lands unite!" And three weeks later after the Socialist march in Karlovy Vary, I happened to be in Munich on the Parteitag, November 8th, �54 SLOVAKIA when that great Catholic city was flooded with huge red flags with the Swastika or Hakenkreuz. On the 9th I was told that university professors had to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler: "Wie werden auf Hitler vereidigt!" After the vote on January 13, 1935, when I was in Rome, France let Hitler occupy the Saar; in March, France and England allowed Hitler to rearm and no energetic steps were taken against the projected invasion of Ethiopia which started on October 3rd. On February 16, 1936, I saw the elections in Spain in Granada. I saw how the socalled Republican government did not stop violent acts against the Rightists, and I left for France at the end of May when I saw that a conflict was imminent. It actually started on July 18th when Berlin was beflagged on the occasion of Olympic games. Paris blamed London quite rightly, but had no courage to act independently And I especially thought of that evening at WUrzburg on May 25, 1935, when I had to sit out the whole radio address by Adolf Hitler about the immense danger which an unarmed Germany was exposed to in view of the Bolshevik menace. Hitler was enumerating the warships which Germany had to sink in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles and emphasized her present helplessness to face the great menace from the East. In view of the mighty Republic of Poland and the Little Entente no such danger existed. One phrase I remember well with all the inner vibration of Hitler's voice: "Wir Nazionalsozialisten sind fanatische Gegner des Bolschewismus: zwischen uns und den Bolschewiken kann nie eine Freundschaft bestehen." (We National Socialists are fanatical opponents of Bolshevism: there can never be friendship between us and the Bolsheviks). The hotel guests had to stand up and sing Horst Wessel Lied - I alone remained seated, no one said a word of protest. They knew I was a foreigner and had nothing to do with their national problems. The next day I was discussing the situation with young Germans. _Not only did they not oppose the rearming of Germany, but strangely enough they had the same argument which I have heard the militarists advance everywhere in the world: "Der Militardienst macht einen Kerl �SLOVAKIA 55 aus Einem." (Military service makes a man out of a boy). In Berlin I saw everywhere defiant posters with the legend: "Die feinen Flugmaschinen, die unserm Flihrer dienen." (Fine airplanes that serve our Flihrer) . And trainloads of huge logs were coming to Germany from Carpatho-Russian forests furnishing wood for the airplanes. Could not the English and French diplomats and military attaches see all this? There still was time for a concerted action to stop the Hitler-Goring madness. In Erlangen - Bavaria - the people were expecting the CzechoSlovak army to march in at any rrioment in accordance with the Versailles Treaty. But nothing happened, because the British opposed strong action in order not to spoil good business. And now I saw my native land sacrificed by Western diplomacy, so the brilliant embassy parties and dances and cocktail drinking could go on undisturbed in Paris and London. And what was true of the Bohemian Crown lands was mutatis mutandis true of Slovakia and Carpatho-Russia. Recollections! The train arrived at Klagenfurt, via Graz and Zidani Most, the territory of germanized Slovenes. I was the only foreigner on board, and when we crossed into the Italian territory I was the only passenger from the frontier to San Candido. When we were somewhere between Klagenfurt and the frontier on the Austrian territory, the conductors would quickly sprint inside the station to listen to the radio which between eight and nine in the evening was blaring Hitler's violent attack on Benes at the Sportpalast. Only once was I sufficiently interested to get off and listen to the shrill tones of Hitler's voice familiar to me since the two and one-half hour speech at Wlirzburg three years before. At Benecko it was dampened by static. By chance I caught exactly the passage when Adolf was roaring in his best form, as if he were challenging Edward to a duel: "Hier stehe ich, dort steht Herr Benesch" (here I stand and there stands Benes) and the rest I do not remember because I had to board the train again. At Innichen - San Candido I found myself in the old Austrian atmosphere of my youth. The hotel was an old �56 SLOVAKIA fashioned Tyrolese inn with large and quiet rooms, without any running water, but a huge comfortable bed. Though it was very late - after eleven p. m. - a good Tyrolese housewife made a Wiener Schnitzel for me which was even better than the one I had eaten at Benecko. I slept wonderfully well and in the morning could admire the splendid sight of the Dolomiten without the slightest thought of war. From there I went to Merano and followed the Traubenkur a whole month while the Munich comedy was being played by Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, and Mussolini, who in the end got the most credit in the Corriere della Sera for having saved the peace. Merano was filled with all types of strange refugees, male and female, of the Milena characteristics which might have interested a Kraft-Ebbing. It is to be deplored that many university professors in Europe and America are muckracking in this sort of "literature." In view of the factual observations of an eyewitness possessing a perfect knowledge of Czech, German, Slovak, Polish, Russian, French, English and Italian - namely the languages involved in the great sellout - the idle musings and speculations both of Benes and the reviewer (Odlozilik) of Mnichovske dny, fade into the realm of Hollywood make-believe of Cecil de Mille's Ten Commandments. The general mobilization did not electrify the people at all, but was a huge comedy smacking to some extent of the good soldier Svejk. The reservists drank beer, ate frankfurters, joked, and knew that the whole thing was a picnic. Those of the Sudeten Germans among them, who knew Czech well, acted as Henlein's spies. The chain of fortifi~ations on which Benes spent over a billion crowns was just as useless as the French Maginot line proved to be later. Nothing could have stopped the Nazi tanks and the Czech regions could have been reduced to ashes by the Luftwaffe which had reportedly 15,000 planes, or ten times more than the reputed Czech air force. The 800,000 reservists were merely a mob compared to the disciplined nazi war machine. All this can be clearly seen from the illustrations showing Adolf "the savior" at the head of his Panzers on the Theaterplatz in Karlovy Vary, speaking to the enthusiastic crowds on October 15th. There is only one "author" whose methods resemble �SLOVAKIA 57 those of Benes, namely Harry Truman, when it comes to complete distortion of facts. However, the Czech people of today, just like the American people of today, will not be easily persuaded to believe fairy tales. • • • MARTIN RAZUS (1883-1937) JOSEPH A. MIKUS The era, which opened for the Slovak nation in 1918, marks a rapid advance in the direction of the realization of its political aspirations. This is indubitably connected with the fall of feudalism and with the over-all extension of the significance of national individualities as political realities in Central Europe. To these external factors there are added also internal forces. And here, from among the many personalities which contributed handsomely to the spiritual and political crystallization of conditions in Slovakia, it behooves us today to recall one name: Martin Razus. While Andrew Hlinka, a Catholic priest, was becoming the leading figure of the political movement for Slovak autonomy for rather social reasons, in the meantime his contemporary and friend, Martin Razus, a Lutheran minister, poet and writer, was emerging as a defender of the political individuality of the Slovak nation for cultural and psychological reasons. In another respect, while Andrew Hlinka, as a man of action, engages in the fight against the leftist, religious, moral and political relativism of Masaryk's school and is drawn into the violent whirlpool of national activity, thus becoming top guard of national awareness, in the meantime, Martin Razus, with fire in his soul and the laurel of a man of letters on his head, devotes himself, according to his nature, rather to the spiritual processes of the national development of the Slovaks. With his ear close to the bosom of the nation, he catches the spiritual vibrations of the people in order to present them in his work a bit later to the public whom he chose to serve. It was thus that Razus became the "conscience of the nation." Even though the motives of Hlinka and Razus for po- � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 35 A. R. NYKL: "EDVARD BENES ON MUNICH DAYS" The article "Edvard Benes on Munich Days" in the "Journal of Central European Affairs," (January, 1957 pp. 384-393), reveals that the author, Otokar Odlozilik, was not an eyewitness of the days between September 4 and 25, 1938, in Bohemia, and especially in the capital. "Rigid precepts of historical scholarship" cannot be applied to documents, even if the latter were bona fide and not doctored up post factum by captious commentaries. Both Edvard Benes and his mentor T. G. Masaryk were great hindsight wizards. It would be idle to cite proofs of this phenomenon here, because hundreds of quotations have appeared and are still appearing in the publications of the Slovak League of America. The diplomats mentioned in the article very wisely kept, and those who are living still keep, quiet which is, they perhaps believe, better than lying. In my opinion Frantisek Chvalkovsky, who with Ha.cha went through the terrible ordeal in Berlin before they finally signed their consent to Hitler's ultimatum of March 14, 1939, at 3 a. m., was the most reliable and honest person whose story might have cleared up many doubts, surmises, and suspicions. Krofta could unfortunately not go beyond the spring of 1938, when in May the first rumors of war began to spread. Henlein and his right hand man Frank were feverishly preparing the ground for autonomy and secession, by speeches and press campaigns, in which they constantly harped on Benes's doctoral thesis, published in 1907 at Dijon, wherein he advocated a complete separation of the German-speaking and the Czech-speaking regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. During the summer months Lord Runciman was sent to the Sudetenland by Chamberlain with the special mission to find the right solution by "fact finding." For the most part he was the guest of German nobility and paid no attention to the claims of the Czech "hranicari," inhabitants of the frontier regions. The Sudeten Germans knew perfectly well that he was 36 SLOVAKIA merely playing a comedy and facetiously spoke of him as Lord "Runzelmann." Because of my absolute command of the German tongue, and as an American visitor, I could engage in countless conversations with the natives of Karlovy Vary, where I was writing a book on Japan and curing my nervous stomach by drinking MUhlbrunn - "Mlynsky prame" - hot alkaline water. Among the Egerlander there reigned an atmosphere of calm optimism: to them the annexation of the Sudeten by the Third Reich was a foregone , conclusion. Some of them even hinted already at a further step - the Protectorate - anticipating March 14, 1939. Nervousness reigned only in the small Czech minority, which was being increasingly frightened by occasional "blackout" exercises and talk about air raid shelters. To me it was quite plain that the Germans were being supplied with oral propaganda, which they called Fllisterpropaganda, and were absolutely convinced that Runciman's antics were a subterfuge to hide a fait accompli: a perfect agreement of the English and French - the latter somewhat sheepishly and reluctantly - that the "phantom" republic should be trimmed to suit the Nazis and the Magyars, in connivance with Mr. Beck, the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs whose contempt for Benes knew no bounds. This I knew from my trip through Poland in August, 1936, where Czechs were talked about as "lajdaci" (loafers). Goring was Beck's honored guest, Benes the "cackling pygmy." At Cracow, Moscicki was helping to raise the Pilsudski mound: was he likely to listen to Benes 's plea in 1938? In July 1935, I wrote an article for the "Narodni Listy," recommending a solid steel wall from the Carpathians to Gdynia with a friendly Polish nation, whom Benes and Masaryk, however, regarded as Fascists. Later I was told that the article was suppressed at Benes's orders, who bypassed the Poles and went to see Stalin about that time. It is evident that the ambassadors named in the Odlozilik article (Osusky, Masaryk, Mastny, Chvalkovsky, Hurban, Slavik) must have known the real state of affairs and SLOVAKIA 37 therefore kept silent. With the help of German and Italian aviation the Nationalists in Spain were pushing the socalled "Loyalists" toward the Pyrenees, ·and Daladier was worried about the impending invasion of the defeated 300,000 "Reds" into southern France, while Charles Maurras in "EAction Francaise" was ridiculing the idea of a war "pour les Tcheques." In the Kurhaus or Lazensky Dum, I could read the "Daily Mail" and "Corriere della Sera." I recall distinctly a map in the former showing the distribution of the three and one-half million Sudeten-Germans along the frontier as reported by Lord Runciman - and an article by Mussolini stating that the artificial and unnatural "sausage" state in Central Europe should be dismembered in the same way as the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy had been. Where is Odlozilik's "authentic description" of events by Benes? If Benes had a "unique knowledge of the situation," he would have had to admit that he knew full well in August that England and France were determined to back Hitler's claims. Krofta wisely kept silent in order not to implicate himself. The important documents sent abroad in the early days of October, 1938, most likely were destroyed, in order not to compromise the guilty parties. It would seem that the German and Italian military aviation was so formidable that the French and still less the British, aviation was no match for it at the time. Mr. Beck's clique in Poland was maliciously rejoicing at Benes's defeat. And Stalin, of course, was not going to help a dying man. My own estimate of the situation, on the basis of my observations and reading of the foreign press - English, French, Italian, Scandinavian, Polish, Rumanian, Yugoslav - was that there would be no war, because the sellout by England and F r ance was an obvious fait accompli. Hence I finished my manuscript and went by bus to Prague, in order to arrange with the publisher the printing of my book. For all eventualities I bought a second-class ticket to Praha-Merano, because my friends recommended to me the "Traubenkur" in Merano as the best thing for a nervous stomach. It consisted in eating plenty of ripe blue grapes and walking in the hills. Another friend - a phy- 38 SLOVAKIA sician - took a good look into my stomach, and finding nothing really serious, recommended that I should go to the Riesengebirge (Krkonose) to a place called Benecko and drink plenty of radioactive water. While the Sudeten-Germans were calm and smiling, awaiting their revanche, the Czech population was naturally feeling uneasy in the expectation of the great Hitler harangue at Nuremberg, listed for September 12. There was a tense atmosphere in Prague. The Communists were dreaming of a great Russian airborne army which would destroy Berlin and of making every town and hamlet in Bohemia a fortress like the "Loyalists" were doing in Spain who, by the way, were being painted as heroes in the Benes-controlled press. Only the "Narodni Listy," the organ of the Czech National Democrats, was favorable to Mussolini and to Franco. The journey on Sunday, September 4, through the fertile fields promising a good harvest, via Chlumec natl Cidlinou, where the peasants once were beaten by the noblemen ("vyhrajes jako sedlak v Chlumce"), north to the Krkonose, was calm and uneventful. After Trutnov-Trautenau, we began to enter the mixed Sudeten region. From what I could see and hear, the German agrarians had no sympathy with the Nazis at all, although in the last moment they joined the Henlein group so as to save themselves from reprisals and persecutions. This very step indicated that Henlein was certain of winning without war. Benecko proved to be a combined summer and winter resort. The summer guests were all gone, and I was the only guest at the hotel. In winter, the place changed into a ski resort. The owner was a sincere man, a great admirer of Kramar, and a great, scathing critic of Benes. The Germans had a nice new school building in the village, "Deutsche Volkschule." Hitler's ravings about the suffer- . ings of the Germans were the invention of his maniacal imagination. The hotel and its immediate neighborhood formed a Czech enclave in a region which further north was inhabited by Sudeten-Germans. From the far distance one could hear the noise of their Henlein meetings. But otherwise, SLOVAKIA 39 perfect peace reigned in the pine forests and on the green meadows, where I spent most of my time walking between meals and drinking radioactive water. Within a few days my nervous stomach was restored to its normal functions. Sunday, the 11th of September, being a pleasantly warm, sunny day, I decided in the afternoon to walk to the summit of the wooded hill which I well remembered from my school days, reading about the sad departure of Czech Protestants in the years which followed the battle of the White Mountain, in 1620-1628. These emigres had to leave everything behind and seek refuge in the Protestant regions of Germany northeast of the Krkonose. Jan Amos Komensky, later bishop of the Moravian Brethren, was among them. On this hill, named Zaly, according to the legend, they were taking the last look of their native country, and were kissing the snow-covered ground goodbye in tears. Nevzali jsme se sebou nic, nic, po vsem veta jen Bibli Kralickou, Labyrint sveta. "We took nothing along, nothing, all is lost; only the Kraliky Bible, and the Labyrinth of the World." Reference is maqe to the Protestant version of the Bible made at Kraliky (German Grulich) on the Bohemian-Silesian frontier, and the well-known work of Comenius. These memories came to my mind as I slowly walked to the summit where I found a tourist restaurant and a lookout tower. The atmosphere was gloomy, very much in keeping with the name 2aly: the presentiment of grave events reminded me of what it must have been like in 1628 - three centuries ago. The sufferings of the Czech nation were of no concern to France, and still less to England. The large wooden structure of the hotel was silent, when I returned. For supper I had the last but one real Wiener Schnitzel in my memory - or shall I call it costoletta alla milanese? Or vidensky rizek? The owner of the hotel who knew very little German asked me whether I would listen to the radio the next day and tell him what Adolf was going to broadcast from Ntirnberg. Since I was not to be directly affected, I could sleep soundly and in the forenoon take another long walk in the pine woods. 40 SLOVAKIA The great speech was booked for about 2 p. m. sun time, since Germany had not adopted the foolish fad of daylight saving time. If I had my notes at hand, I could recall the situation with more precision, but since I was more intersted in "kava a buchty" (coffee and doughnuts) , my recollection is rather hazy at present. First of all, the reception was very weak and spoiled by frequent static due to thick thunder clouds hanging over the mountain range. Second, Hitler's speeches on the Sudeten question, the same as on the Klajpeda and Gdansk question, were a repetition of dramatically worded accusations of the same content : the Volksgenossen were being persecuted and mistreated, hence they were fleeing in constantly increasing numbers across the border: five thousand, ten thousand, fifty thousand; Long afterwards I saw in the contemporary lliustrierte Zeitung file pictures of these "refugees" being lovingly provided with food and clothing by their brethren in the Third Reich. There could be no doubt as to Adolf's purpose, namely, to convince France and England of the absolute justice of the Nazi position. "We do not ask except what is ours on the basis of selfdetermination - not one inch of a foreign territory. The Czechs will have theirs and we will have ours: after that we will have no further demands. " The next day at night we could hear the rumbling of a thunderstorm in the direction of Harrach's Glass Works at the frontier, but my host and his family were so frightened that they took it for the rumbling of heavy artillery. On Thursday, September 15, I decided that there was no use prolonging my stay and inviting another spell of stomach nervousness: after lunch I took the bus to the railway station and from there the train to Prague. Though there was no panic anywhere, the train was already filled with refugees: the wealthier and white-collared class. In Prague I returned to my hotel on Namesti Petra Osvoboditele (the Square of Peter, the Liberator) - formerly Komensky Square - in the Vinohrady district, where I paid 20 crowns for a single room, the equivalent of 70 cents. Excellent regular meals cost 10 crowns - 35 cents - and read all the Czech, German, French, and English SLOYAKIA 41 newspapers while sipping excellent coffee. In one of the rooms they had a permanent guest - a frequently tipsy female of unpleasant appearance. She was one of the ten Communist deputies in the Parliament. Unfortunately for me, moratorium had been proclaimed with regard to withdrawals from bank accounts and I could only draw 5000 crowns at the Zivnobanka. One rapid transaction became imperative and unavoidable: I had to go to Karlovy Vary and have several trunks of my books shipped from there to Prague. The dream of staying in the pleasant spa and writing books vanished: where were the solemn promises of "enduring peace" after fighting "the war to end all wars" in 1919? On Friday afternoon I took the "rychlovlak" (express) and arrived at the Karlovy Vary station, which is located at some distance from the center of the town, in the evening. Detachments of Czech troops were already stationed round. No bus was operating. After showing my passport I was allowed to go to the town on foot and there I found another detachment of youthful-looking soldiers round some sort of war machinery, near Park Street. For reasons, which would take long to explain, I decided to go to one of the Kurgas1; rooming houses on Park Street. In situations of this kind one must act with lightning speed and complete calm. I was able to arrange with a shipper to forward my trunks to Prague next Monday, "express," at the fabulous cost of 2000 crowns. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I spent eating the best food and spending as many crowns as I could, buying the best shirts, socks, a light overcoat, and other articles of clothing at Nastopil's on Alte Wiese. Why not, when I could buy the best shirts at 16 crowns (50 cents) which in America would cost five dollars? I still have two of those. When one sees an inevitable debacle in the offing one can easily adopt the philosophy of "you can't take it with you." While consuming an excellent chicken dinner for 25 crowns (70 cents) in the restaurant of the house "Schwedischer Hof," I was discussing the situation with the waiter, who happened to be a Pole, in Polish. He admired my remarkable calm and sound judgement, and made me the compliment "Pan jest okropny czlowiek." All the Germans I spoke with, showed smiling optimism. 42 SLOVAKIA On Monday evening, September 19th, I was in the "rychlovlak" Eger-Prague, in the company of two lieutenants of the Czechoslovak army, both Czechs less than 25 years of age, hence products of the MasarykBenes regime. There also was a captain of the frontier constabulary (strazmistr - cetnik), a former legionnaire, less than fifty years of age. The "porucici" (second lieutenants) were not exactly in a merry mood, but seemed to face the facts without whimpering and with a sort of grim humor. I knew nothing of what was going on in diplomatic circles, but I can repeat that all the Germans in Karlovy Vary, with whom I spoke about the future , were gloriously optimistic. They already knew that the Nazis would give them 1 mark for ten crowns instead of eight, yet seemed to be quite willing to take the loss. I recall one instance particularly, when I said: "Ich sehe Wolken am Horizont," and my interlocutor said: "Im Gegenthal, ich sehe alles rosig." This opinion was general. Now an expellee in Germany, my young friend may remember our conversation. If the scheme mentioned by Odlozilik on p. 387 ( "to avoid war") was worked out on September 18, "after the conference in London of French and British statesmen," it must have already been known throughout the Sudeten on September 19. And this was also the reason why I met the elderly cetnik on this train; he was leaving his post in Jachymov and was on his way to Slovakia, like the rest of Czech "cetnici" (gendarmes), because it was already known that the territory in which they were employed would be ceded to the Third Reich. This cetnik was very sad and spoke of his ruined existence, with a son in school, and with no future ahead of him. The two "porucici" stated to me emphatically what I later heard so much in Prague: "Uz je to ujednano a uz jsme prodani" (it's all settled and we are already sold out). And their comments on this "noble" action of France and England were rather scathing. Two days later in Prague the Czech legionnaires were in front of the French Legation discarding the medals which they had received from France in 1919. If Mr. Benes devotes a fairly long passage in his "Mnichovske dny" to SLOVAKIA -13 an audience when "on Wednesday, September 21, in the small hours of that morning the British and French envoys requested it," to me it is quite clear that he is telling a story to cover up what already was a fait accompli. The people in the Sudeten knew that the matter had been settled, and the Czechs living there knew it also. To speak of collecting statements made by Benes and his critics and to "evaluate them in accordance with rigid precepts of historical scholarship" is as idle a talk as that about the authenticity of the Kensington stone and many other legends which need not be mentioned here. Furthermore I, as a personal witness, can say that the news of the sellout was already known in Prague that very evening, September 19, which in my memory is a terrible accusation of the treacherous action of British and French diplomats, not their respective nations. That evening, at about 10 o'clock, Prague was a city of stunned ghosts groping in the darkness under the impact of a deadly blow. I have seen through many situations when a family was suddenly stunned by a tragic blow, but here a whole ancient city with a glorious history, and a trusting people, had been stabbed in the back by those who professed to be their allies. The streets were almost deserted - deadly anguish was visible on all faces. Being a Czech, I fully felt their despair. They already visualized the return of the German conqueror to Praga caput regni, left at the mercy of a horde of fanaticists. The anguish was gripping the souls of the Czechs, together with a hatred of Masaryk and Benes, whose lies had brought the nation into this horrible plight. Only one who has once found himself at the brink of death could approximately realize that tragic, silent grief coupled with dread of an impending, yet inevitable peril. La nu.it porte conseil is a proverb fraught with a deep significance. The morning will· bring a solution. September 20 found the streets filled with milling crowds, hardly listening to the blaring loudspeakers. When passing by the barracks where young soldiers looked nonchalantly from the windows, a group of patriots would yell occasionally: .J4 SLOVAKIA "Af z1Je armada!" (Long live the army). But there was no real enthusiasm - it seemed as if the soldiers knew that there was not to be any fighting. The anguish and terror of the previous night gave way to the real Czech calm fatalism, bred into the nation by centuries of hard knocks. Hemmed in, right in the heart of Europe, by hostile neighbors, the Czechs were always governed by one uppermost thought, namely, holding their own against terrible odds and in the end surviving their enemies. No one knew anything about what was going on in diplomatic circles, but all the intelligent people with whom I discussed the situation, unanimously and with a quiet, also typically Czech resignation, were saying: "Uz je to ujednano. Uz jsme prodani." In the evening I walked on the Vaclavske namesti (Wenceslaus Square) which was literally packed with people going to and fro without any passionate outbursts. Round the pedestal of Myslbek's famous St. Wenceslaus group, a solid mass of young Communists from Nusle was sitting with a defiant expression on their faces. "Co zde delate"? (What are you doing here?) I asked a group of young men and women. "My chceme bojovat a hajit svateho Vaclava." (We want to fight and to defend St. Wenceslaus). The streets were guarded by a special force of policemen with black helmets calm, young, determined men. I asked one of them: "Prosim vas, co ti mladi blazni zde delaji ?" (Pardon me, what are those young fools doing here?) His answer was typical of a Czech who has seen too many upheavals in his time to be surprised at anything. Just one word: "Para!" If a dictionary linguist would search in a number of volumes, in order to get the full meaning of this simple word, he might find such equivalents as "vapor, steam, fog, mist," but these would not give him the inner vibration. The nearest equivalent in American English would be : "Just generating so much worthless hot air!". The same milling of crowds and blaring of loudspeakers to which no one listened went on the two following days, namely, on Wednesday and Thursday, September 21 and 22. Whatever Mr. Benes says about his conferences and SLOVAKIA 45 plans must be set aside as a legend and post factum invention to cover up the incontrovertible fact that the final decision had already been made in London on September 18; all these so-called conferences were a mere comedy to deceive the nation, which however, was not deceived at all. I listened to Mr. Benes's broadcast at 7 p. m., on Thursday, September 22. This was the second and last time I ever heard the sound of his voice and his halting way of reading from a typewritten text with his dark-rimmed glasses on his clumsy nose. The first time was on Sunday, September 19, 1937, at Masaryk's funeral. He was either unable or afraid to say anything powerful and sonorous ex-tempore. "Mluvil jako kdyz by to tahal z chlupate rukavice." (He talked as if he were pulling it out of a shaggy glove). Utterly insipid was the boast about having made a plan: "Mam plan pro vsechny pripady." (I have a plan for all eventualities). Then he also said, or rather read something in Slovak in such a poor way that Slovaks must have laughed at his pronunciation. Though the two languages are quite similar, it is extremely difficult for a Czech to speak Slovak with a Slovak intonation, just like a Spaniard is utterly unable to speak Portuguese with a Portuguese intonation. People laughed and repeated in the Prague dialect: "A Benes ma plan a usme prodany," i.e., uz jsme prodani: "Benes has a plan and we are already sold out." This reminded me of Paris and Pichegru. During the night the "civil defense" observers were frequently yelling: "Zhasnout svetla !" (lights out), in order to have a complete blackout. It was utterly amusing - almost as amusing as were the blackouts in Cambridge, Mass., in 1943 - because no sane person could have expected an air attack, which would have killed not only the Czechs, but the VolksgenossE)n as well. Nevertheless, on Friday the 23rd, people were being scared into buying gas masks, and I saw a long line on Betlemske namesti (Bethlehem Square) near the chapel where Hus used to preach in 1400 A.D., waiting to get a gas mask for 150 crowns! However, their number was insignificant in comparison with the whole population. 46 SLOVAKIA The librarian of the Naprstek Museum was to take care of my books, because I planned to leave by the express to Vienna on Saturday afternoon. I visited a few friends at the Orientalni Ustav. In the evening, when walking on Jecna ulice near Karlovo namesti (Charles Square), I met my great friend, the late professor Bedrich Hrozny, who was very calm; he knew as I did that there would be no war and no bombing, because to challenge the German Air Force would have meant useless suicide. He never mentioned anything about Benes's "plan." My publisher, the printer, my physician, repeated colloquially the same refrain "uz jsme prodany." The legionnaires, as I said before, were discarding their French medals in front of the legation. But there was no panic, no passionate outbursts. We are told that general mobilization was promulgated at 10 p. m. that evening. In view of the situation it was an amusing comedy of which I saw a part on Saturday and Sunday. What Benes says is a novelesque invention, calculated to mislead posterity into the belief of his great powers as a thinker: this method he copied from his master and from the French historians who dramatized the German retreat on September 6, 1914, into a great victory on the Marne. The night for me was indeed hectic: All of a sudden bed bugs appeared from nowhere, and the night clerk had to give me another mattress; the night was completely dark, except for an isolated little light that appeared in an attic, and some "civil defense" fool was constantly and uselessly yelling somewhere on the roof "Zhasnete svetlo" (Put out the light) ! When Mr. Benes writes, and the author of the article (Odlozilik) muses on a supposed tenseness in Prague that night, they are telling a story. The tenseness existed only on Monday evening, September 19th: after that the people were fully aware of the great comedy "uz jsme prodani." Friday noon I had my last "pecena husa s knedliky a zelim" (roast goose with dumplings and kraut) in the P. R. D. - Prazsky representacni dfun) - with the usual first class waiter service in coat tails, with Pilsen beer for 35 crowns, about one dollar. At S LOVAKIA 47 that time we had no inkling of the "vseobecna mobilisace" (general mobilization) being thought of or planned by the great Edvard. As I perfectly recall it, the people as a whole were resigned to see the occupation of the Sudeten as a fait accompli since September 18th. On Saturday morning, when I came down to the cafe, I saw myself in a queer predicament. General mobilization was in progress and, as a consequence, there were no taxis, and even the street cars did not seem to function. Suddenly I saw a familiar face coming into the parlor: Vojta Benes - whom I knew so well since the time he made fiery speeches against Austria, in 1916-1918, in America - then lived like a satrap in a beautiful villa in Jevany as a great Socialist Minister of Education, who fought the Roman Catholic Church, while his brother was a matriculated "paper" Catholic. He was surrounded by a number of friends and they were talking about going abroad. I had to take my two hand bags and walk all the way to the Masaryk - former Franz Josef - station using the trusty power of my arm muscles. The streets were swarming with silent reservists on their way to the railroad stations, each carrying a small hand bag. There was no military preparedness among them: they looked more like excursionists. The whole station was likewise swarming with men between thirty and fifty years of age. Toward noon it became somewhat warm, and these masses of men were quenching their thirst with steins of beer, laughing and joking. The "rychlovlak" Berlin-Vienna was to arrive at about 2 p. m., and was to be the last train leaving the country in that direction. My only concern were my books. At about 1:30 p. m., I telephoned to the shipping agency and was told that my books had arrived in good order and were to be delivered the next week at their destination. The express did not arrive on time and there was an hourly announcement of its being late. If the Czecho-Slovak generals were wondering why the Luftwaffe did not bomb Ceska Trebova - Bohumin, on September 23rd, they must have been completely misled by Benes's comedy. The Luftwaffe knew full well that the occupation of the Sudeten was a fait accompli. The 48 SLOVAKIA whole inside of the station, with thousands of reservists drinking beer, eating frankfurters, and joking, bespoke a total confidence that there would be no war, no air raid, no shooting. The express finally arrived at about six p. m. I had a second class ticket, but found at once that this meant nothing, because all the compartments were being taken by reservists; all seats were occupied and the gangways were likewise filled. In a second class compartment I found two foreigners, a South African of Jewish origin and a young German dancing girl from Budapest. The express soon started on its way in the twilight through the central part of Bohemia, via Kolin and Pardubice to Ceska Trebova. In the fields and meadows the peasants were still working and were waving "Na zdaaar!" (Success!) to the occupants of the train - the defenders of the fatherland on their way to the frontier. As I think of it now, I cannot refrain from shedding tears at recalling how these simple folks were being deceived and sold down the river by England and France as if they were an African Zulu tribe or Gurkhas of India, or Bambaras. These were my people: here I was born, here I grew up, and I knew the simple soul and the good heart of these country people who foolishly trusted Masaryk and Benes. Now I recall that on Friday voices were heard: "Povesit Benese na brane hradu" (Hang Benes on the castle gate). And if, on Monday, General Syrovy urged Benes to leave Prague, it was not because of any fear of the Luftwaffe, but because of the wrath of the people. One of the tricks of the general mobilization was to send the German reservists to Slovakia and the Slovaks to the Sudeten regions. Standing in the gangway, while the express was speeding forward to Ceska Trebova without intermediate stops, I listened to the story of a young German reservist. He seemed to be quite loyal to the Republic and no Nazi enthusiast, but he explained to me the situation which faced all non-Czechs, namely, that of obtaining positions to make a living. The Germans could never hope to become as perfect in Czech as the Czechs and, therefore, where a SLOVAKIA 49 perfect knowledge of Czech was required, they never could obtain the most advantageous job. Many of the young Sudeten Germans were trying to obtain work in the Third Reich. This was really the primary determining factor of the defection of the Germans, Magyars and Slovaks. Remedy? Either birth control or emigration. The young dancer was quite optimistic: "That whole thing will be settled in two weeks. I am now going to Budapest, and then I will come back to Prague." I had to stand all the way to Brno. There most of the crowd dispersed. From Brno we were to continue to Breclava-Lundenburg, and then on to Vienna. At Breclava we were told that the frontier was closed. We could go to Bratislava if we so wished. The South African found in me a willing cicerone. We had to pay additional fare of some 20 crowns. We arrived in Bratislava about midnight. The station was literally swarming with reservists, each with his little bag, moving to and fro like a mob without any organization. When an elderly man with a small baggage cart came along, in the scanty light, I engaged him to take my two bags and the South African's baggage to the nearest hotel opposite the station. When we arrived there the night clerk told us that all rooms were occupied by Czecho-Slovak army officers. He presumed that all the hotels in the city had been similarly taken over as a mobilization measure, but he volunteered to telephone to Hotel Carlton and find out what the situation was. We were lucky: there were still two single rooms available at 20 crowns (75 cents) with "raiiajky" (breakfast). Carlton Hotel was to send a taxi to bring us downtown which was quite a distance from the station. It was about one a. m., and the city, scantily lighted, was remarkably quiet: one would not have suspected at all that the station was swarming with reservists speeding to their destination, to the frontier. The hotel proved to be quite modern and well appointed. In the morning, when at about 9 a. m. - it was Sunday, September 25th - I came down to have my breakfast, I saw the South African leaving in a great hurry in a taxi. He said he had a visa for Hungary and had tOI 50 SLOVAKIA make haste to reach the frontier before it might be closed. The hotel personnel could not give me any information as to what the situation was on the Austrian frontier. Since March, Austria was a part of the Third Reich. Consequently, I had to set out in an adventurous quest of information by taking the electric tramway to Petrzalka and then walk along the highway to where the frontier could be distinguished by curious quonsset-like structures. Detachments of soldiers were distributed along the road. They were all Magyars and not perturbed in the least: certainly not like troops expecting a sudden attack from anywhere. It was about eleven a. m. and fairly warm, the sun was brightly shining. When I came to a quonsset and asked where I could cross the frontier, I was waved back and asked to try the other quonsset about half a mile further to the right. There I was told that the queer structures were "military objects" or a part of a chain of fortifications. The Czecho-Slovak Magyar soldiers seemed to be quite amused at my confusion seeing me going up and down across fields, but, even though it was quite obvious that I was a foreigner, no one stopped me to ask for identification papers. Finally I emerged from the fields on another main highway which seemed to lose itself among tall poplar trees in the distance. It was about one p. m. The whole countryside was completely deserted. Suddenly I espied a hatless young man walking toward me from the Austrian frontier; he proved to be a German from Vienna who had to escape from the police - he said - because he was a Socialist and not friendly to the Nazis. He hoped to be able to reach Reichenberg (Liberec) in Bohemia where he had friends. This certainly was a lucky encounter. First of all, he told me that the frontier was open, though barricaded on the Slovak side, and that the tramway to Vienna was functioning. Furthermore, he had about 8 marks and needed Czecho-Slovak crowns. I had only 5 marks and about 200 crowns left. I offered to ·buy his marks at 8 crowns. We walked to a restaurant on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Stefanik monument, and had a good lunch of roast pork, dumplings, and sauerkraut at 10 crowns each, SLOVAKIA 51 and some beer. After I paid the bill, we crossed the river on a ferry to the monument. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and everything was perfectly calm. I returned to the hotel and told the young man to meet me at 3 p. m., when I expected to be ready to leave by taxi for the frontier: the chauffeur asked double fare, because it was Sunday, namely, 66 crowns. The fugitive came to the hotel punctually at 3 p. m. I gave him 60 crowns for his eight marks and he gave me an envelope with a key which he said was from his room in Vienna: all I had to do was to drop it in a post office box after reaching Vienna. We parted. I paid my bill at the hotel, and the taxi took less than half an hour to reach the Austrian frontier. The Czech custom officers at the barricade let me go through after looking at my passport; then I had to carry my two bags to the German Customs quite a ways off. The commanding officer was a Prussian from Berlin; he was supposed to wean the Austrians from their Gemlitlickeit and make them fast and efficient. Occasionally, an airplane lazily crossed the horizon. Not a sign of any soldiers or prepartions for warlike movements. The Berliner looked at my passport, did not even ask me to open my bags. All he wanted to know was what was going on in Bratislava. "General mobilization," I said. He wanted to know whether I had noticed the numbers of the regiments. "I noticed nothing; all I wanted to do was to cross the frontier and go to Vienna by the electric tramway." "Danke, mein Herr," he said very politely, "die elektrische Bahn geht um ungefiihr flinf Uhr ab." I took my bags to a sort of an open waiting room where I found other passengers waiting: Austrians who had the appearance of excursionists, curious about what was going on. During the two-hour wait, which was rather tedious, I noticed another plane lazily patroling the sky. In comparison with the swarming crowds of reservists I had seen on the night previous, this Austrian countryside looked like a calm picnic park. We left toward six p. m. and in all the stations Sunday excursionists were boarding the train. My interrupted ticket to Merano was valid. At about 8 p. m. we were in Vienna. One solitary airplane was circling 52 SLOVAKIA about the city. I took the streetcar to the Slidbahnhof and went to a hotel which I knew from my previous trips. The rooms which formerly cost 6 shillings now cost 6 marks: the clerk told me on the sly that the liberation and incorporation in the Great Fatherland had been a rather costly affair for the gemlitliche Austrians. In the morning, before boarding the train for San Candido (formerly Innichen) in the Dolomites - formerly a part of the Austrian Tyrol - I dropped the envelope containing the key in the post office box. Then the train transported me from a congested military atmosphere into the old time freedom which my soul always craved ever since I left Austria-Hungary in 1903. In many ways it was a memorable day for me this Monday, September 26th. In the soft beams of the morning sun I could see old Vienna for the last time in its stiU gemtitlich aspect - this Vindobona, where Marcus Aurelius jotted down his thoughts in Greek, the Imperial city, saved in 1683 from the Turkish hordes of Kara Mustafa by Czech defenders and Jan Sobieski's Polish army, and the merry center of West-Eastern melodies of Mozart and the Lustige Witwe in 1909, with the rumblings of the first world war in the distance. The city of many races and languages and strange love habits which a Moravian Jewish medic mistook for something universal. Before leaving the hotel at Bratislava on the foregoing Sunday afternoon, I could read my last feuilleton in the Narodni Listy, in which I pleaded for keeping Karlovy Vary free from all political strife and agitation. As the train was speeding through the Austrian and later Styrian country side, I mused over my recollections. The parade in Prague on the first of May, 1934, when at the very end of a long defile of Workers Socialist organizations I was looking, on the corner of Jecna ulice and Karlovo namesti, at the small motley group of Communists guarded by two policemen. They stopped right in front of my vantage point, because the defile had to stop marching somewhere on Vodickova ulice. There must have been a silent mockery in my look which provoked one of the Commies to step forward and come near me with a some- SLOVAKIA 53 what menacing look. But he had to moderate himself in the policeman's presence. " Co se tak posmesne usmivate ?" (What are you smiling so scoffingly) he asked with a Podskalak accent mixed with Jewish intonation. "Coz kdybych vam tak jednu lajsknul ?" (Suppose I smack you one?) he went on and added: "No jste starej clovek .. .. " (But you are an old man). This was rather ludricous fanfarronade, but indicated how daring a Commie could be at the time, knowing that old Masaryk needed the ten Communist votes in the Parliament for his reelection which was to take place on May 24th. I asked the little Jew what he was so angry about - and he said: "If you had six kids at home and not much to eat ... " and I said - "Why have six kids?" The policeman motioned to him to join his group - about fifty in all - and the defile resumed its march. Who could have dreamt then that this little group of riffraff would one day rule Bohemia? And I recalled October, 1934, when I saw between six and ten thousand German Socialists march along the main street of Karlovy Vary, Vfidelni ulice, with their red flags, boldly sticking out their clenched fists and shouting "Freiheit!" The Czech state police protected their march, a very provocative gesture in a 100 percent rightist, bourgeois city. I asked the policeman: "Proc je zde nechali pochodovat ?" (Why did they let them march here?) - "Protoze jsou statotvorna strana" (because they are a regular political party in the State). This was perhaps intended to discourage the Germans in Karlovy Vary from becoming partisans of Konrad Henlein, Hitler's agent. But the Sudeten Germans had only three choices: Caor as they called it tholic, Socialist or Nationalist "schwarz, Sozi oder Nazi," and this was the reason why a large number voted Nazi without being exactly admirers of Adolf Hitler. To me this Socialist defile was a surprise I had seen the same type of people march in Madrid on May first the year before with clenched fists and shouting: "U Ache Pe" - which stood for "Unios Hermanos Proletarios" or "Proletarians of all lands unite!" And three weeks later after the Socialist march in Karlovy Vary, I happened to be in Munich on the Parteitag, November 8th, 54 SLOVAKIA when that great Catholic city was flooded with huge red flags with the Swastika or Hakenkreuz. On the 9th I was told that university professors had to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler: "Wie werden auf Hitler vereidigt!" After the vote on January 13, 1935, when I was in Rome, France let Hitler occupy the Saar; in March, France and England allowed Hitler to rearm and no energetic steps were taken against the projected invasion of Ethiopia which started on October 3rd. On February 16, 1936, I saw the elections in Spain in Granada. I saw how the socalled Republican government did not stop violent acts against the Rightists, and I left for France at the end of May when I saw that a conflict was imminent. It actually started on July 18th when Berlin was beflagged on the occasion of Olympic games. Paris blamed London quite rightly, but had no courage to act independently And I especially thought of that evening at WUrzburg on May 25, 1935, when I had to sit out the whole radio address by Adolf Hitler about the immense danger which an unarmed Germany was exposed to in view of the Bolshevik menace. Hitler was enumerating the warships which Germany had to sink in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles and emphasized her present helplessness to face the great menace from the East. In view of the mighty Republic of Poland and the Little Entente no such danger existed. One phrase I remember well with all the inner vibration of Hitler's voice: "Wir Nazionalsozialisten sind fanatische Gegner des Bolschewismus: zwischen uns und den Bolschewiken kann nie eine Freundschaft bestehen." (We National Socialists are fanatical opponents of Bolshevism: there can never be friendship between us and the Bolsheviks). The hotel guests had to stand up and sing Horst Wessel Lied - I alone remained seated, no one said a word of protest. They knew I was a foreigner and had nothing to do with their national problems. The next day I was discussing the situation with young Germans. _Not only did they not oppose the rearming of Germany, but strangely enough they had the same argument which I have heard the militarists advance everywhere in the world: "Der Militardienst macht einen Kerl SLOVAKIA 55 aus Einem." (Military service makes a man out of a boy). In Berlin I saw everywhere defiant posters with the legend: "Die feinen Flugmaschinen, die unserm Flihrer dienen." (Fine airplanes that serve our Flihrer) . And trainloads of huge logs were coming to Germany from Carpatho-Russian forests furnishing wood for the airplanes. Could not the English and French diplomats and military attaches see all this? There still was time for a concerted action to stop the Hitler-Goring madness. In Erlangen - Bavaria - the people were expecting the CzechoSlovak army to march in at any rrioment in accordance with the Versailles Treaty. But nothing happened, because the British opposed strong action in order not to spoil good business. And now I saw my native land sacrificed by Western diplomacy, so the brilliant embassy parties and dances and cocktail drinking could go on undisturbed in Paris and London. And what was true of the Bohemian Crown lands was mutatis mutandis true of Slovakia and Carpatho-Russia. Recollections! The train arrived at Klagenfurt, via Graz and Zidani Most, the territory of germanized Slovenes. I was the only foreigner on board, and when we crossed into the Italian territory I was the only passenger from the frontier to San Candido. When we were somewhere between Klagenfurt and the frontier on the Austrian territory, the conductors would quickly sprint inside the station to listen to the radio which between eight and nine in the evening was blaring Hitler's violent attack on Benes at the Sportpalast. Only once was I sufficiently interested to get off and listen to the shrill tones of Hitler's voice familiar to me since the two and one-half hour speech at Wlirzburg three years before. At Benecko it was dampened by static. By chance I caught exactly the passage when Adolf was roaring in his best form, as if he were challenging Edward to a duel: "Hier stehe ich, dort steht Herr Benesch" (here I stand and there stands Benes) and the rest I do not remember because I had to board the train again. At Innichen - San Candido I found myself in the old Austrian atmosphere of my youth. The hotel was an old 56 SLOVAKIA fashioned Tyrolese inn with large and quiet rooms, without any running water, but a huge comfortable bed. Though it was very late - after eleven p. m. - a good Tyrolese housewife made a Wiener Schnitzel for me which was even better than the one I had eaten at Benecko. I slept wonderfully well and in the morning could admire the splendid sight of the Dolomiten without the slightest thought of war. From there I went to Merano and followed the Traubenkur a whole month while the Munich comedy was being played by Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, and Mussolini, who in the end got the most credit in the Corriere della Sera for having saved the peace. Merano was filled with all types of strange refugees, male and female, of the Milena characteristics which might have interested a Kraft-Ebbing. It is to be deplored that many university professors in Europe and America are muckracking in this sort of "literature." In view of the factual observations of an eyewitness possessing a perfect knowledge of Czech, German, Slovak, Polish, Russian, French, English and Italian - namely the languages involved in the great sellout - the idle musings and speculations both of Benes and the reviewer (Odlozilik) of Mnichovske dny, fade into the realm of Hollywood make-believe of Cecil de Mille's Ten Commandments. The general mobilization did not electrify the people at all, but was a huge comedy smacking to some extent of the good soldier Svejk. The reservists drank beer, ate frankfurters, joked, and knew that the whole thing was a picnic. Those of the Sudeten Germans among them, who knew Czech well, acted as Henlein's spies. The chain of fortifi~ations on which Benes spent over a billion crowns was just as useless as the French Maginot line proved to be later. Nothing could have stopped the Nazi tanks and the Czech regions could have been reduced to ashes by the Luftwaffe which had reportedly 15,000 planes, or ten times more than the reputed Czech air force. The 800,000 reservists were merely a mob compared to the disciplined nazi war machine. All this can be clearly seen from the illustrations showing Adolf "the savior" at the head of his Panzers on the Theaterplatz in Karlovy Vary, speaking to the enthusiastic crowds on October 15th. There is only one "author" whose methods resemble SLOVAKIA 57 those of Benes, namely Harry Truman, when it comes to complete distortion of facts. However, the Czech people of today, just like the American people of today, will not be easily persuaded to believe fairy tales. • • • MARTIN RAZUS (1883-1937) JOSEPH A. MIKUS The era, which opened for the Slovak nation in 1918, marks a rapid advance in the direction of the realization of its political aspirations. This is indubitably connected with the fall of feudalism and with the over-all extension of the significance of national individualities as political realities in Central Europe. To these external factors there are added also internal forces. And here, from among the many personalities which contributed handsomely to the spiritual and political crystallization of conditions in Slovakia, it behooves us today to recall one name: Martin Razus. While Andrew Hlinka, a Catholic priest, was becoming the leading figure of the political movement for Slovak autonomy for rather social reasons, in the meantime his contemporary and friend, Martin Razus, a Lutheran minister, poet and writer, was emerging as a defender of the political individuality of the Slovak nation for cultural and psychological reasons. In another respect, while Andrew Hlinka, as a man of action, engages in the fight against the leftist, religious, moral and political relativism of Masaryk's school and is drawn into the violent whirlpool of national activity, thus becoming top guard of national awareness, in the meantime, Martin Razus, with fire in his soul and the laurel of a man of letters on his head, devotes himself, according to his nature, rather to the spiritual processes of the national development of the Slovaks. With his ear close to the bosom of the nation, he catches the spiritual vibrations of the people in order to present them in his work a bit later to the public whom he chose to serve. It was thus that Razus became the "conscience of the nation." Even though the motives of Hlinka and Razus for po-  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Edvard Beneš on Munich Days Description An account of the resource A. R. Nykl Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25), September-December 1957 pp. 35-57 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nykl, A. R. (Alois Richard), 1885-1958 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/111bdde3035fd0c13fdebffee0bf6f2e.pdf 6c16bebc2871a5e695ae99ef9e655fc6 PDF Text Text MARCH, 1957 VOL. VII NO. l (22) IN THIS ISSUE: TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. JOSEPH TISO' S EXECUTION I WAS EDITOR OF PRESIDENT TISO'S NEWSPAPER EIGHT FATAL DAYS IN THE LIFE OF DR. JOSEPH TISO SLOVAKIA: TRIAL OF DR. JOSEPH TISO PLEA OF SLOVAK BISHOPS IN TISp'S BEHALF HERO AND PATRIOT OF SLOVAKIA ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ ·!· ❖ ❖ ❖ ..!. .:. ❖ ❖ :j: This issue is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of Slovakia, 1939-1945, who was executed on the gal- ::; lows by the Benes-Gottwald communist-dominated regime, :\: April 18, 1947. '.(; ❖ 6 ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT SLOVAKIA MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS ME MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES INDEPENDENCE AND THE SLOVAK PAST FROM THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA KERNER'S 'CZECHOSLOVAKIA": HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Cont'd.) WHO SAID IT?: 8, 18 Edited and compiled_ by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. , Published by G A ~.f t'rt~'RA'R~UE OF AMERICA MI-LLERSVILLE STATE COHEGF Mlt.LERSVILLE, PA 17551 �1907 - 1957 The Slovak League of America is completing its FIFTIETH YEAR of faithful service " FOR GOD AND FOR NATION." It was oragan ized by the Rev. Stephen Furdek, May 26, 1907, at Cleveland, O hi o. - The Slovaks of America will celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Slovak League of America in the city of its foundation on May 26, 1957, before the opening of the 35th Congress of the League in Hotel Cleveland. SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has the inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to SLOVAKIA is $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. 5. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. � MARCH, 1957 VOL. VII NO. l (22) IN THIS ISSUE: TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. JOSEPH TISO' S EXECUTION I WAS EDITOR OF PRESIDENT TISO'S NEWSPAPER EIGHT FATAL DAYS IN THE LIFE OF DR. JOSEPH TISO SLOVAKIA: TRIAL OF DR. JOSEPH TISO PLEA OF SLOVAK BISHOPS IN TISp'S BEHALF HERO AND PATRIOT OF SLOVAKIA ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ ·!· ❖ ❖ ❖ ..!. .:. ❖ ❖ :j: This issue is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of Slovakia, 1939-1945, who was executed on the gal- ::; lows by the Benes-Gottwald communist-dominated regime, :\: April 18, 1947. '.(; ❖ 6 ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT SLOVAKIA MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS ME MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES INDEPENDENCE AND THE SLOVAK PAST FROM THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA KERNER'S 'CZECHOSLOVAKIA": HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Cont'd.) WHO SAID IT?: 8, 18 Edited and compiled_ by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. , Published by G A ~.f t'rt~'RA'R~UE OF AMERICA MI-LLERSVILLE STATE COHEGF Mlt.LERSVILLE, PA 17551 �1907 - 1957 The Slovak League of America is completing its FIFTIETH YEAR of faithful service " FOR GOD AND FOR NATION." It was oragan ized by the Rev. Stephen Furdek, May 26, 1907, at Cleveland, O hi o. - The Slovaks of America will celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Slovak League of America in the city of its foundation on May 26, 1957, before the opening of the 35th Congress of the League in Hotel Cleveland. SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has the inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to SLOVAKIA is $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. 5. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document MARCH, 1957 VOL. VII NO. l (22) IN THIS ISSUE: TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. JOSEPH TISO' S EXECUTION I WAS EDITOR OF PRESIDENT TISO'S NEWSPAPER EIGHT FATAL DAYS IN THE LIFE OF DR. JOSEPH TISO SLOVAKIA: TRIAL OF DR. JOSEPH TISO PLEA OF SLOVAK BISHOPS IN TISp'S BEHALF HERO AND PATRIOT OF SLOVAKIA ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ ·!· ❖ ❖ ❖ ..!. .:. ❖ ❖ :j: This issue is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of Slovakia, 1939-1945, who was executed on the gal- ::; lows by the Benes-Gottwald communist-dominated regime, :\: April 18, 1947. '.(; ❖ 6 ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT SLOVAKIA MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS ME MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES INDEPENDENCE AND THE SLOVAK PAST FROM THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA KERNER'S 'CZECHOSLOVAKIA": HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Cont'd.) WHO SAID IT?: 8, 18 Edited and compiled_ by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. , Published by G A ~.f t'rt~'RA'R~UE OF AMERICA MI-LLERSVILLE STATE COHEGF Mlt.LERSVILLE, PA 17551 1907 - 1957 The Slovak League of America is completing its FIFTIETH YEAR of faithful service " FOR GOD AND FOR NATION." It was oragan ized by the Rev. Stephen Furdek, May 26, 1907, at Cleveland, O hi o. - The Slovaks of America will celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Slovak League of America in the city of its foundation on May 26, 1957, before the opening of the 35th Congress of the League in Hotel Cleveland. SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has the inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to SLOVAKIA is $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. 5. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 1 (22) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1957 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/6c8e85ccf28e2e9343fa98a9898adbcc.pdf e8ee58f42542840053bc8b204cc579f4 PDF Text Text JUNE, 1957 VOL. VII NO. 2 (23) IN TIDS ISSUE: C. I. A. DULLES AND THE BENES CZECHS 50 YEARS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANALYZING THE ANALYSTS: IS THE SOVIET UNION DOOMED? A BELATED REPORT DR. JOSEPH TISO: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT CASTLES OF SLOVAKIA: ILAVA KERNER'S "CZECHOSLOVAKIA": HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Cont'd.) THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA: CHAPTER THREE WHO SAID IT?: 9, 18, 64. Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 · Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERI.CA GANSER LIBRARY .. MfUERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE . MILLERSVtlJ:.E'. , PA: 17551 �SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. --------------------------------Printed i~ the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRE SS M idd!etown, Pa. � JUNE, 1957 VOL. VII NO. 2 (23) IN TIDS ISSUE: C. I. A. DULLES AND THE BENES CZECHS 50 YEARS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANALYZING THE ANALYSTS: IS THE SOVIET UNION DOOMED? A BELATED REPORT DR. JOSEPH TISO: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT CASTLES OF SLOVAKIA: ILAVA KERNER'S "CZECHOSLOVAKIA": HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Cont'd.) THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA: CHAPTER THREE WHO SAID IT?: 9, 18, 64. Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 · Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERI.CA GANSER LIBRARY .. MfUERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE . MILLERSVtlJ:.E'. , PA: 17551 �SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. --------------------------------Printed i~ the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRE SS M idd!etown, Pa. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document JUNE, 1957 VOL. VII NO. 2 (23) IN TIDS ISSUE: C. I. A. DULLES AND THE BENES CZECHS 50 YEARS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANALYZING THE ANALYSTS: IS THE SOVIET UNION DOOMED? A BELATED REPORT DR. JOSEPH TISO: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT CASTLES OF SLOVAKIA: ILAVA KERNER'S "CZECHOSLOVAKIA": HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Cont'd.) THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA: CHAPTER THREE WHO SAID IT?: 9, 18, 64. Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 · Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERI.CA GANSER LIBRARY .. MfUERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE . MILLERSVtlJ:.E'. , PA: 17551 SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. --------------------------------Printed i~ the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRE SS M idd!etown, Pa.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2 (23) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1957 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/161eeb4a05cda6e30f3a2efb39852a23.pdf 7fd68aaa2ee2486c25b21bf8d23bc37d PDF Text Text VOL. VII SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER, 1957 NO. 3-4(24-25) IN TIDS ISSUE: DR. TISO AND THE JEWISH PROBL EM MEMORIES OF KUNERAD THE 1944 COMMUNIST REVOLT IN SLOVAKIA " EDVARD BENES ON MUNICH DAY S" MARTIN RAZUS CAS T LES OF SLOVAKIA : GELNICA - BACKOV - JELSAVA MEMORANDUM: 35th CONGRESS, SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA KERNER'S "CZECHOSLOVAKIA" : HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Conclusion ) THE SLOVAKS WERE THERE: MAJOR POLERECKY FOUGHT FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued ) Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa . • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �SLOVAK.IA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of .Americans of Slovak descent. rrhe chief purpose of SLOVAK.IA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans: members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the lJ. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscript ions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Mldd!etown, Pa. � VOL. VII SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER, 1957 NO. 3-4(24-25) IN TIDS ISSUE: DR. TISO AND THE JEWISH PROBL EM MEMORIES OF KUNERAD THE 1944 COMMUNIST REVOLT IN SLOVAKIA " EDVARD BENES ON MUNICH DAY S" MARTIN RAZUS CAS T LES OF SLOVAKIA : GELNICA - BACKOV - JELSAVA MEMORANDUM: 35th CONGRESS, SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA KERNER'S "CZECHOSLOVAKIA" : HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Conclusion ) THE SLOVAKS WERE THERE: MAJOR POLERECKY FOUGHT FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued ) Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa . • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �SLOVAK.IA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of .Americans of Slovak descent. rrhe chief purpose of SLOVAK.IA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans: members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the lJ. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscript ions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Mldd!etown, Pa. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document VOL. VII SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER, 1957 NO. 3-4(24-25) IN TIDS ISSUE: DR. TISO AND THE JEWISH PROBL EM MEMORIES OF KUNERAD THE 1944 COMMUNIST REVOLT IN SLOVAKIA " EDVARD BENES ON MUNICH DAY S" MARTIN RAZUS CAS T LES OF SLOVAKIA : GELNICA - BACKOV - JELSAVA MEMORANDUM: 35th CONGRESS, SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA KERNER'S "CZECHOSLOVAKIA" : HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Conclusion ) THE SLOVAKS WERE THERE: MAJOR POLERECKY FOUGHT FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued ) Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa . • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA SLOVAK.IA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of .Americans of Slovak descent. rrhe chief purpose of SLOVAK.IA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans: members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the lJ. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscript ions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Mldd!etown, Pa.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/da02577accbe70499210de9cbe8d3295.pdf 8f437d2b75d1c5147c376ac14c6e27f6 PDF Text Text 44 SLOVAKIA the basic principle of human freedom. Let us never give our moral or legal blessing to the enslavement oif millions behind the J.ron Curtain who long to be free. Nor should we permit any international organization of which we are a member to compromise us in this regard. How can any nation ignore the moral issue involved in Roviet destruction of freedom in Hungary and subsequently want sanctions applied in the case of trouble in the Middle East? What organization can survive such a double standard? Either we have a system of law and order or the doctrine of might makes right is recognized. Communism cannot 1b e allowed to place itself above international law or God-gi,v en moral law. Our first Republican President Abraham Lincoln, said: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. • • • The fiery trial thvough which we pass will light us down to the latest generation. • • * We, yes even we, have the power and bear the responsibility. • • * In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free. * * • We shall nobly save or meanly lose this last best ho.p e on earth." • • • INDEPENDENCE AN D THE SLOVAK PAST ,Joseph Kirschbaum, LL. D., Ph. D. The question of the national existence of the Slovak nation, the efforts expended by the Slovaks for national and state independence, are treated in various works of political writers. In their analysis of the problems of Central Europe, writers try to be objective, but their literary efforts demonstrate that they answer the question only partially and usually incorr-ectly. Not taking into account the use of tendencious sources, it appears that the fault lies particularly in the approach to the problem of Slovak efforts for independence from the downfall of the first state of the Slovaks, Great Moravia. !Many political writers identify creations of dynasties with creations of nations, especially in multi--national states, and overlooik the universalistir tendencies of Europe in the early centuries of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. �SLOVAKIA 45 Ailly search of the question of the efforts of the Slovaks :fior independence in the course of the centuries requires that we take into consideration the whole series of actualities, which directly or indirectly created or affected the destinies of the SlovaJk and had any influence on Slovak political tendencies. We must necessarily take into accownt especially the following actualities : 1. Slovakia was and still is a component part of the European continent ·and, therefore, the spiritual and political development in Slovakia can be judged only by comparing it with the over-all EU.Topean development or evolution. At the same time, of course, we must taike. into account the fact that the territory of the Slovaks in the past was situated more than it is now on the border of western civilization, and that with this border...position there occurred automatica!lly a definite retardation of the spiritual and political cur:rents which emanated from the centers of European ciivilization. 2. In judging Slovak political development of the past, it is no less important to be mindful of the fact that the Slovaks, after the downfall of Great Moravia, their first state, got themselves into a supranational and later into a multi-national Hungary and the Hlabsburg Empire, and that they got into these ,political creations or formations not as a ruling or co-governing element, or voluntarily, as was the case with the Croatians and Czechs, but as inhabitants of a territory that was overcome by arms. 3. We must also bear in mind the special historical, geopolitical, and social conditions prevailing in Central Europe which via facti brought the individual and substantially delayed development of the nations lirving there m the direction of national independence and state independenc~. It is only when we bear in mind these three actualities, which determined Slovak life m the past, that we can correctly comprehend and evaluate the political evolution of Slovakia and the Slovaks. And it is understandable because, while the adherence of the SlovaJks to western civilization ::toes determine the source and the ya'l'dstick for the spiritual and political devel'Olpment of the Slovaks in the past, �46 SLOVAKIA the fact of the adherence of the Sl01Vaks to the ~ulturalpolitical area of Central Europe and to the aibove- mentioned state formations Hungary, Austria, and AustriaHungary - eX!plains why the concept ·o f national and political independence was realized later by the Slovaks than by other European nations. So that we might avoid confusion and incorrect conclusions, it is further necessary to distinguish between the idea of independence and the concept of statehood, the ex,istence of a state in some nation, because the state in its development passed through staiges :in which it had nothmg in comm()IJl with the nation as a bearer or carrier of political tpower. By the concept of independence we understand a free political determination of a nation as an informed subject of political power about its own affairs. In view of the fact that a modern state today has a nation for iti:; substratum and is not the patrimony of a ruler or the joint property of Estates, as it rhaippened to be up to the French Revolution, the distinction between the concept of independence and statehood today in no way appears prominently in current language. But even today it can haippen that a nation enjoys independence, as it happens, for example, in the case of a federation .. In analyzing the idea of independence in the Slovak past it is necessary, therefore, to bear in mind the efforts of the Slovaks as a politic-ally informed individuality, to manage their own affairs, to live and develop their own cultural and political life, regarding the question of statehood as a modern form of realizing these efforts. By inquiring objectively into the Slovak past, even on the basis of only those sources which have thus far b.een unc()IVered, we can safely ascertain the fact that Slovakia and the Slovaiks, even after the ·l oss of their first state independence in the tenth century, did go through their own development and preserved, even in limited form , the character of a separate territorial and ethnic unit. The disappeaTance of the Great Moravian Empire of which Slovakia indisputably was the territorial nucleus 1 �SLOVAKIA 47 and its inhabitants were the forefathers of present-day Slovaks to such an extent that we can safely include this first Slovanic ( SlaJVic) state in the history of the Slovaksdid not mean, as unfavo.raible tendencies tried to persuade the Slovaks, also the disappearance of the individuality of Slovak territory and its inhabitants. From the relatively meagre historical sources, which have thusfar been unc01vered and investigated, we know that it took almost two centuries before Slovakia was incorporated organizationally into Hungary, Furthermore it is scientifically ascertained that, up to the fall of Matthew Cak of Trencin I 1821), even in the framework of Hungary, she remained more or less an independent administrative unit, with her own administration and military and financial autonomy. Matthew Cak himself acted as an independent ruler of the Slovak territory. If from that time Slovakia, the land of the Slovaks, was indicated by the label ''Partes regi superiores," later as "Pannonia superior" or "Hungaria superior," this also means that Slovakia was regarded as a separate administrative unit. In the fifteenth century and during the 1'50 years of Tu~kish hegemony in Central Europe this character of the individual administrative unit was strengthened to such an extent that the Czech historian, V. Chaloupecky, who is in no way inclined to the Slovak nation, said that Slovakia was in a certain sense an "independent state"(l). Of course, it would not be correct, already in this early period, to talk about the Slovak nation in a political sense and about any 'kind of national political endeavors of the Slovaks. The Medieval Age :knew no national individualities in the political sense and, threfo.re, there was neither a Slovak national, political individuality, which could have been the bearer of the national poiitical efforts of the Slovaks. In Europe this entire era was governed by Christian universalism and the bearer of political power was the rnlcr and the nobility, and not the "nation.'' A nation, in the political sense, is in Europe, and therefore even in Slovall da, a product of the French Revolution and German romanticism. Even Louis XIV thought and stated that the French nation "residait entierement en la �48 SLOVAKIA personne du roi" (was incorpora ted in the person oif the king). De Maistre defended the thesis that the naJtion was made up of the lking and the ndbililty ("la nation compren.tl le chef et la noblesse" ). Up to the nineteent h century the concept of "nation" denoted a "linguisti c and ethnic (racial) group and had no political significan ce; it was only from. the nineteent h century that the doctrine began to prevail that such groups had the right to be politically independe Rt and to create states"(2). Jean-Jacq ues Rousseau repudiate d the idea that the nation is incorpora ted in the person of the king or in thle nobility and identifies and places on an equal basis the "people" and the "nation." It was this identifica tion of the people and the nation which, on the one hand, made Rousseau the founder of modern nationalis m and, on the other, became the fundamen tal principle of the American and French revolutio ns, which out of the "people" as subjects of the king, and later of the king and the nobility - made the nation the subject of political power - for a time together with the king and the nobility, later more often wihout the king - in democrat ic republics. Up to the French Revolutio n we can speak about people and nation in a sociological, but not political sense. This importan t differenc e between the concept "people" and "nation" is frequentl y not distinguis hed; in some cases "nation" (natio) is taken in the political sense, or, as for example in the English language , it acquires a significan ce identical with the concept of "state." A far-reach ing change in the outlook on "people" and its political rights, brought about by the French Revolution, was carried over into the rest of Europe. From that time on, without exception , we can therefore talk about "nation" in the political sense even with regard to other countries. The French, Italians, Germans , and others, only from the French Revolutio n are, or began to develop into a nation, the same as the other smaller nations of Europe, and particula rly in Central Europe. In the latter, with regard to special historical and social condition s, this evolution was retarded and that not only centripeta lly, to the crystalizi ng of national conscious ness, but also centrifu- �SLOVAKIA. 49 gally, to the formation of proper national states, namely, toward statehood. In the analysis of the concept of independence with the Slovaks, its origin and evolution, we must unconditionally issue forth from this European ideological and political stream and, therefore, we must ask whether from the time of identifying people and nation, from the time when other nations, in the ethnic and sociological sense of the word, began to be conscious of their right to participate in political power and to create national states, whether any such endeavors manifested themselves among Slovak people. • • • In this regard, what does scientific research tell us about the Slovak past? By what documents can we support the thesis that the Slovaks simultaneously with the rest of the nations of Europe, and especially those of Central Europe, began to feel as a nation and fought for the recognition of their own national individuality, including political participation in power and self-administration? Scholars who have looked into the matter of national consciousness of the Slovak nation during the past twenty years have brought to light many notable findings. These definitely prove that all theses, scientific and pseudoscientific, which tend to demonstrate that the Slovaks were not nationally conscious are absurd. Recent findings of the University of Bratislava are notable too(3). On the other hand, there are so many proofs for the concept of independence that one must wonder how any one could doubt about it or support the opposite thesis in the twentieth century. Unbiased research of the Slovak past tells us that in the course of the centuries the Slovaks: 1. were conscious of the continuity with the Great Moravian Empire which they regarded as the first Slovak Kingdom. One of the significant proofs is the introduction to the "Canthus Catholici" (1655), in which the author, Benedict Sz616si, recalls with emphasis, after the Slovaks accepted Christianity, what had happened during the reign of King Svatopluk by the merit of Saints Cyril and Metho- �50 SLOVAKIA dius: that his nation excelled in piety and loved to sing religious hymns in its national tongue (4); 2. were conscious of not only their linguistic but also national individuality, about which there is a whole series of written documents especially from the 18th century (Macsay(5), Timon, Adam F. Kollar, Hadbavny, etc.), in first half, and the followers of Bernolak in the second half of the 18th century), of which noteworthy is particularly the work "Murices - sive Apologia" from J. B. Magin(6), published in 1728, in which the author shows that the Slovaks with their past in no respect were behind other nations of Hungary, that their history was just as great and respectable as that of others and, therefore, historical equality entitled the Slovaks to enjoy the same rights in Hungary as the other nations; 3. just about the same time as other nations of Central Europe, the Slovaks began to replace the Latin literary medium with their own literary Slovak language with the tendency stressing their national individuality and to create their own national literature and culture. This important step in Slovak national life, according to scientific workers of the present Bratislava University, is connected with the Catholic University of Trnava(7) from the 17th century (1635) and definitely with the end of the 18th century, because the often-referred to year 1842 is the year of the reform, that is the establishment of Central Slovak as a uniform literary medium and not the beginning of writing in Slovak; 4. at about the same time as the other nations of Central Europe, the Slovaks fought for the recognition of their national rights, including independence, not only with political means (memoranda and demands), but also with weapons. The fact that the Slovak language replaced Latin and "Biblical" Czech (used only by the Protestants for religious services), and then the fact that the Slovaks undertook political action systematically from 1848 to give expression to their national individuality, these are indisputably the most important circumstances for proving the concept of independence in the Slovak past. �SLOVAKIA 51 In the light of the idea of the era they mean the passage from "people" to "nation" in the political sense and, if the evolution of the Slovaks to statehood was retarded by special conditions, or if these manifestations for independence did not always have equal intensity, this does not substantially change anything in the matter. In Central Europe up to 1918 there were quite a few nations that did not have their own political state. And objective study leads to doubts whether, even in 1918, the multi-national Habsburg Monarchy was broken up by the will of the nations within it, or rather by foreign intervention. Of course, the question always remains whether it would not have been to the greater benefit of the nations concerned and all of Europe if the nations had been reorganized on a federative basis as national units instead of being more or less forced to become so-called "successor" states or members thereof. There are many proofs to back the claim that the Slovaks consciously fought for the recognition of national independence, including statehood, particularly from 1848, when the Slovaks resorted to arms and formally declared their independence from Hungary. Both in Slovakia itself, as well as in the United States (8), where political conditions permitted free expression. Louis Stur said: "So that we might take over the spot in history which belongs to us according to our strength and abilities, we must once and for all time free ourselves from this unbearable foreign thraldom and gain state independence for ourselves." When Stur made that declaration, he simply formulated the sentiments and thoughts of his contemporaries. In 1918, in the Budapest Parliament, Dr. F. Juriga proclaimed: "We demand the righ to organize our own and separate state community and territory which we inhabit." This, too, was a manifestation for the right of self-determination, which Juriga demanded to be applied in regard to the Slovak nation and which, later, Dr. Vojtech Tuka formulated even more clearly.(9). The fight of the Slovaks for political independence reached its climax in 1939 with the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic, which meant the logical con- �52 SLOVAKIA clusion of Slovak political development. The conditions or circumstances under which this happened can have only a subordinate significance, inasmuch as all the states of this and the past century originated in Central and Southeastern Europe only with the help of, if not by the will of, the great powers(lO). (1) V. Chaloupecky: STARE SLOVENSKO, p. 13. (2) E. H. Carr said that a nation denoted " un group racial ou linguistique et n'avait pas de signification politique avant le XIX-me siecle, quand commenca a prevaloir progressivement cette doctrine que de tels groups avaient un droit d'etre politiquement independants et de constituer des Etats" (Nationalisme et apres, p. 4). (3) Even though present professors of the Bratislava University use Marxistic terminology and endeavor to see the Slovak past from the viewpoint of historic materialism, it is significant that in the question of Slovakness they confirm and adopt the conclusions of the scientific researches of "bourgeois nationalists." Worthy of attention in this regard is especially the work of Dr. J . Dekan about the beginnings of Slovak history, who adopts the theses of Fr. Hrusovsky and others, and in literary history an interesting book is the one of prof. Andrew Mraz. The latter was extremely unjust to many living Slovak poets and writers (Hronsky, Zarnov, Culen, etc.), but even now when he deals with the Slovak past Mraz is amazingly objective in his views. (4) Andrew Mraz in his "Dejiny slovenskej literatury" (Bratislava, 1948) wrote that "it is safe to hold the opinion that the aim of Cantus Catholici was determined also by the traditional knowledge of the historical continuity of the Slovaks with the events of Great Moravia" (p. 44). (5) A. Macsay, in the introduction to his work which was published on 856 pages in 1718, wrote that he was publishing it because many Slovaks were complaining about the dirth of such books, while other nations had such books; among the "other nations" he mentioned the Czechs, Poles and Croatians. (6) A. A. Banik explained Magin's significance in several works; his most valuable contributions possibly are: "Jan Baltazar Magin a jeho politicka, narodna i kulturna obrana Slovakov r. 1728" (Trnava, 1936) and "Novsie udaje na poznanie J . B. Magina, jeho diela i doby" (Trnava, 1937). (7) A. Mraz highly evaluates the work of the University of Trnava in the field of education and Slovak culture, stating that it was "the support of the Slovak national renaissance" (p. 35). (8) Konstantin Culen: "DEJINY AMERICKYCH SLOVAKOV"; and his articles in the "JEDNOTA" (Middletown, Pa., Nov. 1946). �SLOVAKIA 53 (9) Dr. E. Zatko published three volumes regarding the endeavors of Tuka for Slovak independence. (10) About the origin of national states in Central Europe see: C. A. Macartney, " NATIONAL STATES AND NATIONAL MINORITIES" (London, 1935), also his "HUNGARY AND HER SUCCESSORS" (London, 1937), in which he devotes some 100 pages to Slovakia. • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK (Continued from last issue) ME'l'HODIUS AGAIN JiN ROME In the meantime Pope John VIII effected the liberation of Arclibishop Methodius and punished the Bavarian bishops. To put a stop to the wars between Germany and the Great Moravian Empire, the Pope forbade the use of the Slovanic liturgy and ordered Methodius to come to Rome. Methodius learned that the German hierarchy had accused him of preaching heresy. Svatopluk sent his personal messenger (Zemezizeii) along with Archbishop Methodius to Rome, because he wanted to place his country under the protection of the Holy See. When Methodius reached Rome, he proved to the Pope's satisfaction that the charges placed against him were without foundation. Pope John VIII approved the apostolic work of Methodius and his priests. He gave the Archbishop a letter for Svatopluk which stated that he again permits the use of the Slovanic liturgy in Svatopluk's country and accepted King Svatopluk and his whole nation under the protection of St. Peter. When Archbishop Methodius returned to the land of the Slovaks, he and his priests labored zealously in the vineyard of the Lord to gain all the people of Svatopluk's country for the kingdom of Christ. But this mission, as we shall see, was soon to be hindered by Svatopluk himself. Svatopluk had accepted Christianity and had begged the Pope to protect the territory of the Slovak people, yet his life was not that of a true Christian. Svatopluk was a � 44 SLOVAKIA the basic principle of human freedom. Let us never give our moral or legal blessing to the enslavement oif millions behind the J.ron Curtain who long to be free. Nor should we permit any international organization of which we are a member to compromise us in this regard. How can any nation ignore the moral issue involved in Roviet destruction of freedom in Hungary and subsequently want sanctions applied in the case of trouble in the Middle East? What organization can survive such a double standard? Either we have a system of law and order or the doctrine of might makes right is recognized. Communism cannot 1b e allowed to place itself above international law or God-gi,v en moral law. Our first Republican President Abraham Lincoln, said: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. • • • The fiery trial thvough which we pass will light us down to the latest generation. • • * We, yes even we, have the power and bear the responsibility. • • * In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free. * * • We shall nobly save or meanly lose this last best ho.p e on earth." • • • INDEPENDENCE AN D THE SLOVAK PAST ,Joseph Kirschbaum, LL. D., Ph. D. The question of the national existence of the Slovak nation, the efforts expended by the Slovaks for national and state independence, are treated in various works of political writers. In their analysis of the problems of Central Europe, writers try to be objective, but their literary efforts demonstrate that they answer the question only partially and usually incorr-ectly. Not taking into account the use of tendencious sources, it appears that the fault lies particularly in the approach to the problem of Slovak efforts for independence from the downfall of the first state of the Slovaks, Great Moravia. !Many political writers identify creations of dynasties with creations of nations, especially in multi--national states, and overlooik the universalistir tendencies of Europe in the early centuries of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. �SLOVAKIA 45 Ailly search of the question of the efforts of the Slovaks :fior independence in the course of the centuries requires that we take into consideration the whole series of actualities, which directly or indirectly created or affected the destinies of the SlovaJk and had any influence on Slovak political tendencies. We must necessarily take into accownt especially the following actualities : 1. Slovakia was and still is a component part of the European continent ·and, therefore, the spiritual and political development in Slovakia can be judged only by comparing it with the over-all EU.Topean development or evolution. At the same time, of course, we must taike. into account the fact that the territory of the Slovaks in the past was situated more than it is now on the border of western civilization, and that with this border...position there occurred automatica!lly a definite retardation of the spiritual and political cur:rents which emanated from the centers of European ciivilization. 2. In judging Slovak political development of the past, it is no less important to be mindful of the fact that the Slovaks, after the downfall of Great Moravia, their first state, got themselves into a supranational and later into a multi-national Hungary and the Hlabsburg Empire, and that they got into these ,political creations or formations not as a ruling or co-governing element, or voluntarily, as was the case with the Croatians and Czechs, but as inhabitants of a territory that was overcome by arms. 3. We must also bear in mind the special historical, geopolitical, and social conditions prevailing in Central Europe which via facti brought the individual and substantially delayed development of the nations lirving there m the direction of national independence and state independenc~. It is only when we bear in mind these three actualities, which determined Slovak life m the past, that we can correctly comprehend and evaluate the political evolution of Slovakia and the Slovaks. And it is understandable because, while the adherence of the SlovaJks to western civilization ::toes determine the source and the ya'l'dstick for the spiritual and political devel'Olpment of the Slovaks in the past, �46 SLOVAKIA the fact of the adherence of the Sl01Vaks to the ~ulturalpolitical area of Central Europe and to the aibove- mentioned state formations Hungary, Austria, and AustriaHungary - eX!plains why the concept ·o f national and political independence was realized later by the Slovaks than by other European nations. So that we might avoid confusion and incorrect conclusions, it is further necessary to distinguish between the idea of independence and the concept of statehood, the ex,istence of a state in some nation, because the state in its development passed through staiges :in which it had nothmg in comm()IJl with the nation as a bearer or carrier of political tpower. By the concept of independence we understand a free political determination of a nation as an informed subject of political power about its own affairs. In view of the fact that a modern state today has a nation for iti:; substratum and is not the patrimony of a ruler or the joint property of Estates, as it rhaippened to be up to the French Revolution, the distinction between the concept of independence and statehood today in no way appears prominently in current language. But even today it can haippen that a nation enjoys independence, as it happens, for example, in the case of a federation .. In analyzing the idea of independence in the Slovak past it is necessary, therefore, to bear in mind the efforts of the Slovaks as a politic-ally informed individuality, to manage their own affairs, to live and develop their own cultural and political life, regarding the question of statehood as a modern form of realizing these efforts. By inquiring objectively into the Slovak past, even on the basis of only those sources which have thus far b.een unc()IVered, we can safely ascertain the fact that Slovakia and the Slovaiks, even after the ·l oss of their first state independence in the tenth century, did go through their own development and preserved, even in limited form , the character of a separate territorial and ethnic unit. The disappeaTance of the Great Moravian Empire of which Slovakia indisputably was the territorial nucleus 1 �SLOVAKIA 47 and its inhabitants were the forefathers of present-day Slovaks to such an extent that we can safely include this first Slovanic ( SlaJVic) state in the history of the Slovaksdid not mean, as unfavo.raible tendencies tried to persuade the Slovaks, also the disappearance of the individuality of Slovak territory and its inhabitants. From the relatively meagre historical sources, which have thusfar been unc01vered and investigated, we know that it took almost two centuries before Slovakia was incorporated organizationally into Hungary, Furthermore it is scientifically ascertained that, up to the fall of Matthew Cak of Trencin I 1821), even in the framework of Hungary, she remained more or less an independent administrative unit, with her own administration and military and financial autonomy. Matthew Cak himself acted as an independent ruler of the Slovak territory. If from that time Slovakia, the land of the Slovaks, was indicated by the label ''Partes regi superiores," later as "Pannonia superior" or "Hungaria superior," this also means that Slovakia was regarded as a separate administrative unit. In the fifteenth century and during the 1'50 years of Tu~kish hegemony in Central Europe this character of the individual administrative unit was strengthened to such an extent that the Czech historian, V. Chaloupecky, who is in no way inclined to the Slovak nation, said that Slovakia was in a certain sense an "independent state"(l). Of course, it would not be correct, already in this early period, to talk about the Slovak nation in a political sense and about any 'kind of national political endeavors of the Slovaks. The Medieval Age :knew no national individualities in the political sense and, threfo.re, there was neither a Slovak national, political individuality, which could have been the bearer of the national poiitical efforts of the Slovaks. In Europe this entire era was governed by Christian universalism and the bearer of political power was the rnlcr and the nobility, and not the "nation.'' A nation, in the political sense, is in Europe, and therefore even in Slovall da, a product of the French Revolution and German romanticism. Even Louis XIV thought and stated that the French nation "residait entierement en la �48 SLOVAKIA personne du roi" (was incorpora ted in the person oif the king). De Maistre defended the thesis that the naJtion was made up of the lking and the ndbililty ("la nation compren.tl le chef et la noblesse" ). Up to the nineteent h century the concept of "nation" denoted a "linguisti c and ethnic (racial) group and had no political significan ce; it was only from. the nineteent h century that the doctrine began to prevail that such groups had the right to be politically independe Rt and to create states"(2). Jean-Jacq ues Rousseau repudiate d the idea that the nation is incorpora ted in the person of the king or in thle nobility and identifies and places on an equal basis the "people" and the "nation." It was this identifica tion of the people and the nation which, on the one hand, made Rousseau the founder of modern nationalis m and, on the other, became the fundamen tal principle of the American and French revolutio ns, which out of the "people" as subjects of the king, and later of the king and the nobility - made the nation the subject of political power - for a time together with the king and the nobility, later more often wihout the king - in democrat ic republics. Up to the French Revolutio n we can speak about people and nation in a sociological, but not political sense. This importan t differenc e between the concept "people" and "nation" is frequentl y not distinguis hed; in some cases "nation" (natio) is taken in the political sense, or, as for example in the English language , it acquires a significan ce identical with the concept of "state." A far-reach ing change in the outlook on "people" and its political rights, brought about by the French Revolution, was carried over into the rest of Europe. From that time on, without exception , we can therefore talk about "nation" in the political sense even with regard to other countries. The French, Italians, Germans , and others, only from the French Revolutio n are, or began to develop into a nation, the same as the other smaller nations of Europe, and particula rly in Central Europe. In the latter, with regard to special historical and social condition s, this evolution was retarded and that not only centripeta lly, to the crystalizi ng of national conscious ness, but also centrifu- �SLOVAKIA. 49 gally, to the formation of proper national states, namely, toward statehood. In the analysis of the concept of independence with the Slovaks, its origin and evolution, we must unconditionally issue forth from this European ideological and political stream and, therefore, we must ask whether from the time of identifying people and nation, from the time when other nations, in the ethnic and sociological sense of the word, began to be conscious of their right to participate in political power and to create national states, whether any such endeavors manifested themselves among Slovak people. • • • In this regard, what does scientific research tell us about the Slovak past? By what documents can we support the thesis that the Slovaks simultaneously with the rest of the nations of Europe, and especially those of Central Europe, began to feel as a nation and fought for the recognition of their own national individuality, including political participation in power and self-administration? Scholars who have looked into the matter of national consciousness of the Slovak nation during the past twenty years have brought to light many notable findings. These definitely prove that all theses, scientific and pseudoscientific, which tend to demonstrate that the Slovaks were not nationally conscious are absurd. Recent findings of the University of Bratislava are notable too(3). On the other hand, there are so many proofs for the concept of independence that one must wonder how any one could doubt about it or support the opposite thesis in the twentieth century. Unbiased research of the Slovak past tells us that in the course of the centuries the Slovaks: 1. were conscious of the continuity with the Great Moravian Empire which they regarded as the first Slovak Kingdom. One of the significant proofs is the introduction to the "Canthus Catholici" (1655), in which the author, Benedict Sz616si, recalls with emphasis, after the Slovaks accepted Christianity, what had happened during the reign of King Svatopluk by the merit of Saints Cyril and Metho- �50 SLOVAKIA dius: that his nation excelled in piety and loved to sing religious hymns in its national tongue (4); 2. were conscious of not only their linguistic but also national individuality, about which there is a whole series of written documents especially from the 18th century (Macsay(5), Timon, Adam F. Kollar, Hadbavny, etc.), in first half, and the followers of Bernolak in the second half of the 18th century), of which noteworthy is particularly the work "Murices - sive Apologia" from J. B. Magin(6), published in 1728, in which the author shows that the Slovaks with their past in no respect were behind other nations of Hungary, that their history was just as great and respectable as that of others and, therefore, historical equality entitled the Slovaks to enjoy the same rights in Hungary as the other nations; 3. just about the same time as other nations of Central Europe, the Slovaks began to replace the Latin literary medium with their own literary Slovak language with the tendency stressing their national individuality and to create their own national literature and culture. This important step in Slovak national life, according to scientific workers of the present Bratislava University, is connected with the Catholic University of Trnava(7) from the 17th century (1635) and definitely with the end of the 18th century, because the often-referred to year 1842 is the year of the reform, that is the establishment of Central Slovak as a uniform literary medium and not the beginning of writing in Slovak; 4. at about the same time as the other nations of Central Europe, the Slovaks fought for the recognition of their national rights, including independence, not only with political means (memoranda and demands), but also with weapons. The fact that the Slovak language replaced Latin and "Biblical" Czech (used only by the Protestants for religious services), and then the fact that the Slovaks undertook political action systematically from 1848 to give expression to their national individuality, these are indisputably the most important circumstances for proving the concept of independence in the Slovak past. �SLOVAKIA 51 In the light of the idea of the era they mean the passage from "people" to "nation" in the political sense and, if the evolution of the Slovaks to statehood was retarded by special conditions, or if these manifestations for independence did not always have equal intensity, this does not substantially change anything in the matter. In Central Europe up to 1918 there were quite a few nations that did not have their own political state. And objective study leads to doubts whether, even in 1918, the multi-national Habsburg Monarchy was broken up by the will of the nations within it, or rather by foreign intervention. Of course, the question always remains whether it would not have been to the greater benefit of the nations concerned and all of Europe if the nations had been reorganized on a federative basis as national units instead of being more or less forced to become so-called "successor" states or members thereof. There are many proofs to back the claim that the Slovaks consciously fought for the recognition of national independence, including statehood, particularly from 1848, when the Slovaks resorted to arms and formally declared their independence from Hungary. Both in Slovakia itself, as well as in the United States (8), where political conditions permitted free expression. Louis Stur said: "So that we might take over the spot in history which belongs to us according to our strength and abilities, we must once and for all time free ourselves from this unbearable foreign thraldom and gain state independence for ourselves." When Stur made that declaration, he simply formulated the sentiments and thoughts of his contemporaries. In 1918, in the Budapest Parliament, Dr. F. Juriga proclaimed: "We demand the righ to organize our own and separate state community and territory which we inhabit." This, too, was a manifestation for the right of self-determination, which Juriga demanded to be applied in regard to the Slovak nation and which, later, Dr. Vojtech Tuka formulated even more clearly.(9). The fight of the Slovaks for political independence reached its climax in 1939 with the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic, which meant the logical con- �52 SLOVAKIA clusion of Slovak political development. The conditions or circumstances under which this happened can have only a subordinate significance, inasmuch as all the states of this and the past century originated in Central and Southeastern Europe only with the help of, if not by the will of, the great powers(lO). (1) V. Chaloupecky: STARE SLOVENSKO, p. 13. (2) E. H. Carr said that a nation denoted " un group racial ou linguistique et n'avait pas de signification politique avant le XIX-me siecle, quand commenca a prevaloir progressivement cette doctrine que de tels groups avaient un droit d'etre politiquement independants et de constituer des Etats" (Nationalisme et apres, p. 4). (3) Even though present professors of the Bratislava University use Marxistic terminology and endeavor to see the Slovak past from the viewpoint of historic materialism, it is significant that in the question of Slovakness they confirm and adopt the conclusions of the scientific researches of "bourgeois nationalists." Worthy of attention in this regard is especially the work of Dr. J . Dekan about the beginnings of Slovak history, who adopts the theses of Fr. Hrusovsky and others, and in literary history an interesting book is the one of prof. Andrew Mraz. The latter was extremely unjust to many living Slovak poets and writers (Hronsky, Zarnov, Culen, etc.), but even now when he deals with the Slovak past Mraz is amazingly objective in his views. (4) Andrew Mraz in his "Dejiny slovenskej literatury" (Bratislava, 1948) wrote that "it is safe to hold the opinion that the aim of Cantus Catholici was determined also by the traditional knowledge of the historical continuity of the Slovaks with the events of Great Moravia" (p. 44). (5) A. Macsay, in the introduction to his work which was published on 856 pages in 1718, wrote that he was publishing it because many Slovaks were complaining about the dirth of such books, while other nations had such books; among the "other nations" he mentioned the Czechs, Poles and Croatians. (6) A. A. Banik explained Magin's significance in several works; his most valuable contributions possibly are: "Jan Baltazar Magin a jeho politicka, narodna i kulturna obrana Slovakov r. 1728" (Trnava, 1936) and "Novsie udaje na poznanie J . B. Magina, jeho diela i doby" (Trnava, 1937). (7) A. Mraz highly evaluates the work of the University of Trnava in the field of education and Slovak culture, stating that it was "the support of the Slovak national renaissance" (p. 35). (8) Konstantin Culen: "DEJINY AMERICKYCH SLOVAKOV"; and his articles in the "JEDNOTA" (Middletown, Pa., Nov. 1946). �SLOVAKIA 53 (9) Dr. E. Zatko published three volumes regarding the endeavors of Tuka for Slovak independence. (10) About the origin of national states in Central Europe see: C. A. Macartney, " NATIONAL STATES AND NATIONAL MINORITIES" (London, 1935), also his "HUNGARY AND HER SUCCESSORS" (London, 1937), in which he devotes some 100 pages to Slovakia. • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK (Continued from last issue) ME'l'HODIUS AGAIN JiN ROME In the meantime Pope John VIII effected the liberation of Arclibishop Methodius and punished the Bavarian bishops. To put a stop to the wars between Germany and the Great Moravian Empire, the Pope forbade the use of the Slovanic liturgy and ordered Methodius to come to Rome. Methodius learned that the German hierarchy had accused him of preaching heresy. Svatopluk sent his personal messenger (Zemezizeii) along with Archbishop Methodius to Rome, because he wanted to place his country under the protection of the Holy See. When Methodius reached Rome, he proved to the Pope's satisfaction that the charges placed against him were without foundation. Pope John VIII approved the apostolic work of Methodius and his priests. He gave the Archbishop a letter for Svatopluk which stated that he again permits the use of the Slovanic liturgy in Svatopluk's country and accepted King Svatopluk and his whole nation under the protection of St. Peter. When Archbishop Methodius returned to the land of the Slovaks, he and his priests labored zealously in the vineyard of the Lord to gain all the people of Svatopluk's country for the kingdom of Christ. But this mission, as we shall see, was soon to be hindered by Svatopluk himself. Svatopluk had accepted Christianity and had begged the Pope to protect the territory of the Slovak people, yet his life was not that of a true Christian. Svatopluk was a � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 44 SLOVAKIA the basic principle of human freedom. Let us never give our moral or legal blessing to the enslavement oif millions behind the J.ron Curtain who long to be free. Nor should we permit any international organization of which we are a member to compromise us in this regard. How can any nation ignore the moral issue involved in Roviet destruction of freedom in Hungary and subsequently want sanctions applied in the case of trouble in the Middle East? What organization can survive such a double standard? Either we have a system of law and order or the doctrine of might makes right is recognized. Communism cannot 1b e allowed to place itself above international law or God-gi,v en moral law. Our first Republican President Abraham Lincoln, said: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. • • • The fiery trial thvough which we pass will light us down to the latest generation. • • * We, yes even we, have the power and bear the responsibility. • • * In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free. * * • We shall nobly save or meanly lose this last best ho.p e on earth." • • • INDEPENDENCE AN D THE SLOVAK PAST ,Joseph Kirschbaum, LL. D., Ph. D. The question of the national existence of the Slovak nation, the efforts expended by the Slovaks for national and state independence, are treated in various works of political writers. In their analysis of the problems of Central Europe, writers try to be objective, but their literary efforts demonstrate that they answer the question only partially and usually incorr-ectly. Not taking into account the use of tendencious sources, it appears that the fault lies particularly in the approach to the problem of Slovak efforts for independence from the downfall of the first state of the Slovaks, Great Moravia. !Many political writers identify creations of dynasties with creations of nations, especially in multi--national states, and overlooik the universalistir tendencies of Europe in the early centuries of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. SLOVAKIA 45 Ailly search of the question of the efforts of the Slovaks :fior independence in the course of the centuries requires that we take into consideration the whole series of actualities, which directly or indirectly created or affected the destinies of the SlovaJk and had any influence on Slovak political tendencies. We must necessarily take into accownt especially the following actualities : 1. Slovakia was and still is a component part of the European continent ·and, therefore, the spiritual and political development in Slovakia can be judged only by comparing it with the over-all EU.Topean development or evolution. At the same time, of course, we must taike. into account the fact that the territory of the Slovaks in the past was situated more than it is now on the border of western civilization, and that with this border...position there occurred automatica!lly a definite retardation of the spiritual and political cur:rents which emanated from the centers of European ciivilization. 2. In judging Slovak political development of the past, it is no less important to be mindful of the fact that the Slovaks, after the downfall of Great Moravia, their first state, got themselves into a supranational and later into a multi-national Hungary and the Hlabsburg Empire, and that they got into these ,political creations or formations not as a ruling or co-governing element, or voluntarily, as was the case with the Croatians and Czechs, but as inhabitants of a territory that was overcome by arms. 3. We must also bear in mind the special historical, geopolitical, and social conditions prevailing in Central Europe which via facti brought the individual and substantially delayed development of the nations lirving there m the direction of national independence and state independenc~. It is only when we bear in mind these three actualities, which determined Slovak life m the past, that we can correctly comprehend and evaluate the political evolution of Slovakia and the Slovaks. And it is understandable because, while the adherence of the SlovaJks to western civilization ::toes determine the source and the ya'l'dstick for the spiritual and political devel'Olpment of the Slovaks in the past, 46 SLOVAKIA the fact of the adherence of the Sl01Vaks to the ~ulturalpolitical area of Central Europe and to the aibove- mentioned state formations Hungary, Austria, and AustriaHungary - eX!plains why the concept ·o f national and political independence was realized later by the Slovaks than by other European nations. So that we might avoid confusion and incorrect conclusions, it is further necessary to distinguish between the idea of independence and the concept of statehood, the ex,istence of a state in some nation, because the state in its development passed through staiges :in which it had nothmg in comm()IJl with the nation as a bearer or carrier of political tpower. By the concept of independence we understand a free political determination of a nation as an informed subject of political power about its own affairs. In view of the fact that a modern state today has a nation for iti:; substratum and is not the patrimony of a ruler or the joint property of Estates, as it rhaippened to be up to the French Revolution, the distinction between the concept of independence and statehood today in no way appears prominently in current language. But even today it can haippen that a nation enjoys independence, as it happens, for example, in the case of a federation .. In analyzing the idea of independence in the Slovak past it is necessary, therefore, to bear in mind the efforts of the Slovaks as a politic-ally informed individuality, to manage their own affairs, to live and develop their own cultural and political life, regarding the question of statehood as a modern form of realizing these efforts. By inquiring objectively into the Slovak past, even on the basis of only those sources which have thus far b.een unc()IVered, we can safely ascertain the fact that Slovakia and the Slovaiks, even after the ·l oss of their first state independence in the tenth century, did go through their own development and preserved, even in limited form , the character of a separate territorial and ethnic unit. The disappeaTance of the Great Moravian Empire of which Slovakia indisputably was the territorial nucleus 1 SLOVAKIA 47 and its inhabitants were the forefathers of present-day Slovaks to such an extent that we can safely include this first Slovanic ( SlaJVic) state in the history of the Slovaksdid not mean, as unfavo.raible tendencies tried to persuade the Slovaks, also the disappearance of the individuality of Slovak territory and its inhabitants. From the relatively meagre historical sources, which have thusfar been unc01vered and investigated, we know that it took almost two centuries before Slovakia was incorporated organizationally into Hungary, Furthermore it is scientifically ascertained that, up to the fall of Matthew Cak of Trencin I 1821), even in the framework of Hungary, she remained more or less an independent administrative unit, with her own administration and military and financial autonomy. Matthew Cak himself acted as an independent ruler of the Slovak territory. If from that time Slovakia, the land of the Slovaks, was indicated by the label ''Partes regi superiores," later as "Pannonia superior" or "Hungaria superior," this also means that Slovakia was regarded as a separate administrative unit. In the fifteenth century and during the 1'50 years of Tu~kish hegemony in Central Europe this character of the individual administrative unit was strengthened to such an extent that the Czech historian, V. Chaloupecky, who is in no way inclined to the Slovak nation, said that Slovakia was in a certain sense an "independent state"(l). Of course, it would not be correct, already in this early period, to talk about the Slovak nation in a political sense and about any 'kind of national political endeavors of the Slovaks. The Medieval Age :knew no national individualities in the political sense and, threfo.re, there was neither a Slovak national, political individuality, which could have been the bearer of the national poiitical efforts of the Slovaks. In Europe this entire era was governed by Christian universalism and the bearer of political power was the rnlcr and the nobility, and not the "nation.'' A nation, in the political sense, is in Europe, and therefore even in Slovall da, a product of the French Revolution and German romanticism. Even Louis XIV thought and stated that the French nation "residait entierement en la 48 SLOVAKIA personne du roi" (was incorpora ted in the person oif the king). De Maistre defended the thesis that the naJtion was made up of the lking and the ndbililty ("la nation compren.tl le chef et la noblesse" ). Up to the nineteent h century the concept of "nation" denoted a "linguisti c and ethnic (racial) group and had no political significan ce; it was only from. the nineteent h century that the doctrine began to prevail that such groups had the right to be politically independe Rt and to create states"(2). Jean-Jacq ues Rousseau repudiate d the idea that the nation is incorpora ted in the person of the king or in thle nobility and identifies and places on an equal basis the "people" and the "nation." It was this identifica tion of the people and the nation which, on the one hand, made Rousseau the founder of modern nationalis m and, on the other, became the fundamen tal principle of the American and French revolutio ns, which out of the "people" as subjects of the king, and later of the king and the nobility - made the nation the subject of political power - for a time together with the king and the nobility, later more often wihout the king - in democrat ic republics. Up to the French Revolutio n we can speak about people and nation in a sociological, but not political sense. This importan t differenc e between the concept "people" and "nation" is frequentl y not distinguis hed; in some cases "nation" (natio) is taken in the political sense, or, as for example in the English language , it acquires a significan ce identical with the concept of "state." A far-reach ing change in the outlook on "people" and its political rights, brought about by the French Revolution, was carried over into the rest of Europe. From that time on, without exception , we can therefore talk about "nation" in the political sense even with regard to other countries. The French, Italians, Germans , and others, only from the French Revolutio n are, or began to develop into a nation, the same as the other smaller nations of Europe, and particula rly in Central Europe. In the latter, with regard to special historical and social condition s, this evolution was retarded and that not only centripeta lly, to the crystalizi ng of national conscious ness, but also centrifu- SLOVAKIA. 49 gally, to the formation of proper national states, namely, toward statehood. In the analysis of the concept of independence with the Slovaks, its origin and evolution, we must unconditionally issue forth from this European ideological and political stream and, therefore, we must ask whether from the time of identifying people and nation, from the time when other nations, in the ethnic and sociological sense of the word, began to be conscious of their right to participate in political power and to create national states, whether any such endeavors manifested themselves among Slovak people. • • • In this regard, what does scientific research tell us about the Slovak past? By what documents can we support the thesis that the Slovaks simultaneously with the rest of the nations of Europe, and especially those of Central Europe, began to feel as a nation and fought for the recognition of their own national individuality, including political participation in power and self-administration? Scholars who have looked into the matter of national consciousness of the Slovak nation during the past twenty years have brought to light many notable findings. These definitely prove that all theses, scientific and pseudoscientific, which tend to demonstrate that the Slovaks were not nationally conscious are absurd. Recent findings of the University of Bratislava are notable too(3). On the other hand, there are so many proofs for the concept of independence that one must wonder how any one could doubt about it or support the opposite thesis in the twentieth century. Unbiased research of the Slovak past tells us that in the course of the centuries the Slovaks: 1. were conscious of the continuity with the Great Moravian Empire which they regarded as the first Slovak Kingdom. One of the significant proofs is the introduction to the "Canthus Catholici" (1655), in which the author, Benedict Sz616si, recalls with emphasis, after the Slovaks accepted Christianity, what had happened during the reign of King Svatopluk by the merit of Saints Cyril and Metho- 50 SLOVAKIA dius: that his nation excelled in piety and loved to sing religious hymns in its national tongue (4); 2. were conscious of not only their linguistic but also national individuality, about which there is a whole series of written documents especially from the 18th century (Macsay(5), Timon, Adam F. Kollar, Hadbavny, etc.), in first half, and the followers of Bernolak in the second half of the 18th century), of which noteworthy is particularly the work "Murices - sive Apologia" from J. B. Magin(6), published in 1728, in which the author shows that the Slovaks with their past in no respect were behind other nations of Hungary, that their history was just as great and respectable as that of others and, therefore, historical equality entitled the Slovaks to enjoy the same rights in Hungary as the other nations; 3. just about the same time as other nations of Central Europe, the Slovaks began to replace the Latin literary medium with their own literary Slovak language with the tendency stressing their national individuality and to create their own national literature and culture. This important step in Slovak national life, according to scientific workers of the present Bratislava University, is connected with the Catholic University of Trnava(7) from the 17th century (1635) and definitely with the end of the 18th century, because the often-referred to year 1842 is the year of the reform, that is the establishment of Central Slovak as a uniform literary medium and not the beginning of writing in Slovak; 4. at about the same time as the other nations of Central Europe, the Slovaks fought for the recognition of their national rights, including independence, not only with political means (memoranda and demands), but also with weapons. The fact that the Slovak language replaced Latin and "Biblical" Czech (used only by the Protestants for religious services), and then the fact that the Slovaks undertook political action systematically from 1848 to give expression to their national individuality, these are indisputably the most important circumstances for proving the concept of independence in the Slovak past. SLOVAKIA 51 In the light of the idea of the era they mean the passage from "people" to "nation" in the political sense and, if the evolution of the Slovaks to statehood was retarded by special conditions, or if these manifestations for independence did not always have equal intensity, this does not substantially change anything in the matter. In Central Europe up to 1918 there were quite a few nations that did not have their own political state. And objective study leads to doubts whether, even in 1918, the multi-national Habsburg Monarchy was broken up by the will of the nations within it, or rather by foreign intervention. Of course, the question always remains whether it would not have been to the greater benefit of the nations concerned and all of Europe if the nations had been reorganized on a federative basis as national units instead of being more or less forced to become so-called "successor" states or members thereof. There are many proofs to back the claim that the Slovaks consciously fought for the recognition of national independence, including statehood, particularly from 1848, when the Slovaks resorted to arms and formally declared their independence from Hungary. Both in Slovakia itself, as well as in the United States (8), where political conditions permitted free expression. Louis Stur said: "So that we might take over the spot in history which belongs to us according to our strength and abilities, we must once and for all time free ourselves from this unbearable foreign thraldom and gain state independence for ourselves." When Stur made that declaration, he simply formulated the sentiments and thoughts of his contemporaries. In 1918, in the Budapest Parliament, Dr. F. Juriga proclaimed: "We demand the righ to organize our own and separate state community and territory which we inhabit." This, too, was a manifestation for the right of self-determination, which Juriga demanded to be applied in regard to the Slovak nation and which, later, Dr. Vojtech Tuka formulated even more clearly.(9). The fight of the Slovaks for political independence reached its climax in 1939 with the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic, which meant the logical con- 52 SLOVAKIA clusion of Slovak political development. The conditions or circumstances under which this happened can have only a subordinate significance, inasmuch as all the states of this and the past century originated in Central and Southeastern Europe only with the help of, if not by the will of, the great powers(lO). (1) V. Chaloupecky: STARE SLOVENSKO, p. 13. (2) E. H. Carr said that a nation denoted " un group racial ou linguistique et n'avait pas de signification politique avant le XIX-me siecle, quand commenca a prevaloir progressivement cette doctrine que de tels groups avaient un droit d'etre politiquement independants et de constituer des Etats" (Nationalisme et apres, p. 4). (3) Even though present professors of the Bratislava University use Marxistic terminology and endeavor to see the Slovak past from the viewpoint of historic materialism, it is significant that in the question of Slovakness they confirm and adopt the conclusions of the scientific researches of "bourgeois nationalists." Worthy of attention in this regard is especially the work of Dr. J . Dekan about the beginnings of Slovak history, who adopts the theses of Fr. Hrusovsky and others, and in literary history an interesting book is the one of prof. Andrew Mraz. The latter was extremely unjust to many living Slovak poets and writers (Hronsky, Zarnov, Culen, etc.), but even now when he deals with the Slovak past Mraz is amazingly objective in his views. (4) Andrew Mraz in his "Dejiny slovenskej literatury" (Bratislava, 1948) wrote that "it is safe to hold the opinion that the aim of Cantus Catholici was determined also by the traditional knowledge of the historical continuity of the Slovaks with the events of Great Moravia" (p. 44). (5) A. Macsay, in the introduction to his work which was published on 856 pages in 1718, wrote that he was publishing it because many Slovaks were complaining about the dirth of such books, while other nations had such books; among the "other nations" he mentioned the Czechs, Poles and Croatians. (6) A. A. Banik explained Magin's significance in several works; his most valuable contributions possibly are: "Jan Baltazar Magin a jeho politicka, narodna i kulturna obrana Slovakov r. 1728" (Trnava, 1936) and "Novsie udaje na poznanie J . B. Magina, jeho diela i doby" (Trnava, 1937). (7) A. Mraz highly evaluates the work of the University of Trnava in the field of education and Slovak culture, stating that it was "the support of the Slovak national renaissance" (p. 35). (8) Konstantin Culen: "DEJINY AMERICKYCH SLOVAKOV"; and his articles in the "JEDNOTA" (Middletown, Pa., Nov. 1946). SLOVAKIA 53 (9) Dr. E. Zatko published three volumes regarding the endeavors of Tuka for Slovak independence. (10) About the origin of national states in Central Europe see: C. A. Macartney, " NATIONAL STATES AND NATIONAL MINORITIES" (London, 1935), also his "HUNGARY AND HER SUCCESSORS" (London, 1937), in which he devotes some 100 pages to Slovakia. • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK (Continued from last issue) ME'l'HODIUS AGAIN JiN ROME In the meantime Pope John VIII effected the liberation of Arclibishop Methodius and punished the Bavarian bishops. To put a stop to the wars between Germany and the Great Moravian Empire, the Pope forbade the use of the Slovanic liturgy and ordered Methodius to come to Rome. Methodius learned that the German hierarchy had accused him of preaching heresy. Svatopluk sent his personal messenger (Zemezizeii) along with Archbishop Methodius to Rome, because he wanted to place his country under the protection of the Holy See. When Methodius reached Rome, he proved to the Pope's satisfaction that the charges placed against him were without foundation. Pope John VIII approved the apostolic work of Methodius and his priests. He gave the Archbishop a letter for Svatopluk which stated that he again permits the use of the Slovanic liturgy in Svatopluk's country and accepted King Svatopluk and his whole nation under the protection of St. Peter. When Archbishop Methodius returned to the land of the Slovaks, he and his priests labored zealously in the vineyard of the Lord to gain all the people of Svatopluk's country for the kingdom of Christ. But this mission, as we shall see, was soon to be hindered by Svatopluk himself. Svatopluk had accepted Christianity and had begged the Pope to protect the territory of the Slovak people, yet his life was not that of a true Christian. Svatopluk was a  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Independence and the Slovak Past Description An account of the resource Joseph Kirschbaum, LL.D., Ph.D. Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 1 (22), March 1957 pp. 44-53 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1957 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/a24ee6d0ed86895d0590f55725c2fc8d.pdf 23c4a49bec30674198e87c1bcfb8c25d PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 57 those of Benes, namely Harry Truman, when it comes to complete distortion of facts. However, the Czech people of today, just like the American people of today, will not be easily persuaded to believe fairy tales. • • • MARTIN RAZUS (1883-1937) JOSEPH A. MIKUS The era, which opened for the Slovak nation in 1918, marks a rapid advance in the direction of the realization of its political aspirations. This is indubitably connected with the fall of feudalism and with the over-all extension of the significance of national individualities as political realities in Central Europe. To these external factors there are added also internal forces. And here, from among the many personalities which contributed handsomely to the spiritual and political crystallization of conditions in Slovakia, it behooves us today to recall one name: Martin Razus. While Andrew Hlinka, a Catholic priest, was becoming the leading figure of the political movement for Slovak autonomy for rather social reasons, in the meantime his contemporary and friend, Martin Razus, a Lutheran minister, poet and writer, was emerging as a defender of the political individuality of the Slovak nation for cultural and psychological reasons. In another respect, while Andrew Hlinka, as a man of action, engages in the fight against the leftist, religious, moral and political relativism of Masaryk's school and is drawn into the violent whirlpool of national activity, thus becoming top guard of national awareness, in the meantime, Martin Razus, with fire in his soul and the laurel of a man of letters on his head, devotes himself, according to his nature, rather to the spiritual processes of the national development of the Slovaks. With his ear close to the bosom of the nation, he catches the spiritual vibrations of the people in order to present them in his work a bit later to the public whom he chose to serve. It was thus that Razus became the "conscience of the nation." Even though the motives of Hlinka and Razus for po- �58 SLOVAKIA litical activity could have varied, and even though their place in the spiritual and political problematics of Slovakia is different, both were nevertheless remarkably of one will. In the Slovak cultural and political history of our time, Razus is an unusually magnetic manifestation. This grassroots Slovak looks at the problem of his nation from the height of a European which he attained by his study in Scotland and by his travels over the continent. In the injustices committed against t b Slovaks by foreign regimes, he sees disorder and the weaknesses of Europe, the blots on the conscience of mankind. Nationally, Razus is admirably genuine and authentic. His whole being makes it apparent that he is of Slovak blood and bone. When the majority of Slovak Lutherans fell for Kollar's cultural "Czecho-Slovakism" and "Hlasism" and travelled the road of national concessions which led to personal positions, government jobs, and careers, Razus firmly persevered in the national line which was marked out by the spirit of Louis Stur, Charles Kuzmany, and Svetozar Hurban Vajansky. When the Prague government resolved to undermine the spiritual substance of the Slovak nation with the help of political parties and an official pseudoscience, and when the opportunism of Milan Hodza, Ivan Derer, and Milan Ivanka celebrated triumphs among an insufficiently orientated electorate, it was then that Martin Razus, like the "last Mohican" of the small Slovak National Party, remained faithfully on the side of Hlinka. The cooperation of the Catholic Populist Party and the Lutheran National Party in the Prague Parliament is the best proof of the fact that Catholicism and Protestantism as religious beliefs never did have any religious problems to prevent cooperation and that they could without reservations stand and work on the same national foundation. And thus it was that we could see Razus and Hlinka formulating an autonomistic program in the days of intensified conflict at the memorable meeting in 1932, in Zvolen, and speaking in Nitra, in 1933, at the Pribina festivities. Undoubtedly Razus realized to a significant degree that the core of the Slovak problem during the existence of �SLOVAKIA 59 the first Czecho-Slovak Republic was political. He saw clearly how the Prague regime discriminated against the Slovaks in matters national, economical, social, cultural, and administrative, offending their tender spirit which craved equality and democracy. But the basic cause of the SlovakCzech problem he saw there, where every educated sociologist must see it: in the divergent national mentality of the Slovaks and Czechs. Slovak dissatisfaction with government policy emanated for Razus not only from the injustices suffered by the Slovaks from the Czechs, but especially from the closing of eyes to the reality of the basic psychological difference of the Slovaks as a nation. About this view of the misunderstanding between the Slovaks and the Czechs, Razus, writing in the "Jednota ceskoslovenska" (Banska Bystrica, 1934, pp. 38-39), said : "The psychological causes have their origin in the difference of character and mentality. The average Czech and Czech society, particularly in its component parts, reflect the stirring history of the Czech nation with all its extremes. On the other hand, the average Slovak and Slovak society reflect the history of the Slovak nation. Hus, Hackel, Marx, the idolizing and aping of the West, clericalism - all this is mixed in the Czech soul to the very reaches of spiritless internationalism which gnaws away the vitality of the Czech nation. Out of this ideological chaos there grows, as the only actual reality, a great aggressiveness in the existential struggle of individuals, as well as of the Czech collective (a feeling of Czech solidarity whereby nationalism passes from slogans into the blood). "On the Slovak side, there was, and there is even today, less of this ieological seething. Not that there has been here, especially since the revolution, no intrusion of various ideological tendencies, but that some kind of consolidation and opposing force of the Slovak soul repels them. Since the revolution of 1918, Slovak society has not been knocked apart ideologically at all and, as we can see, even today is comparatively still of one mind. Even today the average Slovak has a strong dose of religious spirit and is of the conviction that out of the struggle for world views no nation can extend its existence. The deficiency in the Slovak �60 SLOVAKIA character is passivity, a yielding spirit, submission, and often, alas, even unto venality - and even today an insufficient feeling of Slovak solidarity. As I have noted, in all this is reflected the history of a nation that has been enslaved for a long period of time, a nation that provided the people and the means for its own suppression. "With these differences in views, mentality, and character after the revolution and after a promising stupefaction, there had to follow a crash and disenchantment. Why crosses had to be torn down in Slovakia, we can at least explain from given psychological reasons. But why there was undertaken a fight with the Church - and in the first place with the Catholic Church, even though she had occupied her bishoprics with nationally reliable people, and why her properties were encumbered, which in the end had to be surrendered any way - this I, even though born a heretic, cannot understand from any standpoint of consolidation and state welfare. Similarly, I cannot understand the unprecedented lamentable fight against Slovak ecclesiastical schools, both Catholic and Lutheran, their teachers and pensioners who had in fact brought us up and saved us for Slavdom." Here we see that, according to the judgment of Razus, the conflict between the Slovaks and Czechs did not arise only from the political dialectics of everyday life, but that it was the direct result of the divergence of national characters. Razus did not espouse autonomy merely to rectify the errors which the Prague government committed in Slovakia for want of sound peasant common sense. But he dedicated himself to the cause especially because the Slovaks as a nation recognized other values than the Czechs and, therefore, they could not tolerate the idea that foreigners should make the decisions for them concerning values that were traditionally their very own. As Razus saw it, therefore, the demand of the Slovaks for a state government of their own was the demand of the individualistic political psychology of the Slovak nation. Because of their noteworthy distinction, Razus is for us constantly actual. Today the Slovaks claim the right to their own statehood on the very grounds he has stated. �61 SLOVAKIA For the Slovak nation statehood is a vital question not so much because of the need to put an end to the injustices suffered at the hands of other nations in alien state formations, but largely because it is striving to attain a new political order suited to its own national individuality and mentality. Such a positive viewpoint prevails over negative arguments. Czech internationalism, Schweik opportunism, and the honoring of foreign prophets from Marx to Chruscev are all alien to the Slovak national character. The Slovaks did not go beyond the boundaries of Hungary so that they might get stuck in the swamps of Czech imperialism. The Slovak nation wants cultural and political freedom, because ultimately it wants to be itself - a national entity interested in its preservation. It is in this that the substance of Martin Razus's political message manifests itself to us for our generation. • • • Castles of Slovakia: HUBERT MACKO, 0.5.B. CASTLE GELNICA There is not much to tell about Gelnica; all that remains of it is a .pile of stone and the bare foundation of what was perhaps once the "ne:'bojsa v e z·a " (Do not be afraid Tower). 'Dhere can be ,f ound no authentic data aJbout the founder of hrad Gelnica. However, it is known for certain Juraj (George) Beibek, who also owned the neighboring and vastly more importaTut fortress "Krasna Horka" (Beautiful Mount) . In the year 1527 Zapofisky tooik Geinica from Bebeik by force. Later on Thurzo beeame its master, the same Thurzo whose family played such an important part in the early history of Slo;va:kia. During the very trying, uncertain, and bloody years of the great uprisings of Stephen Bocskay, Stephen Bethlen, GeoPge RaJk6czi, Imrich Th6kbly and Francis Ra!lrnczi , lasting upwards of 150 years, Gelnica changed hands many times. From each successive exchange, Gelnica suffered, and, since it was never too important strategically few re1 � SLOVAKIA 57 those of Benes, namely Harry Truman, when it comes to complete distortion of facts. However, the Czech people of today, just like the American people of today, will not be easily persuaded to believe fairy tales. • • • MARTIN RAZUS (1883-1937) JOSEPH A. MIKUS The era, which opened for the Slovak nation in 1918, marks a rapid advance in the direction of the realization of its political aspirations. This is indubitably connected with the fall of feudalism and with the over-all extension of the significance of national individualities as political realities in Central Europe. To these external factors there are added also internal forces. And here, from among the many personalities which contributed handsomely to the spiritual and political crystallization of conditions in Slovakia, it behooves us today to recall one name: Martin Razus. While Andrew Hlinka, a Catholic priest, was becoming the leading figure of the political movement for Slovak autonomy for rather social reasons, in the meantime his contemporary and friend, Martin Razus, a Lutheran minister, poet and writer, was emerging as a defender of the political individuality of the Slovak nation for cultural and psychological reasons. In another respect, while Andrew Hlinka, as a man of action, engages in the fight against the leftist, religious, moral and political relativism of Masaryk's school and is drawn into the violent whirlpool of national activity, thus becoming top guard of national awareness, in the meantime, Martin Razus, with fire in his soul and the laurel of a man of letters on his head, devotes himself, according to his nature, rather to the spiritual processes of the national development of the Slovaks. With his ear close to the bosom of the nation, he catches the spiritual vibrations of the people in order to present them in his work a bit later to the public whom he chose to serve. It was thus that Razus became the "conscience of the nation." Even though the motives of Hlinka and Razus for po- �58 SLOVAKIA litical activity could have varied, and even though their place in the spiritual and political problematics of Slovakia is different, both were nevertheless remarkably of one will. In the Slovak cultural and political history of our time, Razus is an unusually magnetic manifestation. This grassroots Slovak looks at the problem of his nation from the height of a European which he attained by his study in Scotland and by his travels over the continent. In the injustices committed against t b Slovaks by foreign regimes, he sees disorder and the weaknesses of Europe, the blots on the conscience of mankind. Nationally, Razus is admirably genuine and authentic. His whole being makes it apparent that he is of Slovak blood and bone. When the majority of Slovak Lutherans fell for Kollar's cultural "Czecho-Slovakism" and "Hlasism" and travelled the road of national concessions which led to personal positions, government jobs, and careers, Razus firmly persevered in the national line which was marked out by the spirit of Louis Stur, Charles Kuzmany, and Svetozar Hurban Vajansky. When the Prague government resolved to undermine the spiritual substance of the Slovak nation with the help of political parties and an official pseudoscience, and when the opportunism of Milan Hodza, Ivan Derer, and Milan Ivanka celebrated triumphs among an insufficiently orientated electorate, it was then that Martin Razus, like the "last Mohican" of the small Slovak National Party, remained faithfully on the side of Hlinka. The cooperation of the Catholic Populist Party and the Lutheran National Party in the Prague Parliament is the best proof of the fact that Catholicism and Protestantism as religious beliefs never did have any religious problems to prevent cooperation and that they could without reservations stand and work on the same national foundation. And thus it was that we could see Razus and Hlinka formulating an autonomistic program in the days of intensified conflict at the memorable meeting in 1932, in Zvolen, and speaking in Nitra, in 1933, at the Pribina festivities. Undoubtedly Razus realized to a significant degree that the core of the Slovak problem during the existence of �SLOVAKIA 59 the first Czecho-Slovak Republic was political. He saw clearly how the Prague regime discriminated against the Slovaks in matters national, economical, social, cultural, and administrative, offending their tender spirit which craved equality and democracy. But the basic cause of the SlovakCzech problem he saw there, where every educated sociologist must see it: in the divergent national mentality of the Slovaks and Czechs. Slovak dissatisfaction with government policy emanated for Razus not only from the injustices suffered by the Slovaks from the Czechs, but especially from the closing of eyes to the reality of the basic psychological difference of the Slovaks as a nation. About this view of the misunderstanding between the Slovaks and the Czechs, Razus, writing in the "Jednota ceskoslovenska" (Banska Bystrica, 1934, pp. 38-39), said : "The psychological causes have their origin in the difference of character and mentality. The average Czech and Czech society, particularly in its component parts, reflect the stirring history of the Czech nation with all its extremes. On the other hand, the average Slovak and Slovak society reflect the history of the Slovak nation. Hus, Hackel, Marx, the idolizing and aping of the West, clericalism - all this is mixed in the Czech soul to the very reaches of spiritless internationalism which gnaws away the vitality of the Czech nation. Out of this ideological chaos there grows, as the only actual reality, a great aggressiveness in the existential struggle of individuals, as well as of the Czech collective (a feeling of Czech solidarity whereby nationalism passes from slogans into the blood). "On the Slovak side, there was, and there is even today, less of this ieological seething. Not that there has been here, especially since the revolution, no intrusion of various ideological tendencies, but that some kind of consolidation and opposing force of the Slovak soul repels them. Since the revolution of 1918, Slovak society has not been knocked apart ideologically at all and, as we can see, even today is comparatively still of one mind. Even today the average Slovak has a strong dose of religious spirit and is of the conviction that out of the struggle for world views no nation can extend its existence. The deficiency in the Slovak �60 SLOVAKIA character is passivity, a yielding spirit, submission, and often, alas, even unto venality - and even today an insufficient feeling of Slovak solidarity. As I have noted, in all this is reflected the history of a nation that has been enslaved for a long period of time, a nation that provided the people and the means for its own suppression. "With these differences in views, mentality, and character after the revolution and after a promising stupefaction, there had to follow a crash and disenchantment. Why crosses had to be torn down in Slovakia, we can at least explain from given psychological reasons. But why there was undertaken a fight with the Church - and in the first place with the Catholic Church, even though she had occupied her bishoprics with nationally reliable people, and why her properties were encumbered, which in the end had to be surrendered any way - this I, even though born a heretic, cannot understand from any standpoint of consolidation and state welfare. Similarly, I cannot understand the unprecedented lamentable fight against Slovak ecclesiastical schools, both Catholic and Lutheran, their teachers and pensioners who had in fact brought us up and saved us for Slavdom." Here we see that, according to the judgment of Razus, the conflict between the Slovaks and Czechs did not arise only from the political dialectics of everyday life, but that it was the direct result of the divergence of national characters. Razus did not espouse autonomy merely to rectify the errors which the Prague government committed in Slovakia for want of sound peasant common sense. But he dedicated himself to the cause especially because the Slovaks as a nation recognized other values than the Czechs and, therefore, they could not tolerate the idea that foreigners should make the decisions for them concerning values that were traditionally their very own. As Razus saw it, therefore, the demand of the Slovaks for a state government of their own was the demand of the individualistic political psychology of the Slovak nation. Because of their noteworthy distinction, Razus is for us constantly actual. Today the Slovaks claim the right to their own statehood on the very grounds he has stated. �61 SLOVAKIA For the Slovak nation statehood is a vital question not so much because of the need to put an end to the injustices suffered at the hands of other nations in alien state formations, but largely because it is striving to attain a new political order suited to its own national individuality and mentality. Such a positive viewpoint prevails over negative arguments. Czech internationalism, Schweik opportunism, and the honoring of foreign prophets from Marx to Chruscev are all alien to the Slovak national character. The Slovaks did not go beyond the boundaries of Hungary so that they might get stuck in the swamps of Czech imperialism. The Slovak nation wants cultural and political freedom, because ultimately it wants to be itself - a national entity interested in its preservation. It is in this that the substance of Martin Razus's political message manifests itself to us for our generation. • • • Castles of Slovakia: HUBERT MACKO, 0.5.B. CASTLE GELNICA There is not much to tell about Gelnica; all that remains of it is a .pile of stone and the bare foundation of what was perhaps once the "ne:'bojsa v e z·a " (Do not be afraid Tower). 'Dhere can be ,f ound no authentic data aJbout the founder of hrad Gelnica. However, it is known for certain Juraj (George) Beibek, who also owned the neighboring and vastly more importaTut fortress "Krasna Horka" (Beautiful Mount) . In the year 1527 Zapofisky tooik Geinica from Bebeik by force. Later on Thurzo beeame its master, the same Thurzo whose family played such an important part in the early history of Slo;va:kia. During the very trying, uncertain, and bloody years of the great uprisings of Stephen Bocskay, Stephen Bethlen, GeoPge RaJk6czi, Imrich Th6kbly and Francis Ra!lrnczi , lasting upwards of 150 years, Gelnica changed hands many times. From each successive exchange, Gelnica suffered, and, since it was never too important strategically few re1 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 57 those of Benes, namely Harry Truman, when it comes to complete distortion of facts. However, the Czech people of today, just like the American people of today, will not be easily persuaded to believe fairy tales. • • • MARTIN RAZUS (1883-1937) JOSEPH A. MIKUS The era, which opened for the Slovak nation in 1918, marks a rapid advance in the direction of the realization of its political aspirations. This is indubitably connected with the fall of feudalism and with the over-all extension of the significance of national individualities as political realities in Central Europe. To these external factors there are added also internal forces. And here, from among the many personalities which contributed handsomely to the spiritual and political crystallization of conditions in Slovakia, it behooves us today to recall one name: Martin Razus. While Andrew Hlinka, a Catholic priest, was becoming the leading figure of the political movement for Slovak autonomy for rather social reasons, in the meantime his contemporary and friend, Martin Razus, a Lutheran minister, poet and writer, was emerging as a defender of the political individuality of the Slovak nation for cultural and psychological reasons. In another respect, while Andrew Hlinka, as a man of action, engages in the fight against the leftist, religious, moral and political relativism of Masaryk's school and is drawn into the violent whirlpool of national activity, thus becoming top guard of national awareness, in the meantime, Martin Razus, with fire in his soul and the laurel of a man of letters on his head, devotes himself, according to his nature, rather to the spiritual processes of the national development of the Slovaks. With his ear close to the bosom of the nation, he catches the spiritual vibrations of the people in order to present them in his work a bit later to the public whom he chose to serve. It was thus that Razus became the "conscience of the nation." Even though the motives of Hlinka and Razus for po- 58 SLOVAKIA litical activity could have varied, and even though their place in the spiritual and political problematics of Slovakia is different, both were nevertheless remarkably of one will. In the Slovak cultural and political history of our time, Razus is an unusually magnetic manifestation. This grassroots Slovak looks at the problem of his nation from the height of a European which he attained by his study in Scotland and by his travels over the continent. In the injustices committed against t b Slovaks by foreign regimes, he sees disorder and the weaknesses of Europe, the blots on the conscience of mankind. Nationally, Razus is admirably genuine and authentic. His whole being makes it apparent that he is of Slovak blood and bone. When the majority of Slovak Lutherans fell for Kollar's cultural "Czecho-Slovakism" and "Hlasism" and travelled the road of national concessions which led to personal positions, government jobs, and careers, Razus firmly persevered in the national line which was marked out by the spirit of Louis Stur, Charles Kuzmany, and Svetozar Hurban Vajansky. When the Prague government resolved to undermine the spiritual substance of the Slovak nation with the help of political parties and an official pseudoscience, and when the opportunism of Milan Hodza, Ivan Derer, and Milan Ivanka celebrated triumphs among an insufficiently orientated electorate, it was then that Martin Razus, like the "last Mohican" of the small Slovak National Party, remained faithfully on the side of Hlinka. The cooperation of the Catholic Populist Party and the Lutheran National Party in the Prague Parliament is the best proof of the fact that Catholicism and Protestantism as religious beliefs never did have any religious problems to prevent cooperation and that they could without reservations stand and work on the same national foundation. And thus it was that we could see Razus and Hlinka formulating an autonomistic program in the days of intensified conflict at the memorable meeting in 1932, in Zvolen, and speaking in Nitra, in 1933, at the Pribina festivities. Undoubtedly Razus realized to a significant degree that the core of the Slovak problem during the existence of SLOVAKIA 59 the first Czecho-Slovak Republic was political. He saw clearly how the Prague regime discriminated against the Slovaks in matters national, economical, social, cultural, and administrative, offending their tender spirit which craved equality and democracy. But the basic cause of the SlovakCzech problem he saw there, where every educated sociologist must see it: in the divergent national mentality of the Slovaks and Czechs. Slovak dissatisfaction with government policy emanated for Razus not only from the injustices suffered by the Slovaks from the Czechs, but especially from the closing of eyes to the reality of the basic psychological difference of the Slovaks as a nation. About this view of the misunderstanding between the Slovaks and the Czechs, Razus, writing in the "Jednota ceskoslovenska" (Banska Bystrica, 1934, pp. 38-39), said : "The psychological causes have their origin in the difference of character and mentality. The average Czech and Czech society, particularly in its component parts, reflect the stirring history of the Czech nation with all its extremes. On the other hand, the average Slovak and Slovak society reflect the history of the Slovak nation. Hus, Hackel, Marx, the idolizing and aping of the West, clericalism - all this is mixed in the Czech soul to the very reaches of spiritless internationalism which gnaws away the vitality of the Czech nation. Out of this ideological chaos there grows, as the only actual reality, a great aggressiveness in the existential struggle of individuals, as well as of the Czech collective (a feeling of Czech solidarity whereby nationalism passes from slogans into the blood). "On the Slovak side, there was, and there is even today, less of this ieological seething. Not that there has been here, especially since the revolution, no intrusion of various ideological tendencies, but that some kind of consolidation and opposing force of the Slovak soul repels them. Since the revolution of 1918, Slovak society has not been knocked apart ideologically at all and, as we can see, even today is comparatively still of one mind. Even today the average Slovak has a strong dose of religious spirit and is of the conviction that out of the struggle for world views no nation can extend its existence. The deficiency in the Slovak 60 SLOVAKIA character is passivity, a yielding spirit, submission, and often, alas, even unto venality - and even today an insufficient feeling of Slovak solidarity. As I have noted, in all this is reflected the history of a nation that has been enslaved for a long period of time, a nation that provided the people and the means for its own suppression. "With these differences in views, mentality, and character after the revolution and after a promising stupefaction, there had to follow a crash and disenchantment. Why crosses had to be torn down in Slovakia, we can at least explain from given psychological reasons. But why there was undertaken a fight with the Church - and in the first place with the Catholic Church, even though she had occupied her bishoprics with nationally reliable people, and why her properties were encumbered, which in the end had to be surrendered any way - this I, even though born a heretic, cannot understand from any standpoint of consolidation and state welfare. Similarly, I cannot understand the unprecedented lamentable fight against Slovak ecclesiastical schools, both Catholic and Lutheran, their teachers and pensioners who had in fact brought us up and saved us for Slavdom." Here we see that, according to the judgment of Razus, the conflict between the Slovaks and Czechs did not arise only from the political dialectics of everyday life, but that it was the direct result of the divergence of national characters. Razus did not espouse autonomy merely to rectify the errors which the Prague government committed in Slovakia for want of sound peasant common sense. But he dedicated himself to the cause especially because the Slovaks as a nation recognized other values than the Czechs and, therefore, they could not tolerate the idea that foreigners should make the decisions for them concerning values that were traditionally their very own. As Razus saw it, therefore, the demand of the Slovaks for a state government of their own was the demand of the individualistic political psychology of the Slovak nation. Because of their noteworthy distinction, Razus is for us constantly actual. Today the Slovaks claim the right to their own statehood on the very grounds he has stated. 61 SLOVAKIA For the Slovak nation statehood is a vital question not so much because of the need to put an end to the injustices suffered at the hands of other nations in alien state formations, but largely because it is striving to attain a new political order suited to its own national individuality and mentality. Such a positive viewpoint prevails over negative arguments. Czech internationalism, Schweik opportunism, and the honoring of foreign prophets from Marx to Chruscev are all alien to the Slovak national character. The Slovaks did not go beyond the boundaries of Hungary so that they might get stuck in the swamps of Czech imperialism. The Slovak nation wants cultural and political freedom, because ultimately it wants to be itself - a national entity interested in its preservation. It is in this that the substance of Martin Razus's political message manifests itself to us for our generation. • • • Castles of Slovakia: HUBERT MACKO, 0.5.B. CASTLE GELNICA There is not much to tell about Gelnica; all that remains of it is a .pile of stone and the bare foundation of what was perhaps once the "ne:'bojsa v e z·a " (Do not be afraid Tower). 'Dhere can be ,f ound no authentic data aJbout the founder of hrad Gelnica. However, it is known for certain Juraj (George) Beibek, who also owned the neighboring and vastly more importaTut fortress "Krasna Horka" (Beautiful Mount) . In the year 1527 Zapofisky tooik Geinica from Bebeik by force. Later on Thurzo beeame its master, the same Thurzo whose family played such an important part in the early history of Slo;va:kia. During the very trying, uncertain, and bloody years of the great uprisings of Stephen Bocskay, Stephen Bethlen, GeoPge RaJk6czi, Imrich Th6kbly and Francis Ra!lrnczi , lasting upwards of 150 years, Gelnica changed hands many times. From each successive exchange, Gelnica suffered, and, since it was never too important strategically few re1  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Martin Rázus (1883-1937) Description An account of the resource Joseph A. Mikuš Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25), September-December 1957 pp. 57-61 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mikuš, Joseph A., 1909-2005 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 LCNAF+dates https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/8b50c1029b813fa833454b99616f894a.pdf db3c5498dfedb1dc753e6a92875690a1 PDF Text Text SLOVAKI A 67 MEMORANDUM to the President of the United States of America, the Hon. Secretary of State of the United States of America, and the Hon. Ambassador of the United States of America to the United Nations, by the Thirty-Fifth Congress of the Slovak League of America, Cleveland, Ohio, May 28, 1957 GREETINGS! Solemnly assembled in the regular 35th Congress on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the founding of the Slovak League of America here in the great Slovak center of Cleveland, Ohio, the officers and delegates of the Slovak League of America hereby declare that: 1. We rededicate ourselves to the preservation of the basic moral principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights of the United States of America. 2. We condemn all forms of tyranny and totalitarian political systems, especially repudiating the atheistic philosophy of materialistic Communism as the most ruthless conspiracy against free humanity. 3. We commend our Government for every effort expended to resist and to resolutely counteract the aggressive policies of Soviet imperialism with all the spiritual and material forces at its command and we heartily endorse every action of our Government to expose, demobilize, and outlaw the evil forces of Communism in the United States of America - these forces which are dedicated to the destruction of our Country and the Western Civilization. 4. We respectfully request that - in accordance with the basic principle that every political formation and form of government imposed on any people by the force of an alien power should be refused recognition - our Government should no longer recognize the Czecho-Communist regime in Slovakia, the land of our ancestors. 5. We respectfully submit that a re-examination be undertaken by the United States of America of the question of the validity of the Slovak independent nation which, we hasten to recall was recognized by twenty-seven (27) �68 SLOVAKIA countries of the family of nations, large and small, but unfortunately, not by the United States of America with whose support Slovakia would continue today and for many future years as a great force for peace in the "powder keg of Europe." 6. We strongly denounce the intervention of the Soviet Socialistic Republics in the internal affairs of other countries, particularly in the affairs of the land of our fathers, Slovakia, and we urge that our Government, insist on the withdrawal of all Soviet forces from non-Soviet territories, including Slovakia, as rapidly and as expeditiously as will be in keeping with the best interest of the United States of America. 7. As stated so often in the past, we, individually and as representatives of the 300,000 organized Americans of Slovak descent - having rejoiced on so many occasions when the various nations of the world attained their freedom and independence - submit that in all justice and fairness, the nation we have descended from should likewise enjoy the blessings of true freedom and independence. In support of the above outlined principles, all of which are in keeping with the basic fundamental truths of our American Way of Life, we have prepared and make available the research and historic proof which justify our legitimate claims and aspirations. Therefore, on the solemn occasion of our Golden Jubilee, as representatives of the vast majority of the Slovak ethnic group, we deem it our moral right and obligation to respectfully request, seek and, if the need arises, to insist that our Government through its executive branch, in its various sections and divisions, not excluding our able Ambassador to the United Nations, take all legitimate avenue of action in keeping with the sacred moral law of God and the law of nations to make certain that a true and lasting independent Slovakia may again take its rightful place in the community of nations which seek to preserve peace and promulgate the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. In pursuance of these privileges and duties which we honorably accept and carry out, we seek, Mr. President, �SLOVAKIA 69 Mr. Secretary, and Mr. Ambassador, your personal as well as official support. As loyal sons and daughters of this great Republic, we beseech God's blessings upon You and your efforts to bring about His greater honor and glory, and we convey to each of You our sincerest and warmest personal regards. In witness whereof, we have unanimously adopted the above sentiments at this historic 35th Congress at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 26, 1957, the 50th anniversary of the first enunciation of these principles by our predecessors, of happy memory, our founding fathers and the organizers of the Slovak League of America. The Memorandum Committee of the Slovak League: (Signatures) JOHN J. SIROTNAK (Pa.) JOHN J . LESKOVJANSKY (Ohio) EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK (Conn.) JOHN B. HASSAY (Ohio) ELIZABETH ANDREJKO (Pa.) PHILIP A. HROBAK, President The Slovak League of America • • • Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) IDSTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A.HROBAK CHAPTER XVI - "Education in a Democracy" - by Francis H . Stuerm, Ph.D.; "Member, faculty of New York University; educated in Switzerland and the United States; Ph.D., New York University; author of Training in Democracy: The New Schools of Czechoslovakia (1938), published under the auspices of the Progressive Education Association." Another "progressive" report by a "progressive" professor! Thirteen pages, all of them devoted to the Czechs (Bohemia-Moravia), except this single paragraph which contained the word "Slovakia": "One of the Republic's lar gest educational tasks was to set up a complete system of education in the provinces of Slovakia and Sub- � SLOVAKI A 67 MEMORANDUM to the President of the United States of America, the Hon. Secretary of State of the United States of America, and the Hon. Ambassador of the United States of America to the United Nations, by the Thirty-Fifth Congress of the Slovak League of America, Cleveland, Ohio, May 28, 1957 GREETINGS! Solemnly assembled in the regular 35th Congress on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the founding of the Slovak League of America here in the great Slovak center of Cleveland, Ohio, the officers and delegates of the Slovak League of America hereby declare that: 1. We rededicate ourselves to the preservation of the basic moral principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights of the United States of America. 2. We condemn all forms of tyranny and totalitarian political systems, especially repudiating the atheistic philosophy of materialistic Communism as the most ruthless conspiracy against free humanity. 3. We commend our Government for every effort expended to resist and to resolutely counteract the aggressive policies of Soviet imperialism with all the spiritual and material forces at its command and we heartily endorse every action of our Government to expose, demobilize, and outlaw the evil forces of Communism in the United States of America - these forces which are dedicated to the destruction of our Country and the Western Civilization. 4. We respectfully request that - in accordance with the basic principle that every political formation and form of government imposed on any people by the force of an alien power should be refused recognition - our Government should no longer recognize the Czecho-Communist regime in Slovakia, the land of our ancestors. 5. We respectfully submit that a re-examination be undertaken by the United States of America of the question of the validity of the Slovak independent nation which, we hasten to recall was recognized by twenty-seven (27) �68 SLOVAKIA countries of the family of nations, large and small, but unfortunately, not by the United States of America with whose support Slovakia would continue today and for many future years as a great force for peace in the "powder keg of Europe." 6. We strongly denounce the intervention of the Soviet Socialistic Republics in the internal affairs of other countries, particularly in the affairs of the land of our fathers, Slovakia, and we urge that our Government, insist on the withdrawal of all Soviet forces from non-Soviet territories, including Slovakia, as rapidly and as expeditiously as will be in keeping with the best interest of the United States of America. 7. As stated so often in the past, we, individually and as representatives of the 300,000 organized Americans of Slovak descent - having rejoiced on so many occasions when the various nations of the world attained their freedom and independence - submit that in all justice and fairness, the nation we have descended from should likewise enjoy the blessings of true freedom and independence. In support of the above outlined principles, all of which are in keeping with the basic fundamental truths of our American Way of Life, we have prepared and make available the research and historic proof which justify our legitimate claims and aspirations. Therefore, on the solemn occasion of our Golden Jubilee, as representatives of the vast majority of the Slovak ethnic group, we deem it our moral right and obligation to respectfully request, seek and, if the need arises, to insist that our Government through its executive branch, in its various sections and divisions, not excluding our able Ambassador to the United Nations, take all legitimate avenue of action in keeping with the sacred moral law of God and the law of nations to make certain that a true and lasting independent Slovakia may again take its rightful place in the community of nations which seek to preserve peace and promulgate the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. In pursuance of these privileges and duties which we honorably accept and carry out, we seek, Mr. President, �SLOVAKIA 69 Mr. Secretary, and Mr. Ambassador, your personal as well as official support. As loyal sons and daughters of this great Republic, we beseech God's blessings upon You and your efforts to bring about His greater honor and glory, and we convey to each of You our sincerest and warmest personal regards. In witness whereof, we have unanimously adopted the above sentiments at this historic 35th Congress at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 26, 1957, the 50th anniversary of the first enunciation of these principles by our predecessors, of happy memory, our founding fathers and the organizers of the Slovak League of America. The Memorandum Committee of the Slovak League: (Signatures) JOHN J. SIROTNAK (Pa.) JOHN J . LESKOVJANSKY (Ohio) EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK (Conn.) JOHN B. HASSAY (Ohio) ELIZABETH ANDREJKO (Pa.) PHILIP A. HROBAK, President The Slovak League of America • • • Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) IDSTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A.HROBAK CHAPTER XVI - "Education in a Democracy" - by Francis H . Stuerm, Ph.D.; "Member, faculty of New York University; educated in Switzerland and the United States; Ph.D., New York University; author of Training in Democracy: The New Schools of Czechoslovakia (1938), published under the auspices of the Progressive Education Association." Another "progressive" report by a "progressive" professor! Thirteen pages, all of them devoted to the Czechs (Bohemia-Moravia), except this single paragraph which contained the word "Slovakia": "One of the Republic's lar gest educational tasks was to set up a complete system of education in the provinces of Slovakia and Sub- � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKI A 67 MEMORANDUM to the President of the United States of America, the Hon. Secretary of State of the United States of America, and the Hon. Ambassador of the United States of America to the United Nations, by the Thirty-Fifth Congress of the Slovak League of America, Cleveland, Ohio, May 28, 1957 GREETINGS! Solemnly assembled in the regular 35th Congress on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the founding of the Slovak League of America here in the great Slovak center of Cleveland, Ohio, the officers and delegates of the Slovak League of America hereby declare that: 1. We rededicate ourselves to the preservation of the basic moral principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights of the United States of America. 2. We condemn all forms of tyranny and totalitarian political systems, especially repudiating the atheistic philosophy of materialistic Communism as the most ruthless conspiracy against free humanity. 3. We commend our Government for every effort expended to resist and to resolutely counteract the aggressive policies of Soviet imperialism with all the spiritual and material forces at its command and we heartily endorse every action of our Government to expose, demobilize, and outlaw the evil forces of Communism in the United States of America - these forces which are dedicated to the destruction of our Country and the Western Civilization. 4. We respectfully request that - in accordance with the basic principle that every political formation and form of government imposed on any people by the force of an alien power should be refused recognition - our Government should no longer recognize the Czecho-Communist regime in Slovakia, the land of our ancestors. 5. We respectfully submit that a re-examination be undertaken by the United States of America of the question of the validity of the Slovak independent nation which, we hasten to recall was recognized by twenty-seven (27) 68 SLOVAKIA countries of the family of nations, large and small, but unfortunately, not by the United States of America with whose support Slovakia would continue today and for many future years as a great force for peace in the "powder keg of Europe." 6. We strongly denounce the intervention of the Soviet Socialistic Republics in the internal affairs of other countries, particularly in the affairs of the land of our fathers, Slovakia, and we urge that our Government, insist on the withdrawal of all Soviet forces from non-Soviet territories, including Slovakia, as rapidly and as expeditiously as will be in keeping with the best interest of the United States of America. 7. As stated so often in the past, we, individually and as representatives of the 300,000 organized Americans of Slovak descent - having rejoiced on so many occasions when the various nations of the world attained their freedom and independence - submit that in all justice and fairness, the nation we have descended from should likewise enjoy the blessings of true freedom and independence. In support of the above outlined principles, all of which are in keeping with the basic fundamental truths of our American Way of Life, we have prepared and make available the research and historic proof which justify our legitimate claims and aspirations. Therefore, on the solemn occasion of our Golden Jubilee, as representatives of the vast majority of the Slovak ethnic group, we deem it our moral right and obligation to respectfully request, seek and, if the need arises, to insist that our Government through its executive branch, in its various sections and divisions, not excluding our able Ambassador to the United Nations, take all legitimate avenue of action in keeping with the sacred moral law of God and the law of nations to make certain that a true and lasting independent Slovakia may again take its rightful place in the community of nations which seek to preserve peace and promulgate the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. In pursuance of these privileges and duties which we honorably accept and carry out, we seek, Mr. President, SLOVAKIA 69 Mr. Secretary, and Mr. Ambassador, your personal as well as official support. As loyal sons and daughters of this great Republic, we beseech God's blessings upon You and your efforts to bring about His greater honor and glory, and we convey to each of You our sincerest and warmest personal regards. In witness whereof, we have unanimously adopted the above sentiments at this historic 35th Congress at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 26, 1957, the 50th anniversary of the first enunciation of these principles by our predecessors, of happy memory, our founding fathers and the organizers of the Slovak League of America. The Memorandum Committee of the Slovak League: (Signatures) JOHN J. SIROTNAK (Pa.) JOHN J . LESKOVJANSKY (Ohio) EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK (Conn.) JOHN B. HASSAY (Ohio) ELIZABETH ANDREJKO (Pa.) PHILIP A. HROBAK, President The Slovak League of America • • • Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) IDSTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A.HROBAK CHAPTER XVI - "Education in a Democracy" - by Francis H . Stuerm, Ph.D.; "Member, faculty of New York University; educated in Switzerland and the United States; Ph.D., New York University; author of Training in Democracy: The New Schools of Czechoslovakia (1938), published under the auspices of the Progressive Education Association." Another "progressive" report by a "progressive" professor! Thirteen pages, all of them devoted to the Czechs (Bohemia-Moravia), except this single paragraph which contained the word "Slovakia": "One of the Republic's lar gest educational tasks was to set up a complete system of education in the provinces of Slovakia and Sub-  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Memorandum Description An account of the resource Memorandum to the President of the United States of America, the Hon. Secretary of State of the United States of America, and the Hon. Ambassador of the United States of America to the United Nations, by the Thirty-Fifth Congress of the Slovak League of America, Cleveland, Ohio, May 28, 1957 Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25), September-December 1957 pp. 67-69 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/78e92e51e7b0ae8f4233c1fcecf492a7.pdf 054cb5351ec245c14b0f7aca275881dc PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 23 MEMORIES OF KUNERAD G. fOBANOV Just thirteen years ago, at the end of September, 1944, I was sitting in the cellar .o f the Kunerad Castle waiting to die. Death is a terrible word, but in those days death was ·a ,venial thing. People were dying everywhere in SlovaJkia: the "glorious Slovak National Uprising" - as the Benes Czechs, Lettrich "democrats," and SlovaJk and Czech Reds call it - ,w as in full swing. The Kunerad Castle, not far from my home town, I knew well from my youthful days. The spruce forests full of mushrooms, the streams loaded with trout, the plateaus heavily overgrown with bilberries and cranberries, and then the hunting ,p arties in the hills for wild boar - ah, those are happy memories of Kunerad and vicinity, memories of those dearest to me, of my friends and that beautiful corner of .Slovakia which is called Rajec Valley. Memories of September, 1944, however are not so happy. They are memories of one of the s•a ddest chaipters in S'lo:va'k history. Picturesque Rajec Valley, peaceful Kunerad, as many other .Slovak towns and villiages, were going through the first ,p hase of Communist "freedom" or "liberation." And on the meado:w, not far from the Kunerad Castle, where machine-gunn ed bodies of innocent victims thumped into shallow graves. The machine-guns were triggered by the "liberators," and the graves were dug by the victims themselves ! The partisans caught me in RajeCike Teplice as I attempted to escape to unoccupied territory, into Zilina. I was recognized by a certain Czech, an employee of the Zbrojovka (Gunworks) in Povazska Bystrica. Before I knew it, I was .surrounded by a band of partisans armed with rifles ·a nd .automatics. They escorted me to a partisan commissioner, .Sedlacek - the Red from Zilina - in the clinic of the Worlkers' Social Insurance. After a ,b rief questioning, they "liberated" me from my personal papers, press card, money, and revolver; then Sedlacek ordered my escort to �24 SLOVAKIA take me to the Kunerad Castle, the Gene.ml Headquarters of .the Red ,p artisans in the Rajec Valley. At that time I did not know Sedlacek personally, so I was very much surprised to learn during the hearing that he knew so much about me. Later, after "liberation," I found out that my grandmother was his baptismal ,s ponsor and that my parents attended his wedding. My grandfather ,ursed tn ha:ve a large orchavd, and !Sedla-c,eik often came with his family for apples and pears. When the Freethirukers of C2iecho-Slo;va)kia ,propagated the slog,a n "Away from Rome" and wore anti-lP,a pal badges, I was to,l d that Sedlacek once wore one when he came for pears. When grandpa caught sight of the badge, he told Sedlacek to get out and neiVer show his face in our place a,gain. I was very young at the time and, hence, did not remember either Sedlacek or this incident. In the Kunerad Castle I was taken before a Russian, Major Popo;v, the chief oif staff. He ordered me locked up in one of the ,c ellar rooms. I was alone in the room; the guard threw a litrtle strruw on the concrete floor and my furcoat served ,a s a blaniket. Through the barred window I could see the ,a rea in front of the castle. Men and women were 'hauled in on wagoil1's and aufos for questioning; freshly recruited youngsters from Rajec and surrounding communities were brought in on hayracks. Among them I saw two familar faces of former schoolmates with whom I attended the Realka at ZUi.na. Court was he1d in the castle; it did not ta)ke the "jrudge" long to find those ,aippr-e hended "guilty." Then the firing squad marched the .u nfortunate victims away from the castle, singing "Koline." The murderers were commanded by Sedlacek and Spitzer, the latter a Jew who had a dry goods store in Zilina. Arfter the victims dug their own graves to some depth, they were machine-gunned. The shril,l cry of tho,s e poor, innocent victims sti'll rings in my ears. Many men and some women were beaten by the partisans before they were marched out to die. I do not know to this day why, but the fact is that nolbody ,s eemed to bother rubout me. The door of my cell opened three times a day and two, prisoners under guard �SLOVAKIA 25 would brmg me something to eat, most of the time a crust of brea:d with coffee in the morning and evening and sowp at noon. The commander of the guard was a co.r poral of the Slovak Army; he hailed from eastern Slovakia. On two occasions he spolke rather friendly to me; he ,s,aid he would rather run off. He got into the "Uprising" as so many other SlovaJk soldiers did: by the ruse that the Nazis had arrested and taiken President Tiso to Germany, that they had thrown out the Slovak Goivernment, and now were marching in to destroy the Slovak State and to occupy the whole of SlovaJkia. It did not t3Jke him, and so many others, very long to .realize what had happened - then the problem became: how to breaJk away from the partisans. It was not easy. Many boys wound up with a bullet back of the neck for trying .to escape. My cell happened to be directly under the spacious reception room, where the partisans would drink and dance laite into the night. Squeeze boxes screeched. loudly and the old walls of the castle shook as the partisans danced, sang, and shouted with their heavily airmed partners; it was the first time I saw "girl" partisans; they were armed, had grenades around their belts, and Red Cross badges on their shoulders. The time went slowly, terribly slow4y. I was worried and prepared for the rworst. Never in my life did I ipray so much and so ardently a:s I did during those four days and ,nights in the cellar of the Kunerad Castle. My only com1panion, a spider in the darkest corner, undoubtedly was happy that I was there. To pass the time aiway and truke my mind off my troUJbles, I caught flies and fed them to him. Once, when they brought me soup, I was pleasantly surprised. that one of the men carrying the large kettle of so.up was an old ,a cquaintance of mine. Before I could open my mouth, however, to tallk to him, he winked at me, and I caught on, so I said nothing to him. The fourth evening, just when the sun was setting, there ruppeared in the mead.ow in front of the castle a herd of oattle and sheep that were being drirven o.n by several men. Shortly thereafter the corporal mentioned above came to my cell and told me that the shepherds had brought a �26 SLOVAKIA report that the Germans had taken Turciansky Svaty Martin. They were sending diivisions to the Mala Fatra, they said, to clean out the partisan nests. The Red ipartisans were up to their old tricks; they would start trouble and then run off to the mountains, leaving the fight against the Germans to the deceived SlovaJk soldiers. Reportedly German ,u nits were already on the way from the plateaus to the Kunerad Valley and to the castle. Moments later everything was quite a bustle in and around the castle, then momentary quite, after which I heard the Russian partisans barking orders. Lights went out and groups of partisans were speedily leaving thEl castle to lose themselves in the night. Then everything was really quiet. Only the forest hummed its monotonous, eternal song and somewhere in the distance a noctura;l bird would ma!ke itself heard ,f rom .time to time. Before daiwn, somewhere from far off, the thunder of guns resounded and then it was quiet again. In the castle the partisans who had remained were ibusy, piling guns and ammunition on wagons in front of the castle. I called out through the window to attract the attention of one of the men, to find out what was happening, but nobody bothered about me. I banged on the door of my cell, ibut in vain. There was nothing left for me to do ,b ut wait. It was already daylight, but nobody was bringing my breakfast. Suddenly, in the distance, the rat-at-at of machine guns could be heard and later the characteristic rumble of approaching tanks. "THE GERMANS ARE COMING WITH TANKS," someone yelled - and what had been chaos before, now turned into a panic in and around the castle. The firing increased and the rumble o.f the tanlks became louder; shots rang out in the woods nearby and from the castle itself. The partisans took to flight; it seemed that they did not have enough legs to run on. Of course, I was scared, as were the rest of the interned. We could smell smoke. We screaimed and yelled and banged on our doors. Soon the castle was in flames ; the partisans had set it afire be-fore they took off for the woods. Suddenly there was a turn of a key in the lock of �SLOVAKIA 27 my door, and my acquaintance, the cor,poral, yelled out: "Hurry, get out of here!" And, believe me, I lost no time in .getting out! I ran up the stairs to the entrance of the castle and, without regard for anyone and anything, too!k off in the direction of the woods. I had double trouble: I had to stay clear of the partisans and out of sight o;f the Gevman tank gunners who could taJke me for a partisan. In the woods, some distance from where I haippened to be at the time, a group of men and women were wielding picks, axes, and shovels, ma1king a road. After I made my way through the woods, I hit the fields in the direction of Rajecke Teplice; I skirted around the latter because fighting was quite heavy there. I waded through the Rajcinka, then ran through wooded areas again, and then reached Z.ilina. The Kunerad partisans scattered without a fight. Most of the local men returned to their homes. Only Russian parachutists remained in the mountains, awaiting the advent of the Red Army. They had fulfilled their mission. Moscow was not so much interested in any speedy action against the Germans in Slovakia; they were more interested in making trouble for the Slovak Republic and the Slova!k nation, because they knew how the Slovaks felt about Communism. And the Slova!ks, because of their adamant stand against Communism had to suffer much - and are still undergoing much suffering today. The Germans captured Sedlacek. I saw him again, the last time, when on one Octdber Sunday forenoon he was led through the streets of Z.ilina by German field scouts. He had a placard pinned to his coat front which read: "The Kunerad Assassin." The German military court sentenced him to death and the firing squad carried out the sentence. Mass graves - the characteristic symbol of bloody Bolshevilk tyranny everywhere, where the Reds seize power even momentarily. Kunerad is only one of them. Daily their numlber increases, because Coonmunism always finds new victims. It is high time that the free world wakes up and offers some effective resistance, otherwise the sacrifices of those whose bones turn to dust in the mass graves will have been made in vain. - (J ...9457) � SLOVAKIA 23 MEMORIES OF KUNERAD G. fOBANOV Just thirteen years ago, at the end of September, 1944, I was sitting in the cellar .o f the Kunerad Castle waiting to die. Death is a terrible word, but in those days death was ·a ,venial thing. People were dying everywhere in SlovaJkia: the "glorious Slovak National Uprising" - as the Benes Czechs, Lettrich "democrats," and SlovaJk and Czech Reds call it - ,w as in full swing. The Kunerad Castle, not far from my home town, I knew well from my youthful days. The spruce forests full of mushrooms, the streams loaded with trout, the plateaus heavily overgrown with bilberries and cranberries, and then the hunting ,p arties in the hills for wild boar - ah, those are happy memories of Kunerad and vicinity, memories of those dearest to me, of my friends and that beautiful corner of .Slovakia which is called Rajec Valley. Memories of September, 1944, however are not so happy. They are memories of one of the s•a ddest chaipters in S'lo:va'k history. Picturesque Rajec Valley, peaceful Kunerad, as many other .Slovak towns and villiages, were going through the first ,p hase of Communist "freedom" or "liberation." And on the meado:w, not far from the Kunerad Castle, where machine-gunn ed bodies of innocent victims thumped into shallow graves. The machine-guns were triggered by the "liberators," and the graves were dug by the victims themselves ! The partisans caught me in RajeCike Teplice as I attempted to escape to unoccupied territory, into Zilina. I was recognized by a certain Czech, an employee of the Zbrojovka (Gunworks) in Povazska Bystrica. Before I knew it, I was .surrounded by a band of partisans armed with rifles ·a nd .automatics. They escorted me to a partisan commissioner, .Sedlacek - the Red from Zilina - in the clinic of the Worlkers' Social Insurance. After a ,b rief questioning, they "liberated" me from my personal papers, press card, money, and revolver; then Sedlacek ordered my escort to �24 SLOVAKIA take me to the Kunerad Castle, the Gene.ml Headquarters of .the Red ,p artisans in the Rajec Valley. At that time I did not know Sedlacek personally, so I was very much surprised to learn during the hearing that he knew so much about me. Later, after "liberation," I found out that my grandmother was his baptismal ,s ponsor and that my parents attended his wedding. My grandfather ,ursed tn ha:ve a large orchavd, and !Sedla-c,eik often came with his family for apples and pears. When the Freethirukers of C2iecho-Slo;va)kia ,propagated the slog,a n "Away from Rome" and wore anti-lP,a pal badges, I was to,l d that Sedlacek once wore one when he came for pears. When grandpa caught sight of the badge, he told Sedlacek to get out and neiVer show his face in our place a,gain. I was very young at the time and, hence, did not remember either Sedlacek or this incident. In the Kunerad Castle I was taken before a Russian, Major Popo;v, the chief oif staff. He ordered me locked up in one of the ,c ellar rooms. I was alone in the room; the guard threw a litrtle strruw on the concrete floor and my furcoat served ,a s a blaniket. Through the barred window I could see the ,a rea in front of the castle. Men and women were 'hauled in on wagoil1's and aufos for questioning; freshly recruited youngsters from Rajec and surrounding communities were brought in on hayracks. Among them I saw two familar faces of former schoolmates with whom I attended the Realka at ZUi.na. Court was he1d in the castle; it did not ta)ke the "jrudge" long to find those ,aippr-e hended "guilty." Then the firing squad marched the .u nfortunate victims away from the castle, singing "Koline." The murderers were commanded by Sedlacek and Spitzer, the latter a Jew who had a dry goods store in Zilina. Arfter the victims dug their own graves to some depth, they were machine-gunned. The shril,l cry of tho,s e poor, innocent victims sti'll rings in my ears. Many men and some women were beaten by the partisans before they were marched out to die. I do not know to this day why, but the fact is that nolbody ,s eemed to bother rubout me. The door of my cell opened three times a day and two, prisoners under guard �SLOVAKIA 25 would brmg me something to eat, most of the time a crust of brea:d with coffee in the morning and evening and sowp at noon. The commander of the guard was a co.r poral of the Slovak Army; he hailed from eastern Slovakia. On two occasions he spolke rather friendly to me; he ,s,aid he would rather run off. He got into the "Uprising" as so many other SlovaJk soldiers did: by the ruse that the Nazis had arrested and taiken President Tiso to Germany, that they had thrown out the Slovak Goivernment, and now were marching in to destroy the Slovak State and to occupy the whole of SlovaJkia. It did not t3Jke him, and so many others, very long to .realize what had happened - then the problem became: how to breaJk away from the partisans. It was not easy. Many boys wound up with a bullet back of the neck for trying .to escape. My cell happened to be directly under the spacious reception room, where the partisans would drink and dance laite into the night. Squeeze boxes screeched. loudly and the old walls of the castle shook as the partisans danced, sang, and shouted with their heavily airmed partners; it was the first time I saw "girl" partisans; they were armed, had grenades around their belts, and Red Cross badges on their shoulders. The time went slowly, terribly slow4y. I was worried and prepared for the rworst. Never in my life did I ipray so much and so ardently a:s I did during those four days and ,nights in the cellar of the Kunerad Castle. My only com1panion, a spider in the darkest corner, undoubtedly was happy that I was there. To pass the time aiway and truke my mind off my troUJbles, I caught flies and fed them to him. Once, when they brought me soup, I was pleasantly surprised. that one of the men carrying the large kettle of so.up was an old ,a cquaintance of mine. Before I could open my mouth, however, to tallk to him, he winked at me, and I caught on, so I said nothing to him. The fourth evening, just when the sun was setting, there ruppeared in the mead.ow in front of the castle a herd of oattle and sheep that were being drirven o.n by several men. Shortly thereafter the corporal mentioned above came to my cell and told me that the shepherds had brought a �26 SLOVAKIA report that the Germans had taken Turciansky Svaty Martin. They were sending diivisions to the Mala Fatra, they said, to clean out the partisan nests. The Red ipartisans were up to their old tricks; they would start trouble and then run off to the mountains, leaving the fight against the Germans to the deceived SlovaJk soldiers. Reportedly German ,u nits were already on the way from the plateaus to the Kunerad Valley and to the castle. Moments later everything was quite a bustle in and around the castle, then momentary quite, after which I heard the Russian partisans barking orders. Lights went out and groups of partisans were speedily leaving thEl castle to lose themselves in the night. Then everything was really quiet. Only the forest hummed its monotonous, eternal song and somewhere in the distance a noctura;l bird would ma!ke itself heard ,f rom .time to time. Before daiwn, somewhere from far off, the thunder of guns resounded and then it was quiet again. In the castle the partisans who had remained were ibusy, piling guns and ammunition on wagons in front of the castle. I called out through the window to attract the attention of one of the men, to find out what was happening, but nobody bothered about me. I banged on the door of my cell, ibut in vain. There was nothing left for me to do ,b ut wait. It was already daylight, but nobody was bringing my breakfast. Suddenly, in the distance, the rat-at-at of machine guns could be heard and later the characteristic rumble of approaching tanks. "THE GERMANS ARE COMING WITH TANKS," someone yelled - and what had been chaos before, now turned into a panic in and around the castle. The firing increased and the rumble o.f the tanlks became louder; shots rang out in the woods nearby and from the castle itself. The partisans took to flight; it seemed that they did not have enough legs to run on. Of course, I was scared, as were the rest of the interned. We could smell smoke. We screaimed and yelled and banged on our doors. Soon the castle was in flames ; the partisans had set it afire be-fore they took off for the woods. Suddenly there was a turn of a key in the lock of �SLOVAKIA 27 my door, and my acquaintance, the cor,poral, yelled out: "Hurry, get out of here!" And, believe me, I lost no time in .getting out! I ran up the stairs to the entrance of the castle and, without regard for anyone and anything, too!k off in the direction of the woods. I had double trouble: I had to stay clear of the partisans and out of sight o;f the Gevman tank gunners who could taJke me for a partisan. In the woods, some distance from where I haippened to be at the time, a group of men and women were wielding picks, axes, and shovels, ma1king a road. After I made my way through the woods, I hit the fields in the direction of Rajecke Teplice; I skirted around the latter because fighting was quite heavy there. I waded through the Rajcinka, then ran through wooded areas again, and then reached Z.ilina. The Kunerad partisans scattered without a fight. Most of the local men returned to their homes. Only Russian parachutists remained in the mountains, awaiting the advent of the Red Army. They had fulfilled their mission. Moscow was not so much interested in any speedy action against the Germans in Slovakia; they were more interested in making trouble for the Slovak Republic and the Slova!k nation, because they knew how the Slovaks felt about Communism. And the Slova!ks, because of their adamant stand against Communism had to suffer much - and are still undergoing much suffering today. The Germans captured Sedlacek. I saw him again, the last time, when on one Octdber Sunday forenoon he was led through the streets of Z.ilina by German field scouts. He had a placard pinned to his coat front which read: "The Kunerad Assassin." The German military court sentenced him to death and the firing squad carried out the sentence. Mass graves - the characteristic symbol of bloody Bolshevilk tyranny everywhere, where the Reds seize power even momentarily. Kunerad is only one of them. Daily their numlber increases, because Coonmunism always finds new victims. It is high time that the free world wakes up and offers some effective resistance, otherwise the sacrifices of those whose bones turn to dust in the mass graves will have been made in vain. - (J ...9457) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 23 MEMORIES OF KUNERAD G. fOBANOV Just thirteen years ago, at the end of September, 1944, I was sitting in the cellar .o f the Kunerad Castle waiting to die. Death is a terrible word, but in those days death was ·a ,venial thing. People were dying everywhere in SlovaJkia: the "glorious Slovak National Uprising" - as the Benes Czechs, Lettrich "democrats," and SlovaJk and Czech Reds call it - ,w as in full swing. The Kunerad Castle, not far from my home town, I knew well from my youthful days. The spruce forests full of mushrooms, the streams loaded with trout, the plateaus heavily overgrown with bilberries and cranberries, and then the hunting ,p arties in the hills for wild boar - ah, those are happy memories of Kunerad and vicinity, memories of those dearest to me, of my friends and that beautiful corner of .Slovakia which is called Rajec Valley. Memories of September, 1944, however are not so happy. They are memories of one of the s•a ddest chaipters in S'lo:va'k history. Picturesque Rajec Valley, peaceful Kunerad, as many other .Slovak towns and villiages, were going through the first ,p hase of Communist "freedom" or "liberation." And on the meado:w, not far from the Kunerad Castle, where machine-gunn ed bodies of innocent victims thumped into shallow graves. The machine-guns were triggered by the "liberators," and the graves were dug by the victims themselves ! The partisans caught me in RajeCike Teplice as I attempted to escape to unoccupied territory, into Zilina. I was recognized by a certain Czech, an employee of the Zbrojovka (Gunworks) in Povazska Bystrica. Before I knew it, I was .surrounded by a band of partisans armed with rifles ·a nd .automatics. They escorted me to a partisan commissioner, .Sedlacek - the Red from Zilina - in the clinic of the Worlkers' Social Insurance. After a ,b rief questioning, they "liberated" me from my personal papers, press card, money, and revolver; then Sedlacek ordered my escort to 24 SLOVAKIA take me to the Kunerad Castle, the Gene.ml Headquarters of .the Red ,p artisans in the Rajec Valley. At that time I did not know Sedlacek personally, so I was very much surprised to learn during the hearing that he knew so much about me. Later, after "liberation," I found out that my grandmother was his baptismal ,s ponsor and that my parents attended his wedding. My grandfather ,ursed tn ha:ve a large orchavd, and !Sedla-c,eik often came with his family for apples and pears. When the Freethirukers of C2iecho-Slo;va)kia ,propagated the slog,a n "Away from Rome" and wore anti-lP,a pal badges, I was to,l d that Sedlacek once wore one when he came for pears. When grandpa caught sight of the badge, he told Sedlacek to get out and neiVer show his face in our place a,gain. I was very young at the time and, hence, did not remember either Sedlacek or this incident. In the Kunerad Castle I was taken before a Russian, Major Popo;v, the chief oif staff. He ordered me locked up in one of the ,c ellar rooms. I was alone in the room; the guard threw a litrtle strruw on the concrete floor and my furcoat served ,a s a blaniket. Through the barred window I could see the ,a rea in front of the castle. Men and women were 'hauled in on wagoil1's and aufos for questioning; freshly recruited youngsters from Rajec and surrounding communities were brought in on hayracks. Among them I saw two familar faces of former schoolmates with whom I attended the Realka at ZUi.na. Court was he1d in the castle; it did not ta)ke the "jrudge" long to find those ,aippr-e hended "guilty." Then the firing squad marched the .u nfortunate victims away from the castle, singing "Koline." The murderers were commanded by Sedlacek and Spitzer, the latter a Jew who had a dry goods store in Zilina. Arfter the victims dug their own graves to some depth, they were machine-gunned. The shril,l cry of tho,s e poor, innocent victims sti'll rings in my ears. Many men and some women were beaten by the partisans before they were marched out to die. I do not know to this day why, but the fact is that nolbody ,s eemed to bother rubout me. The door of my cell opened three times a day and two, prisoners under guard SLOVAKIA 25 would brmg me something to eat, most of the time a crust of brea:d with coffee in the morning and evening and sowp at noon. The commander of the guard was a co.r poral of the Slovak Army; he hailed from eastern Slovakia. On two occasions he spolke rather friendly to me; he ,s,aid he would rather run off. He got into the "Uprising" as so many other SlovaJk soldiers did: by the ruse that the Nazis had arrested and taiken President Tiso to Germany, that they had thrown out the Slovak Goivernment, and now were marching in to destroy the Slovak State and to occupy the whole of SlovaJkia. It did not t3Jke him, and so many others, very long to .realize what had happened - then the problem became: how to breaJk away from the partisans. It was not easy. Many boys wound up with a bullet back of the neck for trying .to escape. My cell happened to be directly under the spacious reception room, where the partisans would drink and dance laite into the night. Squeeze boxes screeched. loudly and the old walls of the castle shook as the partisans danced, sang, and shouted with their heavily airmed partners; it was the first time I saw "girl" partisans; they were armed, had grenades around their belts, and Red Cross badges on their shoulders. The time went slowly, terribly slow4y. I was worried and prepared for the rworst. Never in my life did I ipray so much and so ardently a:s I did during those four days and ,nights in the cellar of the Kunerad Castle. My only com1panion, a spider in the darkest corner, undoubtedly was happy that I was there. To pass the time aiway and truke my mind off my troUJbles, I caught flies and fed them to him. Once, when they brought me soup, I was pleasantly surprised. that one of the men carrying the large kettle of so.up was an old ,a cquaintance of mine. Before I could open my mouth, however, to tallk to him, he winked at me, and I caught on, so I said nothing to him. The fourth evening, just when the sun was setting, there ruppeared in the mead.ow in front of the castle a herd of oattle and sheep that were being drirven o.n by several men. Shortly thereafter the corporal mentioned above came to my cell and told me that the shepherds had brought a 26 SLOVAKIA report that the Germans had taken Turciansky Svaty Martin. They were sending diivisions to the Mala Fatra, they said, to clean out the partisan nests. The Red ipartisans were up to their old tricks; they would start trouble and then run off to the mountains, leaving the fight against the Germans to the deceived SlovaJk soldiers. Reportedly German ,u nits were already on the way from the plateaus to the Kunerad Valley and to the castle. Moments later everything was quite a bustle in and around the castle, then momentary quite, after which I heard the Russian partisans barking orders. Lights went out and groups of partisans were speedily leaving thEl castle to lose themselves in the night. Then everything was really quiet. Only the forest hummed its monotonous, eternal song and somewhere in the distance a noctura;l bird would ma!ke itself heard ,f rom .time to time. Before daiwn, somewhere from far off, the thunder of guns resounded and then it was quiet again. In the castle the partisans who had remained were ibusy, piling guns and ammunition on wagons in front of the castle. I called out through the window to attract the attention of one of the men, to find out what was happening, but nobody bothered about me. I banged on the door of my cell, ibut in vain. There was nothing left for me to do ,b ut wait. It was already daylight, but nobody was bringing my breakfast. Suddenly, in the distance, the rat-at-at of machine guns could be heard and later the characteristic rumble of approaching tanks. "THE GERMANS ARE COMING WITH TANKS," someone yelled - and what had been chaos before, now turned into a panic in and around the castle. The firing increased and the rumble o.f the tanlks became louder; shots rang out in the woods nearby and from the castle itself. The partisans took to flight; it seemed that they did not have enough legs to run on. Of course, I was scared, as were the rest of the interned. We could smell smoke. We screaimed and yelled and banged on our doors. Soon the castle was in flames ; the partisans had set it afire be-fore they took off for the woods. Suddenly there was a turn of a key in the lock of SLOVAKIA 27 my door, and my acquaintance, the cor,poral, yelled out: "Hurry, get out of here!" And, believe me, I lost no time in .getting out! I ran up the stairs to the entrance of the castle and, without regard for anyone and anything, too!k off in the direction of the woods. I had double trouble: I had to stay clear of the partisans and out of sight o;f the Gevman tank gunners who could taJke me for a partisan. In the woods, some distance from where I haippened to be at the time, a group of men and women were wielding picks, axes, and shovels, ma1king a road. After I made my way through the woods, I hit the fields in the direction of Rajecke Teplice; I skirted around the latter because fighting was quite heavy there. I waded through the Rajcinka, then ran through wooded areas again, and then reached Z.ilina. The Kunerad partisans scattered without a fight. Most of the local men returned to their homes. Only Russian parachutists remained in the mountains, awaiting the advent of the Red Army. They had fulfilled their mission. Moscow was not so much interested in any speedy action against the Germans in Slovakia; they were more interested in making trouble for the Slovak Republic and the Slova!k nation, because they knew how the Slovaks felt about Communism. And the Slova!ks, because of their adamant stand against Communism had to suffer much - and are still undergoing much suffering today. The Germans captured Sedlacek. I saw him again, the last time, when on one Octdber Sunday forenoon he was led through the streets of Z.ilina by German field scouts. He had a placard pinned to his coat front which read: "The Kunerad Assassin." The German military court sentenced him to death and the firing squad carried out the sentence. Mass graves - the characteristic symbol of bloody Bolshevilk tyranny everywhere, where the Reds seize power even momentarily. Kunerad is only one of them. Daily their numlber increases, because Coonmunism always finds new victims. It is high time that the free world wakes up and offers some effective resistance, otherwise the sacrifices of those whose bones turn to dust in the mass graves will have been made in vain. - (J ...9457)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Memories of Kunerad Description An account of the resource G. Čobanov Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25), September-December 1957 pp. 23-27 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Čobanov, G. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9ec0d1da160774fe570dfe22c6987e16.pdf 578dea45c029c313fbce23f37ad40cbe PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 32 1939; Vefka Morava a Pofsko, rn33. Ungarns Volkerschaften im XI. Jahrhundert, Dr. I. Kn iesza, 1938. Zur Geschichte der ungarisch-slowakischen ethnischen Grenze, Dr. I. K niezsa, 19 41. Slovanske starozitnosti, P avel J . Safa rik, Vol. II, 2nd ed., 1863. Slovenske starozitnosti, Dr. I'..ubor Niederle, 1906, 1910. Narodopisni mapa Uher podle ured. lexikonu osad z r. 1n3, A . P e trov , 1924. Pribinovi Vermozi , Dr. J an Stanislav, 1939-40. Nehai'ite l'ud moj, Dr. Jo zef Skult ety, 1928 . • • • MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Ph.D. The University of California recently published an excellent symposium on the great Polish poet and patriot, Adam Mickiewicz, whose centenary has been commemorated throughout the world since 1955. Altogether 30 scholars and experts in Slavistics, representing over 20 nations and universities, contributed to this remarkable volume, edited by the eminent Polish scholar, professor Waclaw Lednicki. The volume has been published under the impressive title "Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature," and the editor actually succeeded in presenting Mickiewicz's influence on World literatures. Slovakia is represented by two contributions and is also mentioned in an article of a Czech scholar, who quite sincerely tried not to make the usual mistake of confusing Slovak and Czech poets and writers. The main article on Slovak literature in connection with Mickiekicz was written by the known expert in Slavic studies, professor Dimitry Cizevsky from Harvard, who in his scholarly study deals mainly with the poetry of two outstanding Slovak romantics: r..udovit Stur and Janka KraP. Cizevsky admits "that Mickiewicz's influence on Slovak literature was undoubtedly significant," but he warns at the same time against the "parallels" which are not parallels at all. This remark refers mainly to a Polish expert on Slovak poetry, Wladyslaw Bobek, whose work twenty-five years ago aimed to demonstrate the part which the poetry of Mickiewicz played in the works of - out of the theo- �SLOVAKIA 33 retical basis and in the poetic practice of Slovak poets above all, the Slovak romantic poets. In this respect Bobek succeeded according to Cizevsky. The second article on Slovak literature is a note on two modern Slovak translators of Mickiewicz, Hviezdoslav and Zarnov, contributed by this writer. Since on the Polish side also professor M. Majowski of the University of Montreal published sometime ago an interesting study on Polish-Slovak cultural relations in "Zew mlodych," we should not miss this occasion to demonstrate on Mickiewicz's example how extensive and important the cultural ties between Poland and Slovakia already were in the past century. The impact of Mickiewicz on Slovak literature was so strong that the Slovaks have not only all his works translated into the Slovak language, but we find two or three various translations. Three Slovak generations attempted to transplant the beauty of Mickiewicz's poetry into Slovak literary life. Since the first Mickiewicz's poems appeared, the generation of I?,udovit Stur, (1815-1856) recited and drew enthusiasm for the Slovak national cause from Mickiewicz's works. Slovak poets of the nineteenth century (Jan Botto, Janko Matuska, K. Kuzmany, Peter Bella- Horal etc.) translated Mickiewicz's ballads, the Ode to the Youth, his Forefather's Eve, Konrad Wallenrod, and other verses, though they preferred to read and recite the Polish original, as we shall see further. The following generation produced an admirer and translator in the person of the great Slovak poet, Pavo! 0. Hviezdoslav, and contemporary Slovak poetry was enriched by masterful translations of Andrej Zarnov, Matus Zjara, Rudo Brtaii, and Jan Holy. While we shall speak of Hviezdoslav's and Zarnov's translations extensively, it is worthwhile to mention that even very recently, in the martyrized Slovakia, there were translations and adequate commentaries of Mickiewicz's Books of the Polish Nation and Books of the Polish Pilgrimage by a persecuted Catholic priest-poet hidden behind the pseudonym Matus Zjara. A new translation of "Pan �SLOVAKIA Tadeusz" was prepared by Rudo Brtaii, and professor Jan Holy translated Jastrun's essay on Mickiewicz. We have, however, to point out that the quantity of Slovak translations from the various Slavic literatures has never adequately reflected either the popularity of the great Slavic writers and poets in Slovakia or Slovak interest in them. From the second half of the nineteenth century, when Slovakia made her contribution to the PanSlavic idea by producing its most famous exponents in the persons of Jan Kollar, P. J. Safarik, and Eudovit Stur, the Slovak "intelligentsia" expressed their Pan-Slavic sympathy and tendencies by reading Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, and Jugoslav authors in the original. The geographic situation of Slovakia and the central position of Slovak among the Slavic languages account for this peculiar phenomenon in Slovak cultural life. Under these circumstances, until recently we have had in Slovak literature a larger number of translations from non-Slavic languages (German, French, English, and Scandinavian) than from the Slavic, and this in spite of the fact that Slovak literature, especially in the nineteenth century, developed under the strong influence of the outstanding works of Russian, Polish, and other Slav authors. Again, being fundamentally national and romantic, Slovak poetry and fiction were marked, like Polish and Russian literature, by an extensive use of folk tradition and regionalism, and Slovakia's greatest poets drew on folklore and legend in the same way and to the same extent as did the other Slavs. Adam Mickiewicz, who influenced Slovak literature and cultural efforts more than any other Pole, offers an excellent illustration of the situation we have just described. A whole generation of Slovak writers drew enthusiasm, inspiration, and incentive from Mickiewicz's Ode to Youth(l) and his ballads, as well as from his Konrad Walenrod, Pan Tadeusz, and the Crimean Sonnets. For the Slovak contemporaries of Mickiewicz, namely, the group of Eudovit Stur, the Ode became "an armory of maxims, slogans, and appeals, which were used as mottoes for their collections of poetry, individual works, and publications on every possible �SLOVAKIA 35 occasion," and, according to W. Bobek, "not even in Poland has the Ode been so enthusiastically received as in Slovakia. "(2) However, with the exception of the ballads, translations of the Ode, as well as of other works of Mickiewicz that enjoyed a wide popularity among the Slovak writers of the nineteenth century, began to appear only in the twentieth century. Artistically, the best of these translations are without doubt those made by two outstanding Slovak poets, Pavol Orszagh Hviezdoslav and Andrej Zarnov . • • • P. 0. Hviezdoslav,(3) who "elevated Slovak literature to its highest peak, and gave it a true greatness and depth, and who in his national note comes near to Mickiewicz, in his artistry to the poetry of Vrchlicky, and in his strong love for his people and popular art to the works of Shevchenko, "(4) translated not only Miskiewicz's Crimean Sonnets, but also his Faris, Sages, Out of My Sight, and Girl at the Crossroads (the last mistakingly ascribed to Mickiewicz; Bobek identifies the author as J. Jezowski), thus completing the series of translations done by P . Bella-Horal, Janko Matuska, Stefan Krcmery, Botto, and others.(5) Although at first glance the translation of Polish poetry into Slovak may seem an easy task, owing to the close relationship between the two languages, this is far from being so. One reason is that, while Slovak verse bases its rhythm on the accent, Polish verse is syllabic. Another is that similar words in both languages are often not semantically equivalent.(6) It is a further difficulty to the translator of Mickiewicz that the author is a man of genius, with a style of his own, and a special variety of metaphors and peculiarities of expression. Hviezdoslav more than anyone else had, however, all the gifts needed, not only to overcome these difficulties, but at the same time to master the poetic forms and apprehend the spiritual greatness of Mickiewicz's poetry. Hviezdoslav was not only "the most important personality among the Slovak poets representing the transition from romanticism to realism"(7) and, therefore, suited spiritually to i~NS£.~lt:IBR'Jmy'epresentative of Polish ro- ~ !~~~~~VILLE STATE CO.LLEGr �36 SLOVAKIA manticism and messianism, whom he resembled by force of his own poetic visioin and prophetic sense and by his attachment to the national cause and his oppressed Slovak people; his poetic language, too - rich and varied, weighty, and filled with dialectical expressior,is and metaphors was sufficiently plastic and mature to convey the artistic brilliance of Mickiewicz's poetry. Translator of Goethe's Faust, Shakespeare's Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream, of Lermontov, Schiller, and Slowacki, as well as of the monumental work of Mada.ch - The Tragedy of Man, - and, in his original verse, a master of the most complicated forms, from distich and sestina to ghazel and ritornello, Hviezdoslav also possessed full technical equipment for the task of translating the Polish classics. It is not, therefore, mere courtesy when Professor Bobek writes that Hviezdoslav's translation of the Crimean Sonnets is really "masterful" and adds that the Eastern coloring of the language, so characteristic of the Sonnets, was not only preserved by Hviezdoslav but sometimes actually enriched through the use, in the translation, of the Eastern terms which Mickiewicz cited in his explanatory notes. And Bobek concludes that "on the whole, the translation of the Crimean Sonnets stands on an equal footing with the original work and can be considered as one of Hviezdoslav's best translations," (8) an opinion that is fully shared by the present writer and by many literary critics. Although Hviezdoslav's translation of Faris differs slightly in form from the original, it is nevertheless equally faithful, and artistically thorough. A comparison of texts, which unfortunately is not practicable here, would supply ample proof. In comparison with the earlier translations from Mickiewicz, especially those of i:;tur's group, the translations made by Hviezdoslav are not so close to the Polish original either in means of expression or in meter; they are poetical interpretation s, done in acordance with the rules of Slovak prosody. No influence of Mickiewicz's poetry on the original creative work of Hviezdoslav has so far been detected by an.y literary analyst or critic. W. Bobek notes that theories �SLOVAKIA 37 kave been brought forth to the effect that Pan Thadeusz influenced the composition of Hviezdoslav's longer epic poems, but that there is no supporting evidence. He adds, kowever, that Hviezdoslav's epic poems, such as The Forester's Wife, Ezo Vlkolinsky, and Gabor Vlkolinsky, form a counterpart, on Slovak soil, of the Polish epic.(9) We may conclude the comparison by stating that there was a strong spiritual affinity between the two poets and that Hviezdoslav, like Mickiewicz, by his own poetry as well as by his translations gave his fellow countrymen a vision of what they might long for and accomplish, and implemented the vision with practical and profound Christian maxims . • • • In the turmoil of the Second World War, Andrej Zarnov, (10) one of the best modern Slovak poets, prepared an entire book of translations from Mickiewicz. The volume was published "in order to transplant Mickiewicz's works to Slovak soil and thereby strengthen the structure of Slavic brotherhood in the cultural sector," and because "in world literature there are only a few great poets who in the works of their genius accumulate and present so universally, profoundly, and magnificently the history of the efforts , failures , and spiritual achievements of their own people as does Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish and allSlavic poet."(11) The book appeared in 1948, published by the Slovak Catholic cultural institution the "Society of St. Adalbert." A. Zarnov, who was awarded a silver wreath by the Polish Academy of Literature in recognition of his earlier translations from Polish poetry (published in a volume entitled U pofskych basnikov), is an outstanding translator of lyrics, epics, and dramas. Of his original works Andrej Mraz, Professor of Slovak Literature at the University of Bratislava, writes: "By its fiery words and resounding verses Zarnov's poetry became an efficacious instrument in the Slovak national struggle; events of major national importance, reminiscences of history and its tragedies, find in him a militant and inflamed interpreter of the national aspirations and will-power of his people. Yet he also arrived, in his effort to find a harmony between the individual and the universe, at a lyrical as well as philosophical �38 SLOVAKIA poetry."(12) Let us add that he in fact became one of the Slovak poets who penetrated and stirred to the depths the spirit of his generation and especially of the young intelligentsia, helped to bring them to a strong awareness of their spiritual and national individuality, and successfully summoned them to the struggle for justice and freedom. Without exaggeration we can assert that 2arnov has been, in his generation, artistically and spiritually the best prepared to transmit the heritage of Mickiewicz's greatest and most beautiful poems into Slovak literature. And he did it with great artistic skill and brilliance. His volume Poezia contains not only the eighteen Crimean Sonnets, but also Konrad Wallenrod, the Ode to Youth, To a Polish Mother, To My Muscovite Friends, Sages, A Vision, The Master of Masters, Flight, and Out of My Sight, thus present• ing some valuable lyrics along with his patriotic verse tale about his fatherland. The Crimean Sonnets in 2arnov's Slovak translation remain "a wonder" and "some of the most beautiful pages in all European poetry of the century," since he has preserved to a great degree the "richness of beauty of the poetic expression which always takes us by surprise and makes us marvel at the audacity of thought and the moral courage which produce the special splendor of this colleclection."(13) 2arnov's poetic language is, naturally. more modern, his verse and rhythm more vivid, and the whole translation more audacious even than that of Hviezdoslav. Where Hviezdoslav tried to preserve not only the images and metaphors but also the expressions and rhymes, using words from the dialect of his native region, 2arnov found in his own rich poetical invention the metaphors and poetic visions to express Mickiewicz's ideas and colorful images. The translation of Konrad Wallenrod can be considered as standing not far behind the original in many respects. This poem (which was translated for the first time into Slovak in 1907 by Peter Bella-Horal) made a strong impact on the group of Sh1r's followers , who recited and imitated especially the Song of the Wajdoleta. 2arnov's translation is a poetical and genuine interpretation, equaling in beauty Mickiewicz's own work. 2arnov is certainly no romantic �SLOVAKIA 39 in the pattern of the last century, but still an enthusiastic patriot who sings in his poetry a hymn to his crucified country, dooming its traitors and fighting for justice, one who has consecrated his life and his heart to his fatherland. More than anyone else among modern Slovak poets he was, therefore, predestined to enrich modern Slovak literature by this Byronic work of great charm and poetic vision, which "of the many and often highly inspired types of Byronism in Polish poetry ranks highest."(14) .Zarnov's versions of the Ode to Youth and To My Muscovite Friends are to be remembered not only for brilliance of translation (which could be demonstrated only by quotations and comparisons of texts), but also for the purpose which the translator wished to serve. The volume Poezia was published after the tragic experiences which the Russian occupation of Slovakia brought to the people of Jan Kollar, P. J. Safarik, and Ludovit Stur, founders of the cultural as well as political Pan-Slavism of the last century . .Zarnov, to whom the national cause has always been a question of honor and personal dedication, addressed, in Mickiewicz's mordant verses, the new Muscovite rulers and sumoned Slovak youth to the dynamic faith which Mickiewicz, in the Ode to Youth, expressed for Poles under very similar circumstances. .Zarnov's translations were thus to serve after a century the same aim as Mickiewicz had assigned to his poetry. Through the literary works of Mickiewicz .Zarnov wished to teach the Slovaks, as Mickiewicz ha:d the Poles, "to regard as their personal affair the great questions of honor and dedication, truth and falsehood, nobility of ends and legitimacy of means for attaining them." .Zarnov attempted to convince his martyred people that "the national cause must become an autochthonous idea, the ultimate moral criterion around which the entire spiritual life of the nation is crystallized." The real function of .Zarnov's poetry and translation was, like that of Mickiewicz's, not "to provide artistic enjoyment or to refine aesthetic taste, but primarily to equip his people with the spiritual resources necessary to enable them to survive their enslavement and to fight for their freedom. (15) �40 · SLOVAKIA The Muscovite rulers in Slovakia grasped his intention and silenced the book. Zarnov, under constant threat of arrest and deportation, and many times in prison, made a dramatic flight from his country and now fights in exile for his ideas and those of Mickiewicz. (1) See Wladyslaw Bobek, Mickiewicz w literaturze slovackiej (Prague, 1931), pp. 9-10. (2) Ibid. (3) P. 0 . Hviezdoslav (1849-1921) is the pseudonym of Pavo! Orszagh. By occupation a lawyer, he published several volumes of lyrics, one of them (Bloody Sonnets) translated into English, dramas (Herodes a Herodias), epics (Hajnikova zena, Ezo Vlkolinsky, Gabor Vlkolinsky, Agar, Rachel, Kain), and four volumes of translations from world literature. Altogether his poetry was published in fifteen large volumes. (4) See W . Bobek, "Dzieje literatury slowackiej w zarysie," in Slowacja i Slowacy, edited by W. Semkowicz (Cracow, 1937), pp. 357 ff. (5) Among recent Slovak translations from Mickiewicz are his Books of the Polish Nation and Books of the Polish Pilgrimage, translated by Matus Zjara (Kosice, 1947). Jastrun's study of Mickiewicz, translated by Jan Holy, was published in 1950 by Tatran, in Bratislava. Professor R. Brtan has translated Pan Tadeusz, and Matus Zjara has published a penetrating study of Mickiewicz and his relations with Moscow. (6) Stefan Krcmery, outstanding essayist, translator, and poet, states that "Stu.r's group based its poetry on popular songs, Pushkin's and Mickiewicz's works" (Slovenske Pohl'ady, Vol. XLVII [1931], p. 132. W . Bobek has published a study on this subject in which he tries to prove that the metrics of Stu.r's group is based on the Polish poetry. See Kultura, Vol. V, No. 4, pp. 248-256. (7) See Otto Radl, in Handbook of Slavic Studies, edited by L I. Strakhovsky (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), p. 496. (8) See W. Bobek, Mickiewicz w literaturze slowackiej, p. 57. (9) Page 43. (10) Andrej Zarnov is the pseudonym of Frantisek Subik, former professor at the University of Bratislava, at present in Washington. He was born in 1903 in Slovakia. His main published works are Straz pri Morave (1925), Brazda cez Uhory (1929), Hlas krvi (1932), Stit (1940), and Mrtvy (1941). (11) Introduction to the volume Poezia, pp. 121-133. (12) Andreas Mraz, Die Literatur der Slowaken (Berlin-PragueVienna: Volk und Reich Verlag, 1943), pp. 187-188. �41 SLOVAKIA (13) See Waclaw Lednicki, Life and Culture of Poland (New York: Ray Publishers, 1944), p. 176 etc. (14) See Roman Dyboski, Poland in World Civilization (New York, 1950), p. 213. (15) See J . Nechon's essay on Stefan Zeronski in Harvard Slavic Studies, Vol. II, (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), pp. 323-324. • • • WF, MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES (Address By Hon. William F. Knowland Before Inaugural Nationalities Banquet, January 20, 1957) It is most fitting that this banquet, held on the eve of the public inaugural ceremonies of the President and Vice President of the United States, should be under the sponsorship of the Nationalities Advisory Committee and the Inaugural Nationalities committee. Firstly, with the exception of American Indians, in this new world all of us ourse1ves or our parents, grandparent.a, or more distant forebears, came front the old worlds of Europe, Asia, or Africa. While as citizens of the United States our loyalty is to this great ·r epublic it is also natural that there remain ties of historic interests, family or racial connections, and religious beliefs, together with our natural humanitarian instincts, that makes what happens in Budapest, Berlin, London, Peiping, Cairo, or any other city large or small more than just newspaper datelines. Secondly, the naJtiona:lities groups throughout our country made notable contriibutions to the reelection of our great president Dwight D. Eisenhower a:nd our able and effective Vice President Rihard M. Nixon. Not only are you entitled to be here to witness the culmination of your individual and •c ollective constructive labors in the last campaign but you have earned the right to a respectful hearing to your recommendations. There are many great problems confronting our country domestic and foreign. The President in his address on the Middle East resolution, in his staite of ,t he Union message, in his inaugural address tomorrow, or in future special messaiges to the Congress will discuss them. � SLOVAKIA 32 1939; Vefka Morava a Pofsko, rn33. Ungarns Volkerschaften im XI. Jahrhundert, Dr. I. Kn iesza, 1938. Zur Geschichte der ungarisch-slowakischen ethnischen Grenze, Dr. I. K niezsa, 19 41. Slovanske starozitnosti, P avel J . Safa rik, Vol. II, 2nd ed., 1863. Slovenske starozitnosti, Dr. I'..ubor Niederle, 1906, 1910. Narodopisni mapa Uher podle ured. lexikonu osad z r. 1n3, A . P e trov , 1924. Pribinovi Vermozi , Dr. J an Stanislav, 1939-40. Nehai'ite l'ud moj, Dr. Jo zef Skult ety, 1928 . • • • MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Ph.D. The University of California recently published an excellent symposium on the great Polish poet and patriot, Adam Mickiewicz, whose centenary has been commemorated throughout the world since 1955. Altogether 30 scholars and experts in Slavistics, representing over 20 nations and universities, contributed to this remarkable volume, edited by the eminent Polish scholar, professor Waclaw Lednicki. The volume has been published under the impressive title "Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature," and the editor actually succeeded in presenting Mickiewicz's influence on World literatures. Slovakia is represented by two contributions and is also mentioned in an article of a Czech scholar, who quite sincerely tried not to make the usual mistake of confusing Slovak and Czech poets and writers. The main article on Slovak literature in connection with Mickiekicz was written by the known expert in Slavic studies, professor Dimitry Cizevsky from Harvard, who in his scholarly study deals mainly with the poetry of two outstanding Slovak romantics: r..udovit Stur and Janka KraP. Cizevsky admits "that Mickiewicz's influence on Slovak literature was undoubtedly significant," but he warns at the same time against the "parallels" which are not parallels at all. This remark refers mainly to a Polish expert on Slovak poetry, Wladyslaw Bobek, whose work twenty-five years ago aimed to demonstrate the part which the poetry of Mickiewicz played in the works of - out of the theo- �SLOVAKIA 33 retical basis and in the poetic practice of Slovak poets above all, the Slovak romantic poets. In this respect Bobek succeeded according to Cizevsky. The second article on Slovak literature is a note on two modern Slovak translators of Mickiewicz, Hviezdoslav and Zarnov, contributed by this writer. Since on the Polish side also professor M. Majowski of the University of Montreal published sometime ago an interesting study on Polish-Slovak cultural relations in "Zew mlodych," we should not miss this occasion to demonstrate on Mickiewicz's example how extensive and important the cultural ties between Poland and Slovakia already were in the past century. The impact of Mickiewicz on Slovak literature was so strong that the Slovaks have not only all his works translated into the Slovak language, but we find two or three various translations. Three Slovak generations attempted to transplant the beauty of Mickiewicz's poetry into Slovak literary life. Since the first Mickiewicz's poems appeared, the generation of I?,udovit Stur, (1815-1856) recited and drew enthusiasm for the Slovak national cause from Mickiewicz's works. Slovak poets of the nineteenth century (Jan Botto, Janko Matuska, K. Kuzmany, Peter Bella- Horal etc.) translated Mickiewicz's ballads, the Ode to the Youth, his Forefather's Eve, Konrad Wallenrod, and other verses, though they preferred to read and recite the Polish original, as we shall see further. The following generation produced an admirer and translator in the person of the great Slovak poet, Pavo! 0. Hviezdoslav, and contemporary Slovak poetry was enriched by masterful translations of Andrej Zarnov, Matus Zjara, Rudo Brtaii, and Jan Holy. While we shall speak of Hviezdoslav's and Zarnov's translations extensively, it is worthwhile to mention that even very recently, in the martyrized Slovakia, there were translations and adequate commentaries of Mickiewicz's Books of the Polish Nation and Books of the Polish Pilgrimage by a persecuted Catholic priest-poet hidden behind the pseudonym Matus Zjara. A new translation of "Pan �SLOVAKIA Tadeusz" was prepared by Rudo Brtaii, and professor Jan Holy translated Jastrun's essay on Mickiewicz. We have, however, to point out that the quantity of Slovak translations from the various Slavic literatures has never adequately reflected either the popularity of the great Slavic writers and poets in Slovakia or Slovak interest in them. From the second half of the nineteenth century, when Slovakia made her contribution to the PanSlavic idea by producing its most famous exponents in the persons of Jan Kollar, P. J. Safarik, and Eudovit Stur, the Slovak "intelligentsia" expressed their Pan-Slavic sympathy and tendencies by reading Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, and Jugoslav authors in the original. The geographic situation of Slovakia and the central position of Slovak among the Slavic languages account for this peculiar phenomenon in Slovak cultural life. Under these circumstances, until recently we have had in Slovak literature a larger number of translations from non-Slavic languages (German, French, English, and Scandinavian) than from the Slavic, and this in spite of the fact that Slovak literature, especially in the nineteenth century, developed under the strong influence of the outstanding works of Russian, Polish, and other Slav authors. Again, being fundamentally national and romantic, Slovak poetry and fiction were marked, like Polish and Russian literature, by an extensive use of folk tradition and regionalism, and Slovakia's greatest poets drew on folklore and legend in the same way and to the same extent as did the other Slavs. Adam Mickiewicz, who influenced Slovak literature and cultural efforts more than any other Pole, offers an excellent illustration of the situation we have just described. A whole generation of Slovak writers drew enthusiasm, inspiration, and incentive from Mickiewicz's Ode to Youth(l) and his ballads, as well as from his Konrad Walenrod, Pan Tadeusz, and the Crimean Sonnets. For the Slovak contemporaries of Mickiewicz, namely, the group of Eudovit Stur, the Ode became "an armory of maxims, slogans, and appeals, which were used as mottoes for their collections of poetry, individual works, and publications on every possible �SLOVAKIA 35 occasion," and, according to W. Bobek, "not even in Poland has the Ode been so enthusiastically received as in Slovakia. "(2) However, with the exception of the ballads, translations of the Ode, as well as of other works of Mickiewicz that enjoyed a wide popularity among the Slovak writers of the nineteenth century, began to appear only in the twentieth century. Artistically, the best of these translations are without doubt those made by two outstanding Slovak poets, Pavol Orszagh Hviezdoslav and Andrej Zarnov . • • • P. 0. Hviezdoslav,(3) who "elevated Slovak literature to its highest peak, and gave it a true greatness and depth, and who in his national note comes near to Mickiewicz, in his artistry to the poetry of Vrchlicky, and in his strong love for his people and popular art to the works of Shevchenko, "(4) translated not only Miskiewicz's Crimean Sonnets, but also his Faris, Sages, Out of My Sight, and Girl at the Crossroads (the last mistakingly ascribed to Mickiewicz; Bobek identifies the author as J. Jezowski), thus completing the series of translations done by P . Bella-Horal, Janko Matuska, Stefan Krcmery, Botto, and others.(5) Although at first glance the translation of Polish poetry into Slovak may seem an easy task, owing to the close relationship between the two languages, this is far from being so. One reason is that, while Slovak verse bases its rhythm on the accent, Polish verse is syllabic. Another is that similar words in both languages are often not semantically equivalent.(6) It is a further difficulty to the translator of Mickiewicz that the author is a man of genius, with a style of his own, and a special variety of metaphors and peculiarities of expression. Hviezdoslav more than anyone else had, however, all the gifts needed, not only to overcome these difficulties, but at the same time to master the poetic forms and apprehend the spiritual greatness of Mickiewicz's poetry. Hviezdoslav was not only "the most important personality among the Slovak poets representing the transition from romanticism to realism"(7) and, therefore, suited spiritually to i~NS£.~lt:IBR'Jmy'epresentative of Polish ro- ~ !~~~~~VILLE STATE CO.LLEGr �36 SLOVAKIA manticism and messianism, whom he resembled by force of his own poetic visioin and prophetic sense and by his attachment to the national cause and his oppressed Slovak people; his poetic language, too - rich and varied, weighty, and filled with dialectical expressior,is and metaphors was sufficiently plastic and mature to convey the artistic brilliance of Mickiewicz's poetry. Translator of Goethe's Faust, Shakespeare's Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream, of Lermontov, Schiller, and Slowacki, as well as of the monumental work of Mada.ch - The Tragedy of Man, - and, in his original verse, a master of the most complicated forms, from distich and sestina to ghazel and ritornello, Hviezdoslav also possessed full technical equipment for the task of translating the Polish classics. It is not, therefore, mere courtesy when Professor Bobek writes that Hviezdoslav's translation of the Crimean Sonnets is really "masterful" and adds that the Eastern coloring of the language, so characteristic of the Sonnets, was not only preserved by Hviezdoslav but sometimes actually enriched through the use, in the translation, of the Eastern terms which Mickiewicz cited in his explanatory notes. And Bobek concludes that "on the whole, the translation of the Crimean Sonnets stands on an equal footing with the original work and can be considered as one of Hviezdoslav's best translations," (8) an opinion that is fully shared by the present writer and by many literary critics. Although Hviezdoslav's translation of Faris differs slightly in form from the original, it is nevertheless equally faithful, and artistically thorough. A comparison of texts, which unfortunately is not practicable here, would supply ample proof. In comparison with the earlier translations from Mickiewicz, especially those of i:;tur's group, the translations made by Hviezdoslav are not so close to the Polish original either in means of expression or in meter; they are poetical interpretation s, done in acordance with the rules of Slovak prosody. No influence of Mickiewicz's poetry on the original creative work of Hviezdoslav has so far been detected by an.y literary analyst or critic. W. Bobek notes that theories �SLOVAKIA 37 kave been brought forth to the effect that Pan Thadeusz influenced the composition of Hviezdoslav's longer epic poems, but that there is no supporting evidence. He adds, kowever, that Hviezdoslav's epic poems, such as The Forester's Wife, Ezo Vlkolinsky, and Gabor Vlkolinsky, form a counterpart, on Slovak soil, of the Polish epic.(9) We may conclude the comparison by stating that there was a strong spiritual affinity between the two poets and that Hviezdoslav, like Mickiewicz, by his own poetry as well as by his translations gave his fellow countrymen a vision of what they might long for and accomplish, and implemented the vision with practical and profound Christian maxims . • • • In the turmoil of the Second World War, Andrej Zarnov, (10) one of the best modern Slovak poets, prepared an entire book of translations from Mickiewicz. The volume was published "in order to transplant Mickiewicz's works to Slovak soil and thereby strengthen the structure of Slavic brotherhood in the cultural sector," and because "in world literature there are only a few great poets who in the works of their genius accumulate and present so universally, profoundly, and magnificently the history of the efforts , failures , and spiritual achievements of their own people as does Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish and allSlavic poet."(11) The book appeared in 1948, published by the Slovak Catholic cultural institution the "Society of St. Adalbert." A. Zarnov, who was awarded a silver wreath by the Polish Academy of Literature in recognition of his earlier translations from Polish poetry (published in a volume entitled U pofskych basnikov), is an outstanding translator of lyrics, epics, and dramas. Of his original works Andrej Mraz, Professor of Slovak Literature at the University of Bratislava, writes: "By its fiery words and resounding verses Zarnov's poetry became an efficacious instrument in the Slovak national struggle; events of major national importance, reminiscences of history and its tragedies, find in him a militant and inflamed interpreter of the national aspirations and will-power of his people. Yet he also arrived, in his effort to find a harmony between the individual and the universe, at a lyrical as well as philosophical �38 SLOVAKIA poetry."(12) Let us add that he in fact became one of the Slovak poets who penetrated and stirred to the depths the spirit of his generation and especially of the young intelligentsia, helped to bring them to a strong awareness of their spiritual and national individuality, and successfully summoned them to the struggle for justice and freedom. Without exaggeration we can assert that 2arnov has been, in his generation, artistically and spiritually the best prepared to transmit the heritage of Mickiewicz's greatest and most beautiful poems into Slovak literature. And he did it with great artistic skill and brilliance. His volume Poezia contains not only the eighteen Crimean Sonnets, but also Konrad Wallenrod, the Ode to Youth, To a Polish Mother, To My Muscovite Friends, Sages, A Vision, The Master of Masters, Flight, and Out of My Sight, thus present• ing some valuable lyrics along with his patriotic verse tale about his fatherland. The Crimean Sonnets in 2arnov's Slovak translation remain "a wonder" and "some of the most beautiful pages in all European poetry of the century," since he has preserved to a great degree the "richness of beauty of the poetic expression which always takes us by surprise and makes us marvel at the audacity of thought and the moral courage which produce the special splendor of this colleclection."(13) 2arnov's poetic language is, naturally. more modern, his verse and rhythm more vivid, and the whole translation more audacious even than that of Hviezdoslav. Where Hviezdoslav tried to preserve not only the images and metaphors but also the expressions and rhymes, using words from the dialect of his native region, 2arnov found in his own rich poetical invention the metaphors and poetic visions to express Mickiewicz's ideas and colorful images. The translation of Konrad Wallenrod can be considered as standing not far behind the original in many respects. This poem (which was translated for the first time into Slovak in 1907 by Peter Bella-Horal) made a strong impact on the group of Sh1r's followers , who recited and imitated especially the Song of the Wajdoleta. 2arnov's translation is a poetical and genuine interpretation, equaling in beauty Mickiewicz's own work. 2arnov is certainly no romantic �SLOVAKIA 39 in the pattern of the last century, but still an enthusiastic patriot who sings in his poetry a hymn to his crucified country, dooming its traitors and fighting for justice, one who has consecrated his life and his heart to his fatherland. More than anyone else among modern Slovak poets he was, therefore, predestined to enrich modern Slovak literature by this Byronic work of great charm and poetic vision, which "of the many and often highly inspired types of Byronism in Polish poetry ranks highest."(14) .Zarnov's versions of the Ode to Youth and To My Muscovite Friends are to be remembered not only for brilliance of translation (which could be demonstrated only by quotations and comparisons of texts), but also for the purpose which the translator wished to serve. The volume Poezia was published after the tragic experiences which the Russian occupation of Slovakia brought to the people of Jan Kollar, P. J. Safarik, and Ludovit Stur, founders of the cultural as well as political Pan-Slavism of the last century . .Zarnov, to whom the national cause has always been a question of honor and personal dedication, addressed, in Mickiewicz's mordant verses, the new Muscovite rulers and sumoned Slovak youth to the dynamic faith which Mickiewicz, in the Ode to Youth, expressed for Poles under very similar circumstances. .Zarnov's translations were thus to serve after a century the same aim as Mickiewicz had assigned to his poetry. Through the literary works of Mickiewicz .Zarnov wished to teach the Slovaks, as Mickiewicz ha:d the Poles, "to regard as their personal affair the great questions of honor and dedication, truth and falsehood, nobility of ends and legitimacy of means for attaining them." .Zarnov attempted to convince his martyred people that "the national cause must become an autochthonous idea, the ultimate moral criterion around which the entire spiritual life of the nation is crystallized." The real function of .Zarnov's poetry and translation was, like that of Mickiewicz's, not "to provide artistic enjoyment or to refine aesthetic taste, but primarily to equip his people with the spiritual resources necessary to enable them to survive their enslavement and to fight for their freedom. (15) �40 · SLOVAKIA The Muscovite rulers in Slovakia grasped his intention and silenced the book. Zarnov, under constant threat of arrest and deportation, and many times in prison, made a dramatic flight from his country and now fights in exile for his ideas and those of Mickiewicz. (1) See Wladyslaw Bobek, Mickiewicz w literaturze slovackiej (Prague, 1931), pp. 9-10. (2) Ibid. (3) P. 0 . Hviezdoslav (1849-1921) is the pseudonym of Pavo! Orszagh. By occupation a lawyer, he published several volumes of lyrics, one of them (Bloody Sonnets) translated into English, dramas (Herodes a Herodias), epics (Hajnikova zena, Ezo Vlkolinsky, Gabor Vlkolinsky, Agar, Rachel, Kain), and four volumes of translations from world literature. Altogether his poetry was published in fifteen large volumes. (4) See W . Bobek, "Dzieje literatury slowackiej w zarysie," in Slowacja i Slowacy, edited by W. Semkowicz (Cracow, 1937), pp. 357 ff. (5) Among recent Slovak translations from Mickiewicz are his Books of the Polish Nation and Books of the Polish Pilgrimage, translated by Matus Zjara (Kosice, 1947). Jastrun's study of Mickiewicz, translated by Jan Holy, was published in 1950 by Tatran, in Bratislava. Professor R. Brtan has translated Pan Tadeusz, and Matus Zjara has published a penetrating study of Mickiewicz and his relations with Moscow. (6) Stefan Krcmery, outstanding essayist, translator, and poet, states that "Stu.r's group based its poetry on popular songs, Pushkin's and Mickiewicz's works" (Slovenske Pohl'ady, Vol. XLVII [1931], p. 132. W . Bobek has published a study on this subject in which he tries to prove that the metrics of Stu.r's group is based on the Polish poetry. See Kultura, Vol. V, No. 4, pp. 248-256. (7) See Otto Radl, in Handbook of Slavic Studies, edited by L I. Strakhovsky (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), p. 496. (8) See W. Bobek, Mickiewicz w literaturze slowackiej, p. 57. (9) Page 43. (10) Andrej Zarnov is the pseudonym of Frantisek Subik, former professor at the University of Bratislava, at present in Washington. He was born in 1903 in Slovakia. His main published works are Straz pri Morave (1925), Brazda cez Uhory (1929), Hlas krvi (1932), Stit (1940), and Mrtvy (1941). (11) Introduction to the volume Poezia, pp. 121-133. (12) Andreas Mraz, Die Literatur der Slowaken (Berlin-PragueVienna: Volk und Reich Verlag, 1943), pp. 187-188. �41 SLOVAKIA (13) See Waclaw Lednicki, Life and Culture of Poland (New York: Ray Publishers, 1944), p. 176 etc. (14) See Roman Dyboski, Poland in World Civilization (New York, 1950), p. 213. (15) See J . Nechon's essay on Stefan Zeronski in Harvard Slavic Studies, Vol. II, (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), pp. 323-324. • • • WF, MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES (Address By Hon. William F. Knowland Before Inaugural Nationalities Banquet, January 20, 1957) It is most fitting that this banquet, held on the eve of the public inaugural ceremonies of the President and Vice President of the United States, should be under the sponsorship of the Nationalities Advisory Committee and the Inaugural Nationalities committee. Firstly, with the exception of American Indians, in this new world all of us ourse1ves or our parents, grandparent.a, or more distant forebears, came front the old worlds of Europe, Asia, or Africa. While as citizens of the United States our loyalty is to this great ·r epublic it is also natural that there remain ties of historic interests, family or racial connections, and religious beliefs, together with our natural humanitarian instincts, that makes what happens in Budapest, Berlin, London, Peiping, Cairo, or any other city large or small more than just newspaper datelines. Secondly, the naJtiona:lities groups throughout our country made notable contriibutions to the reelection of our great president Dwight D. Eisenhower a:nd our able and effective Vice President Rihard M. Nixon. Not only are you entitled to be here to witness the culmination of your individual and •c ollective constructive labors in the last campaign but you have earned the right to a respectful hearing to your recommendations. There are many great problems confronting our country domestic and foreign. The President in his address on the Middle East resolution, in his staite of ,t he Union message, in his inaugural address tomorrow, or in future special messaiges to the Congress will discuss them. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 32 1939; Vefka Morava a Pofsko, rn33. Ungarns Volkerschaften im XI. Jahrhundert, Dr. I. Kn iesza, 1938. Zur Geschichte der ungarisch-slowakischen ethnischen Grenze, Dr. I. K niezsa, 19 41. Slovanske starozitnosti, P avel J . Safa rik, Vol. II, 2nd ed., 1863. Slovenske starozitnosti, Dr. I'..ubor Niederle, 1906, 1910. Narodopisni mapa Uher podle ured. lexikonu osad z r. 1n3, A . P e trov , 1924. Pribinovi Vermozi , Dr. J an Stanislav, 1939-40. Nehai'ite l'ud moj, Dr. Jo zef Skult ety, 1928 . • • • MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Ph.D. The University of California recently published an excellent symposium on the great Polish poet and patriot, Adam Mickiewicz, whose centenary has been commemorated throughout the world since 1955. Altogether 30 scholars and experts in Slavistics, representing over 20 nations and universities, contributed to this remarkable volume, edited by the eminent Polish scholar, professor Waclaw Lednicki. The volume has been published under the impressive title "Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature," and the editor actually succeeded in presenting Mickiewicz's influence on World literatures. Slovakia is represented by two contributions and is also mentioned in an article of a Czech scholar, who quite sincerely tried not to make the usual mistake of confusing Slovak and Czech poets and writers. The main article on Slovak literature in connection with Mickiekicz was written by the known expert in Slavic studies, professor Dimitry Cizevsky from Harvard, who in his scholarly study deals mainly with the poetry of two outstanding Slovak romantics: r..udovit Stur and Janka KraP. Cizevsky admits "that Mickiewicz's influence on Slovak literature was undoubtedly significant," but he warns at the same time against the "parallels" which are not parallels at all. This remark refers mainly to a Polish expert on Slovak poetry, Wladyslaw Bobek, whose work twenty-five years ago aimed to demonstrate the part which the poetry of Mickiewicz played in the works of - out of the theo- SLOVAKIA 33 retical basis and in the poetic practice of Slovak poets above all, the Slovak romantic poets. In this respect Bobek succeeded according to Cizevsky. The second article on Slovak literature is a note on two modern Slovak translators of Mickiewicz, Hviezdoslav and Zarnov, contributed by this writer. Since on the Polish side also professor M. Majowski of the University of Montreal published sometime ago an interesting study on Polish-Slovak cultural relations in "Zew mlodych," we should not miss this occasion to demonstrate on Mickiewicz's example how extensive and important the cultural ties between Poland and Slovakia already were in the past century. The impact of Mickiewicz on Slovak literature was so strong that the Slovaks have not only all his works translated into the Slovak language, but we find two or three various translations. Three Slovak generations attempted to transplant the beauty of Mickiewicz's poetry into Slovak literary life. Since the first Mickiewicz's poems appeared, the generation of I?,udovit Stur, (1815-1856) recited and drew enthusiasm for the Slovak national cause from Mickiewicz's works. Slovak poets of the nineteenth century (Jan Botto, Janko Matuska, K. Kuzmany, Peter Bella- Horal etc.) translated Mickiewicz's ballads, the Ode to the Youth, his Forefather's Eve, Konrad Wallenrod, and other verses, though they preferred to read and recite the Polish original, as we shall see further. The following generation produced an admirer and translator in the person of the great Slovak poet, Pavo! 0. Hviezdoslav, and contemporary Slovak poetry was enriched by masterful translations of Andrej Zarnov, Matus Zjara, Rudo Brtaii, and Jan Holy. While we shall speak of Hviezdoslav's and Zarnov's translations extensively, it is worthwhile to mention that even very recently, in the martyrized Slovakia, there were translations and adequate commentaries of Mickiewicz's Books of the Polish Nation and Books of the Polish Pilgrimage by a persecuted Catholic priest-poet hidden behind the pseudonym Matus Zjara. A new translation of "Pan SLOVAKIA Tadeusz" was prepared by Rudo Brtaii, and professor Jan Holy translated Jastrun's essay on Mickiewicz. We have, however, to point out that the quantity of Slovak translations from the various Slavic literatures has never adequately reflected either the popularity of the great Slavic writers and poets in Slovakia or Slovak interest in them. From the second half of the nineteenth century, when Slovakia made her contribution to the PanSlavic idea by producing its most famous exponents in the persons of Jan Kollar, P. J. Safarik, and Eudovit Stur, the Slovak "intelligentsia" expressed their Pan-Slavic sympathy and tendencies by reading Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, and Jugoslav authors in the original. The geographic situation of Slovakia and the central position of Slovak among the Slavic languages account for this peculiar phenomenon in Slovak cultural life. Under these circumstances, until recently we have had in Slovak literature a larger number of translations from non-Slavic languages (German, French, English, and Scandinavian) than from the Slavic, and this in spite of the fact that Slovak literature, especially in the nineteenth century, developed under the strong influence of the outstanding works of Russian, Polish, and other Slav authors. Again, being fundamentally national and romantic, Slovak poetry and fiction were marked, like Polish and Russian literature, by an extensive use of folk tradition and regionalism, and Slovakia's greatest poets drew on folklore and legend in the same way and to the same extent as did the other Slavs. Adam Mickiewicz, who influenced Slovak literature and cultural efforts more than any other Pole, offers an excellent illustration of the situation we have just described. A whole generation of Slovak writers drew enthusiasm, inspiration, and incentive from Mickiewicz's Ode to Youth(l) and his ballads, as well as from his Konrad Walenrod, Pan Tadeusz, and the Crimean Sonnets. For the Slovak contemporaries of Mickiewicz, namely, the group of Eudovit Stur, the Ode became "an armory of maxims, slogans, and appeals, which were used as mottoes for their collections of poetry, individual works, and publications on every possible SLOVAKIA 35 occasion," and, according to W. Bobek, "not even in Poland has the Ode been so enthusiastically received as in Slovakia. "(2) However, with the exception of the ballads, translations of the Ode, as well as of other works of Mickiewicz that enjoyed a wide popularity among the Slovak writers of the nineteenth century, began to appear only in the twentieth century. Artistically, the best of these translations are without doubt those made by two outstanding Slovak poets, Pavol Orszagh Hviezdoslav and Andrej Zarnov . • • • P. 0. Hviezdoslav,(3) who "elevated Slovak literature to its highest peak, and gave it a true greatness and depth, and who in his national note comes near to Mickiewicz, in his artistry to the poetry of Vrchlicky, and in his strong love for his people and popular art to the works of Shevchenko, "(4) translated not only Miskiewicz's Crimean Sonnets, but also his Faris, Sages, Out of My Sight, and Girl at the Crossroads (the last mistakingly ascribed to Mickiewicz; Bobek identifies the author as J. Jezowski), thus completing the series of translations done by P . Bella-Horal, Janko Matuska, Stefan Krcmery, Botto, and others.(5) Although at first glance the translation of Polish poetry into Slovak may seem an easy task, owing to the close relationship between the two languages, this is far from being so. One reason is that, while Slovak verse bases its rhythm on the accent, Polish verse is syllabic. Another is that similar words in both languages are often not semantically equivalent.(6) It is a further difficulty to the translator of Mickiewicz that the author is a man of genius, with a style of his own, and a special variety of metaphors and peculiarities of expression. Hviezdoslav more than anyone else had, however, all the gifts needed, not only to overcome these difficulties, but at the same time to master the poetic forms and apprehend the spiritual greatness of Mickiewicz's poetry. Hviezdoslav was not only "the most important personality among the Slovak poets representing the transition from romanticism to realism"(7) and, therefore, suited spiritually to i~NS£.~lt:IBR'Jmy'epresentative of Polish ro- ~ !~~~~~VILLE STATE CO.LLEGr 36 SLOVAKIA manticism and messianism, whom he resembled by force of his own poetic visioin and prophetic sense and by his attachment to the national cause and his oppressed Slovak people; his poetic language, too - rich and varied, weighty, and filled with dialectical expressior,is and metaphors was sufficiently plastic and mature to convey the artistic brilliance of Mickiewicz's poetry. Translator of Goethe's Faust, Shakespeare's Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream, of Lermontov, Schiller, and Slowacki, as well as of the monumental work of Mada.ch - The Tragedy of Man, - and, in his original verse, a master of the most complicated forms, from distich and sestina to ghazel and ritornello, Hviezdoslav also possessed full technical equipment for the task of translating the Polish classics. It is not, therefore, mere courtesy when Professor Bobek writes that Hviezdoslav's translation of the Crimean Sonnets is really "masterful" and adds that the Eastern coloring of the language, so characteristic of the Sonnets, was not only preserved by Hviezdoslav but sometimes actually enriched through the use, in the translation, of the Eastern terms which Mickiewicz cited in his explanatory notes. And Bobek concludes that "on the whole, the translation of the Crimean Sonnets stands on an equal footing with the original work and can be considered as one of Hviezdoslav's best translations," (8) an opinion that is fully shared by the present writer and by many literary critics. Although Hviezdoslav's translation of Faris differs slightly in form from the original, it is nevertheless equally faithful, and artistically thorough. A comparison of texts, which unfortunately is not practicable here, would supply ample proof. In comparison with the earlier translations from Mickiewicz, especially those of i:;tur's group, the translations made by Hviezdoslav are not so close to the Polish original either in means of expression or in meter; they are poetical interpretation s, done in acordance with the rules of Slovak prosody. No influence of Mickiewicz's poetry on the original creative work of Hviezdoslav has so far been detected by an.y literary analyst or critic. W. Bobek notes that theories SLOVAKIA 37 kave been brought forth to the effect that Pan Thadeusz influenced the composition of Hviezdoslav's longer epic poems, but that there is no supporting evidence. He adds, kowever, that Hviezdoslav's epic poems, such as The Forester's Wife, Ezo Vlkolinsky, and Gabor Vlkolinsky, form a counterpart, on Slovak soil, of the Polish epic.(9) We may conclude the comparison by stating that there was a strong spiritual affinity between the two poets and that Hviezdoslav, like Mickiewicz, by his own poetry as well as by his translations gave his fellow countrymen a vision of what they might long for and accomplish, and implemented the vision with practical and profound Christian maxims . • • • In the turmoil of the Second World War, Andrej Zarnov, (10) one of the best modern Slovak poets, prepared an entire book of translations from Mickiewicz. The volume was published "in order to transplant Mickiewicz's works to Slovak soil and thereby strengthen the structure of Slavic brotherhood in the cultural sector," and because "in world literature there are only a few great poets who in the works of their genius accumulate and present so universally, profoundly, and magnificently the history of the efforts , failures , and spiritual achievements of their own people as does Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish and allSlavic poet."(11) The book appeared in 1948, published by the Slovak Catholic cultural institution the "Society of St. Adalbert." A. Zarnov, who was awarded a silver wreath by the Polish Academy of Literature in recognition of his earlier translations from Polish poetry (published in a volume entitled U pofskych basnikov), is an outstanding translator of lyrics, epics, and dramas. Of his original works Andrej Mraz, Professor of Slovak Literature at the University of Bratislava, writes: "By its fiery words and resounding verses Zarnov's poetry became an efficacious instrument in the Slovak national struggle; events of major national importance, reminiscences of history and its tragedies, find in him a militant and inflamed interpreter of the national aspirations and will-power of his people. Yet he also arrived, in his effort to find a harmony between the individual and the universe, at a lyrical as well as philosophical 38 SLOVAKIA poetry."(12) Let us add that he in fact became one of the Slovak poets who penetrated and stirred to the depths the spirit of his generation and especially of the young intelligentsia, helped to bring them to a strong awareness of their spiritual and national individuality, and successfully summoned them to the struggle for justice and freedom. Without exaggeration we can assert that 2arnov has been, in his generation, artistically and spiritually the best prepared to transmit the heritage of Mickiewicz's greatest and most beautiful poems into Slovak literature. And he did it with great artistic skill and brilliance. His volume Poezia contains not only the eighteen Crimean Sonnets, but also Konrad Wallenrod, the Ode to Youth, To a Polish Mother, To My Muscovite Friends, Sages, A Vision, The Master of Masters, Flight, and Out of My Sight, thus present• ing some valuable lyrics along with his patriotic verse tale about his fatherland. The Crimean Sonnets in 2arnov's Slovak translation remain "a wonder" and "some of the most beautiful pages in all European poetry of the century," since he has preserved to a great degree the "richness of beauty of the poetic expression which always takes us by surprise and makes us marvel at the audacity of thought and the moral courage which produce the special splendor of this colleclection."(13) 2arnov's poetic language is, naturally. more modern, his verse and rhythm more vivid, and the whole translation more audacious even than that of Hviezdoslav. Where Hviezdoslav tried to preserve not only the images and metaphors but also the expressions and rhymes, using words from the dialect of his native region, 2arnov found in his own rich poetical invention the metaphors and poetic visions to express Mickiewicz's ideas and colorful images. The translation of Konrad Wallenrod can be considered as standing not far behind the original in many respects. This poem (which was translated for the first time into Slovak in 1907 by Peter Bella-Horal) made a strong impact on the group of Sh1r's followers , who recited and imitated especially the Song of the Wajdoleta. 2arnov's translation is a poetical and genuine interpretation, equaling in beauty Mickiewicz's own work. 2arnov is certainly no romantic SLOVAKIA 39 in the pattern of the last century, but still an enthusiastic patriot who sings in his poetry a hymn to his crucified country, dooming its traitors and fighting for justice, one who has consecrated his life and his heart to his fatherland. More than anyone else among modern Slovak poets he was, therefore, predestined to enrich modern Slovak literature by this Byronic work of great charm and poetic vision, which "of the many and often highly inspired types of Byronism in Polish poetry ranks highest."(14) .Zarnov's versions of the Ode to Youth and To My Muscovite Friends are to be remembered not only for brilliance of translation (which could be demonstrated only by quotations and comparisons of texts), but also for the purpose which the translator wished to serve. The volume Poezia was published after the tragic experiences which the Russian occupation of Slovakia brought to the people of Jan Kollar, P. J. Safarik, and Ludovit Stur, founders of the cultural as well as political Pan-Slavism of the last century . .Zarnov, to whom the national cause has always been a question of honor and personal dedication, addressed, in Mickiewicz's mordant verses, the new Muscovite rulers and sumoned Slovak youth to the dynamic faith which Mickiewicz, in the Ode to Youth, expressed for Poles under very similar circumstances. .Zarnov's translations were thus to serve after a century the same aim as Mickiewicz had assigned to his poetry. Through the literary works of Mickiewicz .Zarnov wished to teach the Slovaks, as Mickiewicz ha:d the Poles, "to regard as their personal affair the great questions of honor and dedication, truth and falsehood, nobility of ends and legitimacy of means for attaining them." .Zarnov attempted to convince his martyred people that "the national cause must become an autochthonous idea, the ultimate moral criterion around which the entire spiritual life of the nation is crystallized." The real function of .Zarnov's poetry and translation was, like that of Mickiewicz's, not "to provide artistic enjoyment or to refine aesthetic taste, but primarily to equip his people with the spiritual resources necessary to enable them to survive their enslavement and to fight for their freedom. (15) 40 · SLOVAKIA The Muscovite rulers in Slovakia grasped his intention and silenced the book. Zarnov, under constant threat of arrest and deportation, and many times in prison, made a dramatic flight from his country and now fights in exile for his ideas and those of Mickiewicz. (1) See Wladyslaw Bobek, Mickiewicz w literaturze slovackiej (Prague, 1931), pp. 9-10. (2) Ibid. (3) P. 0 . Hviezdoslav (1849-1921) is the pseudonym of Pavo! Orszagh. By occupation a lawyer, he published several volumes of lyrics, one of them (Bloody Sonnets) translated into English, dramas (Herodes a Herodias), epics (Hajnikova zena, Ezo Vlkolinsky, Gabor Vlkolinsky, Agar, Rachel, Kain), and four volumes of translations from world literature. Altogether his poetry was published in fifteen large volumes. (4) See W . Bobek, "Dzieje literatury slowackiej w zarysie," in Slowacja i Slowacy, edited by W. Semkowicz (Cracow, 1937), pp. 357 ff. (5) Among recent Slovak translations from Mickiewicz are his Books of the Polish Nation and Books of the Polish Pilgrimage, translated by Matus Zjara (Kosice, 1947). Jastrun's study of Mickiewicz, translated by Jan Holy, was published in 1950 by Tatran, in Bratislava. Professor R. Brtan has translated Pan Tadeusz, and Matus Zjara has published a penetrating study of Mickiewicz and his relations with Moscow. (6) Stefan Krcmery, outstanding essayist, translator, and poet, states that "Stu.r's group based its poetry on popular songs, Pushkin's and Mickiewicz's works" (Slovenske Pohl'ady, Vol. XLVII [1931], p. 132. W . Bobek has published a study on this subject in which he tries to prove that the metrics of Stu.r's group is based on the Polish poetry. See Kultura, Vol. V, No. 4, pp. 248-256. (7) See Otto Radl, in Handbook of Slavic Studies, edited by L I. Strakhovsky (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), p. 496. (8) See W. Bobek, Mickiewicz w literaturze slowackiej, p. 57. (9) Page 43. (10) Andrej Zarnov is the pseudonym of Frantisek Subik, former professor at the University of Bratislava, at present in Washington. He was born in 1903 in Slovakia. His main published works are Straz pri Morave (1925), Brazda cez Uhory (1929), Hlas krvi (1932), Stit (1940), and Mrtvy (1941). (11) Introduction to the volume Poezia, pp. 121-133. (12) Andreas Mraz, Die Literatur der Slowaken (Berlin-PragueVienna: Volk und Reich Verlag, 1943), pp. 187-188. 41 SLOVAKIA (13) See Waclaw Lednicki, Life and Culture of Poland (New York: Ray Publishers, 1944), p. 176 etc. (14) See Roman Dyboski, Poland in World Civilization (New York, 1950), p. 213. (15) See J . Nechon's essay on Stefan Zeronski in Harvard Slavic Studies, Vol. II, (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), pp. 323-324. • • • WF, MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES (Address By Hon. William F. Knowland Before Inaugural Nationalities Banquet, January 20, 1957) It is most fitting that this banquet, held on the eve of the public inaugural ceremonies of the President and Vice President of the United States, should be under the sponsorship of the Nationalities Advisory Committee and the Inaugural Nationalities committee. Firstly, with the exception of American Indians, in this new world all of us ourse1ves or our parents, grandparent.a, or more distant forebears, came front the old worlds of Europe, Asia, or Africa. While as citizens of the United States our loyalty is to this great ·r epublic it is also natural that there remain ties of historic interests, family or racial connections, and religious beliefs, together with our natural humanitarian instincts, that makes what happens in Budapest, Berlin, London, Peiping, Cairo, or any other city large or small more than just newspaper datelines. Secondly, the naJtiona:lities groups throughout our country made notable contriibutions to the reelection of our great president Dwight D. Eisenhower a:nd our able and effective Vice President Rihard M. Nixon. Not only are you entitled to be here to witness the culmination of your individual and •c ollective constructive labors in the last campaign but you have earned the right to a respectful hearing to your recommendations. There are many great problems confronting our country domestic and foreign. The President in his address on the Middle East resolution, in his staite of ,t he Union message, in his inaugural address tomorrow, or in future special messaiges to the Congress will discuss them.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mickiewicz in Slovak Poetry and Translations Description An account of the resource Joseph Kirschbaum Ph.D. Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 1 (22), March 1957 pp. 32-41 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1957 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/56f2b6a27cb6faf1e9d6592a8ddd5f01.pdf 8259601ea19a53524701c45296a43eaf PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 59 In 900 A. D. the Germans _again invaded Mojmir's territory, this time aided by the Czechs. After a terrific battle Mojmir II was forced to sue for peace, because his country was completely exhausted from constant warfare. After a peace was negotiated with the Germans, Mojmir sought to renew the church organization in the land of the Slovaks. After the expulsion of the disciples of Methodius and the death of Bishop Wiching, the Church was in a state of collapse. Mojmir II sent a special delegation to Rome with his request for aid. Pope John IX heard his plea and appointed an archbishop and two bishops to take over the burdens of the Church in the land of the Slovaks. Mojmir :LI worked assiduously and courageously to save his country from impending doom, but the odds were against him. To the danger from the west was added the menace from the east. The fierce Magyars, who from 896 had settled in the valley of the lower Danube and made continual attacks on their neighbors, tore into Slovakia in 902. Mojmir rallied his forces and successfully repulsed the Magyar hordes. But the nomadic Mongols were not to be denied. After every setback, they retreated and prepared for a new attack. The Slovaks defended the independence of their country heroically, but finally were overpowered by the overwhelming forces of their enemies. In 906 Moj.mir's state collapsed and the Slovak nation lost its independence. (Continu ed) • • • Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A. HROBAK "The tragedy of Czecho-Slovakia's fate hinged, of course, not on whether this democracy treated her minorities 'justly' or not, but on the fact that the minorities were used as 'Trojan horses' for the aggressive policies of the neighboring Powers. After all, it is not even debatable that Germany's minorities, and particularly the Jews, have been treated with much less 'justice' than Czecho-Slovakia's minorities. The same statement applies to the fate of the minirities in Hungary and Poland. The Polish treatment of her minorities in �60 SLOVAKIA particular appears paradoxical in relation to the demands that Warsaw made on Prague regarding the Polish minority in Teschen" - p. (188). It is hardly the task of an objective historian to act the role of apologist, but Roucek obviously seemed to forget that. The fact is that Czecho-Slovakia's fate was determined in a very large measure by the way the Masaryk and Benes regimes treated their minorities, and especially their "equal partners," the Slovaks. The "Czecho-Slovak" treatment of minorities and the Slovaks cannot be justified by the argument that the Germans and Poles treated their minorities less justly or more harshly. The historical fact remains that after twenty years of Czech rule, under Masaryk and Benes, all neighboring states hated Czecho-Slovakia, and her citizens, the Czechs included, refused to fire a single shot in her defense. And that tells us just about everything: Czecho-Slovakia was not worth fighting for! • • • "The only democratic country in a world of fascist and semifascist central and eastern European states, Czecho-Slovakia consistently suppressed ant-Jewish manifestations" - (p. 189). Roucek said it and Kerner published it in his "Czechoslovakia," but students of history should demand a bill of full particulars of at least some such actual manifestations. And, of course, we might also ask the "experts" on CzechoSlovakia whether the Masaryk-Benes "democracy" consistently suppressed anti-Christian and, particularly, anti-Catholic manifestations? Such manifestations evidently did not merit attention of Roucek and other pro-Czech historians. • • • After quoting statistics from "official" Czech sources t o explain population trends in Czecho-Slovakia, which, naturally, favored the Czechs at the expense of the minorities and the Slovaks, Mr. Roucek concludes his chapter (IX in Kerner's "Czechoslovakia") with this propagandistic extravaganza : "The inescapable conclusion is that the problem of Czecho-Slovakia's minorities was not so serious as the German and Magyar propaganda led others to believe; furthermore, that it could have been solved gradually and peacefully if Prague had been allowed to run its own affairs . . . . Did Czecho-Slovakia make a mistake in try- �SLOVAKIA 61 iing to solve her problem of minorities by de1T1ocratic, rather than by brutal and violent, methods, as her neighbors have done?" (p 192). • How naive can one get? We know that the Czechs (Prague) ran not only their own affairs, but also the affairs of the Slovaks, Magyars, Poles, Germans and Ruthenians, in the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The Masaryk-Benes regimes were anti-Slovak and anti-minority, but pro-Soviet at the same time. Hence, the problem of the minorities was more serious than pictured by Roucek, since, in the end, the Slovaks and all minorities were not willing to commit national suicide. The policies of Masaryk and Benes determined the fate of Czecho-Slovakia. By what "democratic" methods did the Masaryk-Benes regimes try to solve the problem of Czecho-Slovakia's minorities? Confiscation and censorship of the press, repudiation of natural rights and the right of free assembly, economic and political oppression - are these the "democratic" methods alluded to by Roucek? And what could have been more brutal and violent than the forced, inhumane expulsion of three and a half million Germans and hundreds of thousands of Magyars, and the complete sell-out of the Czech and Slovak nations by Benes to Stalin? • • • • • • Chapter X of Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" was contrib, uted by Lucy E. Textor (Vassar College); it is titled "Agriculture and Agrarian Reform." The biblography given at the end of the chapter is dominated by Czech authors. Scandals arising from the Land Reform act, as set up and executed by the Czechs, particularly by leading Czech politicians, are carefully omitted. "Czechoslovakia's Economic Development and Achievements" - Chapter XII of the book under consideration was written by Gerhard Schacher, member of the faculty of Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. There was no other country in central Europe which was to such a degree able and willing to modernize and rationalize its entire economic system by its own means and almost entirely without foreign support," says Schacher, and "that this was done in Czechoslovakia without aiming at �62 SLOVAKIA self-sufficiency was one of the greatest economic achievements in central Europe after the World War" - (p. 240). Just how Czecho-Slovakia was able to do that, however, is not clearly explained by Mr. Schacher. To him "Czechoslovakia" apparently means "Czech" (Czech: goods, labor, trade, imports, exports, manufacturers, businessmen, workers, armament, plants, crown, etc.). The rise of CZECH industry was phenomenal, indeed, but the professor somehow forgot to put down for the record what hapened to SLOVAK industry, which had existed in the land of the Slovaks during the Hungarian State. The tendency here, as elsewhere, is only too obvious . • • • • • • Brackett Lewis - A.B., Oberlin College; "engaged in war service with the Y. M. C. A. in Russia and in post-war service in central Russia, Archangel, Odessa, Vladivostok, Constantinople, and in Riga, Latvia, 1917-1928; director of the Y. M. C. A. of Czechoslovakia and secretary of the American Institute in Prague, 1928-1938" - wrote Chapter Xill entitled 'Social Reform and Social Legislation." He proves, even though I doubt he did it consciously, that Czecho-Slovkia was a socialistic state from the start. According to Lewis "a democratic outlook, which has been the characteristic of the Czechs since 1848, seemed to pervade all classes, and found expression in literature, education, and the professions, as well as in political life" (p. 253). While in Prague (1928-1938), Mr. Lewis was supposed to have made "special" studies of social and labor legislation and of the political system of the Republic, which resulted in his writing the book "Facts About Democray in Czechoslovakia" (Prague, 1938). The studies must have been "special," indeed, since Mr. Lewis apparently remained quite ignorant about the Slovaks and their country; his "facts" are for the most part Czech propaganda and not objective history. Chapter XIV - "Humanitarian Progress" - is the brain-child of Herbert Adolphus Miller (vd. Chapter V), according to whom: "The seeds that produced the social program of Czechoslovakia lie deep in history. The moral integrity of Hus and the democratic �SLOVAKIA 63 educational theories of Comenius (Komensky) were combined with many other forces through the ages to prepare the people for what they accomplished after 1918. The Declaration of Independence, written by Masaryk, not only embodied his own philosophy but also reflected the past and foreshadowed a future of which his countrymen approved" - (p. 271). But the fact is that "the seeds that produced the social program of Czechoslovakia" do not lie deep in SLOVAK history; the social program was strictly according to Masaryk and Benes and their followers, who tried even to "remake" Czech history. The "moral integrity" of Hus and the democratic educational theories" of Comenius, to: gether with "many other forces," may have prepared T. G. Masaryk, Edward Benes, and other Czech socialists for what they accomplished after 1918, and especially after 1945. We know what happened. Genuine Slovak patriots, however, preferred ta repudiate these "progressive" forces and were content to remain the nation of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. • • • "The Declaration of Independence," according to Miller in his Chapter on "Humanitarian Progress," was written by Masaryk, but what did this same Herbert Adolphus Miller say about this Declaration in a previous Chapter of the same book (pp. 83-86)? For the edification of present and future historians, and in the interest of historical truth, I believe a reproduction is in order. Mr. Miller said: "According to William E. Dodd" (Woodrow Wilson and His Work, p. 278), " 'on July 4, 1918, a mass meeting of the Czechoslovaks in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, issued a formal Declaration of Independence. President Wilson lent his support to this movement and finally announced American recognition of Czechoslovakia on September 2, 1918.' Mr. Dodd confused the frequent claims for independence by an unauthorized group with the official Declaration made by Masaryk, which was dated October 18, 1918. There is, however, a widespread and erroneous belief that Masaryk proclaimed it from Independence Hall. "The facts are as follows. Early in October, through the Swedish Minister, President Wilson had received a communication from Emperor Charles of Austria, proposing a reorganization of the empire. Wilson, as has been stated earlier, had told Masaryk that no decisions would be arrived at about Austria-Hungary without consult- �64 SLOVAKIA ing him. Wilson knew at this time that a Czechoslovak Declaration, of Independence was being prepared by Professor Masaryk. "About four o'clock on the afternoon of October 16, Mr. Cisar, Professor Masaryk's secretary, came to the room of the present writer (Herbert Adolphus Miller) in the Powhatan Hotel and, handing him an envelope, said: 'This is the Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence. The professor wants you to put it into good English.• On reading it over, the present writer decided that its style would be quite without appeal to the American public which it, in part, sought to influence, and that it needed complete revision. Accordingly, through chance assistance, he gathered together seven men,. including two lawyers and Mr. Cisar, and set to work. "Great care was taken to keep all the meaning of the original and at the same time to give a vigor of statement that would appeal to Americans. Every word and every sentence was weighed. The original typewritten copy was cut into more than a hundred pieces and pasted together in different order and then revised again and again. The group worked from seven-thirty in the evening until one- thirty in the morning of October 17, 1918. "Later in the forenoon, with Mr. Calfee, a Cleveland lawyer who had been present the previous evening, the present writer went to Professor Masaryk's residence, where again a detailed study was made of form and content, modifications being made wherever the meaning had been changed in the work of the night before. The rest of the day was spent in working on the text and about two o'clock on the morning of the eighteenth the Declaration was cabled to Dr. Benes in Paris. "In the forenoon of October 18, the present writer had a number of copies multigraphed and a special typewritten copy made for President Wilson. These are the only ORIGINAL copies of the Declaration that ever existed; even the copy that was given to the multigrapher has been lost. The question of when the Declaration should be published, whether in the morning or in the evening papers, was carefully weighed and it was finally decided to have it published in the morning papers, October 19. It was deliberately held until 4:00 P. M. of the eighteenth, for two reasons : that gave time enough for the Declaration to be cabled from Paris, where it was technically issued on October 18, and made its release too late for the evening papers. "In the meantime, President Wilson had been preparing his reply to Emperor Charles. Benes had feared some yielding, but, after receiving the Declaration from Masaryk, Wilson informed Benes in a letter that he was greatly touched by the proclamation and that Masaryk would be satisfied with the reply that was being sent to Austria-Hungary . ... (Continued) � SLOVAKIA 59 In 900 A. D. the Germans _again invaded Mojmir's territory, this time aided by the Czechs. After a terrific battle Mojmir II was forced to sue for peace, because his country was completely exhausted from constant warfare. After a peace was negotiated with the Germans, Mojmir sought to renew the church organization in the land of the Slovaks. After the expulsion of the disciples of Methodius and the death of Bishop Wiching, the Church was in a state of collapse. Mojmir II sent a special delegation to Rome with his request for aid. Pope John IX heard his plea and appointed an archbishop and two bishops to take over the burdens of the Church in the land of the Slovaks. Mojmir :LI worked assiduously and courageously to save his country from impending doom, but the odds were against him. To the danger from the west was added the menace from the east. The fierce Magyars, who from 896 had settled in the valley of the lower Danube and made continual attacks on their neighbors, tore into Slovakia in 902. Mojmir rallied his forces and successfully repulsed the Magyar hordes. But the nomadic Mongols were not to be denied. After every setback, they retreated and prepared for a new attack. The Slovaks defended the independence of their country heroically, but finally were overpowered by the overwhelming forces of their enemies. In 906 Moj.mir's state collapsed and the Slovak nation lost its independence. (Continu ed) • • • Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A. HROBAK "The tragedy of Czecho-Slovakia's fate hinged, of course, not on whether this democracy treated her minorities 'justly' or not, but on the fact that the minorities were used as 'Trojan horses' for the aggressive policies of the neighboring Powers. After all, it is not even debatable that Germany's minorities, and particularly the Jews, have been treated with much less 'justice' than Czecho-Slovakia's minorities. The same statement applies to the fate of the minirities in Hungary and Poland. The Polish treatment of her minorities in �60 SLOVAKIA particular appears paradoxical in relation to the demands that Warsaw made on Prague regarding the Polish minority in Teschen" - p. (188). It is hardly the task of an objective historian to act the role of apologist, but Roucek obviously seemed to forget that. The fact is that Czecho-Slovakia's fate was determined in a very large measure by the way the Masaryk and Benes regimes treated their minorities, and especially their "equal partners," the Slovaks. The "Czecho-Slovak" treatment of minorities and the Slovaks cannot be justified by the argument that the Germans and Poles treated their minorities less justly or more harshly. The historical fact remains that after twenty years of Czech rule, under Masaryk and Benes, all neighboring states hated Czecho-Slovakia, and her citizens, the Czechs included, refused to fire a single shot in her defense. And that tells us just about everything: Czecho-Slovakia was not worth fighting for! • • • "The only democratic country in a world of fascist and semifascist central and eastern European states, Czecho-Slovakia consistently suppressed ant-Jewish manifestations" - (p. 189). Roucek said it and Kerner published it in his "Czechoslovakia," but students of history should demand a bill of full particulars of at least some such actual manifestations. And, of course, we might also ask the "experts" on CzechoSlovakia whether the Masaryk-Benes "democracy" consistently suppressed anti-Christian and, particularly, anti-Catholic manifestations? Such manifestations evidently did not merit attention of Roucek and other pro-Czech historians. • • • After quoting statistics from "official" Czech sources t o explain population trends in Czecho-Slovakia, which, naturally, favored the Czechs at the expense of the minorities and the Slovaks, Mr. Roucek concludes his chapter (IX in Kerner's "Czechoslovakia") with this propagandistic extravaganza : "The inescapable conclusion is that the problem of Czecho-Slovakia's minorities was not so serious as the German and Magyar propaganda led others to believe; furthermore, that it could have been solved gradually and peacefully if Prague had been allowed to run its own affairs . . . . Did Czecho-Slovakia make a mistake in try- �SLOVAKIA 61 iing to solve her problem of minorities by de1T1ocratic, rather than by brutal and violent, methods, as her neighbors have done?" (p 192). • How naive can one get? We know that the Czechs (Prague) ran not only their own affairs, but also the affairs of the Slovaks, Magyars, Poles, Germans and Ruthenians, in the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The Masaryk-Benes regimes were anti-Slovak and anti-minority, but pro-Soviet at the same time. Hence, the problem of the minorities was more serious than pictured by Roucek, since, in the end, the Slovaks and all minorities were not willing to commit national suicide. The policies of Masaryk and Benes determined the fate of Czecho-Slovakia. By what "democratic" methods did the Masaryk-Benes regimes try to solve the problem of Czecho-Slovakia's minorities? Confiscation and censorship of the press, repudiation of natural rights and the right of free assembly, economic and political oppression - are these the "democratic" methods alluded to by Roucek? And what could have been more brutal and violent than the forced, inhumane expulsion of three and a half million Germans and hundreds of thousands of Magyars, and the complete sell-out of the Czech and Slovak nations by Benes to Stalin? • • • • • • Chapter X of Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" was contrib, uted by Lucy E. Textor (Vassar College); it is titled "Agriculture and Agrarian Reform." The biblography given at the end of the chapter is dominated by Czech authors. Scandals arising from the Land Reform act, as set up and executed by the Czechs, particularly by leading Czech politicians, are carefully omitted. "Czechoslovakia's Economic Development and Achievements" - Chapter XII of the book under consideration was written by Gerhard Schacher, member of the faculty of Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. There was no other country in central Europe which was to such a degree able and willing to modernize and rationalize its entire economic system by its own means and almost entirely without foreign support," says Schacher, and "that this was done in Czechoslovakia without aiming at �62 SLOVAKIA self-sufficiency was one of the greatest economic achievements in central Europe after the World War" - (p. 240). Just how Czecho-Slovakia was able to do that, however, is not clearly explained by Mr. Schacher. To him "Czechoslovakia" apparently means "Czech" (Czech: goods, labor, trade, imports, exports, manufacturers, businessmen, workers, armament, plants, crown, etc.). The rise of CZECH industry was phenomenal, indeed, but the professor somehow forgot to put down for the record what hapened to SLOVAK industry, which had existed in the land of the Slovaks during the Hungarian State. The tendency here, as elsewhere, is only too obvious . • • • • • • Brackett Lewis - A.B., Oberlin College; "engaged in war service with the Y. M. C. A. in Russia and in post-war service in central Russia, Archangel, Odessa, Vladivostok, Constantinople, and in Riga, Latvia, 1917-1928; director of the Y. M. C. A. of Czechoslovakia and secretary of the American Institute in Prague, 1928-1938" - wrote Chapter Xill entitled 'Social Reform and Social Legislation." He proves, even though I doubt he did it consciously, that Czecho-Slovkia was a socialistic state from the start. According to Lewis "a democratic outlook, which has been the characteristic of the Czechs since 1848, seemed to pervade all classes, and found expression in literature, education, and the professions, as well as in political life" (p. 253). While in Prague (1928-1938), Mr. Lewis was supposed to have made "special" studies of social and labor legislation and of the political system of the Republic, which resulted in his writing the book "Facts About Democray in Czechoslovakia" (Prague, 1938). The studies must have been "special," indeed, since Mr. Lewis apparently remained quite ignorant about the Slovaks and their country; his "facts" are for the most part Czech propaganda and not objective history. Chapter XIV - "Humanitarian Progress" - is the brain-child of Herbert Adolphus Miller (vd. Chapter V), according to whom: "The seeds that produced the social program of Czechoslovakia lie deep in history. The moral integrity of Hus and the democratic �SLOVAKIA 63 educational theories of Comenius (Komensky) were combined with many other forces through the ages to prepare the people for what they accomplished after 1918. The Declaration of Independence, written by Masaryk, not only embodied his own philosophy but also reflected the past and foreshadowed a future of which his countrymen approved" - (p. 271). But the fact is that "the seeds that produced the social program of Czechoslovakia" do not lie deep in SLOVAK history; the social program was strictly according to Masaryk and Benes and their followers, who tried even to "remake" Czech history. The "moral integrity" of Hus and the democratic educational theories" of Comenius, to: gether with "many other forces," may have prepared T. G. Masaryk, Edward Benes, and other Czech socialists for what they accomplished after 1918, and especially after 1945. We know what happened. Genuine Slovak patriots, however, preferred ta repudiate these "progressive" forces and were content to remain the nation of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. • • • "The Declaration of Independence," according to Miller in his Chapter on "Humanitarian Progress," was written by Masaryk, but what did this same Herbert Adolphus Miller say about this Declaration in a previous Chapter of the same book (pp. 83-86)? For the edification of present and future historians, and in the interest of historical truth, I believe a reproduction is in order. Mr. Miller said: "According to William E. Dodd" (Woodrow Wilson and His Work, p. 278), " 'on July 4, 1918, a mass meeting of the Czechoslovaks in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, issued a formal Declaration of Independence. President Wilson lent his support to this movement and finally announced American recognition of Czechoslovakia on September 2, 1918.' Mr. Dodd confused the frequent claims for independence by an unauthorized group with the official Declaration made by Masaryk, which was dated October 18, 1918. There is, however, a widespread and erroneous belief that Masaryk proclaimed it from Independence Hall. "The facts are as follows. Early in October, through the Swedish Minister, President Wilson had received a communication from Emperor Charles of Austria, proposing a reorganization of the empire. Wilson, as has been stated earlier, had told Masaryk that no decisions would be arrived at about Austria-Hungary without consult- �64 SLOVAKIA ing him. Wilson knew at this time that a Czechoslovak Declaration, of Independence was being prepared by Professor Masaryk. "About four o'clock on the afternoon of October 16, Mr. Cisar, Professor Masaryk's secretary, came to the room of the present writer (Herbert Adolphus Miller) in the Powhatan Hotel and, handing him an envelope, said: 'This is the Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence. The professor wants you to put it into good English.• On reading it over, the present writer decided that its style would be quite without appeal to the American public which it, in part, sought to influence, and that it needed complete revision. Accordingly, through chance assistance, he gathered together seven men,. including two lawyers and Mr. Cisar, and set to work. "Great care was taken to keep all the meaning of the original and at the same time to give a vigor of statement that would appeal to Americans. Every word and every sentence was weighed. The original typewritten copy was cut into more than a hundred pieces and pasted together in different order and then revised again and again. The group worked from seven-thirty in the evening until one- thirty in the morning of October 17, 1918. "Later in the forenoon, with Mr. Calfee, a Cleveland lawyer who had been present the previous evening, the present writer went to Professor Masaryk's residence, where again a detailed study was made of form and content, modifications being made wherever the meaning had been changed in the work of the night before. The rest of the day was spent in working on the text and about two o'clock on the morning of the eighteenth the Declaration was cabled to Dr. Benes in Paris. "In the forenoon of October 18, the present writer had a number of copies multigraphed and a special typewritten copy made for President Wilson. These are the only ORIGINAL copies of the Declaration that ever existed; even the copy that was given to the multigrapher has been lost. The question of when the Declaration should be published, whether in the morning or in the evening papers, was carefully weighed and it was finally decided to have it published in the morning papers, October 19. It was deliberately held until 4:00 P. M. of the eighteenth, for two reasons : that gave time enough for the Declaration to be cabled from Paris, where it was technically issued on October 18, and made its release too late for the evening papers. "In the meantime, President Wilson had been preparing his reply to Emperor Charles. Benes had feared some yielding, but, after receiving the Declaration from Masaryk, Wilson informed Benes in a letter that he was greatly touched by the proclamation and that Masaryk would be satisfied with the reply that was being sent to Austria-Hungary . ... (Continued) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 59 In 900 A. D. the Germans _again invaded Mojmir's territory, this time aided by the Czechs. After a terrific battle Mojmir II was forced to sue for peace, because his country was completely exhausted from constant warfare. After a peace was negotiated with the Germans, Mojmir sought to renew the church organization in the land of the Slovaks. After the expulsion of the disciples of Methodius and the death of Bishop Wiching, the Church was in a state of collapse. Mojmir II sent a special delegation to Rome with his request for aid. Pope John IX heard his plea and appointed an archbishop and two bishops to take over the burdens of the Church in the land of the Slovaks. Mojmir :LI worked assiduously and courageously to save his country from impending doom, but the odds were against him. To the danger from the west was added the menace from the east. The fierce Magyars, who from 896 had settled in the valley of the lower Danube and made continual attacks on their neighbors, tore into Slovakia in 902. Mojmir rallied his forces and successfully repulsed the Magyar hordes. But the nomadic Mongols were not to be denied. After every setback, they retreated and prepared for a new attack. The Slovaks defended the independence of their country heroically, but finally were overpowered by the overwhelming forces of their enemies. In 906 Moj.mir's state collapsed and the Slovak nation lost its independence. (Continu ed) • • • Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A. HROBAK "The tragedy of Czecho-Slovakia's fate hinged, of course, not on whether this democracy treated her minorities 'justly' or not, but on the fact that the minorities were used as 'Trojan horses' for the aggressive policies of the neighboring Powers. After all, it is not even debatable that Germany's minorities, and particularly the Jews, have been treated with much less 'justice' than Czecho-Slovakia's minorities. The same statement applies to the fate of the minirities in Hungary and Poland. The Polish treatment of her minorities in 60 SLOVAKIA particular appears paradoxical in relation to the demands that Warsaw made on Prague regarding the Polish minority in Teschen" - p. (188). It is hardly the task of an objective historian to act the role of apologist, but Roucek obviously seemed to forget that. The fact is that Czecho-Slovakia's fate was determined in a very large measure by the way the Masaryk and Benes regimes treated their minorities, and especially their "equal partners," the Slovaks. The "Czecho-Slovak" treatment of minorities and the Slovaks cannot be justified by the argument that the Germans and Poles treated their minorities less justly or more harshly. The historical fact remains that after twenty years of Czech rule, under Masaryk and Benes, all neighboring states hated Czecho-Slovakia, and her citizens, the Czechs included, refused to fire a single shot in her defense. And that tells us just about everything: Czecho-Slovakia was not worth fighting for! • • • "The only democratic country in a world of fascist and semifascist central and eastern European states, Czecho-Slovakia consistently suppressed ant-Jewish manifestations" - (p. 189). Roucek said it and Kerner published it in his "Czechoslovakia," but students of history should demand a bill of full particulars of at least some such actual manifestations. And, of course, we might also ask the "experts" on CzechoSlovakia whether the Masaryk-Benes "democracy" consistently suppressed anti-Christian and, particularly, anti-Catholic manifestations? Such manifestations evidently did not merit attention of Roucek and other pro-Czech historians. • • • After quoting statistics from "official" Czech sources t o explain population trends in Czecho-Slovakia, which, naturally, favored the Czechs at the expense of the minorities and the Slovaks, Mr. Roucek concludes his chapter (IX in Kerner's "Czechoslovakia") with this propagandistic extravaganza : "The inescapable conclusion is that the problem of Czecho-Slovakia's minorities was not so serious as the German and Magyar propaganda led others to believe; furthermore, that it could have been solved gradually and peacefully if Prague had been allowed to run its own affairs . . . . Did Czecho-Slovakia make a mistake in try- SLOVAKIA 61 iing to solve her problem of minorities by de1T1ocratic, rather than by brutal and violent, methods, as her neighbors have done?" (p 192). • How naive can one get? We know that the Czechs (Prague) ran not only their own affairs, but also the affairs of the Slovaks, Magyars, Poles, Germans and Ruthenians, in the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The Masaryk-Benes regimes were anti-Slovak and anti-minority, but pro-Soviet at the same time. Hence, the problem of the minorities was more serious than pictured by Roucek, since, in the end, the Slovaks and all minorities were not willing to commit national suicide. The policies of Masaryk and Benes determined the fate of Czecho-Slovakia. By what "democratic" methods did the Masaryk-Benes regimes try to solve the problem of Czecho-Slovakia's minorities? Confiscation and censorship of the press, repudiation of natural rights and the right of free assembly, economic and political oppression - are these the "democratic" methods alluded to by Roucek? And what could have been more brutal and violent than the forced, inhumane expulsion of three and a half million Germans and hundreds of thousands of Magyars, and the complete sell-out of the Czech and Slovak nations by Benes to Stalin? • • • • • • Chapter X of Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" was contrib, uted by Lucy E. Textor (Vassar College); it is titled "Agriculture and Agrarian Reform." The biblography given at the end of the chapter is dominated by Czech authors. Scandals arising from the Land Reform act, as set up and executed by the Czechs, particularly by leading Czech politicians, are carefully omitted. "Czechoslovakia's Economic Development and Achievements" - Chapter XII of the book under consideration was written by Gerhard Schacher, member of the faculty of Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. There was no other country in central Europe which was to such a degree able and willing to modernize and rationalize its entire economic system by its own means and almost entirely without foreign support," says Schacher, and "that this was done in Czechoslovakia without aiming at 62 SLOVAKIA self-sufficiency was one of the greatest economic achievements in central Europe after the World War" - (p. 240). Just how Czecho-Slovakia was able to do that, however, is not clearly explained by Mr. Schacher. To him "Czechoslovakia" apparently means "Czech" (Czech: goods, labor, trade, imports, exports, manufacturers, businessmen, workers, armament, plants, crown, etc.). The rise of CZECH industry was phenomenal, indeed, but the professor somehow forgot to put down for the record what hapened to SLOVAK industry, which had existed in the land of the Slovaks during the Hungarian State. The tendency here, as elsewhere, is only too obvious . • • • • • • Brackett Lewis - A.B., Oberlin College; "engaged in war service with the Y. M. C. A. in Russia and in post-war service in central Russia, Archangel, Odessa, Vladivostok, Constantinople, and in Riga, Latvia, 1917-1928; director of the Y. M. C. A. of Czechoslovakia and secretary of the American Institute in Prague, 1928-1938" - wrote Chapter Xill entitled 'Social Reform and Social Legislation." He proves, even though I doubt he did it consciously, that Czecho-Slovkia was a socialistic state from the start. According to Lewis "a democratic outlook, which has been the characteristic of the Czechs since 1848, seemed to pervade all classes, and found expression in literature, education, and the professions, as well as in political life" (p. 253). While in Prague (1928-1938), Mr. Lewis was supposed to have made "special" studies of social and labor legislation and of the political system of the Republic, which resulted in his writing the book "Facts About Democray in Czechoslovakia" (Prague, 1938). The studies must have been "special," indeed, since Mr. Lewis apparently remained quite ignorant about the Slovaks and their country; his "facts" are for the most part Czech propaganda and not objective history. Chapter XIV - "Humanitarian Progress" - is the brain-child of Herbert Adolphus Miller (vd. Chapter V), according to whom: "The seeds that produced the social program of Czechoslovakia lie deep in history. The moral integrity of Hus and the democratic SLOVAKIA 63 educational theories of Comenius (Komensky) were combined with many other forces through the ages to prepare the people for what they accomplished after 1918. The Declaration of Independence, written by Masaryk, not only embodied his own philosophy but also reflected the past and foreshadowed a future of which his countrymen approved" - (p. 271). But the fact is that "the seeds that produced the social program of Czechoslovakia" do not lie deep in SLOVAK history; the social program was strictly according to Masaryk and Benes and their followers, who tried even to "remake" Czech history. The "moral integrity" of Hus and the democratic educational theories" of Comenius, to: gether with "many other forces," may have prepared T. G. Masaryk, Edward Benes, and other Czech socialists for what they accomplished after 1918, and especially after 1945. We know what happened. Genuine Slovak patriots, however, preferred ta repudiate these "progressive" forces and were content to remain the nation of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. • • • "The Declaration of Independence," according to Miller in his Chapter on "Humanitarian Progress," was written by Masaryk, but what did this same Herbert Adolphus Miller say about this Declaration in a previous Chapter of the same book (pp. 83-86)? For the edification of present and future historians, and in the interest of historical truth, I believe a reproduction is in order. Mr. Miller said: "According to William E. Dodd" (Woodrow Wilson and His Work, p. 278), " 'on July 4, 1918, a mass meeting of the Czechoslovaks in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, issued a formal Declaration of Independence. President Wilson lent his support to this movement and finally announced American recognition of Czechoslovakia on September 2, 1918.' Mr. Dodd confused the frequent claims for independence by an unauthorized group with the official Declaration made by Masaryk, which was dated October 18, 1918. There is, however, a widespread and erroneous belief that Masaryk proclaimed it from Independence Hall. "The facts are as follows. Early in October, through the Swedish Minister, President Wilson had received a communication from Emperor Charles of Austria, proposing a reorganization of the empire. Wilson, as has been stated earlier, had told Masaryk that no decisions would be arrived at about Austria-Hungary without consult- 64 SLOVAKIA ing him. Wilson knew at this time that a Czechoslovak Declaration, of Independence was being prepared by Professor Masaryk. "About four o'clock on the afternoon of October 16, Mr. Cisar, Professor Masaryk's secretary, came to the room of the present writer (Herbert Adolphus Miller) in the Powhatan Hotel and, handing him an envelope, said: 'This is the Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence. The professor wants you to put it into good English.• On reading it over, the present writer decided that its style would be quite without appeal to the American public which it, in part, sought to influence, and that it needed complete revision. Accordingly, through chance assistance, he gathered together seven men,. including two lawyers and Mr. Cisar, and set to work. "Great care was taken to keep all the meaning of the original and at the same time to give a vigor of statement that would appeal to Americans. Every word and every sentence was weighed. The original typewritten copy was cut into more than a hundred pieces and pasted together in different order and then revised again and again. The group worked from seven-thirty in the evening until one- thirty in the morning of October 17, 1918. "Later in the forenoon, with Mr. Calfee, a Cleveland lawyer who had been present the previous evening, the present writer went to Professor Masaryk's residence, where again a detailed study was made of form and content, modifications being made wherever the meaning had been changed in the work of the night before. The rest of the day was spent in working on the text and about two o'clock on the morning of the eighteenth the Declaration was cabled to Dr. Benes in Paris. "In the forenoon of October 18, the present writer had a number of copies multigraphed and a special typewritten copy made for President Wilson. These are the only ORIGINAL copies of the Declaration that ever existed; even the copy that was given to the multigrapher has been lost. The question of when the Declaration should be published, whether in the morning or in the evening papers, was carefully weighed and it was finally decided to have it published in the morning papers, October 19. It was deliberately held until 4:00 P. M. of the eighteenth, for two reasons : that gave time enough for the Declaration to be cabled from Paris, where it was technically issued on October 18, and made its release too late for the evening papers. "In the meantime, President Wilson had been preparing his reply to Emperor Charles. Benes had feared some yielding, but, after receiving the Declaration from Masaryk, Wilson informed Benes in a letter that he was greatly touched by the proclamation and that Masaryk would be satisfied with the reply that was being sent to Austria-Hungary . ... (Continued)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Professor Kerner's "CZECHOSLOVAKIA": History or Propaganda? (6/8) Description An account of the resource P. A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 1 (22), March 1957 pp. 59-64 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1957 Relation A related resource continued from <a href="/items/show/197">Vol. 6, No. 3-4 (20-21), pp. 88-96</a><br />continues in <a href="/items/show/242">Vol. 7, No. 2 (23), pp. 52-57</a> LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/91797ad8dc1a42a6d66cf715ce19aa5d.pdf 4ee80f354a36993b46b464a98aa44135 PDF Text Text 52 SLOVAKIA Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) IDSTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A. HROBAK "The Czechoslovak Declaration and the letter to Emperor Charles were published in the Saturday morning papers, October 19, 1918, the two appearing in many papers in parallel columns; the reply of President Wilson quoted above came on the Monday following. "It was still thought that American public opinion was not sufficiently informed; while the men mentioned above were trying to devise what to do next, the suggestion was made that, if a declaration were issued from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, it would make a striking impression on the American people. They immediately consulted the State Department and obtained its approval, provided Professor Masaryk took the leadership. The members of the Mid-European Union were immediately summoned on Saturday morning, the nineteenth, and a preliminary draft of a declaration was made. The following Wednesday, the Union met in Independence Hall and continued in session until Saturday noon, with Masaryk as chairman. The discussion, which was heated at times, was concentrated on controversies between the various groups. "Because of the prominence attained by Professor Masaryk through the Declaration on Saturday, the press gave the meeting much space, and minimized the often bitter discussion. Saturday noon a Declaration of Common Aims was read by Professor Masaryk in the courtyard back of Independence Hall. This Declaration was realJy the first statement leading to the Little Entente." It would be interesting, indeed, if a copy of Masaryk's "original" draft of the Declaration were available. It is significant, however, that many less valuable and important documents were preserved and recorded by T. G. Masaryk in their original forms. Masaryk made less of the Declaration than did Mr. Miller. Referring to it in his "SVETOVA REVOLUCE" (p. 364), Masaryk said: " ... the form was chosen in such a way as to remind Americans -of their own beautiful Declaration; ultimately its value was tactical . ... In the Declaration, I repudiated Charles' late attempt to promote an Austrian pseudo-federation and outlined the essential principles on which the Provisional Government was building the foundations of the new state. The first outline I gave to read to a group ~f my own friends (among them Brandeis and editor Bennet); an objective and formal criticism of it was undertaken by a small com- �SLOVAKIA 53 mittee, which made the final revision along formal and legal lines (Mr. Calffee, a remarkable expert and lawyer, was a member of it); this was a nice example of harmonious cooperation and, at the /same time, the first state act of great style, made under my direction. I delivered the Declaration to State Secretary Lansing so that I might insure agreement of the American Government beforehand; •lso so that even at the last moment before his reply to Austria I might remind Wilson of our stand." Who was right: Masaryk or Miller? Of course, they could both be right - each in his own way: the main thing was to sell Masaryk and Czecho-Slovakia to the American public, and especially to President Wilson and his advisers. Masaryk's draft of the "Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence," according to Mr. Miller, was scrapped - "the original typewritten copy was cut into more than a hundred pieces and pasted together in different order and then revised again and again" - but "great care was taken to keep all the meaning of the original"! And great care was taken to destroy Masaryk's original, of course! From all this it is obvious that Masaryk, despite arguments to the contrary notwithstanding, knew little about American democracy, which he wanted to exploit so that he might create his own special brand of "Czechoslovak" democracy. But why did Mr. Herbert Adolphus Miller, in the light of statements above, state categorically: "The Declaration of Independence, written by Masaryk, not only embodied his own philosophy but also reflected the past and foreshadowed a future of which his countrymen approved"? Are we to believe that is why Masaryk's version was scrapped and the committee's accepted?? CHAPTER XV - "The Religious Situation in Czechoslovakia" - by Matthew Spinka, B.D., Ph.D., "Associate Professor of Church History in the Chicago Theological Seminary and in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago; editor of Church History, published by the American Society of Church History, and the Society's Studies in Church History; author of: The Church and the Russian Revolution (1927); A History of Christianity in the Balkans (1933); Christianity Confronts Communism (1936-1938); Chronicle of John Malalas (1940); and numerous articles." Spinka's account, partial and notoriously biased against �SLOVAKIA 54 the Catholic Church, is not a true account of "the religious situation in Czecho-Slovakia." In it one finds, for the most part, the Protestant or "Hussite" version of the "progressive" CZECHS, which purposefully tends to falsify and confuse the true picture. In the entire 18 pages of the chapter, Slovakia and the Slovaks are limited to several sentences, which clearly indicate that the author was not interested in presenting a factual account. In reading this chapter, readers should bear this in mind, otherwise they may fall for a distorted and biased version of a situation that did not prevail even in the Czech lands, and so much the less in Slovakia. "Furthermore, there was likewise a considerable difference In the character of Slovak and Czech Catholicism, which manifested itself in the continuous and sometimes violent political opposition to the Czechs. This opposition was led chiefly by the priesthood, with the famous Msgr. Andrej Hlinka, the papal prothonotary and a member of the Czechoslovak Senate at their head. It is significant that the instrument of the violent rupture between Slovakia and Bohemia-Moravia which occurred in March, 1939, was a Roman Catholic priest, Dr. Tiso" - (p. 289). Indeed, it is significant, that Spinka conveniently forgot to back this statement with proof of the "violence" resorted to by the Slovaks. The tendency is only too obvious. The fact is that Msgr. Hlinka and Msgr. Tiso, were not the instruments of the "violent" rupture between Slovakia and Bohemia-Moravia in 1939. But even if we grant that they were, who was more responsible for the situation that obtained in Czecho-Slovakia in 1939 than the Benes Czechs? • • • "When the Pact of Munich delivered the CZECH nation into the hands of the Nazi regime of the Reich, unfortunately a faction within the Catholic Church thought it an opportune moment to further their program. This was a militant, aggressive group of Catholics, with Jaroslav Durych as one of their leaders, who once more identified their cause with the opposition to the democratic Masaryk orientation of CZECH culture. This noisy, denunciatory, fanatical faction tried to substitute the ultramontane policies symbolized in CZECH history by St. Vaclav for the liberal, Protestant-inspired poli• cies represented by the tradition of Jan Hus, and Jan Amos Comenius, AS REPRESENTED BY PRESIDENT MASARYK. But with the setting up of the "Protectorate" in March, 1939, the momentary flare-up of religious intolerance subsided. It should be stressed that the responsible political leaders of the Catholics, such as Msgr. Dr. �SLOVAKIA 55 ~ramek, did not share the views of the militant group, and remained loyal and faithful to the Masaryk-Benes orientation" - (p. 292). Please note well: The CZECHS, including "responsible political leaders of the Catholics, SUCH AS MSGR. DR. SRAMEK," scrapped the traditions of St. Wenceslaus for the policies of Hus and Comenius, "AS INTERPRETED BY PRESIDENT MASARYK"! What, then, does non-Catholic Spinka use as a yardstick for "responsible political leaders" of CZECH Catholics? • • • "Of those (CZECHS) who seceded from the Roman Church after the setting up of the Republic, the majority organized themselves into an anti-papal, nationalistic Czechoslovak Church. This body had its inception in the efforts of the "Unity of (CZECH) Catholic Clergy," which in 1919 undertook to wrest from the papal curia certain reforms which had been formulated two years earlier. . . . Seeing the hopelessness of the task of obtaining their demands, the (CZECH) leaders of the reformists decided upon the radical measure of setting up a new (CZECH) national church. At the convention of the (CZECH) reformist clergy held on January 8, 1920, the Czechoslovak Church was organized" - (p. 293). This paragraph and others following on the "Czechoslovak National Church" significantly lack the qualification "CZECH" for reasons best known to Mr. Spinka. The parenthetical inclusions here and below ( CZECH) are not Spinka's, but mine, to indicate clearly that the "Czechoslovak National Church" - which had the blessing of Masaryk and Benes and their socialistic followers was strictly a CZECH venture, nothing SLOVAK about it. • • • "The new (CZECH) Czechoslovak Church grew with astonishing rapidity. . . . The movement at first was (CZECH) Catholic, even though modernist and nationalist in character, but distinctly and bitterly anti-papal and anti-Roman. It was in no sense a Protestant body, and at first did not wish to be so considered, although in the course of time it joined the ranks of Protestant communions" (p. 294-295). • I • • "As for the cultural and religious life of the nation, despite its relative numerical inferiority, the Protestant element has played a role far beyond its strength in numbers. The president-liberator, Thomas G. Masaryk, had become early in life, a convert to Protestantism, and remained a member of the Czech Brethren Church to the end. A large number of other political leaders were and are �56 SLOVAKIA likewise members of one or another Protestant communion: Stefanik, the leader of the Slovaks during the struggle for independence; Premier Hodia, who served during the critical period in 1938; and Ivan Derer, who was minister of education in the Hodfa cabinet; in this group also are to be found ministers Slavik, Hurban, and Osusky all of whom are grouped about Dr. Eduard Benes in his struggle for the restoration of Czechoslovak independence" - (p. 300). If the "Protestant element" played "a role far beyond its strength in numbers" in a country that was predominantly Catholic (over 75 percent). there must have been some reason for it. The same element practically had a monopoly on political life. Masaryk, Spinka told us, was a member of the CZECH Brethren, while the Slovaks mentioned were Protestants, but he conveniently forgot to tell us just what Freemason Benes was. According to Spinka, Slovak Catholicism manifested itself in "violent" opposition, but he failed to mention the fact that the MasarykBenes Czechs, sworn enemies of the Roman Catholic Church, the faith of the vast majority of the population of CzechoSlovakia, were also "violent" in their opposition. In his blinded hatred for the Catholic population, especially the Slovaks, Benes, sold out Czecho-Slovakia to Hitler in 1938 and to Stalin in 1943. The Slovaks, as a nation, were opposed to the restoration of "Czechoslovak" independence, because it meant enslavement by the Marxist Czechs. It was thoughtful of Mr. Spinka to mention the fact that "the two outstanding CZECH philosophers, both pupils and disciples of Masaryk" also are Protestants: "Professor E. Ra.di, whose originality in the treatment of ideas has made him justly famous; and Professor Jan B. Kozak, the son of an outstanding minister and himself formerly a minister of the Czech Brethren Church, who was until recently the leading member of the philosophical faculty of the University of Prague. He is at present teaching at Oberlin College." Likewise that "among the theologians, none is more outstanding than Professor J. L. Hromadka, of the Jan Hus Theological Faculty, at present a member of the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary.... " All these "outstanding CZECH philosophers" - pupils and disciples of Hus and Masaryk - are doing nicely, thank you, under the �57 SLOVAKIA Red Czech regime of Prague. Hromadka returned to Prague ten years ago to head the "Czechoslovak National Church; when the Czech Reds took over all power in February 1948, Hromadka and his Czech church voluntarily offered to co·Operate 100 percent! It would seem that the Czech "reformers" are continually reforming against Christianity! (Continued) • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK . CHAPTER THREE AFTER THE FALL OF GREAT MORAVIA There are no clear and reliable reports in historical sources to tell us when and under what circumstances Mojmir's country lost its independence. It is possible that the Slovak army, which clashed with the enemy so frequently, together with courageous Mojmir II, the last of the early Slovak rulers, perished in a final battle for the freedom of Slovakland. However, it is also possible that Mojmir IT, exhausted by constant warfare and without outside help in sight, did not venture into another war which he could not possibly win. Mojmir Il in his ten-year reign proved on more than one occasion that he was a sagacious ruler, and we can be certain that in those trying times he did what he deemed best for his country. From reliable sources we can learn only that in 906 A. D. Mojmir's country no longer was an independent state, because the Magyars marched through Slovakia in that year to aid the Slovanic Glomaches in their fight against the Saxons. Slovakia did not immediately fall prey to the Magyars who passed through it into neighboring countries on foraging expeditions. Slovakia only ceased to be an independent state. She no longer had her own ruler and could no longer defend herself, but she did not as yet belong under the rule of a foreign state. The German empire, exposed to the at- � 52 SLOVAKIA Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) IDSTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A. HROBAK "The Czechoslovak Declaration and the letter to Emperor Charles were published in the Saturday morning papers, October 19, 1918, the two appearing in many papers in parallel columns; the reply of President Wilson quoted above came on the Monday following. "It was still thought that American public opinion was not sufficiently informed; while the men mentioned above were trying to devise what to do next, the suggestion was made that, if a declaration were issued from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, it would make a striking impression on the American people. They immediately consulted the State Department and obtained its approval, provided Professor Masaryk took the leadership. The members of the Mid-European Union were immediately summoned on Saturday morning, the nineteenth, and a preliminary draft of a declaration was made. The following Wednesday, the Union met in Independence Hall and continued in session until Saturday noon, with Masaryk as chairman. The discussion, which was heated at times, was concentrated on controversies between the various groups. "Because of the prominence attained by Professor Masaryk through the Declaration on Saturday, the press gave the meeting much space, and minimized the often bitter discussion. Saturday noon a Declaration of Common Aims was read by Professor Masaryk in the courtyard back of Independence Hall. This Declaration was realJy the first statement leading to the Little Entente." It would be interesting, indeed, if a copy of Masaryk's "original" draft of the Declaration were available. It is significant, however, that many less valuable and important documents were preserved and recorded by T. G. Masaryk in their original forms. Masaryk made less of the Declaration than did Mr. Miller. Referring to it in his "SVETOVA REVOLUCE" (p. 364), Masaryk said: " ... the form was chosen in such a way as to remind Americans -of their own beautiful Declaration; ultimately its value was tactical . ... In the Declaration, I repudiated Charles' late attempt to promote an Austrian pseudo-federation and outlined the essential principles on which the Provisional Government was building the foundations of the new state. The first outline I gave to read to a group ~f my own friends (among them Brandeis and editor Bennet); an objective and formal criticism of it was undertaken by a small com- �SLOVAKIA 53 mittee, which made the final revision along formal and legal lines (Mr. Calffee, a remarkable expert and lawyer, was a member of it); this was a nice example of harmonious cooperation and, at the /same time, the first state act of great style, made under my direction. I delivered the Declaration to State Secretary Lansing so that I might insure agreement of the American Government beforehand; •lso so that even at the last moment before his reply to Austria I might remind Wilson of our stand." Who was right: Masaryk or Miller? Of course, they could both be right - each in his own way: the main thing was to sell Masaryk and Czecho-Slovakia to the American public, and especially to President Wilson and his advisers. Masaryk's draft of the "Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence," according to Mr. Miller, was scrapped - "the original typewritten copy was cut into more than a hundred pieces and pasted together in different order and then revised again and again" - but "great care was taken to keep all the meaning of the original"! And great care was taken to destroy Masaryk's original, of course! From all this it is obvious that Masaryk, despite arguments to the contrary notwithstanding, knew little about American democracy, which he wanted to exploit so that he might create his own special brand of "Czechoslovak" democracy. But why did Mr. Herbert Adolphus Miller, in the light of statements above, state categorically: "The Declaration of Independence, written by Masaryk, not only embodied his own philosophy but also reflected the past and foreshadowed a future of which his countrymen approved"? Are we to believe that is why Masaryk's version was scrapped and the committee's accepted?? CHAPTER XV - "The Religious Situation in Czechoslovakia" - by Matthew Spinka, B.D., Ph.D., "Associate Professor of Church History in the Chicago Theological Seminary and in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago; editor of Church History, published by the American Society of Church History, and the Society's Studies in Church History; author of: The Church and the Russian Revolution (1927); A History of Christianity in the Balkans (1933); Christianity Confronts Communism (1936-1938); Chronicle of John Malalas (1940); and numerous articles." Spinka's account, partial and notoriously biased against �SLOVAKIA 54 the Catholic Church, is not a true account of "the religious situation in Czecho-Slovakia." In it one finds, for the most part, the Protestant or "Hussite" version of the "progressive" CZECHS, which purposefully tends to falsify and confuse the true picture. In the entire 18 pages of the chapter, Slovakia and the Slovaks are limited to several sentences, which clearly indicate that the author was not interested in presenting a factual account. In reading this chapter, readers should bear this in mind, otherwise they may fall for a distorted and biased version of a situation that did not prevail even in the Czech lands, and so much the less in Slovakia. "Furthermore, there was likewise a considerable difference In the character of Slovak and Czech Catholicism, which manifested itself in the continuous and sometimes violent political opposition to the Czechs. This opposition was led chiefly by the priesthood, with the famous Msgr. Andrej Hlinka, the papal prothonotary and a member of the Czechoslovak Senate at their head. It is significant that the instrument of the violent rupture between Slovakia and Bohemia-Moravia which occurred in March, 1939, was a Roman Catholic priest, Dr. Tiso" - (p. 289). Indeed, it is significant, that Spinka conveniently forgot to back this statement with proof of the "violence" resorted to by the Slovaks. The tendency is only too obvious. The fact is that Msgr. Hlinka and Msgr. Tiso, were not the instruments of the "violent" rupture between Slovakia and Bohemia-Moravia in 1939. But even if we grant that they were, who was more responsible for the situation that obtained in Czecho-Slovakia in 1939 than the Benes Czechs? • • • "When the Pact of Munich delivered the CZECH nation into the hands of the Nazi regime of the Reich, unfortunately a faction within the Catholic Church thought it an opportune moment to further their program. This was a militant, aggressive group of Catholics, with Jaroslav Durych as one of their leaders, who once more identified their cause with the opposition to the democratic Masaryk orientation of CZECH culture. This noisy, denunciatory, fanatical faction tried to substitute the ultramontane policies symbolized in CZECH history by St. Vaclav for the liberal, Protestant-inspired poli• cies represented by the tradition of Jan Hus, and Jan Amos Comenius, AS REPRESENTED BY PRESIDENT MASARYK. But with the setting up of the "Protectorate" in March, 1939, the momentary flare-up of religious intolerance subsided. It should be stressed that the responsible political leaders of the Catholics, such as Msgr. Dr. �SLOVAKIA 55 ~ramek, did not share the views of the militant group, and remained loyal and faithful to the Masaryk-Benes orientation" - (p. 292). Please note well: The CZECHS, including "responsible political leaders of the Catholics, SUCH AS MSGR. DR. SRAMEK," scrapped the traditions of St. Wenceslaus for the policies of Hus and Comenius, "AS INTERPRETED BY PRESIDENT MASARYK"! What, then, does non-Catholic Spinka use as a yardstick for "responsible political leaders" of CZECH Catholics? • • • "Of those (CZECHS) who seceded from the Roman Church after the setting up of the Republic, the majority organized themselves into an anti-papal, nationalistic Czechoslovak Church. This body had its inception in the efforts of the "Unity of (CZECH) Catholic Clergy," which in 1919 undertook to wrest from the papal curia certain reforms which had been formulated two years earlier. . . . Seeing the hopelessness of the task of obtaining their demands, the (CZECH) leaders of the reformists decided upon the radical measure of setting up a new (CZECH) national church. At the convention of the (CZECH) reformist clergy held on January 8, 1920, the Czechoslovak Church was organized" - (p. 293). This paragraph and others following on the "Czechoslovak National Church" significantly lack the qualification "CZECH" for reasons best known to Mr. Spinka. The parenthetical inclusions here and below ( CZECH) are not Spinka's, but mine, to indicate clearly that the "Czechoslovak National Church" - which had the blessing of Masaryk and Benes and their socialistic followers was strictly a CZECH venture, nothing SLOVAK about it. • • • "The new (CZECH) Czechoslovak Church grew with astonishing rapidity. . . . The movement at first was (CZECH) Catholic, even though modernist and nationalist in character, but distinctly and bitterly anti-papal and anti-Roman. It was in no sense a Protestant body, and at first did not wish to be so considered, although in the course of time it joined the ranks of Protestant communions" (p. 294-295). • I • • "As for the cultural and religious life of the nation, despite its relative numerical inferiority, the Protestant element has played a role far beyond its strength in numbers. The president-liberator, Thomas G. Masaryk, had become early in life, a convert to Protestantism, and remained a member of the Czech Brethren Church to the end. A large number of other political leaders were and are �56 SLOVAKIA likewise members of one or another Protestant communion: Stefanik, the leader of the Slovaks during the struggle for independence; Premier Hodia, who served during the critical period in 1938; and Ivan Derer, who was minister of education in the Hodfa cabinet; in this group also are to be found ministers Slavik, Hurban, and Osusky all of whom are grouped about Dr. Eduard Benes in his struggle for the restoration of Czechoslovak independence" - (p. 300). If the "Protestant element" played "a role far beyond its strength in numbers" in a country that was predominantly Catholic (over 75 percent). there must have been some reason for it. The same element practically had a monopoly on political life. Masaryk, Spinka told us, was a member of the CZECH Brethren, while the Slovaks mentioned were Protestants, but he conveniently forgot to tell us just what Freemason Benes was. According to Spinka, Slovak Catholicism manifested itself in "violent" opposition, but he failed to mention the fact that the MasarykBenes Czechs, sworn enemies of the Roman Catholic Church, the faith of the vast majority of the population of CzechoSlovakia, were also "violent" in their opposition. In his blinded hatred for the Catholic population, especially the Slovaks, Benes, sold out Czecho-Slovakia to Hitler in 1938 and to Stalin in 1943. The Slovaks, as a nation, were opposed to the restoration of "Czechoslovak" independence, because it meant enslavement by the Marxist Czechs. It was thoughtful of Mr. Spinka to mention the fact that "the two outstanding CZECH philosophers, both pupils and disciples of Masaryk" also are Protestants: "Professor E. Ra.di, whose originality in the treatment of ideas has made him justly famous; and Professor Jan B. Kozak, the son of an outstanding minister and himself formerly a minister of the Czech Brethren Church, who was until recently the leading member of the philosophical faculty of the University of Prague. He is at present teaching at Oberlin College." Likewise that "among the theologians, none is more outstanding than Professor J. L. Hromadka, of the Jan Hus Theological Faculty, at present a member of the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary.... " All these "outstanding CZECH philosophers" - pupils and disciples of Hus and Masaryk - are doing nicely, thank you, under the �57 SLOVAKIA Red Czech regime of Prague. Hromadka returned to Prague ten years ago to head the "Czechoslovak National Church; when the Czech Reds took over all power in February 1948, Hromadka and his Czech church voluntarily offered to co·Operate 100 percent! It would seem that the Czech "reformers" are continually reforming against Christianity! (Continued) • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK . CHAPTER THREE AFTER THE FALL OF GREAT MORAVIA There are no clear and reliable reports in historical sources to tell us when and under what circumstances Mojmir's country lost its independence. It is possible that the Slovak army, which clashed with the enemy so frequently, together with courageous Mojmir II, the last of the early Slovak rulers, perished in a final battle for the freedom of Slovakland. However, it is also possible that Mojmir IT, exhausted by constant warfare and without outside help in sight, did not venture into another war which he could not possibly win. Mojmir Il in his ten-year reign proved on more than one occasion that he was a sagacious ruler, and we can be certain that in those trying times he did what he deemed best for his country. From reliable sources we can learn only that in 906 A. D. Mojmir's country no longer was an independent state, because the Magyars marched through Slovakia in that year to aid the Slovanic Glomaches in their fight against the Saxons. Slovakia did not immediately fall prey to the Magyars who passed through it into neighboring countries on foraging expeditions. Slovakia only ceased to be an independent state. She no longer had her own ruler and could no longer defend herself, but she did not as yet belong under the rule of a foreign state. The German empire, exposed to the at- � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 52 SLOVAKIA Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) IDSTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A. HROBAK "The Czechoslovak Declaration and the letter to Emperor Charles were published in the Saturday morning papers, October 19, 1918, the two appearing in many papers in parallel columns; the reply of President Wilson quoted above came on the Monday following. "It was still thought that American public opinion was not sufficiently informed; while the men mentioned above were trying to devise what to do next, the suggestion was made that, if a declaration were issued from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, it would make a striking impression on the American people. They immediately consulted the State Department and obtained its approval, provided Professor Masaryk took the leadership. The members of the Mid-European Union were immediately summoned on Saturday morning, the nineteenth, and a preliminary draft of a declaration was made. The following Wednesday, the Union met in Independence Hall and continued in session until Saturday noon, with Masaryk as chairman. The discussion, which was heated at times, was concentrated on controversies between the various groups. "Because of the prominence attained by Professor Masaryk through the Declaration on Saturday, the press gave the meeting much space, and minimized the often bitter discussion. Saturday noon a Declaration of Common Aims was read by Professor Masaryk in the courtyard back of Independence Hall. This Declaration was realJy the first statement leading to the Little Entente." It would be interesting, indeed, if a copy of Masaryk's "original" draft of the Declaration were available. It is significant, however, that many less valuable and important documents were preserved and recorded by T. G. Masaryk in their original forms. Masaryk made less of the Declaration than did Mr. Miller. Referring to it in his "SVETOVA REVOLUCE" (p. 364), Masaryk said: " ... the form was chosen in such a way as to remind Americans -of their own beautiful Declaration; ultimately its value was tactical . ... In the Declaration, I repudiated Charles' late attempt to promote an Austrian pseudo-federation and outlined the essential principles on which the Provisional Government was building the foundations of the new state. The first outline I gave to read to a group ~f my own friends (among them Brandeis and editor Bennet); an objective and formal criticism of it was undertaken by a small com- SLOVAKIA 53 mittee, which made the final revision along formal and legal lines (Mr. Calffee, a remarkable expert and lawyer, was a member of it); this was a nice example of harmonious cooperation and, at the /same time, the first state act of great style, made under my direction. I delivered the Declaration to State Secretary Lansing so that I might insure agreement of the American Government beforehand; •lso so that even at the last moment before his reply to Austria I might remind Wilson of our stand." Who was right: Masaryk or Miller? Of course, they could both be right - each in his own way: the main thing was to sell Masaryk and Czecho-Slovakia to the American public, and especially to President Wilson and his advisers. Masaryk's draft of the "Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence," according to Mr. Miller, was scrapped - "the original typewritten copy was cut into more than a hundred pieces and pasted together in different order and then revised again and again" - but "great care was taken to keep all the meaning of the original"! And great care was taken to destroy Masaryk's original, of course! From all this it is obvious that Masaryk, despite arguments to the contrary notwithstanding, knew little about American democracy, which he wanted to exploit so that he might create his own special brand of "Czechoslovak" democracy. But why did Mr. Herbert Adolphus Miller, in the light of statements above, state categorically: "The Declaration of Independence, written by Masaryk, not only embodied his own philosophy but also reflected the past and foreshadowed a future of which his countrymen approved"? Are we to believe that is why Masaryk's version was scrapped and the committee's accepted?? CHAPTER XV - "The Religious Situation in Czechoslovakia" - by Matthew Spinka, B.D., Ph.D., "Associate Professor of Church History in the Chicago Theological Seminary and in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago; editor of Church History, published by the American Society of Church History, and the Society's Studies in Church History; author of: The Church and the Russian Revolution (1927); A History of Christianity in the Balkans (1933); Christianity Confronts Communism (1936-1938); Chronicle of John Malalas (1940); and numerous articles." Spinka's account, partial and notoriously biased against SLOVAKIA 54 the Catholic Church, is not a true account of "the religious situation in Czecho-Slovakia." In it one finds, for the most part, the Protestant or "Hussite" version of the "progressive" CZECHS, which purposefully tends to falsify and confuse the true picture. In the entire 18 pages of the chapter, Slovakia and the Slovaks are limited to several sentences, which clearly indicate that the author was not interested in presenting a factual account. In reading this chapter, readers should bear this in mind, otherwise they may fall for a distorted and biased version of a situation that did not prevail even in the Czech lands, and so much the less in Slovakia. "Furthermore, there was likewise a considerable difference In the character of Slovak and Czech Catholicism, which manifested itself in the continuous and sometimes violent political opposition to the Czechs. This opposition was led chiefly by the priesthood, with the famous Msgr. Andrej Hlinka, the papal prothonotary and a member of the Czechoslovak Senate at their head. It is significant that the instrument of the violent rupture between Slovakia and Bohemia-Moravia which occurred in March, 1939, was a Roman Catholic priest, Dr. Tiso" - (p. 289). Indeed, it is significant, that Spinka conveniently forgot to back this statement with proof of the "violence" resorted to by the Slovaks. The tendency is only too obvious. The fact is that Msgr. Hlinka and Msgr. Tiso, were not the instruments of the "violent" rupture between Slovakia and Bohemia-Moravia in 1939. But even if we grant that they were, who was more responsible for the situation that obtained in Czecho-Slovakia in 1939 than the Benes Czechs? • • • "When the Pact of Munich delivered the CZECH nation into the hands of the Nazi regime of the Reich, unfortunately a faction within the Catholic Church thought it an opportune moment to further their program. This was a militant, aggressive group of Catholics, with Jaroslav Durych as one of their leaders, who once more identified their cause with the opposition to the democratic Masaryk orientation of CZECH culture. This noisy, denunciatory, fanatical faction tried to substitute the ultramontane policies symbolized in CZECH history by St. Vaclav for the liberal, Protestant-inspired poli• cies represented by the tradition of Jan Hus, and Jan Amos Comenius, AS REPRESENTED BY PRESIDENT MASARYK. But with the setting up of the "Protectorate" in March, 1939, the momentary flare-up of religious intolerance subsided. It should be stressed that the responsible political leaders of the Catholics, such as Msgr. Dr. SLOVAKIA 55 ~ramek, did not share the views of the militant group, and remained loyal and faithful to the Masaryk-Benes orientation" - (p. 292). Please note well: The CZECHS, including "responsible political leaders of the Catholics, SUCH AS MSGR. DR. SRAMEK," scrapped the traditions of St. Wenceslaus for the policies of Hus and Comenius, "AS INTERPRETED BY PRESIDENT MASARYK"! What, then, does non-Catholic Spinka use as a yardstick for "responsible political leaders" of CZECH Catholics? • • • "Of those (CZECHS) who seceded from the Roman Church after the setting up of the Republic, the majority organized themselves into an anti-papal, nationalistic Czechoslovak Church. This body had its inception in the efforts of the "Unity of (CZECH) Catholic Clergy," which in 1919 undertook to wrest from the papal curia certain reforms which had been formulated two years earlier. . . . Seeing the hopelessness of the task of obtaining their demands, the (CZECH) leaders of the reformists decided upon the radical measure of setting up a new (CZECH) national church. At the convention of the (CZECH) reformist clergy held on January 8, 1920, the Czechoslovak Church was organized" - (p. 293). This paragraph and others following on the "Czechoslovak National Church" significantly lack the qualification "CZECH" for reasons best known to Mr. Spinka. The parenthetical inclusions here and below ( CZECH) are not Spinka's, but mine, to indicate clearly that the "Czechoslovak National Church" - which had the blessing of Masaryk and Benes and their socialistic followers was strictly a CZECH venture, nothing SLOVAK about it. • • • "The new (CZECH) Czechoslovak Church grew with astonishing rapidity. . . . The movement at first was (CZECH) Catholic, even though modernist and nationalist in character, but distinctly and bitterly anti-papal and anti-Roman. It was in no sense a Protestant body, and at first did not wish to be so considered, although in the course of time it joined the ranks of Protestant communions" (p. 294-295). • I • • "As for the cultural and religious life of the nation, despite its relative numerical inferiority, the Protestant element has played a role far beyond its strength in numbers. The president-liberator, Thomas G. Masaryk, had become early in life, a convert to Protestantism, and remained a member of the Czech Brethren Church to the end. A large number of other political leaders were and are 56 SLOVAKIA likewise members of one or another Protestant communion: Stefanik, the leader of the Slovaks during the struggle for independence; Premier Hodia, who served during the critical period in 1938; and Ivan Derer, who was minister of education in the Hodfa cabinet; in this group also are to be found ministers Slavik, Hurban, and Osusky all of whom are grouped about Dr. Eduard Benes in his struggle for the restoration of Czechoslovak independence" - (p. 300). If the "Protestant element" played "a role far beyond its strength in numbers" in a country that was predominantly Catholic (over 75 percent). there must have been some reason for it. The same element practically had a monopoly on political life. Masaryk, Spinka told us, was a member of the CZECH Brethren, while the Slovaks mentioned were Protestants, but he conveniently forgot to tell us just what Freemason Benes was. According to Spinka, Slovak Catholicism manifested itself in "violent" opposition, but he failed to mention the fact that the MasarykBenes Czechs, sworn enemies of the Roman Catholic Church, the faith of the vast majority of the population of CzechoSlovakia, were also "violent" in their opposition. In his blinded hatred for the Catholic population, especially the Slovaks, Benes, sold out Czecho-Slovakia to Hitler in 1938 and to Stalin in 1943. The Slovaks, as a nation, were opposed to the restoration of "Czechoslovak" independence, because it meant enslavement by the Marxist Czechs. It was thoughtful of Mr. Spinka to mention the fact that "the two outstanding CZECH philosophers, both pupils and disciples of Masaryk" also are Protestants: "Professor E. Ra.di, whose originality in the treatment of ideas has made him justly famous; and Professor Jan B. Kozak, the son of an outstanding minister and himself formerly a minister of the Czech Brethren Church, who was until recently the leading member of the philosophical faculty of the University of Prague. He is at present teaching at Oberlin College." Likewise that "among the theologians, none is more outstanding than Professor J. L. Hromadka, of the Jan Hus Theological Faculty, at present a member of the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary.... " All these "outstanding CZECH philosophers" - pupils and disciples of Hus and Masaryk - are doing nicely, thank you, under the 57 SLOVAKIA Red Czech regime of Prague. Hromadka returned to Prague ten years ago to head the "Czechoslovak National Church; when the Czech Reds took over all power in February 1948, Hromadka and his Czech church voluntarily offered to co·Operate 100 percent! It would seem that the Czech "reformers" are continually reforming against Christianity! (Continued) • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK . CHAPTER THREE AFTER THE FALL OF GREAT MORAVIA There are no clear and reliable reports in historical sources to tell us when and under what circumstances Mojmir's country lost its independence. It is possible that the Slovak army, which clashed with the enemy so frequently, together with courageous Mojmir II, the last of the early Slovak rulers, perished in a final battle for the freedom of Slovakland. However, it is also possible that Mojmir IT, exhausted by constant warfare and without outside help in sight, did not venture into another war which he could not possibly win. Mojmir Il in his ten-year reign proved on more than one occasion that he was a sagacious ruler, and we can be certain that in those trying times he did what he deemed best for his country. From reliable sources we can learn only that in 906 A. D. Mojmir's country no longer was an independent state, because the Magyars marched through Slovakia in that year to aid the Slovanic Glomaches in their fight against the Saxons. Slovakia did not immediately fall prey to the Magyars who passed through it into neighboring countries on foraging expeditions. Slovakia only ceased to be an independent state. She no longer had her own ruler and could no longer defend herself, but she did not as yet belong under the rule of a foreign state. The German empire, exposed to the at-  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Professor Kerner's "CZECHOSLOVAKIA": History or Propaganda? (7/8) Description An account of the resource P. A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2 (23), June 1957 pp. 52-57 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1957 Relation A related resource continued from <a href="/items/show/251">Vol. 7, No. 1 (22), pp. 59-64</a><br />continues in <a href="/items/show/231">Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25), pp. 69-83</a> LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/19cc29dc671ed57026f77a344cd990a3.pdf c767cd80b279ce3ed0fb10eb30272023 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 69 Mr. Secretary, and Mr. Ambassador, your personal as well as official support. As loyal sons and daughters of this great Republic, we beseech God's blessings upon You and your efforts to bring about His greater honor and glory, and we convey to each of You our sincerest and warmest personal regards. In witness whereof, we have unanimously adopted the above sentiments at this historic 35th Congress at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 26, 1957, the 50th anniversary of the first enunciation of these principles by our predecessors, of happy memory, our founding fathers and the organizers of the Slovak League of America. The Memorandum Committee of the Slovak League: (Signatures) JOHN J. SIROTNAK (Pa.) JOHN J . LESKOVJANSKY (Ohio) EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK (Conn.) JOHN B. HASSAY (Ohio) ELIZABETH ANDREJKO (Pa.) PHILIP A. HROBAK, President The Slovak League of America • • • Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) IDSTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A.HROBAK CHAPTER XVI - "Education in a Democracy" - by Francis H . Stuerm, Ph.D.; "Member, faculty of New York University; educated in Switzerland and the United States; Ph.D., New York University; author of Training in Democracy: The New Schools of Czechoslovakia (1938), published under the auspices of the Progressive Education Association." Another "progressive" report by a "progressive" professor! Thirteen pages, all of them devoted to the Czechs (Bohemia-Moravia), except this single paragraph which contained the word "Slovakia": "One of the Republic's lar gest educational tasks was to set up a complete system of education in the provinces of Slovakia and Sub- �70 SLOVAKIA Carpathian Ruthenia. In these former had been no universities or secondary cular, and not enough primary schools teach more than half the population for provinces of Hungary there schools taught in the vernaconducted in any language to four school years" - (p. 305). How many universities and secondary schools "taught in the vernacular" there were in Slovakia twenty years after the Czechs took over, Mr. Stuerm strangely fails to disclose which in itself is quite significant. The fact is that there was only one, the Comenius University in Bratislava, and this "only one" was completely under CZECH control! • • • "When the Czechoslovak Republic took over the schools of the former provinces of Austria-Hungary from which it was formed, its CZECH citizens were already democrats through inclination and generations of training. However, this training had not been gained in the schools. The CZECHS were democratic because their former Habsburg ruler had made them classless, three centuries before, by decimating their nobility and because for generations they had learned cooperation in united opposition to the Habsburgs" - (p. 302). The fact is that the "Czechoslovak Republic" did not take any schools over, but the CZECHS did and made them over in the CZECH image. "United opposition" to the Habsburgs? The historical fact is that the Czechs served the Habsburgs most loyally! The non-Czech citizens evidently were not "democratic" according to Mr. Stuerm. We know how the " democracy" of the Benes Czechs dealt with them. • • • "The Austrian schools had been developed under a central administration determined tu discipline the young people for satisfied subjection to the Habsburgs" - (p. 302). In like manner, the Czecho-Slovak schools had been developed under a central administration from Prague determined to discipline the young people of the various nations of the Republic for satisfied subjection to the Czechs. The "progressive" Czechs, however, went wide of their determination and found to their regret that young Slovaks were discipilined for dissatisfied subjection to the Czechs, upholding the principle that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Result? A greater degree of Slovak nationalism - Slovak solidarity! • • • "One of the fruits of CZECH political victories had been a continual expansion of the number of CZECH schools in which instruc- �SLOVAKIA 71 tion was given in the CZECH language . .. CZECH teachers had led the empire's educators in studying and advocating innovations of method (p. 303).... After the Republic was established, (CZECH) teachers who were interested in liberalization of method soon took advantage of their newly gained freedom to make study trips abroad. They attended PROGRESSIVE schools of pedagogy and observed PROGRESSIVE teaching in the United States, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, England, and in the NEW RUSSIA. They returned home filled with ideas and enthusiasm (p. 304). . . . During the Republic's early years there was a young CZECH educator, dr. Vaclav Prihoda, who was studying in the United States (Chicago U.; Columbia U.). . . . and became profoundly influenced by the ideas of Dewey and Thorndike . .. (he) was appointed chairman of this governmental committee (Reform Committee at the School of Higher Pedagogical Studies) (pp. 306-307).... The CZECHS have always considered the maintenance of the national culture as a duty sacred in its importance. . . . It was this strong practical strain in the CZECH character which caused initial reluctance among the citizens to permit changes in schools which they knew were good (pp. 308-309) . . .. During the golden age of CZECH democracy under the Republic, children cooperated freely in their classroom in the singing of (Czech) patriotic songs and in the artistic speaking chorus, all which heightened their feeling of national unity (p. 311).... The emotional basis of CZECH democracy was the same inherent staying power which had maintained the nation in its precarious geographical situation since early tribal times (p. 313).. . the CZECHS had built up in their character centuries-old habits of independent individual thought and public cooperation. . . . In Austrian times, the training in the schools overlaid the CZECH'S democratic character with a surface attitude of acquiescent passivity. When the establishment of the Republic gave CZECH democracy opportunity to flourish unhampered in its action, PROGRESSIVE educators developed a new method, which gave it direct expression" (p. 314). Mr. Stuerm certainly was hep on the "progressive" CZECH business, the only thing, according to him, and others, which figured in the "CZECH democracy" of Czecho-Slovakia - in which the progressive "truth" of Masaryk-Benes prevailed. In the end "CZECH democracy" had no trouble in becoming CZECH "PEOPLE'S Democracy!" • • • CHAPTER XVII "Czechoslovakia's Contribution to Science" - by Gerald Druce, D.R.N., M.Sc.; Fellow London Chemical Society (1915-) ; Fellow Institute of Chemistry (1925-) ; honorary and foreign member Masaryk Academy of Work (1928-) ; M.Sc., University of London; D.R.N., Charles University, Prague; authority on CZECH science; author of books and articles, among them: Wan- �72 SL'.) VAKIA derings in Czechoslovakia (1930) In the Heart of Europe - Life in Czechoslovakia (1936). Another misnomered chapter which should be entitled: CZECH contribution to science. The very first sentence of Mr. Druce's contribution to Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" has no historical basis in fact; in it he claims that "the Czechoslovak State REGAINED its independence in 1918" - the ridiculous story the Benes Czechs promoted and still propagate. The "Czecho-Slovak State" never existed until 1918 ! A few samplings for the edification of historians interested in the history of the Slovaks and Czechs: " . ... contemporary mineralogical and alchemical works in the CZECH language . .. the greatest CZECH educator, Comenius ... the CZECH national revival . . . The National Museum . . . widened its scope to become a rallying point of all CZECH culture .... Purkyne lectured in CZECH ... CZECH men of science ... distinguished CZECH chemists ... CZECH scientific literature . . . Modern scientific and technical works in CZECH . .. . It was in the biological sciences that CZECH men of science made noteworthy advances a century ago . .. . Count Kaspar Sternberg ... was a patron of CZECH science at the time of the national awakening .. . ." The CZECH men of science get all the play; General Milan Stefanik, "the Slovak astronomer," was the only Slovak to rate - one sentence! The "selected Bibliography" at the end of the chapter is strictly CZECH. So, "Czechoslovakia's Contributions to Science" really winds up to be: CZECH contributions to science - according to the formula of the Benes Czechs. • • • CHAPTER XVIII - "Czechoslovak Music, Art, and by Jaroslav E. Vojan, J.D.; "President, Literature" Bohemian Arts Club (1912-); J.D., Charles University, Prague; Professor of Economics, College of Commerce, Prague (1899); editor, NEW CZECH Review (Prague, 1903-1904) ; editor, Svojan, (1928-) ; editor, Free Czechoslovakia (1939-) ; author of Czech-American Epistles (1910) ... " As one might suspect, in this chapter, too, just about everything "Czechoslovak" means "CZECH": composers, artists, sculptors, writers, poets, et al. Slovaks, however, rate a bit better than they did in the previous chapter (by �SLOVAKIA 73 Druce): Mr. Vojan generously allows them three sentences in a total of 18 pages ! • • • CHAPTER XIX - "Diplomatic Origins and Foreign Policy" - by Felix J. Vondracek, Ph.D.; "Professor of European History University of North Dakota; Ph.D. , Columbia University; author of "The Foreign Policy of Czechoslovakia (1937) ." "The best efforts of a vigilant Austro-Hungarian police and spy system had not been able to prevent patriotic Czechoslovaks in the homelands from communicating with the exiles through the efficient (Czech) 'Maffia' organization. Both groups of patriots well knew that success could be attained only through cooperation" (pp. 349-350). Professor Vondracek, like other Benes Czechs and their hired propagandists, promotes the false thesis of a "united CZECHOSLOVAK nation." What "patriotic Czechoslovaks" at a time when the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia did not exist? Why then talk about "both groups" of patriots? Who were the "SLOVAK patriots" who communicated with the CZECH exiles (Masaryk and Benes) through the CZECH "MAFFIA"? We know that most Slovak patriots and many CZECH patriots knew practically nothing about what Masaryk and Benes were cooking up for them in exile. Masaryk and Benes themselves figured that the fewer Slovak and Czech "patriots" in on their plan, the better the chances for the success of their CZECH cause, promoted under the guise of a "CZECHOSLOVAK" cause. Mr. Vondracek, CZECH "expert" on CZECHO-SLOVAK diplomacy and foreign policy, hinted at this when he said: "The efforts of the predominantly CZECH revolutionary leaders in Paris and Prague were supported by other Slavic groups" (p. 350). Of course, Mr. Vondracek very conveniently forgot to spell out the "other Slavic groups" who really knew something about the efforts of Benes, Masaryk, and the CZECH "Maffia" at that time . "On June • • • 30, 1918, American-CZECH and American-SLOVAK leaders in the United States signed the DECLARATION OF PITTSBURGH, whereby, in the Czechoslovakia-to-be, THE SLOVAK PEO- �74 SLOVAKIA PLE WERE GUARANTEED THEIR OWN ASSEMBLY, COURTS, AND ADMINISTRATION. Similarly, by the D'l!daration of Turcian• sky Sv. Martin, signed on October 30, the :ilovaks in the homeland associated themselves with the new State" - (p . 350). The Pittsburgh Convention or Agree!nent was drafted and signed by T. G. Masaryk and representatives of American Slovak and Czech organizations on May 30, 1918 - and not on JUNE 30, 1918 (See Chapter IX above). It is significant that :M:r. Vondracek fails to mention the historic:11 fact tha: Masaryk repudiated the Pittsburgh Conver.tion, calling it but a "scrap of paper." And note th:1t the 'Slovaks in the homeland associated themselves with the ~ew State" TWO DAYS AFTER the Prague declaration of independence! This is evidence of how much "Slovak patriots" really knew about what was cooking in the CZECH kitchen of Masaryk and Benes! • • • "At the termination of the war, Cechoslovak forces totaled 182,000 men, of which number 12,000 were serving in France, 78,000 in Italy, and 92,000 in Russia. The last of these armies had been particularly valuable to the Allies" - (p. 351). The figures are undoubtedly based on CZECH mathematics authored by the Benes Czechs, which is based on the principle of at least "doubling" numbers in such cases. And the fact is that the "Czechoslovak forces" in Russia were not at all valuable to the Allies since they refused to follow their orders. Masaryk conjured the "Siberian rabbit" out of his black felt hat to create a favorable impression in America. Czechs and pro-Czechs love to indulge in the legend cooked up by Masaryk. But the truth is something else again. "The Czechs," Robert Ingrim tells us ("After Hitler Stalin?"), "were offered the 'short route' to France, via Murmansk and Archangel, but they preferred the long way via Siberia to Vladivostok. . . . They were not interested in fighting the Bolsheviks or anyone else. . . . Their policy was, as their spokesman said, 'the railroad and to go home'.... They did very little fighting, and when the Reds had overcome their initial disorganization and had become a serious military force, the Czechs withdrew eastward." Just how the "Czechoslovak army performed for the Allies services more valuable than the same forces could �SLOVAKIA 75 have rendered in France ... through control of the Volga area and the Transsiberian Railway," Mr. Vondracek does · not explain. We know that Masaryk and Benes did not want their Czech legions in Siberia to fight the Bolsheviks. We also know that the Allies insisted that "the Czechs stop their retreat and support the Regent," Admiral Koltschak, supreme commander of the anti-Bolshevik forces - "otherwise they would not get ships over the Pacific." The Czechs yielded to this threat reluctantly, but when the Reds had shown their superiority, "the Czechs helped them capture the admiral"! Mr. Vondracek, in typical Czech fashion, tells us, however, that: "Enmeshed in the Russian domestic chaos, and forced to continue the struggle against the Bolsheviks after the World War had terminated, the Czechoslovak Legions became unwilling tools of a French and British diplomacy that wished to keep them in Siberia indefinitely." Why British and French diplomacy really wanted to keep the "Czechoslovak" Legions in Siberia INDEFINITELY, Mr. Vondracek does not say. We know, however, for that British and, particularly, French diplomacy which Masaryk and Benes became WILLING TOOLS had very much to do with the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. • • • How Benes felt about the Soviet Union is, surprisingly, factually reported by Mr. Vondracek (pp. 356-362): "Benes was a pioneer in advocating the recognition of Soviet Russia long before public opinion either in Czechoslovakia or elsewhere in Europe became converted to such a step." The foreign policy of Czecho-Slovakia was Dr. Eduard Benes, and Benes, a thorough Socialist, was completely pro-Soviet and for the socialistic system of the U. S. S. R. His policy led to the logical conclusion we all witnessed after the war (1945-1948): a complete surrender to Communism. Benes and Masaryk undoubtedly persuaded their people, the Czechs, to recognize Soviet Russia, but they certainly could not persuade the Slovaks to do so. The Slovak nation, as a whole, remained faithful to its thoroughly Christian tradition, opposing collaboration with the godless forces of the Soviet Union to the very bitter end. �76 SLOVAKIA The Munich debacle is treated in the typical fashion of the Benes Czechs by Mr. Vondracek: Benes and his Czechs were above reproach; the culprits were Britain, France, the Germans, the Slovaks, Poles, Magyars, and Ruthenes (pp. 364-366). "Faced with the ruin of his life's work, Benes wisely resigned and went into voluntary exile," Mr. Vondracek says tersely, but nary a word that Benes had surrendered his country to Hitler without consulting parliament and thereby had incurred the just wrath of both Slovaks and Czechs, who probably would have hung him had he not fled to England. The fact is that Benes was a coward; the surrender of Czecho-Slovakia to Hitler, without consulting the representatives of the nations concerned, was criminal. The Benes Czechs did not and still do not want the world to know the truth why Benes did capitulate to Hitler. Robert Ingrim, however, hit the nail on the head when he said: "The allegation that the Czechs surrendered without firing a shot, because England and France asked them to do so, is purely fictitious. They chose to surrender 'at the behest of their faithless friends,' because an attempt to fight would have revealed to the world that the German-Slovak-Magyar-Polish-Ruthenian majority of the population was not prepared to die for a State that had treated them as second-class citizens." • • • After Hitler attacked Poland, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, and World War II was on, "for which," Mr. Vondracek says, "many CZECHOSLOVAKS had been praying as their one hope of salvation after Munich." But this is only Mr. Vondracek's opinion and not fact. The truth is that the overwhelming majority of Slovaks did not pray for war but for peace. Mr. Vondracek has no proof to offer that even many Czechs, the majority of whom, we are told, are Catholics, prayed for war either. And he undoubtedly knew that the Slovak Republic, after the legal autonomous Slovak Government had declared Slovakia an independent State (March 14, 1939), was recognized DE JURE and./or DE FACTO by twenty-seven states, yet, in Kerner's "Czechoslovakia," he chose to write the following historical lie: "The Czechoslovak Republic continued to exist de jure, if not de facto. The United States, Great Britain, France, Soviet Russia and Poland in particular had not recognized the annexation by Germany". �SLOVAKIA 77 The historical truth is that Great Britain, France, Soviet Russia, as well as Poland (until Hitler attacked it, September 1, 1939) - and twenty-three other countries - did recognize the independent Slovak State and, hence, must have also recognized the collapse of Czecho-Slovakia. The U. S., it is true, did not recognize independent Slovakia, but the Slovaks were quite certain that it would, if war did not break out for another year or two - and that is what they were praying for at that time. They were through with Benes's 'Czechoslovak" democracy then and did not want his "new Czechoslovakia" - the "people's democracy" in 1945. They are adamantly opposed to her today and will be as long as she exists! • • • CHAPTER XX - "The Little Entente and the Balkan Entente" - by Harry Nicholas Howard, Ph.D., "Professor of History, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; Ph.D., University of California; member, Institut Balkanique (Belgrade; American contributing editor, Bibliographie Balkanique (Paris)," etc. Professor Howard, like the many other distinguished scholars who contributed chapters to Kerner's "Czechoslovakia," succumbed to the charms of the Masaryk and Benes Czechs, lapped up their propaganda, then presented it as "history." The Little Entente was formed, Mr. Howard states, "in the light of such a practical philosophy" - the latter being expressed by Dr. Eduard Benes (p. 372). Of course, neither Benes nor Mr. Howard could even dare mention a cordon sanitaire against Germany! Having adopted Benes's "practical philosophy" for the formation of the Little Entente, Mr. Howard continued: " One of the keystones of the foreign policy of Czechoslovakia was the organization in 1920-1921 of the Little Entente, composed of Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia and Rumania. Czechoslovakia played a principal and even a dominant role in the Little Entente .... Dr. Eduard Benes, as foreign minister and later as president of Czechoslovakia, was the major statesman of the Little Entente, not only within its inner circles, but in the League of Nations, and, therefore, in the councils of European diplomacy" - (p. 368). Big Socialist and little man Benes played " big" politics in the Little Entente, while Czecho-Slovakia, outside of being Benes's kingdom, meant little. The "major statesman" was �78 SLOVAKIA deflated completely by the first great crisis ·that hit CzechoSlovakia and the Little Entente. Mr. Howard knew that but he continued to ramble on: "When the great crisis came in September, 1938, it is interesting to note that both Jugoslavia, thanks to popular pressure on behalf of Czechoslovakia, and Rumania, as members of the Little Entente, rallied to the support of the harassed Republic. They remained true to their obligations, and were ready to stand to arms, as long as they had any confidence in France and Great Britain . .. Only the Munich 'Accord' of September 29-30 finally destroyed the Little Entente" - (p. 383). "The Little Entente, despite determined efforts, was unable to organize an effective, inclusive political and economic collaboration in central Europe, embracing Auslria and Hungary" - (p. 384). We are supposed to believe that without the "Munich Accord" the Little Entente would not have been destroyed, according to Mr. Howard. The Little Entente, Mr. Howard could have told us if he were honest, was just so much horse play. Why embrace only Austria and Hungary (as if Benes wanted to!) to organize effective collaboration in Central Europe, and not the rest of the countries "in that area? The fact is that after twenty years of Benes foreign policy, not a single neighboring country was really on friendly terms with Czecho-Slovakia. Jingos and chauvinists usually wear blinkers. The French (Clemenceau and Poincare), however, were not blind to the new dangers of the new distribution of power on the European Continent. When they decided to destroy Austria-Hungary, they undoubtedly were familiar with the objections to this program: their plan was to replace Austro-German and Magyar leadership on the Danube by Czech imperialism, combined with the Serbian and Rumanian brands. Years later the result was the Little Entente (Czecho-Slovakia, Rumania, Yugoslavia), "the memory of which," according to Robert Ingrim, "produces a smile an every European's lips, a smile tinged with scorn," because "you cannot square a circle, and, unlike distant Americans, people on the spot could not be persuaded to admire as progress the replacement of one mixed state by three no less mixed ones." Viscount D' Abernon, showing how Versailles had destroyed Europe's equilibrium- ("An Ambassador of Peace" - 1929), predicted: "The Czech satellite will revert to the orbit of the Moscow planet as soon �SLOVAKIA 79 as disturbing forces cease to operate as powerfully as today." We know that he was right. When the "big crisis" came the Little Entente, including Benes's Czecho-Slovakia, folded up. • • • CHAPTER XXI - "Hitler and Hitlerism" - by (Henry) Wickham Steed, LL.D., "Editor, London Times (19191922); correspondent, London Times, at Berlin (1896); at Rome (1897-1902); at Vienna (1902-1913); foreign editor (1914-1919); proprietor and editor, The Review of Reviews (1923-1930); educated at universities of Jena, Berlin, and Paris; LL.D., universities of Strasbourg and Cluj; Lecturer on Central European History, King's College, University of London (1925-1938); author of numerous books and articles ... ", etc. Probably no individual helped T. G. Masaryk and Eduard Benes - and their "CZECH cause" - as much as Mr. Steed of London, man of letters and contacts and, therefore, a man of great influence. With his valuable assistance and the backing of the "progressive" forces of Socialism and Freemasonry, Masaryk and Benes, who were political unknowns before World War I, in a very short time became "political wizards, outstanding statesmen, experts on Central Europe and Germany and Russia, and pre-eminently political philosophers." It all came about by propaganda - as did Czecho-Slovakia, the political monstrosity of Masaryk and Benes. And Mr. H. Wickham Steed was quite a propagandist for a new order in "Christian" Europe - an order divorced from things eternal, from God Himself. His attempt to help Masaryk and Benes "remake" the history of the Slovak and Czech nations to suit the pattern of "the ideas of Masaryk" is quite obvious in his chapter of Kerner's "Czechoslovakia": "The Czechoslovak State had been fashioned and inspired by the ideas of Thomas G. Masaryk. . . . Masaryk looked upon that war (1914-1918) as a struggle between the ideas of the West and the ideas of Germany. The ideas of the West, he argued, are legacies of the Renaissance and the Reformation with their outcome in the English, American, and French revolutions, the parents of democra• cy. He defined democracy as an attempt to organize mankind intensively, as distinguished from the theocracy of the Holy Roman Empire which tried to organize European mankind extensively" (p. 402). �80 SLOVAKIA This probably explains why Czecho-Slovakia collapsed in 1938: the ideas of T. G. Masaryk were of themselves insufficient for the life of the nations contained within Masaryk's "CZECH" democracy. It is significant that even the Czechs did not fire a shot in the defense of Masaryk's democracy in 1938 or in 1948 ! • • • his World Revolution, Masaryk declared that there is only one remedy for abuses and defects in the life of the State truth and truthfulness, coupled with freedom to speak and to write the truth. Democracy, he insisted, should mean moral renovation in politics, in education, and throughout the whole range of public and private life" - (p. 405). "In This sounds regular, coming from an admirer and promoter of Masaryk, but the fact remains that T. G. M. often did not do as he preached. What did he say and write about the Slovaks and their country? Why did he deceive them and defraud them of the autonomy he and Benes had promised in Czecho-Slovakia? What about the "Siberian legend"? And White Mountain? Moral renovation? Based on what fundamentals? The state built by Masaryk and Benes was a fraud, because they were frauds at war with the Author of all genuine truth, justice, and morality. • • • "Peace can be founded only upon a community of free, democratic, and ethically minded peoples resolved to work together as equals in the spirit of Masaryk's faith. Hitlerism, in the broadest sense, is the foe of civilized humanity; and in nothing was Masaryk greater than in his insistance that the idea of his people must be : "Jesus, not Caesar" - (p. 408). Even if the whole world works "in the spirit of Masaryk's faith," no true and lasting peace will ever result. There was no genuine peace in Masaryk's own State. And what was the difference between Masarykism and Hitlerism? Hitler promoted German National Socialism, while Masaryk and Benes promoted CZECH National Socialism. Masarky did use the slogan "Jesus, not Caesar," but he did not live up to it, serving rather the enemies of Jesus, the Caesars of the forces of darkness. The cross of Jesus was forcefully removed from schools, the Marian Column was torn down in Prague, and the Church established by Jesus, the Roman Catholic Church, was harrassed and persecu- �SLOVAKlA 81 ted by Masaryk and his followers, who promoted the Czech National Church and shrieked: "Away from Rome - Rome must be put on trial and convicted!" Democracy, Masaryk said, 'is not alone a form of State and of administration. It is a philosophy of life and an outlook upon the world" ( (p. 406). What was the ethical basis of his politics? T. G. M. said: "The ethical basis of all politics is humanity, and humanity is an international program. It is a new word for the old love of our fellow-men" (p. 406). Humanity, "the new word," was then substituted by Masaryk for the old word, God and Jesus, as the ethical basis of his politics. We know what it led to: Chaos and ruin. • • • CHAPTER XXII - "The Road to Munich and Beyond" - by Bernadotte E. Schmitt, Ph.D. , "Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor of Modern History, University of Chicago; B.A., M.A., Oxford (Rhodes Scholar from Tennessee); Ph.D., Wisconscin; Guggenheim Fellow (1927) ; Pulitzer Prize winner (1931) ; editor, Journal of Modern History, Chicago, 1929-) ," etc. This chapter, in the main, follows the usual line of the Benes Czechs: Benes was clean; the Czechs were "ready, even eager, to fight," but Great Britain and France would not let them; "IF Dr. Benes, with whom the ultimate decision rested, yielded to the demands of Britain and France, the explanation appears to be two-fold - Benes wished to spare his people the horrors of war and, then, he feared, "if Czechoslovakia fought only with Russia as an ally she would be labeled as a RED state (however preposterous that might seem) ... " As for the Slovaks: Hlinka's autonomists supported the demands of the Sudeten German Party, while the Czecho-Slovakia of 1918-1938 "was satisfactory to the Czechs and to a majority of the Slovaks, but not to a considerable section of the German and Magyar minorities, the inclusion of whom was necessary to make the State economically viable." The truth is that the majority of the Slovaks were not satisfied with the Czecho-Slovakia of 1918-1938. • • • CHAPTER XXIII - "Czechoslovak Democracy: Was It Worth While?" - by James T. Shotwell, Ph.D., LL.D., �82 SLOVAKIA "Bryce Professor of the History of International Relations, Columbia University . .. president League of Nations Association (1935-) ... commander, Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovak ia) ... " etc. (about a half page!). Mr. Shotwell is another of the "Masaryk-Ben es-coulddo-no-wrong" chain gang. The majority of the population of Czecho-Slovak ia was opposed to "Czechoslovak" democracy - a pseudodemoc racy - but Shotwell says it was worth while, stating categorically: "There can be no doubt that the history of Europe and of Western civilization has been immensely enriched by the philosophy and statesmanship of President Masaryk. Neither can there be any doubt that the Czechoslovak Republic has left a remarkable record in the annals of history; one which, with all its mis- takes - and they must be admitted - proved the competence of this branch of the Slavic peoples in the art and science of government" - (p. 441). The fact is, however, that the socialistic State of Czecho-Slovakia proved beyond a doubt that it does not pay to collaborate with the Soviet Union and the Reds. The world would be healthier today minus the "philosophy and statesmanship " of Masaryk who falsified and distorted Czech and Slovak history to create the political monstrosity of Czecho-Slovakia. Another of Shotwell's "facts": "His (Masaryk's) effort to teach the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson not only to his own people but to the others of east-central Europe did not wholly succeed; for the task was well-nigh impossible. The Austrian system of government under which the Czechs had lived, and still more Hungary's rule of the Slavs within its frontiers, were both far removed from the American democratic federalism, which was the basis of Masaryk's political philosophy. Although the Habsburg's had been forced to recognize the different national stocks which composed their varied empire, the bureaucracy and the army held these peoples together in a way which failed utterly to satisfy their aspirations for political self-expression. True federalism flourishes only under a regime of liberty, and that was something foreign to the Habsburg tradition" - (pp. 446-447). Masaryk's Czecho-Slovakia, however, proved that Masaryk was not interested in or impressed by "American democratic federalism." The "Czechoslova k" democratic system was as far removed from American democratic federalism as were the Austrian and Hungarian systems. The Czech bureaucracy and chauvinism of Masaryk and Benes �SLOVAKIA 83 failed utterly to satisfy the aspirations of the Slovaks and other non-Czech nations of Czecho-Slovakia for political self-expression. Twenty years of Masaryk-Benes rule in Czecho-Slovakia definitely proved that true liberty was more foreign to the Masaryk and Benes regimes than it was to the Habsburgs, hence, the seed of federalism was not even planted by them. Czecho-Slovakia was supposed to be patterned after Switzerland or the United States, but the fact is that she was not. (The End.) • • • THE SLOVAKS WERE THERE : MAJOR JOHN L. POLERECKY FOUGHT FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE In 1781, when the defeated army of Cornwallis surrendered its arms to General George Washington at Yorktown, Va., among the "French Hussars" who encircled the defeated, as the ceremony of "surrendering arms" took place, was a son of Slovakia, Major John L. Polerecky, whose father hailed from Polerieka, Turiec Province, Slovakia. The story of John Polerecky's participation in the American Revolution for the independence of America was unfolded by Dr. Joseph Cincik, Ph.D., professor of history and art, Cleveland, Ohio, and a member of the Slovak Institute there. Mr. Cincik, a distant relative of Major Polerecky, spent much time and money in travel and research to gather the facts of the Polerecky story. When the complete story of Polerecky is published, it will be fully documented with photocopies of original documents from Slovakia, France, and the National Archives in Washington, D. C. What is presented here is from a portion of Dr. Cincik's manuscript on Major Polerecky. When Francis Rakoczy of Hungary revolted against the Habsburgs and lost, he was forced to flee for his life in 1711. He fled to Poland and later made his way to France. Rakoczy was not through with his fight against Vienna, and Louis XIV was happy to accept his services when he offered them to him in 1713. Rakoczy was ac- � SLOVAKIA 69 Mr. Secretary, and Mr. Ambassador, your personal as well as official support. As loyal sons and daughters of this great Republic, we beseech God's blessings upon You and your efforts to bring about His greater honor and glory, and we convey to each of You our sincerest and warmest personal regards. In witness whereof, we have unanimously adopted the above sentiments at this historic 35th Congress at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 26, 1957, the 50th anniversary of the first enunciation of these principles by our predecessors, of happy memory, our founding fathers and the organizers of the Slovak League of America. The Memorandum Committee of the Slovak League: (Signatures) JOHN J. SIROTNAK (Pa.) JOHN J . LESKOVJANSKY (Ohio) EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK (Conn.) JOHN B. HASSAY (Ohio) ELIZABETH ANDREJKO (Pa.) PHILIP A. HROBAK, President The Slovak League of America • • • Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) IDSTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A.HROBAK CHAPTER XVI - "Education in a Democracy" - by Francis H . Stuerm, Ph.D.; "Member, faculty of New York University; educated in Switzerland and the United States; Ph.D., New York University; author of Training in Democracy: The New Schools of Czechoslovakia (1938), published under the auspices of the Progressive Education Association." Another "progressive" report by a "progressive" professor! Thirteen pages, all of them devoted to the Czechs (Bohemia-Moravia), except this single paragraph which contained the word "Slovakia": "One of the Republic's lar gest educational tasks was to set up a complete system of education in the provinces of Slovakia and Sub- �70 SLOVAKIA Carpathian Ruthenia. In these former had been no universities or secondary cular, and not enough primary schools teach more than half the population for provinces of Hungary there schools taught in the vernaconducted in any language to four school years" - (p. 305). How many universities and secondary schools "taught in the vernacular" there were in Slovakia twenty years after the Czechs took over, Mr. Stuerm strangely fails to disclose which in itself is quite significant. The fact is that there was only one, the Comenius University in Bratislava, and this "only one" was completely under CZECH control! • • • "When the Czechoslovak Republic took over the schools of the former provinces of Austria-Hungary from which it was formed, its CZECH citizens were already democrats through inclination and generations of training. However, this training had not been gained in the schools. The CZECHS were democratic because their former Habsburg ruler had made them classless, three centuries before, by decimating their nobility and because for generations they had learned cooperation in united opposition to the Habsburgs" - (p. 302). The fact is that the "Czechoslovak Republic" did not take any schools over, but the CZECHS did and made them over in the CZECH image. "United opposition" to the Habsburgs? The historical fact is that the Czechs served the Habsburgs most loyally! The non-Czech citizens evidently were not "democratic" according to Mr. Stuerm. We know how the " democracy" of the Benes Czechs dealt with them. • • • "The Austrian schools had been developed under a central administration determined tu discipline the young people for satisfied subjection to the Habsburgs" - (p. 302). In like manner, the Czecho-Slovak schools had been developed under a central administration from Prague determined to discipline the young people of the various nations of the Republic for satisfied subjection to the Czechs. The "progressive" Czechs, however, went wide of their determination and found to their regret that young Slovaks were discipilined for dissatisfied subjection to the Czechs, upholding the principle that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Result? A greater degree of Slovak nationalism - Slovak solidarity! • • • "One of the fruits of CZECH political victories had been a continual expansion of the number of CZECH schools in which instruc- �SLOVAKIA 71 tion was given in the CZECH language . .. CZECH teachers had led the empire's educators in studying and advocating innovations of method (p. 303).... After the Republic was established, (CZECH) teachers who were interested in liberalization of method soon took advantage of their newly gained freedom to make study trips abroad. They attended PROGRESSIVE schools of pedagogy and observed PROGRESSIVE teaching in the United States, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, England, and in the NEW RUSSIA. They returned home filled with ideas and enthusiasm (p. 304). . . . During the Republic's early years there was a young CZECH educator, dr. Vaclav Prihoda, who was studying in the United States (Chicago U.; Columbia U.). . . . and became profoundly influenced by the ideas of Dewey and Thorndike . .. (he) was appointed chairman of this governmental committee (Reform Committee at the School of Higher Pedagogical Studies) (pp. 306-307).... The CZECHS have always considered the maintenance of the national culture as a duty sacred in its importance. . . . It was this strong practical strain in the CZECH character which caused initial reluctance among the citizens to permit changes in schools which they knew were good (pp. 308-309) . . .. During the golden age of CZECH democracy under the Republic, children cooperated freely in their classroom in the singing of (Czech) patriotic songs and in the artistic speaking chorus, all which heightened their feeling of national unity (p. 311).... The emotional basis of CZECH democracy was the same inherent staying power which had maintained the nation in its precarious geographical situation since early tribal times (p. 313).. . the CZECHS had built up in their character centuries-old habits of independent individual thought and public cooperation. . . . In Austrian times, the training in the schools overlaid the CZECH'S democratic character with a surface attitude of acquiescent passivity. When the establishment of the Republic gave CZECH democracy opportunity to flourish unhampered in its action, PROGRESSIVE educators developed a new method, which gave it direct expression" (p. 314). Mr. Stuerm certainly was hep on the "progressive" CZECH business, the only thing, according to him, and others, which figured in the "CZECH democracy" of Czecho-Slovakia - in which the progressive "truth" of Masaryk-Benes prevailed. In the end "CZECH democracy" had no trouble in becoming CZECH "PEOPLE'S Democracy!" • • • CHAPTER XVII "Czechoslovakia's Contribution to Science" - by Gerald Druce, D.R.N., M.Sc.; Fellow London Chemical Society (1915-) ; Fellow Institute of Chemistry (1925-) ; honorary and foreign member Masaryk Academy of Work (1928-) ; M.Sc., University of London; D.R.N., Charles University, Prague; authority on CZECH science; author of books and articles, among them: Wan- �72 SL'.) VAKIA derings in Czechoslovakia (1930) In the Heart of Europe - Life in Czechoslovakia (1936). Another misnomered chapter which should be entitled: CZECH contribution to science. The very first sentence of Mr. Druce's contribution to Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" has no historical basis in fact; in it he claims that "the Czechoslovak State REGAINED its independence in 1918" - the ridiculous story the Benes Czechs promoted and still propagate. The "Czecho-Slovak State" never existed until 1918 ! A few samplings for the edification of historians interested in the history of the Slovaks and Czechs: " . ... contemporary mineralogical and alchemical works in the CZECH language . .. the greatest CZECH educator, Comenius ... the CZECH national revival . . . The National Museum . . . widened its scope to become a rallying point of all CZECH culture .... Purkyne lectured in CZECH ... CZECH men of science ... distinguished CZECH chemists ... CZECH scientific literature . . . Modern scientific and technical works in CZECH . .. . It was in the biological sciences that CZECH men of science made noteworthy advances a century ago . .. . Count Kaspar Sternberg ... was a patron of CZECH science at the time of the national awakening .. . ." The CZECH men of science get all the play; General Milan Stefanik, "the Slovak astronomer," was the only Slovak to rate - one sentence! The "selected Bibliography" at the end of the chapter is strictly CZECH. So, "Czechoslovakia's Contributions to Science" really winds up to be: CZECH contributions to science - according to the formula of the Benes Czechs. • • • CHAPTER XVIII - "Czechoslovak Music, Art, and by Jaroslav E. Vojan, J.D.; "President, Literature" Bohemian Arts Club (1912-); J.D., Charles University, Prague; Professor of Economics, College of Commerce, Prague (1899); editor, NEW CZECH Review (Prague, 1903-1904) ; editor, Svojan, (1928-) ; editor, Free Czechoslovakia (1939-) ; author of Czech-American Epistles (1910) ... " As one might suspect, in this chapter, too, just about everything "Czechoslovak" means "CZECH": composers, artists, sculptors, writers, poets, et al. Slovaks, however, rate a bit better than they did in the previous chapter (by �SLOVAKIA 73 Druce): Mr. Vojan generously allows them three sentences in a total of 18 pages ! • • • CHAPTER XIX - "Diplomatic Origins and Foreign Policy" - by Felix J. Vondracek, Ph.D.; "Professor of European History University of North Dakota; Ph.D. , Columbia University; author of "The Foreign Policy of Czechoslovakia (1937) ." "The best efforts of a vigilant Austro-Hungarian police and spy system had not been able to prevent patriotic Czechoslovaks in the homelands from communicating with the exiles through the efficient (Czech) 'Maffia' organization. Both groups of patriots well knew that success could be attained only through cooperation" (pp. 349-350). Professor Vondracek, like other Benes Czechs and their hired propagandists, promotes the false thesis of a "united CZECHOSLOVAK nation." What "patriotic Czechoslovaks" at a time when the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia did not exist? Why then talk about "both groups" of patriots? Who were the "SLOVAK patriots" who communicated with the CZECH exiles (Masaryk and Benes) through the CZECH "MAFFIA"? We know that most Slovak patriots and many CZECH patriots knew practically nothing about what Masaryk and Benes were cooking up for them in exile. Masaryk and Benes themselves figured that the fewer Slovak and Czech "patriots" in on their plan, the better the chances for the success of their CZECH cause, promoted under the guise of a "CZECHOSLOVAK" cause. Mr. Vondracek, CZECH "expert" on CZECHO-SLOVAK diplomacy and foreign policy, hinted at this when he said: "The efforts of the predominantly CZECH revolutionary leaders in Paris and Prague were supported by other Slavic groups" (p. 350). Of course, Mr. Vondracek very conveniently forgot to spell out the "other Slavic groups" who really knew something about the efforts of Benes, Masaryk, and the CZECH "Maffia" at that time . "On June • • • 30, 1918, American-CZECH and American-SLOVAK leaders in the United States signed the DECLARATION OF PITTSBURGH, whereby, in the Czechoslovakia-to-be, THE SLOVAK PEO- �74 SLOVAKIA PLE WERE GUARANTEED THEIR OWN ASSEMBLY, COURTS, AND ADMINISTRATION. Similarly, by the D'l!daration of Turcian• sky Sv. Martin, signed on October 30, the :ilovaks in the homeland associated themselves with the new State" - (p . 350). The Pittsburgh Convention or Agree!nent was drafted and signed by T. G. Masaryk and representatives of American Slovak and Czech organizations on May 30, 1918 - and not on JUNE 30, 1918 (See Chapter IX above). It is significant that :M:r. Vondracek fails to mention the historic:11 fact tha: Masaryk repudiated the Pittsburgh Conver.tion, calling it but a "scrap of paper." And note th:1t the 'Slovaks in the homeland associated themselves with the ~ew State" TWO DAYS AFTER the Prague declaration of independence! This is evidence of how much "Slovak patriots" really knew about what was cooking in the CZECH kitchen of Masaryk and Benes! • • • "At the termination of the war, Cechoslovak forces totaled 182,000 men, of which number 12,000 were serving in France, 78,000 in Italy, and 92,000 in Russia. The last of these armies had been particularly valuable to the Allies" - (p. 351). The figures are undoubtedly based on CZECH mathematics authored by the Benes Czechs, which is based on the principle of at least "doubling" numbers in such cases. And the fact is that the "Czechoslovak forces" in Russia were not at all valuable to the Allies since they refused to follow their orders. Masaryk conjured the "Siberian rabbit" out of his black felt hat to create a favorable impression in America. Czechs and pro-Czechs love to indulge in the legend cooked up by Masaryk. But the truth is something else again. "The Czechs," Robert Ingrim tells us ("After Hitler Stalin?"), "were offered the 'short route' to France, via Murmansk and Archangel, but they preferred the long way via Siberia to Vladivostok. . . . They were not interested in fighting the Bolsheviks or anyone else. . . . Their policy was, as their spokesman said, 'the railroad and to go home'.... They did very little fighting, and when the Reds had overcome their initial disorganization and had become a serious military force, the Czechs withdrew eastward." Just how the "Czechoslovak army performed for the Allies services more valuable than the same forces could �SLOVAKIA 75 have rendered in France ... through control of the Volga area and the Transsiberian Railway," Mr. Vondracek does · not explain. We know that Masaryk and Benes did not want their Czech legions in Siberia to fight the Bolsheviks. We also know that the Allies insisted that "the Czechs stop their retreat and support the Regent," Admiral Koltschak, supreme commander of the anti-Bolshevik forces - "otherwise they would not get ships over the Pacific." The Czechs yielded to this threat reluctantly, but when the Reds had shown their superiority, "the Czechs helped them capture the admiral"! Mr. Vondracek, in typical Czech fashion, tells us, however, that: "Enmeshed in the Russian domestic chaos, and forced to continue the struggle against the Bolsheviks after the World War had terminated, the Czechoslovak Legions became unwilling tools of a French and British diplomacy that wished to keep them in Siberia indefinitely." Why British and French diplomacy really wanted to keep the "Czechoslovak" Legions in Siberia INDEFINITELY, Mr. Vondracek does not say. We know, however, for that British and, particularly, French diplomacy which Masaryk and Benes became WILLING TOOLS had very much to do with the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. • • • How Benes felt about the Soviet Union is, surprisingly, factually reported by Mr. Vondracek (pp. 356-362): "Benes was a pioneer in advocating the recognition of Soviet Russia long before public opinion either in Czechoslovakia or elsewhere in Europe became converted to such a step." The foreign policy of Czecho-Slovakia was Dr. Eduard Benes, and Benes, a thorough Socialist, was completely pro-Soviet and for the socialistic system of the U. S. S. R. His policy led to the logical conclusion we all witnessed after the war (1945-1948): a complete surrender to Communism. Benes and Masaryk undoubtedly persuaded their people, the Czechs, to recognize Soviet Russia, but they certainly could not persuade the Slovaks to do so. The Slovak nation, as a whole, remained faithful to its thoroughly Christian tradition, opposing collaboration with the godless forces of the Soviet Union to the very bitter end. �76 SLOVAKIA The Munich debacle is treated in the typical fashion of the Benes Czechs by Mr. Vondracek: Benes and his Czechs were above reproach; the culprits were Britain, France, the Germans, the Slovaks, Poles, Magyars, and Ruthenes (pp. 364-366). "Faced with the ruin of his life's work, Benes wisely resigned and went into voluntary exile," Mr. Vondracek says tersely, but nary a word that Benes had surrendered his country to Hitler without consulting parliament and thereby had incurred the just wrath of both Slovaks and Czechs, who probably would have hung him had he not fled to England. The fact is that Benes was a coward; the surrender of Czecho-Slovakia to Hitler, without consulting the representatives of the nations concerned, was criminal. The Benes Czechs did not and still do not want the world to know the truth why Benes did capitulate to Hitler. Robert Ingrim, however, hit the nail on the head when he said: "The allegation that the Czechs surrendered without firing a shot, because England and France asked them to do so, is purely fictitious. They chose to surrender 'at the behest of their faithless friends,' because an attempt to fight would have revealed to the world that the German-Slovak-Magyar-Polish-Ruthenian majority of the population was not prepared to die for a State that had treated them as second-class citizens." • • • After Hitler attacked Poland, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, and World War II was on, "for which," Mr. Vondracek says, "many CZECHOSLOVAKS had been praying as their one hope of salvation after Munich." But this is only Mr. Vondracek's opinion and not fact. The truth is that the overwhelming majority of Slovaks did not pray for war but for peace. Mr. Vondracek has no proof to offer that even many Czechs, the majority of whom, we are told, are Catholics, prayed for war either. And he undoubtedly knew that the Slovak Republic, after the legal autonomous Slovak Government had declared Slovakia an independent State (March 14, 1939), was recognized DE JURE and./or DE FACTO by twenty-seven states, yet, in Kerner's "Czechoslovakia," he chose to write the following historical lie: "The Czechoslovak Republic continued to exist de jure, if not de facto. The United States, Great Britain, France, Soviet Russia and Poland in particular had not recognized the annexation by Germany". �SLOVAKIA 77 The historical truth is that Great Britain, France, Soviet Russia, as well as Poland (until Hitler attacked it, September 1, 1939) - and twenty-three other countries - did recognize the independent Slovak State and, hence, must have also recognized the collapse of Czecho-Slovakia. The U. S., it is true, did not recognize independent Slovakia, but the Slovaks were quite certain that it would, if war did not break out for another year or two - and that is what they were praying for at that time. They were through with Benes's 'Czechoslovak" democracy then and did not want his "new Czechoslovakia" - the "people's democracy" in 1945. They are adamantly opposed to her today and will be as long as she exists! • • • CHAPTER XX - "The Little Entente and the Balkan Entente" - by Harry Nicholas Howard, Ph.D., "Professor of History, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; Ph.D., University of California; member, Institut Balkanique (Belgrade; American contributing editor, Bibliographie Balkanique (Paris)," etc. Professor Howard, like the many other distinguished scholars who contributed chapters to Kerner's "Czechoslovakia," succumbed to the charms of the Masaryk and Benes Czechs, lapped up their propaganda, then presented it as "history." The Little Entente was formed, Mr. Howard states, "in the light of such a practical philosophy" - the latter being expressed by Dr. Eduard Benes (p. 372). Of course, neither Benes nor Mr. Howard could even dare mention a cordon sanitaire against Germany! Having adopted Benes's "practical philosophy" for the formation of the Little Entente, Mr. Howard continued: " One of the keystones of the foreign policy of Czechoslovakia was the organization in 1920-1921 of the Little Entente, composed of Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia and Rumania. Czechoslovakia played a principal and even a dominant role in the Little Entente .... Dr. Eduard Benes, as foreign minister and later as president of Czechoslovakia, was the major statesman of the Little Entente, not only within its inner circles, but in the League of Nations, and, therefore, in the councils of European diplomacy" - (p. 368). Big Socialist and little man Benes played " big" politics in the Little Entente, while Czecho-Slovakia, outside of being Benes's kingdom, meant little. The "major statesman" was �78 SLOVAKIA deflated completely by the first great crisis ·that hit CzechoSlovakia and the Little Entente. Mr. Howard knew that but he continued to ramble on: "When the great crisis came in September, 1938, it is interesting to note that both Jugoslavia, thanks to popular pressure on behalf of Czechoslovakia, and Rumania, as members of the Little Entente, rallied to the support of the harassed Republic. They remained true to their obligations, and were ready to stand to arms, as long as they had any confidence in France and Great Britain . .. Only the Munich 'Accord' of September 29-30 finally destroyed the Little Entente" - (p. 383). "The Little Entente, despite determined efforts, was unable to organize an effective, inclusive political and economic collaboration in central Europe, embracing Auslria and Hungary" - (p. 384). We are supposed to believe that without the "Munich Accord" the Little Entente would not have been destroyed, according to Mr. Howard. The Little Entente, Mr. Howard could have told us if he were honest, was just so much horse play. Why embrace only Austria and Hungary (as if Benes wanted to!) to organize effective collaboration in Central Europe, and not the rest of the countries "in that area? The fact is that after twenty years of Benes foreign policy, not a single neighboring country was really on friendly terms with Czecho-Slovakia. Jingos and chauvinists usually wear blinkers. The French (Clemenceau and Poincare), however, were not blind to the new dangers of the new distribution of power on the European Continent. When they decided to destroy Austria-Hungary, they undoubtedly were familiar with the objections to this program: their plan was to replace Austro-German and Magyar leadership on the Danube by Czech imperialism, combined with the Serbian and Rumanian brands. Years later the result was the Little Entente (Czecho-Slovakia, Rumania, Yugoslavia), "the memory of which," according to Robert Ingrim, "produces a smile an every European's lips, a smile tinged with scorn," because "you cannot square a circle, and, unlike distant Americans, people on the spot could not be persuaded to admire as progress the replacement of one mixed state by three no less mixed ones." Viscount D' Abernon, showing how Versailles had destroyed Europe's equilibrium- ("An Ambassador of Peace" - 1929), predicted: "The Czech satellite will revert to the orbit of the Moscow planet as soon �SLOVAKIA 79 as disturbing forces cease to operate as powerfully as today." We know that he was right. When the "big crisis" came the Little Entente, including Benes's Czecho-Slovakia, folded up. • • • CHAPTER XXI - "Hitler and Hitlerism" - by (Henry) Wickham Steed, LL.D., "Editor, London Times (19191922); correspondent, London Times, at Berlin (1896); at Rome (1897-1902); at Vienna (1902-1913); foreign editor (1914-1919); proprietor and editor, The Review of Reviews (1923-1930); educated at universities of Jena, Berlin, and Paris; LL.D., universities of Strasbourg and Cluj; Lecturer on Central European History, King's College, University of London (1925-1938); author of numerous books and articles ... ", etc. Probably no individual helped T. G. Masaryk and Eduard Benes - and their "CZECH cause" - as much as Mr. Steed of London, man of letters and contacts and, therefore, a man of great influence. With his valuable assistance and the backing of the "progressive" forces of Socialism and Freemasonry, Masaryk and Benes, who were political unknowns before World War I, in a very short time became "political wizards, outstanding statesmen, experts on Central Europe and Germany and Russia, and pre-eminently political philosophers." It all came about by propaganda - as did Czecho-Slovakia, the political monstrosity of Masaryk and Benes. And Mr. H. Wickham Steed was quite a propagandist for a new order in "Christian" Europe - an order divorced from things eternal, from God Himself. His attempt to help Masaryk and Benes "remake" the history of the Slovak and Czech nations to suit the pattern of "the ideas of Masaryk" is quite obvious in his chapter of Kerner's "Czechoslovakia": "The Czechoslovak State had been fashioned and inspired by the ideas of Thomas G. Masaryk. . . . Masaryk looked upon that war (1914-1918) as a struggle between the ideas of the West and the ideas of Germany. The ideas of the West, he argued, are legacies of the Renaissance and the Reformation with their outcome in the English, American, and French revolutions, the parents of democra• cy. He defined democracy as an attempt to organize mankind intensively, as distinguished from the theocracy of the Holy Roman Empire which tried to organize European mankind extensively" (p. 402). �80 SLOVAKIA This probably explains why Czecho-Slovakia collapsed in 1938: the ideas of T. G. Masaryk were of themselves insufficient for the life of the nations contained within Masaryk's "CZECH" democracy. It is significant that even the Czechs did not fire a shot in the defense of Masaryk's democracy in 1938 or in 1948 ! • • • his World Revolution, Masaryk declared that there is only one remedy for abuses and defects in the life of the State truth and truthfulness, coupled with freedom to speak and to write the truth. Democracy, he insisted, should mean moral renovation in politics, in education, and throughout the whole range of public and private life" - (p. 405). "In This sounds regular, coming from an admirer and promoter of Masaryk, but the fact remains that T. G. M. often did not do as he preached. What did he say and write about the Slovaks and their country? Why did he deceive them and defraud them of the autonomy he and Benes had promised in Czecho-Slovakia? What about the "Siberian legend"? And White Mountain? Moral renovation? Based on what fundamentals? The state built by Masaryk and Benes was a fraud, because they were frauds at war with the Author of all genuine truth, justice, and morality. • • • "Peace can be founded only upon a community of free, democratic, and ethically minded peoples resolved to work together as equals in the spirit of Masaryk's faith. Hitlerism, in the broadest sense, is the foe of civilized humanity; and in nothing was Masaryk greater than in his insistance that the idea of his people must be : "Jesus, not Caesar" - (p. 408). Even if the whole world works "in the spirit of Masaryk's faith," no true and lasting peace will ever result. There was no genuine peace in Masaryk's own State. And what was the difference between Masarykism and Hitlerism? Hitler promoted German National Socialism, while Masaryk and Benes promoted CZECH National Socialism. Masarky did use the slogan "Jesus, not Caesar," but he did not live up to it, serving rather the enemies of Jesus, the Caesars of the forces of darkness. The cross of Jesus was forcefully removed from schools, the Marian Column was torn down in Prague, and the Church established by Jesus, the Roman Catholic Church, was harrassed and persecu- �SLOVAKlA 81 ted by Masaryk and his followers, who promoted the Czech National Church and shrieked: "Away from Rome - Rome must be put on trial and convicted!" Democracy, Masaryk said, 'is not alone a form of State and of administration. It is a philosophy of life and an outlook upon the world" ( (p. 406). What was the ethical basis of his politics? T. G. M. said: "The ethical basis of all politics is humanity, and humanity is an international program. It is a new word for the old love of our fellow-men" (p. 406). Humanity, "the new word," was then substituted by Masaryk for the old word, God and Jesus, as the ethical basis of his politics. We know what it led to: Chaos and ruin. • • • CHAPTER XXII - "The Road to Munich and Beyond" - by Bernadotte E. Schmitt, Ph.D. , "Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor of Modern History, University of Chicago; B.A., M.A., Oxford (Rhodes Scholar from Tennessee); Ph.D., Wisconscin; Guggenheim Fellow (1927) ; Pulitzer Prize winner (1931) ; editor, Journal of Modern History, Chicago, 1929-) ," etc. This chapter, in the main, follows the usual line of the Benes Czechs: Benes was clean; the Czechs were "ready, even eager, to fight," but Great Britain and France would not let them; "IF Dr. Benes, with whom the ultimate decision rested, yielded to the demands of Britain and France, the explanation appears to be two-fold - Benes wished to spare his people the horrors of war and, then, he feared, "if Czechoslovakia fought only with Russia as an ally she would be labeled as a RED state (however preposterous that might seem) ... " As for the Slovaks: Hlinka's autonomists supported the demands of the Sudeten German Party, while the Czecho-Slovakia of 1918-1938 "was satisfactory to the Czechs and to a majority of the Slovaks, but not to a considerable section of the German and Magyar minorities, the inclusion of whom was necessary to make the State economically viable." The truth is that the majority of the Slovaks were not satisfied with the Czecho-Slovakia of 1918-1938. • • • CHAPTER XXIII - "Czechoslovak Democracy: Was It Worth While?" - by James T. Shotwell, Ph.D., LL.D., �82 SLOVAKIA "Bryce Professor of the History of International Relations, Columbia University . .. president League of Nations Association (1935-) ... commander, Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovak ia) ... " etc. (about a half page!). Mr. Shotwell is another of the "Masaryk-Ben es-coulddo-no-wrong" chain gang. The majority of the population of Czecho-Slovak ia was opposed to "Czechoslovak" democracy - a pseudodemoc racy - but Shotwell says it was worth while, stating categorically: "There can be no doubt that the history of Europe and of Western civilization has been immensely enriched by the philosophy and statesmanship of President Masaryk. Neither can there be any doubt that the Czechoslovak Republic has left a remarkable record in the annals of history; one which, with all its mis- takes - and they must be admitted - proved the competence of this branch of the Slavic peoples in the art and science of government" - (p. 441). The fact is, however, that the socialistic State of Czecho-Slovakia proved beyond a doubt that it does not pay to collaborate with the Soviet Union and the Reds. The world would be healthier today minus the "philosophy and statesmanship " of Masaryk who falsified and distorted Czech and Slovak history to create the political monstrosity of Czecho-Slovakia. Another of Shotwell's "facts": "His (Masaryk's) effort to teach the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson not only to his own people but to the others of east-central Europe did not wholly succeed; for the task was well-nigh impossible. The Austrian system of government under which the Czechs had lived, and still more Hungary's rule of the Slavs within its frontiers, were both far removed from the American democratic federalism, which was the basis of Masaryk's political philosophy. Although the Habsburg's had been forced to recognize the different national stocks which composed their varied empire, the bureaucracy and the army held these peoples together in a way which failed utterly to satisfy their aspirations for political self-expression. True federalism flourishes only under a regime of liberty, and that was something foreign to the Habsburg tradition" - (pp. 446-447). Masaryk's Czecho-Slovakia, however, proved that Masaryk was not interested in or impressed by "American democratic federalism." The "Czechoslova k" democratic system was as far removed from American democratic federalism as were the Austrian and Hungarian systems. The Czech bureaucracy and chauvinism of Masaryk and Benes �SLOVAKIA 83 failed utterly to satisfy the aspirations of the Slovaks and other non-Czech nations of Czecho-Slovakia for political self-expression. Twenty years of Masaryk-Benes rule in Czecho-Slovakia definitely proved that true liberty was more foreign to the Masaryk and Benes regimes than it was to the Habsburgs, hence, the seed of federalism was not even planted by them. Czecho-Slovakia was supposed to be patterned after Switzerland or the United States, but the fact is that she was not. (The End.) • • • THE SLOVAKS WERE THERE : MAJOR JOHN L. POLERECKY FOUGHT FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE In 1781, when the defeated army of Cornwallis surrendered its arms to General George Washington at Yorktown, Va., among the "French Hussars" who encircled the defeated, as the ceremony of "surrendering arms" took place, was a son of Slovakia, Major John L. Polerecky, whose father hailed from Polerieka, Turiec Province, Slovakia. The story of John Polerecky's participation in the American Revolution for the independence of America was unfolded by Dr. Joseph Cincik, Ph.D., professor of history and art, Cleveland, Ohio, and a member of the Slovak Institute there. Mr. Cincik, a distant relative of Major Polerecky, spent much time and money in travel and research to gather the facts of the Polerecky story. When the complete story of Polerecky is published, it will be fully documented with photocopies of original documents from Slovakia, France, and the National Archives in Washington, D. C. What is presented here is from a portion of Dr. Cincik's manuscript on Major Polerecky. When Francis Rakoczy of Hungary revolted against the Habsburgs and lost, he was forced to flee for his life in 1711. He fled to Poland and later made his way to France. Rakoczy was not through with his fight against Vienna, and Louis XIV was happy to accept his services when he offered them to him in 1713. Rakoczy was ac- � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 69 Mr. Secretary, and Mr. Ambassador, your personal as well as official support. As loyal sons and daughters of this great Republic, we beseech God's blessings upon You and your efforts to bring about His greater honor and glory, and we convey to each of You our sincerest and warmest personal regards. In witness whereof, we have unanimously adopted the above sentiments at this historic 35th Congress at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 26, 1957, the 50th anniversary of the first enunciation of these principles by our predecessors, of happy memory, our founding fathers and the organizers of the Slovak League of America. The Memorandum Committee of the Slovak League: (Signatures) JOHN J. SIROTNAK (Pa.) JOHN J . LESKOVJANSKY (Ohio) EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK (Conn.) JOHN B. HASSAY (Ohio) ELIZABETH ANDREJKO (Pa.) PHILIP A. HROBAK, President The Slovak League of America • • • Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) IDSTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A.HROBAK CHAPTER XVI - "Education in a Democracy" - by Francis H . Stuerm, Ph.D.; "Member, faculty of New York University; educated in Switzerland and the United States; Ph.D., New York University; author of Training in Democracy: The New Schools of Czechoslovakia (1938), published under the auspices of the Progressive Education Association." Another "progressive" report by a "progressive" professor! Thirteen pages, all of them devoted to the Czechs (Bohemia-Moravia), except this single paragraph which contained the word "Slovakia": "One of the Republic's lar gest educational tasks was to set up a complete system of education in the provinces of Slovakia and Sub- 70 SLOVAKIA Carpathian Ruthenia. In these former had been no universities or secondary cular, and not enough primary schools teach more than half the population for provinces of Hungary there schools taught in the vernaconducted in any language to four school years" - (p. 305). How many universities and secondary schools "taught in the vernacular" there were in Slovakia twenty years after the Czechs took over, Mr. Stuerm strangely fails to disclose which in itself is quite significant. The fact is that there was only one, the Comenius University in Bratislava, and this "only one" was completely under CZECH control! • • • "When the Czechoslovak Republic took over the schools of the former provinces of Austria-Hungary from which it was formed, its CZECH citizens were already democrats through inclination and generations of training. However, this training had not been gained in the schools. The CZECHS were democratic because their former Habsburg ruler had made them classless, three centuries before, by decimating their nobility and because for generations they had learned cooperation in united opposition to the Habsburgs" - (p. 302). The fact is that the "Czechoslovak Republic" did not take any schools over, but the CZECHS did and made them over in the CZECH image. "United opposition" to the Habsburgs? The historical fact is that the Czechs served the Habsburgs most loyally! The non-Czech citizens evidently were not "democratic" according to Mr. Stuerm. We know how the " democracy" of the Benes Czechs dealt with them. • • • "The Austrian schools had been developed under a central administration determined tu discipline the young people for satisfied subjection to the Habsburgs" - (p. 302). In like manner, the Czecho-Slovak schools had been developed under a central administration from Prague determined to discipline the young people of the various nations of the Republic for satisfied subjection to the Czechs. The "progressive" Czechs, however, went wide of their determination and found to their regret that young Slovaks were discipilined for dissatisfied subjection to the Czechs, upholding the principle that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Result? A greater degree of Slovak nationalism - Slovak solidarity! • • • "One of the fruits of CZECH political victories had been a continual expansion of the number of CZECH schools in which instruc- SLOVAKIA 71 tion was given in the CZECH language . .. CZECH teachers had led the empire's educators in studying and advocating innovations of method (p. 303).... After the Republic was established, (CZECH) teachers who were interested in liberalization of method soon took advantage of their newly gained freedom to make study trips abroad. They attended PROGRESSIVE schools of pedagogy and observed PROGRESSIVE teaching in the United States, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, England, and in the NEW RUSSIA. They returned home filled with ideas and enthusiasm (p. 304). . . . During the Republic's early years there was a young CZECH educator, dr. Vaclav Prihoda, who was studying in the United States (Chicago U.; Columbia U.). . . . and became profoundly influenced by the ideas of Dewey and Thorndike . .. (he) was appointed chairman of this governmental committee (Reform Committee at the School of Higher Pedagogical Studies) (pp. 306-307).... The CZECHS have always considered the maintenance of the national culture as a duty sacred in its importance. . . . It was this strong practical strain in the CZECH character which caused initial reluctance among the citizens to permit changes in schools which they knew were good (pp. 308-309) . . .. During the golden age of CZECH democracy under the Republic, children cooperated freely in their classroom in the singing of (Czech) patriotic songs and in the artistic speaking chorus, all which heightened their feeling of national unity (p. 311).... The emotional basis of CZECH democracy was the same inherent staying power which had maintained the nation in its precarious geographical situation since early tribal times (p. 313).. . the CZECHS had built up in their character centuries-old habits of independent individual thought and public cooperation. . . . In Austrian times, the training in the schools overlaid the CZECH'S democratic character with a surface attitude of acquiescent passivity. When the establishment of the Republic gave CZECH democracy opportunity to flourish unhampered in its action, PROGRESSIVE educators developed a new method, which gave it direct expression" (p. 314). Mr. Stuerm certainly was hep on the "progressive" CZECH business, the only thing, according to him, and others, which figured in the "CZECH democracy" of Czecho-Slovakia - in which the progressive "truth" of Masaryk-Benes prevailed. In the end "CZECH democracy" had no trouble in becoming CZECH "PEOPLE'S Democracy!" • • • CHAPTER XVII "Czechoslovakia's Contribution to Science" - by Gerald Druce, D.R.N., M.Sc.; Fellow London Chemical Society (1915-) ; Fellow Institute of Chemistry (1925-) ; honorary and foreign member Masaryk Academy of Work (1928-) ; M.Sc., University of London; D.R.N., Charles University, Prague; authority on CZECH science; author of books and articles, among them: Wan- 72 SL'.) VAKIA derings in Czechoslovakia (1930) In the Heart of Europe - Life in Czechoslovakia (1936). Another misnomered chapter which should be entitled: CZECH contribution to science. The very first sentence of Mr. Druce's contribution to Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" has no historical basis in fact; in it he claims that "the Czechoslovak State REGAINED its independence in 1918" - the ridiculous story the Benes Czechs promoted and still propagate. The "Czecho-Slovak State" never existed until 1918 ! A few samplings for the edification of historians interested in the history of the Slovaks and Czechs: " . ... contemporary mineralogical and alchemical works in the CZECH language . .. the greatest CZECH educator, Comenius ... the CZECH national revival . . . The National Museum . . . widened its scope to become a rallying point of all CZECH culture .... Purkyne lectured in CZECH ... CZECH men of science ... distinguished CZECH chemists ... CZECH scientific literature . . . Modern scientific and technical works in CZECH . .. . It was in the biological sciences that CZECH men of science made noteworthy advances a century ago . .. . Count Kaspar Sternberg ... was a patron of CZECH science at the time of the national awakening .. . ." The CZECH men of science get all the play; General Milan Stefanik, "the Slovak astronomer," was the only Slovak to rate - one sentence! The "selected Bibliography" at the end of the chapter is strictly CZECH. So, "Czechoslovakia's Contributions to Science" really winds up to be: CZECH contributions to science - according to the formula of the Benes Czechs. • • • CHAPTER XVIII - "Czechoslovak Music, Art, and by Jaroslav E. Vojan, J.D.; "President, Literature" Bohemian Arts Club (1912-); J.D., Charles University, Prague; Professor of Economics, College of Commerce, Prague (1899); editor, NEW CZECH Review (Prague, 1903-1904) ; editor, Svojan, (1928-) ; editor, Free Czechoslovakia (1939-) ; author of Czech-American Epistles (1910) ... " As one might suspect, in this chapter, too, just about everything "Czechoslovak" means "CZECH": composers, artists, sculptors, writers, poets, et al. Slovaks, however, rate a bit better than they did in the previous chapter (by SLOVAKIA 73 Druce): Mr. Vojan generously allows them three sentences in a total of 18 pages ! • • • CHAPTER XIX - "Diplomatic Origins and Foreign Policy" - by Felix J. Vondracek, Ph.D.; "Professor of European History University of North Dakota; Ph.D. , Columbia University; author of "The Foreign Policy of Czechoslovakia (1937) ." "The best efforts of a vigilant Austro-Hungarian police and spy system had not been able to prevent patriotic Czechoslovaks in the homelands from communicating with the exiles through the efficient (Czech) 'Maffia' organization. Both groups of patriots well knew that success could be attained only through cooperation" (pp. 349-350). Professor Vondracek, like other Benes Czechs and their hired propagandists, promotes the false thesis of a "united CZECHOSLOVAK nation." What "patriotic Czechoslovaks" at a time when the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia did not exist? Why then talk about "both groups" of patriots? Who were the "SLOVAK patriots" who communicated with the CZECH exiles (Masaryk and Benes) through the CZECH "MAFFIA"? We know that most Slovak patriots and many CZECH patriots knew practically nothing about what Masaryk and Benes were cooking up for them in exile. Masaryk and Benes themselves figured that the fewer Slovak and Czech "patriots" in on their plan, the better the chances for the success of their CZECH cause, promoted under the guise of a "CZECHOSLOVAK" cause. Mr. Vondracek, CZECH "expert" on CZECHO-SLOVAK diplomacy and foreign policy, hinted at this when he said: "The efforts of the predominantly CZECH revolutionary leaders in Paris and Prague were supported by other Slavic groups" (p. 350). Of course, Mr. Vondracek very conveniently forgot to spell out the "other Slavic groups" who really knew something about the efforts of Benes, Masaryk, and the CZECH "Maffia" at that time . "On June • • • 30, 1918, American-CZECH and American-SLOVAK leaders in the United States signed the DECLARATION OF PITTSBURGH, whereby, in the Czechoslovakia-to-be, THE SLOVAK PEO- 74 SLOVAKIA PLE WERE GUARANTEED THEIR OWN ASSEMBLY, COURTS, AND ADMINISTRATION. Similarly, by the D'l!daration of Turcian• sky Sv. Martin, signed on October 30, the :ilovaks in the homeland associated themselves with the new State" - (p . 350). The Pittsburgh Convention or Agree!nent was drafted and signed by T. G. Masaryk and representatives of American Slovak and Czech organizations on May 30, 1918 - and not on JUNE 30, 1918 (See Chapter IX above). It is significant that :M:r. Vondracek fails to mention the historic:11 fact tha: Masaryk repudiated the Pittsburgh Conver.tion, calling it but a "scrap of paper." And note th:1t the 'Slovaks in the homeland associated themselves with the ~ew State" TWO DAYS AFTER the Prague declaration of independence! This is evidence of how much "Slovak patriots" really knew about what was cooking in the CZECH kitchen of Masaryk and Benes! • • • "At the termination of the war, Cechoslovak forces totaled 182,000 men, of which number 12,000 were serving in France, 78,000 in Italy, and 92,000 in Russia. The last of these armies had been particularly valuable to the Allies" - (p. 351). The figures are undoubtedly based on CZECH mathematics authored by the Benes Czechs, which is based on the principle of at least "doubling" numbers in such cases. And the fact is that the "Czechoslovak forces" in Russia were not at all valuable to the Allies since they refused to follow their orders. Masaryk conjured the "Siberian rabbit" out of his black felt hat to create a favorable impression in America. Czechs and pro-Czechs love to indulge in the legend cooked up by Masaryk. But the truth is something else again. "The Czechs," Robert Ingrim tells us ("After Hitler Stalin?"), "were offered the 'short route' to France, via Murmansk and Archangel, but they preferred the long way via Siberia to Vladivostok. . . . They were not interested in fighting the Bolsheviks or anyone else. . . . Their policy was, as their spokesman said, 'the railroad and to go home'.... They did very little fighting, and when the Reds had overcome their initial disorganization and had become a serious military force, the Czechs withdrew eastward." Just how the "Czechoslovak army performed for the Allies services more valuable than the same forces could SLOVAKIA 75 have rendered in France ... through control of the Volga area and the Transsiberian Railway," Mr. Vondracek does · not explain. We know that Masaryk and Benes did not want their Czech legions in Siberia to fight the Bolsheviks. We also know that the Allies insisted that "the Czechs stop their retreat and support the Regent," Admiral Koltschak, supreme commander of the anti-Bolshevik forces - "otherwise they would not get ships over the Pacific." The Czechs yielded to this threat reluctantly, but when the Reds had shown their superiority, "the Czechs helped them capture the admiral"! Mr. Vondracek, in typical Czech fashion, tells us, however, that: "Enmeshed in the Russian domestic chaos, and forced to continue the struggle against the Bolsheviks after the World War had terminated, the Czechoslovak Legions became unwilling tools of a French and British diplomacy that wished to keep them in Siberia indefinitely." Why British and French diplomacy really wanted to keep the "Czechoslovak" Legions in Siberia INDEFINITELY, Mr. Vondracek does not say. We know, however, for that British and, particularly, French diplomacy which Masaryk and Benes became WILLING TOOLS had very much to do with the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. • • • How Benes felt about the Soviet Union is, surprisingly, factually reported by Mr. Vondracek (pp. 356-362): "Benes was a pioneer in advocating the recognition of Soviet Russia long before public opinion either in Czechoslovakia or elsewhere in Europe became converted to such a step." The foreign policy of Czecho-Slovakia was Dr. Eduard Benes, and Benes, a thorough Socialist, was completely pro-Soviet and for the socialistic system of the U. S. S. R. His policy led to the logical conclusion we all witnessed after the war (1945-1948): a complete surrender to Communism. Benes and Masaryk undoubtedly persuaded their people, the Czechs, to recognize Soviet Russia, but they certainly could not persuade the Slovaks to do so. The Slovak nation, as a whole, remained faithful to its thoroughly Christian tradition, opposing collaboration with the godless forces of the Soviet Union to the very bitter end. 76 SLOVAKIA The Munich debacle is treated in the typical fashion of the Benes Czechs by Mr. Vondracek: Benes and his Czechs were above reproach; the culprits were Britain, France, the Germans, the Slovaks, Poles, Magyars, and Ruthenes (pp. 364-366). "Faced with the ruin of his life's work, Benes wisely resigned and went into voluntary exile," Mr. Vondracek says tersely, but nary a word that Benes had surrendered his country to Hitler without consulting parliament and thereby had incurred the just wrath of both Slovaks and Czechs, who probably would have hung him had he not fled to England. The fact is that Benes was a coward; the surrender of Czecho-Slovakia to Hitler, without consulting the representatives of the nations concerned, was criminal. The Benes Czechs did not and still do not want the world to know the truth why Benes did capitulate to Hitler. Robert Ingrim, however, hit the nail on the head when he said: "The allegation that the Czechs surrendered without firing a shot, because England and France asked them to do so, is purely fictitious. They chose to surrender 'at the behest of their faithless friends,' because an attempt to fight would have revealed to the world that the German-Slovak-Magyar-Polish-Ruthenian majority of the population was not prepared to die for a State that had treated them as second-class citizens." • • • After Hitler attacked Poland, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, and World War II was on, "for which," Mr. Vondracek says, "many CZECHOSLOVAKS had been praying as their one hope of salvation after Munich." But this is only Mr. Vondracek's opinion and not fact. The truth is that the overwhelming majority of Slovaks did not pray for war but for peace. Mr. Vondracek has no proof to offer that even many Czechs, the majority of whom, we are told, are Catholics, prayed for war either. And he undoubtedly knew that the Slovak Republic, after the legal autonomous Slovak Government had declared Slovakia an independent State (March 14, 1939), was recognized DE JURE and./or DE FACTO by twenty-seven states, yet, in Kerner's "Czechoslovakia," he chose to write the following historical lie: "The Czechoslovak Republic continued to exist de jure, if not de facto. The United States, Great Britain, France, Soviet Russia and Poland in particular had not recognized the annexation by Germany". SLOVAKIA 77 The historical truth is that Great Britain, France, Soviet Russia, as well as Poland (until Hitler attacked it, September 1, 1939) - and twenty-three other countries - did recognize the independent Slovak State and, hence, must have also recognized the collapse of Czecho-Slovakia. The U. S., it is true, did not recognize independent Slovakia, but the Slovaks were quite certain that it would, if war did not break out for another year or two - and that is what they were praying for at that time. They were through with Benes's 'Czechoslovak" democracy then and did not want his "new Czechoslovakia" - the "people's democracy" in 1945. They are adamantly opposed to her today and will be as long as she exists! • • • CHAPTER XX - "The Little Entente and the Balkan Entente" - by Harry Nicholas Howard, Ph.D., "Professor of History, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; Ph.D., University of California; member, Institut Balkanique (Belgrade; American contributing editor, Bibliographie Balkanique (Paris)," etc. Professor Howard, like the many other distinguished scholars who contributed chapters to Kerner's "Czechoslovakia," succumbed to the charms of the Masaryk and Benes Czechs, lapped up their propaganda, then presented it as "history." The Little Entente was formed, Mr. Howard states, "in the light of such a practical philosophy" - the latter being expressed by Dr. Eduard Benes (p. 372). Of course, neither Benes nor Mr. Howard could even dare mention a cordon sanitaire against Germany! Having adopted Benes's "practical philosophy" for the formation of the Little Entente, Mr. Howard continued: " One of the keystones of the foreign policy of Czechoslovakia was the organization in 1920-1921 of the Little Entente, composed of Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia and Rumania. Czechoslovakia played a principal and even a dominant role in the Little Entente .... Dr. Eduard Benes, as foreign minister and later as president of Czechoslovakia, was the major statesman of the Little Entente, not only within its inner circles, but in the League of Nations, and, therefore, in the councils of European diplomacy" - (p. 368). Big Socialist and little man Benes played " big" politics in the Little Entente, while Czecho-Slovakia, outside of being Benes's kingdom, meant little. The "major statesman" was 78 SLOVAKIA deflated completely by the first great crisis ·that hit CzechoSlovakia and the Little Entente. Mr. Howard knew that but he continued to ramble on: "When the great crisis came in September, 1938, it is interesting to note that both Jugoslavia, thanks to popular pressure on behalf of Czechoslovakia, and Rumania, as members of the Little Entente, rallied to the support of the harassed Republic. They remained true to their obligations, and were ready to stand to arms, as long as they had any confidence in France and Great Britain . .. Only the Munich 'Accord' of September 29-30 finally destroyed the Little Entente" - (p. 383). "The Little Entente, despite determined efforts, was unable to organize an effective, inclusive political and economic collaboration in central Europe, embracing Auslria and Hungary" - (p. 384). We are supposed to believe that without the "Munich Accord" the Little Entente would not have been destroyed, according to Mr. Howard. The Little Entente, Mr. Howard could have told us if he were honest, was just so much horse play. Why embrace only Austria and Hungary (as if Benes wanted to!) to organize effective collaboration in Central Europe, and not the rest of the countries "in that area? The fact is that after twenty years of Benes foreign policy, not a single neighboring country was really on friendly terms with Czecho-Slovakia. Jingos and chauvinists usually wear blinkers. The French (Clemenceau and Poincare), however, were not blind to the new dangers of the new distribution of power on the European Continent. When they decided to destroy Austria-Hungary, they undoubtedly were familiar with the objections to this program: their plan was to replace Austro-German and Magyar leadership on the Danube by Czech imperialism, combined with the Serbian and Rumanian brands. Years later the result was the Little Entente (Czecho-Slovakia, Rumania, Yugoslavia), "the memory of which," according to Robert Ingrim, "produces a smile an every European's lips, a smile tinged with scorn," because "you cannot square a circle, and, unlike distant Americans, people on the spot could not be persuaded to admire as progress the replacement of one mixed state by three no less mixed ones." Viscount D' Abernon, showing how Versailles had destroyed Europe's equilibrium- ("An Ambassador of Peace" - 1929), predicted: "The Czech satellite will revert to the orbit of the Moscow planet as soon SLOVAKIA 79 as disturbing forces cease to operate as powerfully as today." We know that he was right. When the "big crisis" came the Little Entente, including Benes's Czecho-Slovakia, folded up. • • • CHAPTER XXI - "Hitler and Hitlerism" - by (Henry) Wickham Steed, LL.D., "Editor, London Times (19191922); correspondent, London Times, at Berlin (1896); at Rome (1897-1902); at Vienna (1902-1913); foreign editor (1914-1919); proprietor and editor, The Review of Reviews (1923-1930); educated at universities of Jena, Berlin, and Paris; LL.D., universities of Strasbourg and Cluj; Lecturer on Central European History, King's College, University of London (1925-1938); author of numerous books and articles ... ", etc. Probably no individual helped T. G. Masaryk and Eduard Benes - and their "CZECH cause" - as much as Mr. Steed of London, man of letters and contacts and, therefore, a man of great influence. With his valuable assistance and the backing of the "progressive" forces of Socialism and Freemasonry, Masaryk and Benes, who were political unknowns before World War I, in a very short time became "political wizards, outstanding statesmen, experts on Central Europe and Germany and Russia, and pre-eminently political philosophers." It all came about by propaganda - as did Czecho-Slovakia, the political monstrosity of Masaryk and Benes. And Mr. H. Wickham Steed was quite a propagandist for a new order in "Christian" Europe - an order divorced from things eternal, from God Himself. His attempt to help Masaryk and Benes "remake" the history of the Slovak and Czech nations to suit the pattern of "the ideas of Masaryk" is quite obvious in his chapter of Kerner's "Czechoslovakia": "The Czechoslovak State had been fashioned and inspired by the ideas of Thomas G. Masaryk. . . . Masaryk looked upon that war (1914-1918) as a struggle between the ideas of the West and the ideas of Germany. The ideas of the West, he argued, are legacies of the Renaissance and the Reformation with their outcome in the English, American, and French revolutions, the parents of democra• cy. He defined democracy as an attempt to organize mankind intensively, as distinguished from the theocracy of the Holy Roman Empire which tried to organize European mankind extensively" (p. 402). 80 SLOVAKIA This probably explains why Czecho-Slovakia collapsed in 1938: the ideas of T. G. Masaryk were of themselves insufficient for the life of the nations contained within Masaryk's "CZECH" democracy. It is significant that even the Czechs did not fire a shot in the defense of Masaryk's democracy in 1938 or in 1948 ! • • • his World Revolution, Masaryk declared that there is only one remedy for abuses and defects in the life of the State truth and truthfulness, coupled with freedom to speak and to write the truth. Democracy, he insisted, should mean moral renovation in politics, in education, and throughout the whole range of public and private life" - (p. 405). "In This sounds regular, coming from an admirer and promoter of Masaryk, but the fact remains that T. G. M. often did not do as he preached. What did he say and write about the Slovaks and their country? Why did he deceive them and defraud them of the autonomy he and Benes had promised in Czecho-Slovakia? What about the "Siberian legend"? And White Mountain? Moral renovation? Based on what fundamentals? The state built by Masaryk and Benes was a fraud, because they were frauds at war with the Author of all genuine truth, justice, and morality. • • • "Peace can be founded only upon a community of free, democratic, and ethically minded peoples resolved to work together as equals in the spirit of Masaryk's faith. Hitlerism, in the broadest sense, is the foe of civilized humanity; and in nothing was Masaryk greater than in his insistance that the idea of his people must be : "Jesus, not Caesar" - (p. 408). Even if the whole world works "in the spirit of Masaryk's faith," no true and lasting peace will ever result. There was no genuine peace in Masaryk's own State. And what was the difference between Masarykism and Hitlerism? Hitler promoted German National Socialism, while Masaryk and Benes promoted CZECH National Socialism. Masarky did use the slogan "Jesus, not Caesar," but he did not live up to it, serving rather the enemies of Jesus, the Caesars of the forces of darkness. The cross of Jesus was forcefully removed from schools, the Marian Column was torn down in Prague, and the Church established by Jesus, the Roman Catholic Church, was harrassed and persecu- SLOVAKlA 81 ted by Masaryk and his followers, who promoted the Czech National Church and shrieked: "Away from Rome - Rome must be put on trial and convicted!" Democracy, Masaryk said, 'is not alone a form of State and of administration. It is a philosophy of life and an outlook upon the world" ( (p. 406). What was the ethical basis of his politics? T. G. M. said: "The ethical basis of all politics is humanity, and humanity is an international program. It is a new word for the old love of our fellow-men" (p. 406). Humanity, "the new word," was then substituted by Masaryk for the old word, God and Jesus, as the ethical basis of his politics. We know what it led to: Chaos and ruin. • • • CHAPTER XXII - "The Road to Munich and Beyond" - by Bernadotte E. Schmitt, Ph.D. , "Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor of Modern History, University of Chicago; B.A., M.A., Oxford (Rhodes Scholar from Tennessee); Ph.D., Wisconscin; Guggenheim Fellow (1927) ; Pulitzer Prize winner (1931) ; editor, Journal of Modern History, Chicago, 1929-) ," etc. This chapter, in the main, follows the usual line of the Benes Czechs: Benes was clean; the Czechs were "ready, even eager, to fight," but Great Britain and France would not let them; "IF Dr. Benes, with whom the ultimate decision rested, yielded to the demands of Britain and France, the explanation appears to be two-fold - Benes wished to spare his people the horrors of war and, then, he feared, "if Czechoslovakia fought only with Russia as an ally she would be labeled as a RED state (however preposterous that might seem) ... " As for the Slovaks: Hlinka's autonomists supported the demands of the Sudeten German Party, while the Czecho-Slovakia of 1918-1938 "was satisfactory to the Czechs and to a majority of the Slovaks, but not to a considerable section of the German and Magyar minorities, the inclusion of whom was necessary to make the State economically viable." The truth is that the majority of the Slovaks were not satisfied with the Czecho-Slovakia of 1918-1938. • • • CHAPTER XXIII - "Czechoslovak Democracy: Was It Worth While?" - by James T. Shotwell, Ph.D., LL.D., 82 SLOVAKIA "Bryce Professor of the History of International Relations, Columbia University . .. president League of Nations Association (1935-) ... commander, Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovak ia) ... " etc. (about a half page!). Mr. Shotwell is another of the "Masaryk-Ben es-coulddo-no-wrong" chain gang. The majority of the population of Czecho-Slovak ia was opposed to "Czechoslovak" democracy - a pseudodemoc racy - but Shotwell says it was worth while, stating categorically: "There can be no doubt that the history of Europe and of Western civilization has been immensely enriched by the philosophy and statesmanship of President Masaryk. Neither can there be any doubt that the Czechoslovak Republic has left a remarkable record in the annals of history; one which, with all its mis- takes - and they must be admitted - proved the competence of this branch of the Slavic peoples in the art and science of government" - (p. 441). The fact is, however, that the socialistic State of Czecho-Slovakia proved beyond a doubt that it does not pay to collaborate with the Soviet Union and the Reds. The world would be healthier today minus the "philosophy and statesmanship " of Masaryk who falsified and distorted Czech and Slovak history to create the political monstrosity of Czecho-Slovakia. Another of Shotwell's "facts": "His (Masaryk's) effort to teach the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson not only to his own people but to the others of east-central Europe did not wholly succeed; for the task was well-nigh impossible. The Austrian system of government under which the Czechs had lived, and still more Hungary's rule of the Slavs within its frontiers, were both far removed from the American democratic federalism, which was the basis of Masaryk's political philosophy. Although the Habsburg's had been forced to recognize the different national stocks which composed their varied empire, the bureaucracy and the army held these peoples together in a way which failed utterly to satisfy their aspirations for political self-expression. True federalism flourishes only under a regime of liberty, and that was something foreign to the Habsburg tradition" - (pp. 446-447). Masaryk's Czecho-Slovakia, however, proved that Masaryk was not interested in or impressed by "American democratic federalism." The "Czechoslova k" democratic system was as far removed from American democratic federalism as were the Austrian and Hungarian systems. The Czech bureaucracy and chauvinism of Masaryk and Benes SLOVAKIA 83 failed utterly to satisfy the aspirations of the Slovaks and other non-Czech nations of Czecho-Slovakia for political self-expression. Twenty years of Masaryk-Benes rule in Czecho-Slovakia definitely proved that true liberty was more foreign to the Masaryk and Benes regimes than it was to the Habsburgs, hence, the seed of federalism was not even planted by them. Czecho-Slovakia was supposed to be patterned after Switzerland or the United States, but the fact is that she was not. (The End.) • • • THE SLOVAKS WERE THERE : MAJOR JOHN L. POLERECKY FOUGHT FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE In 1781, when the defeated army of Cornwallis surrendered its arms to General George Washington at Yorktown, Va., among the "French Hussars" who encircled the defeated, as the ceremony of "surrendering arms" took place, was a son of Slovakia, Major John L. Polerecky, whose father hailed from Polerieka, Turiec Province, Slovakia. The story of John Polerecky's participation in the American Revolution for the independence of America was unfolded by Dr. Joseph Cincik, Ph.D., professor of history and art, Cleveland, Ohio, and a member of the Slovak Institute there. Mr. Cincik, a distant relative of Major Polerecky, spent much time and money in travel and research to gather the facts of the Polerecky story. When the complete story of Polerecky is published, it will be fully documented with photocopies of original documents from Slovakia, France, and the National Archives in Washington, D. C. What is presented here is from a portion of Dr. Cincik's manuscript on Major Polerecky. When Francis Rakoczy of Hungary revolted against the Habsburgs and lost, he was forced to flee for his life in 1711. He fled to Poland and later made his way to France. Rakoczy was not through with his fight against Vienna, and Louis XIV was happy to accept his services when he offered them to him in 1713. Rakoczy was ac-  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Professor Kerner's "CZECHOSLOVAKIA": History or Propaganda? (8/8) Description An account of the resource P. A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25), September-December 1957 pp. 69-83 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 Relation A related resource continued from <a href="/items/show/242">Vol. 7, No. 2 (23), pp. 52-57</a> LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/dc0fc6e45cde3bca2d25a2352cd8abb1.pdf 1649cde7255967a3e2cd0c12f0aac9af PDF Text Text 28 SLOVAKIA THE 1944 COMMUNISTIC REBELLION IN SLOVAKIA In late August, 1944, a rebellion to overthrow the government of the free Slovak Republic was set in motion by Communist partisan forces that were parachuted into the country by Moscow. Although the predominant element among the invaders was Czech, there were also Russians and Frenchmen among them. Conspicuous as one of the leaders promoting this putsch was Dr. Joseph Lettrich who is now an official of the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" and resides in the United States. The objective of this offensive strategy was not only the ruthless subjugation of the Slovak government, but also the occupation of Slovakia and the integration of the crushed republic into the politically hybridized Czecho-Slovak Republic. With the help of Soviet troops this goal was achieved in the spring of 1945 . Some of the tactics and activities of these Red invaders are reliably described by Dr. Joseph Pauco in his latest book SLOVACI A KOMUNIZMUS (THE SLOVAKS AND COMMUNISM; Middletown, Pa.; 1957). We quote here in part from the chapter "Dielo pomsty" ("An Act of Revenge" - Ed.) The depravity of the partisans literally knew no bounds: They looted and plundered at will and murdered wantonly. Consequently the toll of the struggle was tragic even though the encounters did not last exceptionally long. Co,Ionel Otto Klement reports that "official statistics, released early in 1945, indicate that the so-called national uprising in 1944 cost the Slova:k nation close to 80,000 lives sacrificed on Slovak territrory." The partisans and their henchmen terrorized Slovak villages. They categorically seized all citizens of noite who had shown opposition to Cornmuni,s m. "They robbed their rupartments, homes, castles, factories, places of business, warehouses; they indulged in drunken orgies and began to annoy innocent victims, torturing and !killing them," states Colonel Otto Klement who was fully informed on all that happened. Thousands of Sloivruks were su!bjected to unspeakable tortures and inhuman torments. Among the first victims in this wave of terror was the Slo:v.a:k lalbor leader and mem1b ers o.f iParliament, Francis S1amen, who met his cruel fate in the town of Brezno nad Hronom .. He was a typical Slovruk laborer, one of thousands of diligent and honest Slava:k worikingmen, providing for his family by the toil of his hands. He was interested in the welfare of Slovak workers, �29 SLOVAKIA but his "crime" was that he based his interest on the principles of fundamental Christian equity. He organized a Christian-social wonkers' association and, as president of the group, he was shown a certain degree of deference by his co-iworkers who came to realize that the problems of the l8iboring class can be resolved without recourse to revolutionary methods, without violence, bloodshed, and the confiscation o.f private property. When Francis Slamen noticed thaJt there was a concentration of questionable elements in rthe neighborhood of Brezno, he decided to go to Bratislava in order to inform the state authorities. His planned to leave in the evening of August 27, 1944, but an informer foiled his plans. A few hours before train time, he was forced into a partisan truck The partisans then rounded up other influential loyal patriots in this town, driving them out of their homes at the point of leveled automatics. They ,padked them into the fore section of the truck while heavily armed guards took up the rear. At a;bout eleven o'clock at night, the truck started on its way, but it halted every fifty meters or so, in order to take on mo:re unfortunate capti'Ves. Shortly before midnight, the truck loaded with captives left the heart of town. When the trngic company reached the town limits, two oif the partisans, wh 0 were sta.ltio.ned as guards in the truck, opened fire on the victims. Several of them died on the spot; others lived a few hours longer. The sole survivor in this instance was Judge Denk. His face and head were spattered with the brain fragments o.f Slamen and Dolnan and both his hands, as well as his head and nedk, were torn with shot. But he did not lose consciousness and was able to save himself. When the partisams came to carry a,way the corpses, Denk let himself be taken as a dead man with the dead. They left him in the cemetery for !burial with the rest, and it was there that he spoke to the gendarme who was left to take over, begging him to take him to a hospital from where his wife later smuggled him out to safety and survival. The heartless partisans who carried out this coldblood1 �30 SLOVAKIA ed task of political vengeance appropriated all the valuables on the pevsons of their victims right where they fell. They even stripped the dead of their shoes and before lea ving the scene, they 1kicked the bodies about with violent brutality. Another notable victim of the partisans was a Catholic priest and Parliamentary deputy, Rev. Anthony Salat, who died in the first weeik of the rebellion. He was a man of noble character and his was the stature of an earnest SlovaJk patriot, a brilliant popular writer, a matchless public speaker, and one of the most out-spoken and determined opponents of Communism. Through the years, dating baok as far as 1929, Father Salat serwed as a Parliamentary representative of the Slovak Populist Party. In public life he merited distinction not only as a gifted amd objecti;ve speaker, a defender of Slovak rights in the forum of Prague's hall of Parliament, but also as a journalist. Because of all this, the partisans marked as one of their earlist targets, a figure to be cut down mercilessly, this Father Anthony Salat, a distinguished national leader and an intrepid fighter for justice. They dragged him out of the quiet orf his parish to the bridge that spans the Hron River. He begged to be allowed to make his confession but the rabble refused him this spiritual consolation. fu answer to his request they sounded off rounds of satanic la,ughter and piercing ridicule which alternated with sal:vos from their automatics, felling the good priest to the cold pa,vement of the bridge that he had built for the community. But even this did not satisfy the savage "liberators." They ,b eset the cor;pse of the murdered Father Salat and robbed it. Out of his vest poc!ket they removed his gold watch; out of his coat pocket they took his wallet. They even knoc:ked out several of his teeth and claimed the gold caps from his dental work. Then they hurled the brutally albused a.111d rifled body in.to the Bron. Father Anthony Salat was not the only Slovak Catholic priest done to cruel death iby the partisans. Among others who perished under the violent hand of the oppres1 �SLOVAKIA 31 sons were Fathers J ohn Nemec, Martinka of Liptovsk y Svaty Michal, and the seminaria n Milan of Povazska Bystrica. A frightful death befell Father Seda, the pastor in L1ptovsky Svaty Jan. In his report at a hearing of the U. S. Congress ional Committe e, the Catholic priest, Dr. Stephen Nahalka, related the suffering s inflicted on Father Seda: "They t::ut strips of slkin and flesh from his back and in the end even amputate d his genitals." Father Nicholas Sprinc, a priest of the same diocese as Father Seda, reported the following: "Father Seda was killed. The Reds first flayed him and then subjected him to tortures which it is not proper to describe in the press. His skin was stripped in thick layers. His tormento rs then kept cutting off parts of his body and forcing them into his mouth to the accompan iment of blasphenm ous exdamati ons about 'Holy Communion'." Another witness before the Congress ional Committe e was the Rev. Joseph Poess of Slorvakia whom the partisans had severely wounded in the mass grarve near Sklenne where he sewed as pastor. Ninety men perished in this mass grave, but Father Poess saved himself despite the fact that he had been buried alive. He made his escaipe out of the shallow grave and, after untold suffering s and imprisonm ent, made his way to freedom. The indictmen t which the Partisans fabricate d against him was that he had a secret sending station operating from the church and that he cached weapons in the church sacristy and under the altar in his church. Colonel Otto Klement had informati on on many individual instances of brutality wreaiked upon helple ss and innocent citizens by the partisans . In Turiec the ailing Mary R. fell into their hands; they struck her unconscio us with a heavy millk can. They tortured her by wedging pins under her nails and, after she was completel y spent, she had to kiss the feet of a common prostitute . F1inally the partisan band bound her in chains and bore her off to their headquarters, Sklabina in Turiec, where they shot her and threw her body into a mass burial pit. Her father, John R., was an old man of 78. The parti- �32 SLOVAKIA sans trussed him up and left him, barefoot and half na!ked, exiposed outdoors all night. When he accepted a pair of shoes offered hi.Im by a lady, the gypsy who was guarding him beat him brutally. Then the partisan horde took the old man to Siklabina, aimed a ,shat at the naJPe of his necik, just as they had dispatched his d:mghter, and threw him into the mass grave too. AH these people had no connection whatever with political activities of any kind. Their "offense" was that they were, to some extent, propertied people. Singled out for ,s,rucrifiice were also a number of valiant o:£ficers who chnse to accept no command in the uprising. For this service to their country, Colonels Kruna'k and Zverin, as well as Lieutenant Colonel Kfucik and First Lieutenants Frecer and SindJer, were shot to death. The distinguished General Turanec was put under house arrest in Bans:ka Bystrica right at the outset of the putsch. Once they let .Joose the full strength of their partisan activities, they had General Turanec flown to Moscow, where they tortured him for his uncompromising stand against communism. One of the major stigmas of the putsch is the concentration camp which the partisans arranged in the castle fortress Sl()IVenska L'wpca. Here they tormented and persecuted aver a th'Ousand viictims - not only men, but women and children, too. The sUJperintendent of this concentratiorn camp was the sa,v age Communist Staudinger. One of the prisoners, R. Rudohorsiky, recalls some of the sufferings experienced in Slovenska L'wpca: "The housing of the 1prisoners was horrible. The overseer packed over 150 ,people into a single room. Other sections were croweded with as many persons as eoouJd possibly be forced into them. Househo1d furnishings were remover. From the !beginning, the prisonern were bedded on the bare floor; later the authorities allowed them to bring in some straw. Spies, informers, and instigators of trouble were planted among the prisoners. Hygienic requirements in this concentration camp became a thing of the past. The iplace was a real hell. "Inmates tooik sick ,a s a result of the undernourishment, starvation, filth and foulness that prevailed. Instead �SLOVAKIA 33 of iprorviding medical help or relief for them, the vindictive jailer turned on them with aJbuse and emibittered their lives still further with inhuman treatment. Even when the doctor did come into the camp, he was allowed to examine a sick unfortunate only in the presence of the commandant of the guard of National Security . . . The physician prescribed medication for which the prisoner paid but never received . . . Fare: potatoes and caJbbage. Anything by wa,y of shorttening or grease that may have been allotted to the kitchen wa:s either appropriated by a woman-coolk o.f ill-repute or the suiperintendent o.f the institution and the commandant of National ,S ecurity, or it was sold. But conditions worsened to, such an extent that later not even potatoes or caJbbage ,w ere to be had. There was actual starvation. Red pa:rtiisans, armed to the teeth, visited the castle fortress daily to conduct investigations among the inmates. They heard the grievances orf the prisoners and freely dealt them resounding sla.ps and blows; they 1b eat the:n and tortured them unmercifuUy. "Many of the wretches were taken away under cover of night never to return again. Conditions became such that no prisoner' felt that his life wais safe. Everyone lived in dread expectation, wondering just when the partisans woU!ld come to claim this oo.e or that one who would vanish fureve,r in the abyss of death ... The barbaric superintendent, a former shooma'ker, on visiting the confining quarters abused the miseraible inmates by kic<king them a,bout like dogs while he cursed them fiendishly and threatened every one of them with the gall01Ws. If any of them ha,ppened to have a covering of any ,k ind, he ripped it -away, spewing insults upon them and calling them Nazis and Fascist swine.. "Little children begged their mothers for bread or m.i1'k but what were the un.ha,ppy mothers to do when the p-2rfidious scum that jaHed them had no mercy or feeling in its heart to allow at least to the children some substantial food. Wives were isolated from their husbands; they were :permitted to have no contact whatever, not even a brief .exchange from one to the other as they went for their daily rations. Husbands were the unwilling and helpless witnesses of the appalling sufferings of their wives and children." �34 SLOVAKIA Only prayer and hymns sustained balance and some ,semlblance of morale among the tortured prisoners whose .sufferings defied description. An evil reputation came to be associated with Kunerad, one of the headquarters of the partisan band located near the city 2ilina. V. 2ingor testified that the Czech Karel Bacilek was "the political commissar in the fortress Kunerad." Brutal in the extreme was the punishment meted out to anti-Communistic fighters and quick sentences were readily executed. It was comparable to SkJa;bina. To date it has not been ascertained precisely how many victims met maximum penalties in these two ,plaic-es. Colonel Klement reports that in Slklaib:itna O'Ver a thousand citirens were murdered from Turiec region aJone. In. the mass gra,ve in Podsucha, as the Rev. Stephen Naha1ka testified, there were found eighty victims of parti:sa,n ferocity. Father Poess revealed that in the mass graves near Sklenne rubout two hundred of his parishioners met their deaths. An American citizen, Mr. Smr~ov,s ky, declared before .U. S. Congressional Committee that in the Slovaik community where he had lived in the days of the Slovak Republic, ,the partisans on one occasion destroyed an entire family of five ipersons among whom were a two year old and a four year old child. All were then consigned to a mass grave. Other mass graves were also found at Kovacova, in Pusty Hrad, in the Prievidza valley, at Humenne, Lucivna, Bosany, L'wbietova, Nemeoka L'upca Mld Kremnioka. During this Communist putsch, material -losses in SlovaJkia were extremely great. The state statistical and planning office in Bratislava 1published in its "Statistical Hand1book of Slo:vaikia 1947" an evalution of damage inflicted on -buildings, projects and their equipment, art objects, communications, livestock, and other ravaged properties as in excess of 114,461,000,000 crowns or two and a half billion dollars. The arrival of the Soviet in Slovakia in the bloody August putsch of 1944 was a clear foreclast of what would befall the Slovak people in the event of the downfall of their independent State. � 28 SLOVAKIA THE 1944 COMMUNISTIC REBELLION IN SLOVAKIA In late August, 1944, a rebellion to overthrow the government of the free Slovak Republic was set in motion by Communist partisan forces that were parachuted into the country by Moscow. Although the predominant element among the invaders was Czech, there were also Russians and Frenchmen among them. Conspicuous as one of the leaders promoting this putsch was Dr. Joseph Lettrich who is now an official of the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" and resides in the United States. The objective of this offensive strategy was not only the ruthless subjugation of the Slovak government, but also the occupation of Slovakia and the integration of the crushed republic into the politically hybridized Czecho-Slovak Republic. With the help of Soviet troops this goal was achieved in the spring of 1945 . Some of the tactics and activities of these Red invaders are reliably described by Dr. Joseph Pauco in his latest book SLOVACI A KOMUNIZMUS (THE SLOVAKS AND COMMUNISM; Middletown, Pa.; 1957). We quote here in part from the chapter "Dielo pomsty" ("An Act of Revenge" - Ed.) The depravity of the partisans literally knew no bounds: They looted and plundered at will and murdered wantonly. Consequently the toll of the struggle was tragic even though the encounters did not last exceptionally long. Co,Ionel Otto Klement reports that "official statistics, released early in 1945, indicate that the so-called national uprising in 1944 cost the Slova:k nation close to 80,000 lives sacrificed on Slovak territrory." The partisans and their henchmen terrorized Slovak villages. They categorically seized all citizens of noite who had shown opposition to Cornmuni,s m. "They robbed their rupartments, homes, castles, factories, places of business, warehouses; they indulged in drunken orgies and began to annoy innocent victims, torturing and !killing them," states Colonel Otto Klement who was fully informed on all that happened. Thousands of Sloivruks were su!bjected to unspeakable tortures and inhuman torments. Among the first victims in this wave of terror was the Slo:v.a:k lalbor leader and mem1b ers o.f iParliament, Francis S1amen, who met his cruel fate in the town of Brezno nad Hronom .. He was a typical Slovruk laborer, one of thousands of diligent and honest Slava:k worikingmen, providing for his family by the toil of his hands. He was interested in the welfare of Slovak workers, �29 SLOVAKIA but his "crime" was that he based his interest on the principles of fundamental Christian equity. He organized a Christian-social wonkers' association and, as president of the group, he was shown a certain degree of deference by his co-iworkers who came to realize that the problems of the l8iboring class can be resolved without recourse to revolutionary methods, without violence, bloodshed, and the confiscation o.f private property. When Francis Slamen noticed thaJt there was a concentration of questionable elements in rthe neighborhood of Brezno, he decided to go to Bratislava in order to inform the state authorities. His planned to leave in the evening of August 27, 1944, but an informer foiled his plans. A few hours before train time, he was forced into a partisan truck The partisans then rounded up other influential loyal patriots in this town, driving them out of their homes at the point of leveled automatics. They ,padked them into the fore section of the truck while heavily armed guards took up the rear. At a;bout eleven o'clock at night, the truck started on its way, but it halted every fifty meters or so, in order to take on mo:re unfortunate capti'Ves. Shortly before midnight, the truck loaded with captives left the heart of town. When the trngic company reached the town limits, two oif the partisans, wh 0 were sta.ltio.ned as guards in the truck, opened fire on the victims. Several of them died on the spot; others lived a few hours longer. The sole survivor in this instance was Judge Denk. His face and head were spattered with the brain fragments o.f Slamen and Dolnan and both his hands, as well as his head and nedk, were torn with shot. But he did not lose consciousness and was able to save himself. When the partisams came to carry a,way the corpses, Denk let himself be taken as a dead man with the dead. They left him in the cemetery for !burial with the rest, and it was there that he spoke to the gendarme who was left to take over, begging him to take him to a hospital from where his wife later smuggled him out to safety and survival. The heartless partisans who carried out this coldblood1 �30 SLOVAKIA ed task of political vengeance appropriated all the valuables on the pevsons of their victims right where they fell. They even stripped the dead of their shoes and before lea ving the scene, they 1kicked the bodies about with violent brutality. Another notable victim of the partisans was a Catholic priest and Parliamentary deputy, Rev. Anthony Salat, who died in the first weeik of the rebellion. He was a man of noble character and his was the stature of an earnest SlovaJk patriot, a brilliant popular writer, a matchless public speaker, and one of the most out-spoken and determined opponents of Communism. Through the years, dating baok as far as 1929, Father Salat serwed as a Parliamentary representative of the Slovak Populist Party. In public life he merited distinction not only as a gifted amd objecti;ve speaker, a defender of Slovak rights in the forum of Prague's hall of Parliament, but also as a journalist. Because of all this, the partisans marked as one of their earlist targets, a figure to be cut down mercilessly, this Father Anthony Salat, a distinguished national leader and an intrepid fighter for justice. They dragged him out of the quiet orf his parish to the bridge that spans the Hron River. He begged to be allowed to make his confession but the rabble refused him this spiritual consolation. fu answer to his request they sounded off rounds of satanic la,ughter and piercing ridicule which alternated with sal:vos from their automatics, felling the good priest to the cold pa,vement of the bridge that he had built for the community. But even this did not satisfy the savage "liberators." They ,b eset the cor;pse of the murdered Father Salat and robbed it. Out of his vest poc!ket they removed his gold watch; out of his coat pocket they took his wallet. They even knoc:ked out several of his teeth and claimed the gold caps from his dental work. Then they hurled the brutally albused a.111d rifled body in.to the Bron. Father Anthony Salat was not the only Slovak Catholic priest done to cruel death iby the partisans. Among others who perished under the violent hand of the oppres1 �SLOVAKIA 31 sons were Fathers J ohn Nemec, Martinka of Liptovsk y Svaty Michal, and the seminaria n Milan of Povazska Bystrica. A frightful death befell Father Seda, the pastor in L1ptovsky Svaty Jan. In his report at a hearing of the U. S. Congress ional Committe e, the Catholic priest, Dr. Stephen Nahalka, related the suffering s inflicted on Father Seda: "They t::ut strips of slkin and flesh from his back and in the end even amputate d his genitals." Father Nicholas Sprinc, a priest of the same diocese as Father Seda, reported the following: "Father Seda was killed. The Reds first flayed him and then subjected him to tortures which it is not proper to describe in the press. His skin was stripped in thick layers. His tormento rs then kept cutting off parts of his body and forcing them into his mouth to the accompan iment of blasphenm ous exdamati ons about 'Holy Communion'." Another witness before the Congress ional Committe e was the Rev. Joseph Poess of Slorvakia whom the partisans had severely wounded in the mass grarve near Sklenne where he sewed as pastor. Ninety men perished in this mass grave, but Father Poess saved himself despite the fact that he had been buried alive. He made his escaipe out of the shallow grave and, after untold suffering s and imprisonm ent, made his way to freedom. The indictmen t which the Partisans fabricate d against him was that he had a secret sending station operating from the church and that he cached weapons in the church sacristy and under the altar in his church. Colonel Otto Klement had informati on on many individual instances of brutality wreaiked upon helple ss and innocent citizens by the partisans . In Turiec the ailing Mary R. fell into their hands; they struck her unconscio us with a heavy millk can. They tortured her by wedging pins under her nails and, after she was completel y spent, she had to kiss the feet of a common prostitute . F1inally the partisan band bound her in chains and bore her off to their headquarters, Sklabina in Turiec, where they shot her and threw her body into a mass burial pit. Her father, John R., was an old man of 78. The parti- �32 SLOVAKIA sans trussed him up and left him, barefoot and half na!ked, exiposed outdoors all night. When he accepted a pair of shoes offered hi.Im by a lady, the gypsy who was guarding him beat him brutally. Then the partisan horde took the old man to Siklabina, aimed a ,shat at the naJPe of his necik, just as they had dispatched his d:mghter, and threw him into the mass grave too. AH these people had no connection whatever with political activities of any kind. Their "offense" was that they were, to some extent, propertied people. Singled out for ,s,rucrifiice were also a number of valiant o:£ficers who chnse to accept no command in the uprising. For this service to their country, Colonels Kruna'k and Zverin, as well as Lieutenant Colonel Kfucik and First Lieutenants Frecer and SindJer, were shot to death. The distinguished General Turanec was put under house arrest in Bans:ka Bystrica right at the outset of the putsch. Once they let .Joose the full strength of their partisan activities, they had General Turanec flown to Moscow, where they tortured him for his uncompromising stand against communism. One of the major stigmas of the putsch is the concentration camp which the partisans arranged in the castle fortress Sl()IVenska L'wpca. Here they tormented and persecuted aver a th'Ousand viictims - not only men, but women and children, too. The sUJperintendent of this concentratiorn camp was the sa,v age Communist Staudinger. One of the prisoners, R. Rudohorsiky, recalls some of the sufferings experienced in Slovenska L'wpca: "The housing of the 1prisoners was horrible. The overseer packed over 150 ,people into a single room. Other sections were croweded with as many persons as eoouJd possibly be forced into them. Househo1d furnishings were remover. From the !beginning, the prisonern were bedded on the bare floor; later the authorities allowed them to bring in some straw. Spies, informers, and instigators of trouble were planted among the prisoners. Hygienic requirements in this concentration camp became a thing of the past. The iplace was a real hell. "Inmates tooik sick ,a s a result of the undernourishment, starvation, filth and foulness that prevailed. Instead �SLOVAKIA 33 of iprorviding medical help or relief for them, the vindictive jailer turned on them with aJbuse and emibittered their lives still further with inhuman treatment. Even when the doctor did come into the camp, he was allowed to examine a sick unfortunate only in the presence of the commandant of the guard of National Security . . . The physician prescribed medication for which the prisoner paid but never received . . . Fare: potatoes and caJbbage. Anything by wa,y of shorttening or grease that may have been allotted to the kitchen wa:s either appropriated by a woman-coolk o.f ill-repute or the suiperintendent o.f the institution and the commandant of National ,S ecurity, or it was sold. But conditions worsened to, such an extent that later not even potatoes or caJbbage ,w ere to be had. There was actual starvation. Red pa:rtiisans, armed to the teeth, visited the castle fortress daily to conduct investigations among the inmates. They heard the grievances orf the prisoners and freely dealt them resounding sla.ps and blows; they 1b eat the:n and tortured them unmercifuUy. "Many of the wretches were taken away under cover of night never to return again. Conditions became such that no prisoner' felt that his life wais safe. Everyone lived in dread expectation, wondering just when the partisans woU!ld come to claim this oo.e or that one who would vanish fureve,r in the abyss of death ... The barbaric superintendent, a former shooma'ker, on visiting the confining quarters abused the miseraible inmates by kic<king them a,bout like dogs while he cursed them fiendishly and threatened every one of them with the gall01Ws. If any of them ha,ppened to have a covering of any ,k ind, he ripped it -away, spewing insults upon them and calling them Nazis and Fascist swine.. "Little children begged their mothers for bread or m.i1'k but what were the un.ha,ppy mothers to do when the p-2rfidious scum that jaHed them had no mercy or feeling in its heart to allow at least to the children some substantial food. Wives were isolated from their husbands; they were :permitted to have no contact whatever, not even a brief .exchange from one to the other as they went for their daily rations. Husbands were the unwilling and helpless witnesses of the appalling sufferings of their wives and children." �34 SLOVAKIA Only prayer and hymns sustained balance and some ,semlblance of morale among the tortured prisoners whose .sufferings defied description. An evil reputation came to be associated with Kunerad, one of the headquarters of the partisan band located near the city 2ilina. V. 2ingor testified that the Czech Karel Bacilek was "the political commissar in the fortress Kunerad." Brutal in the extreme was the punishment meted out to anti-Communistic fighters and quick sentences were readily executed. It was comparable to SkJa;bina. To date it has not been ascertained precisely how many victims met maximum penalties in these two ,plaic-es. Colonel Klement reports that in Slklaib:itna O'Ver a thousand citirens were murdered from Turiec region aJone. In. the mass gra,ve in Podsucha, as the Rev. Stephen Naha1ka testified, there were found eighty victims of parti:sa,n ferocity. Father Poess revealed that in the mass graves near Sklenne rubout two hundred of his parishioners met their deaths. An American citizen, Mr. Smr~ov,s ky, declared before .U. S. Congressional Committee that in the Slovaik community where he had lived in the days of the Slovak Republic, ,the partisans on one occasion destroyed an entire family of five ipersons among whom were a two year old and a four year old child. All were then consigned to a mass grave. Other mass graves were also found at Kovacova, in Pusty Hrad, in the Prievidza valley, at Humenne, Lucivna, Bosany, L'wbietova, Nemeoka L'upca Mld Kremnioka. During this Communist putsch, material -losses in SlovaJkia were extremely great. The state statistical and planning office in Bratislava 1published in its "Statistical Hand1book of Slo:vaikia 1947" an evalution of damage inflicted on -buildings, projects and their equipment, art objects, communications, livestock, and other ravaged properties as in excess of 114,461,000,000 crowns or two and a half billion dollars. The arrival of the Soviet in Slovakia in the bloody August putsch of 1944 was a clear foreclast of what would befall the Slovak people in the event of the downfall of their independent State. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 28 SLOVAKIA THE 1944 COMMUNISTIC REBELLION IN SLOVAKIA In late August, 1944, a rebellion to overthrow the government of the free Slovak Republic was set in motion by Communist partisan forces that were parachuted into the country by Moscow. Although the predominant element among the invaders was Czech, there were also Russians and Frenchmen among them. Conspicuous as one of the leaders promoting this putsch was Dr. Joseph Lettrich who is now an official of the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" and resides in the United States. The objective of this offensive strategy was not only the ruthless subjugation of the Slovak government, but also the occupation of Slovakia and the integration of the crushed republic into the politically hybridized Czecho-Slovak Republic. With the help of Soviet troops this goal was achieved in the spring of 1945 . Some of the tactics and activities of these Red invaders are reliably described by Dr. Joseph Pauco in his latest book SLOVACI A KOMUNIZMUS (THE SLOVAKS AND COMMUNISM; Middletown, Pa.; 1957). We quote here in part from the chapter "Dielo pomsty" ("An Act of Revenge" - Ed.) The depravity of the partisans literally knew no bounds: They looted and plundered at will and murdered wantonly. Consequently the toll of the struggle was tragic even though the encounters did not last exceptionally long. Co,Ionel Otto Klement reports that "official statistics, released early in 1945, indicate that the so-called national uprising in 1944 cost the Slova:k nation close to 80,000 lives sacrificed on Slovak territrory." The partisans and their henchmen terrorized Slovak villages. They categorically seized all citizens of noite who had shown opposition to Cornmuni,s m. "They robbed their rupartments, homes, castles, factories, places of business, warehouses; they indulged in drunken orgies and began to annoy innocent victims, torturing and !killing them," states Colonel Otto Klement who was fully informed on all that happened. Thousands of Sloivruks were su!bjected to unspeakable tortures and inhuman torments. Among the first victims in this wave of terror was the Slo:v.a:k lalbor leader and mem1b ers o.f iParliament, Francis S1amen, who met his cruel fate in the town of Brezno nad Hronom .. He was a typical Slovruk laborer, one of thousands of diligent and honest Slava:k worikingmen, providing for his family by the toil of his hands. He was interested in the welfare of Slovak workers, 29 SLOVAKIA but his "crime" was that he based his interest on the principles of fundamental Christian equity. He organized a Christian-social wonkers' association and, as president of the group, he was shown a certain degree of deference by his co-iworkers who came to realize that the problems of the l8iboring class can be resolved without recourse to revolutionary methods, without violence, bloodshed, and the confiscation o.f private property. When Francis Slamen noticed thaJt there was a concentration of questionable elements in rthe neighborhood of Brezno, he decided to go to Bratislava in order to inform the state authorities. His planned to leave in the evening of August 27, 1944, but an informer foiled his plans. A few hours before train time, he was forced into a partisan truck The partisans then rounded up other influential loyal patriots in this town, driving them out of their homes at the point of leveled automatics. They ,padked them into the fore section of the truck while heavily armed guards took up the rear. At a;bout eleven o'clock at night, the truck started on its way, but it halted every fifty meters or so, in order to take on mo:re unfortunate capti'Ves. Shortly before midnight, the truck loaded with captives left the heart of town. When the trngic company reached the town limits, two oif the partisans, wh 0 were sta.ltio.ned as guards in the truck, opened fire on the victims. Several of them died on the spot; others lived a few hours longer. The sole survivor in this instance was Judge Denk. His face and head were spattered with the brain fragments o.f Slamen and Dolnan and both his hands, as well as his head and nedk, were torn with shot. But he did not lose consciousness and was able to save himself. When the partisams came to carry a,way the corpses, Denk let himself be taken as a dead man with the dead. They left him in the cemetery for !burial with the rest, and it was there that he spoke to the gendarme who was left to take over, begging him to take him to a hospital from where his wife later smuggled him out to safety and survival. The heartless partisans who carried out this coldblood1 30 SLOVAKIA ed task of political vengeance appropriated all the valuables on the pevsons of their victims right where they fell. They even stripped the dead of their shoes and before lea ving the scene, they 1kicked the bodies about with violent brutality. Another notable victim of the partisans was a Catholic priest and Parliamentary deputy, Rev. Anthony Salat, who died in the first weeik of the rebellion. He was a man of noble character and his was the stature of an earnest SlovaJk patriot, a brilliant popular writer, a matchless public speaker, and one of the most out-spoken and determined opponents of Communism. Through the years, dating baok as far as 1929, Father Salat serwed as a Parliamentary representative of the Slovak Populist Party. In public life he merited distinction not only as a gifted amd objecti;ve speaker, a defender of Slovak rights in the forum of Prague's hall of Parliament, but also as a journalist. Because of all this, the partisans marked as one of their earlist targets, a figure to be cut down mercilessly, this Father Anthony Salat, a distinguished national leader and an intrepid fighter for justice. They dragged him out of the quiet orf his parish to the bridge that spans the Hron River. He begged to be allowed to make his confession but the rabble refused him this spiritual consolation. fu answer to his request they sounded off rounds of satanic la,ughter and piercing ridicule which alternated with sal:vos from their automatics, felling the good priest to the cold pa,vement of the bridge that he had built for the community. But even this did not satisfy the savage "liberators." They ,b eset the cor;pse of the murdered Father Salat and robbed it. Out of his vest poc!ket they removed his gold watch; out of his coat pocket they took his wallet. They even knoc:ked out several of his teeth and claimed the gold caps from his dental work. Then they hurled the brutally albused a.111d rifled body in.to the Bron. Father Anthony Salat was not the only Slovak Catholic priest done to cruel death iby the partisans. Among others who perished under the violent hand of the oppres1 SLOVAKIA 31 sons were Fathers J ohn Nemec, Martinka of Liptovsk y Svaty Michal, and the seminaria n Milan of Povazska Bystrica. A frightful death befell Father Seda, the pastor in L1ptovsky Svaty Jan. In his report at a hearing of the U. S. Congress ional Committe e, the Catholic priest, Dr. Stephen Nahalka, related the suffering s inflicted on Father Seda: "They t::ut strips of slkin and flesh from his back and in the end even amputate d his genitals." Father Nicholas Sprinc, a priest of the same diocese as Father Seda, reported the following: "Father Seda was killed. The Reds first flayed him and then subjected him to tortures which it is not proper to describe in the press. His skin was stripped in thick layers. His tormento rs then kept cutting off parts of his body and forcing them into his mouth to the accompan iment of blasphenm ous exdamati ons about 'Holy Communion'." Another witness before the Congress ional Committe e was the Rev. Joseph Poess of Slorvakia whom the partisans had severely wounded in the mass grarve near Sklenne where he sewed as pastor. Ninety men perished in this mass grave, but Father Poess saved himself despite the fact that he had been buried alive. He made his escaipe out of the shallow grave and, after untold suffering s and imprisonm ent, made his way to freedom. The indictmen t which the Partisans fabricate d against him was that he had a secret sending station operating from the church and that he cached weapons in the church sacristy and under the altar in his church. Colonel Otto Klement had informati on on many individual instances of brutality wreaiked upon helple ss and innocent citizens by the partisans . In Turiec the ailing Mary R. fell into their hands; they struck her unconscio us with a heavy millk can. They tortured her by wedging pins under her nails and, after she was completel y spent, she had to kiss the feet of a common prostitute . F1inally the partisan band bound her in chains and bore her off to their headquarters, Sklabina in Turiec, where they shot her and threw her body into a mass burial pit. Her father, John R., was an old man of 78. The parti- 32 SLOVAKIA sans trussed him up and left him, barefoot and half na!ked, exiposed outdoors all night. When he accepted a pair of shoes offered hi.Im by a lady, the gypsy who was guarding him beat him brutally. Then the partisan horde took the old man to Siklabina, aimed a ,shat at the naJPe of his necik, just as they had dispatched his d:mghter, and threw him into the mass grave too. AH these people had no connection whatever with political activities of any kind. Their "offense" was that they were, to some extent, propertied people. Singled out for ,s,rucrifiice were also a number of valiant o:£ficers who chnse to accept no command in the uprising. For this service to their country, Colonels Kruna'k and Zverin, as well as Lieutenant Colonel Kfucik and First Lieutenants Frecer and SindJer, were shot to death. The distinguished General Turanec was put under house arrest in Bans:ka Bystrica right at the outset of the putsch. Once they let .Joose the full strength of their partisan activities, they had General Turanec flown to Moscow, where they tortured him for his uncompromising stand against communism. One of the major stigmas of the putsch is the concentration camp which the partisans arranged in the castle fortress Sl()IVenska L'wpca. Here they tormented and persecuted aver a th'Ousand viictims - not only men, but women and children, too. The sUJperintendent of this concentratiorn camp was the sa,v age Communist Staudinger. One of the prisoners, R. Rudohorsiky, recalls some of the sufferings experienced in Slovenska L'wpca: "The housing of the 1prisoners was horrible. The overseer packed over 150 ,people into a single room. Other sections were croweded with as many persons as eoouJd possibly be forced into them. Househo1d furnishings were remover. From the !beginning, the prisonern were bedded on the bare floor; later the authorities allowed them to bring in some straw. Spies, informers, and instigators of trouble were planted among the prisoners. Hygienic requirements in this concentration camp became a thing of the past. The iplace was a real hell. "Inmates tooik sick ,a s a result of the undernourishment, starvation, filth and foulness that prevailed. Instead SLOVAKIA 33 of iprorviding medical help or relief for them, the vindictive jailer turned on them with aJbuse and emibittered their lives still further with inhuman treatment. Even when the doctor did come into the camp, he was allowed to examine a sick unfortunate only in the presence of the commandant of the guard of National Security . . . The physician prescribed medication for which the prisoner paid but never received . . . Fare: potatoes and caJbbage. Anything by wa,y of shorttening or grease that may have been allotted to the kitchen wa:s either appropriated by a woman-coolk o.f ill-repute or the suiperintendent o.f the institution and the commandant of National ,S ecurity, or it was sold. But conditions worsened to, such an extent that later not even potatoes or caJbbage ,w ere to be had. There was actual starvation. Red pa:rtiisans, armed to the teeth, visited the castle fortress daily to conduct investigations among the inmates. They heard the grievances orf the prisoners and freely dealt them resounding sla.ps and blows; they 1b eat the:n and tortured them unmercifuUy. "Many of the wretches were taken away under cover of night never to return again. Conditions became such that no prisoner' felt that his life wais safe. Everyone lived in dread expectation, wondering just when the partisans woU!ld come to claim this oo.e or that one who would vanish fureve,r in the abyss of death ... The barbaric superintendent, a former shooma'ker, on visiting the confining quarters abused the miseraible inmates by kic<king them a,bout like dogs while he cursed them fiendishly and threatened every one of them with the gall01Ws. If any of them ha,ppened to have a covering of any ,k ind, he ripped it -away, spewing insults upon them and calling them Nazis and Fascist swine.. "Little children begged their mothers for bread or m.i1'k but what were the un.ha,ppy mothers to do when the p-2rfidious scum that jaHed them had no mercy or feeling in its heart to allow at least to the children some substantial food. Wives were isolated from their husbands; they were :permitted to have no contact whatever, not even a brief .exchange from one to the other as they went for their daily rations. Husbands were the unwilling and helpless witnesses of the appalling sufferings of their wives and children." 34 SLOVAKIA Only prayer and hymns sustained balance and some ,semlblance of morale among the tortured prisoners whose .sufferings defied description. An evil reputation came to be associated with Kunerad, one of the headquarters of the partisan band located near the city 2ilina. V. 2ingor testified that the Czech Karel Bacilek was "the political commissar in the fortress Kunerad." Brutal in the extreme was the punishment meted out to anti-Communistic fighters and quick sentences were readily executed. It was comparable to SkJa;bina. To date it has not been ascertained precisely how many victims met maximum penalties in these two ,plaic-es. Colonel Klement reports that in Slklaib:itna O'Ver a thousand citirens were murdered from Turiec region aJone. In. the mass gra,ve in Podsucha, as the Rev. Stephen Naha1ka testified, there were found eighty victims of parti:sa,n ferocity. Father Poess revealed that in the mass graves near Sklenne rubout two hundred of his parishioners met their deaths. An American citizen, Mr. Smr~ov,s ky, declared before .U. S. Congressional Committee that in the Slovaik community where he had lived in the days of the Slovak Republic, ,the partisans on one occasion destroyed an entire family of five ipersons among whom were a two year old and a four year old child. All were then consigned to a mass grave. Other mass graves were also found at Kovacova, in Pusty Hrad, in the Prievidza valley, at Humenne, Lucivna, Bosany, L'wbietova, Nemeoka L'upca Mld Kremnioka. During this Communist putsch, material -losses in SlovaJkia were extremely great. The state statistical and planning office in Bratislava 1published in its "Statistical Hand1book of Slo:vaikia 1947" an evalution of damage inflicted on -buildings, projects and their equipment, art objects, communications, livestock, and other ravaged properties as in excess of 114,461,000,000 crowns or two and a half billion dollars. The arrival of the Soviet in Slovakia in the bloody August putsch of 1944 was a clear foreclast of what would befall the Slovak people in the event of the downfall of their independent State.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The 1944 Communistic Rebellion in Slovakia Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25), September-December 1957 pp. 28-34 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/4629f4afa5a3b52f881ee535dd4c3deb.pdf 83b46dc762d873fd23cace63c438b140 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 53 (9) Dr. E. Zatko published three volumes regarding the endeavors of Tuka for Slovak independence. (10) About the origin of national states in Central Europe see: C. A. Macartney, " NATIONAL STATES AND NATIONAL MINORITIES" (London, 1935), also his "HUNGARY AND HER SUCCESSORS" (London, 1937), in which he devotes some 100 pages to Slovakia. • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK (Continued from last issue) ME'l'HODIUS AGAIN JiN ROME In the meantime Pope John VIII effected the liberation of Arclibishop Methodius and punished the Bavarian bishops. To put a stop to the wars between Germany and the Great Moravian Empire, the Pope forbade the use of the Slovanic liturgy and ordered Methodius to come to Rome. Methodius learned that the German hierarchy had accused him of preaching heresy. Svatopluk sent his personal messenger (Zemezizeii) along with Archbishop Methodius to Rome, because he wanted to place his country under the protection of the Holy See. When Methodius reached Rome, he proved to the Pope's satisfaction that the charges placed against him were without foundation. Pope John VIII approved the apostolic work of Methodius and his priests. He gave the Archbishop a letter for Svatopluk which stated that he again permits the use of the Slovanic liturgy in Svatopluk's country and accepted King Svatopluk and his whole nation under the protection of St. Peter. When Archbishop Methodius returned to the land of the Slovaks, he and his priests labored zealously in the vineyard of the Lord to gain all the people of Svatopluk's country for the kingdom of Christ. But this mission, as we shall see, was soon to be hindered by Svatopluk himself. Svatopluk had accepted Christianity and had begged the Pope to protect the territory of the Slovak people, yet his life was not that of a true Christian. Svatopluk was a �54 SLOVAKIA fearless wairrior; he used any and all means to extend his power and attain his ends. In his private life he followed some pagan practices. Because Archbishop Methodius reproached Sviitopluk for his sinful life, he fell into disfavor with the regent. The regent of Great Moravia hated the Germans, yet he preferred to support the German clergymen, especially Wiching the bishop of Nitra, who conveniently overlooked Sviitopluk's shortcomings and incited him against Methodius. The saintly archbishop was hurt deeply by Sviitopluk's conduct, but suffered the humiliation silently because he knew that open opposition would only threaten the future of his apostolic work and hasten the downfall of haughty Sviitopluk's Great Moravia. When Archbishop Methodius felt that his life was drawing to a close, he called his priests, magnates and people together and, pointing to the priest Gorazd, said: "He is a free man of your country, well versed in Latin books, and orthodox. May it be the will of God and your love as it is mine." With these words Methodius named Gorazd, the Slovak, as his successor and died in 885. After Methodius died, Sviitopluk was dominated completely by German clergymen. He persecuted Slovak priests and finally chased them out of his realm. But this did not enhance his position with the Germans. King Arnulf was determined to prevent the existence of a large Slovanic state as a neighbor of his empire. Secrety he sought allies against Sviitopluk to break him and destroy his kingdom . .Arnn.tlf succeeded in gaining the wild Magyairs who ha,d come over the Carpathians several years before and had begun to colonize the fertile plains of the Danube and the Tisa. Arnulf attacked Sviitopluk's stronghold on several occasions, but in vain. During Sviitopluk's lifetime Great Moravia successfully resisted all assaults of the Germans. One of the mightiest rulers of the land of the Slovaks passed on with the last years of his life shrouded in mystery, when Sviitopluk died in 894. One beautiful legend has it that Sviitopluk realized at the end Ot:f his days that power, glory and military suc~ses cannot -satisfy the soul of a man with a burdened conscience. So, he decided to spend the last years of his life �SLOVAKIA 55 doing penance in a monastery. Svatopluk left ho.s royal palace and went up to Zobor. There in the mountain he divested himself of his royal attire, killed his horse, and buried his sword. Then, dressed as a beggar, he knocked on the gate of the Zobor monastery and begged the monks to let him in. They did. Svatopluk spent the rest of his days in prayer, but nobody knew that he was the mighty ruler of Great Moravia. It was only at his death that Svatopluk revealed to the amazed monks his true identity. In 1885 - when Slavdom celebrated the millell!ial memorial of the death of Methodius - the Russian historian Konstantin Grot asked: "What was Slavdom prior to CyrJ and Methodius ?" and answered: "Scattered over the vast spaces of middle Europe, Russia and the Balkan Peninsula, among foreign and hostile nations, the Slovanic race, although gifted by nature with beautiful spiritual endowments, represented a torn, disjointed mass of different tribes without any consciousness of racial relationship ... " Cyril and Methodius unified the people of Rastislav, and their disciples brought Christian culture and national consciousness to the other Slovanic peoples in a comparatively short time thereafter. Saints Cyril and Methodius performed their mission, spreading the Gospel of Christ, within the territory settled by the ancient Slovaks. This has been well estab~hed by phuological analysis of the Cyrilo-Methodius texts, the Cividalian Gospel Book, legends and chronicles, names of people, rivers, mountains, c'hurches, and places, and, furthermore, ,b y scientific study of dialects am.d "bor.rowed" or foreign words. Dr. John Stanislav, Slovak historian and philologist, states with certainty that Met!hodius resided in Nitra and performed his mission in the land of the Slovaks. Dr. Francis Dvornik, Czech historian and rphilologist, confirmed this,. even though indirectly, when 'he wrote that "Slovanic liturgy in S'lovakia 01\ltlived the catastrophe of the Great Moravian IDmpire," and that the territory of present'day Slovakia was "in a definite sense the most cultured rpart of the Magyar empire" (more co'I'rectly: the Hungarian empire). Dvornik also noted that the Slovanic monks, after being e:,cpelled f:rom Czech lands, from the monastery of �56 SLOVAKIA Sazava, in 1055, found refuge in Slovakia, as well as the historical fact that Slovaikia rund her ancient Slovanic centers served as "half-way transmittin g centers" not only between Croatia, but even Kievian Russia. As far a:s the literary efforts of the Slovax .Aipostles and their immediate disciples are concerned, the document "Skazani" tells us that Constantin e (Cyril) and Methodius translated and wrote ma/Ily other books ( "i proceje knigy") . Dr. Stanislav wrote that "after his arrival in Great Mora,via, Oonstantin e translated abnost the entire ecclesia;stical ritual" and also completed the translation of the Gospel texts of all four evangelists , as well as the Acts of the Apostles and the Psalms. St. Methodius, according to Stanislav, continued in the woJ'lk !begun by his brother and, after the issuance of the glorious Bull, "Industriae tuae," by which the Slova;nic liturgy again was approved and permitted, "made a compendium of everything that was translated during the twelve years (869-881) of 'his independen t lea'dershi!p of t'he Great Moravian mission. He selected two priest 'rapidw,riters' and with them translated - probably dictated to them - the entire text of the Holy Bible - the Old and New Testaments , besides the books of the Maccrubees, within eight months." -Methodius also tra/Ilslated, or had translated, the Latin Missal, whrich is preserved as the so...called Kiev Missal; written in Gla,golic letters it is preserved in a copy from the tenth century with elements of the Great Mora,vian tongue. Stanislav also mentions the translation of the ri-. tual, the breviary and the oredo, which, according to the 'biogrruphy of Methodius, Svatopluk was swpposed to hruve prayed in the Slovak translation . Of the non-liturgic al books of the saintly brothers, Stanislav mentions the translation of the Nomocanon , or the Ko.rmcaja book, i.e., the collection of laws and regulations of the Byzantian rulers and Church Fathers, then Cyril's polemic treatise in Greek against the Jews which was translated by Methodius, and the original works "A P,reface to the Gospels" and "Writings About the True Faith," both written by Constantine . Among the original mementoes b,e- �SLOVAKIA 57 long the so--called Pannonian-Moravian Legends, "The Life of St. Cyril amd Methodius," written, according to Stanislav, without a doubt in Great Moravia, also the "Praises of Cyril and Methodius," a'lld "about the end of the ancient SloV'a!k epoch of Slovak culture" - the legend about Naurn. One of the "1Morarvian-1Slova.k sons," Stanislav claims, also com... posed the ancient Slovak legend about St. Wenceslaus around the year 935. Sltanis1'av states quite clearly that this literary activity developed on Slovak territory and that in the "great wora along with Oyril and Methodius undoubtedly other sons of the Slovaik nation had a part, especially Gorazd. Traces of this are found particularly in many words of these mementoes." And since "these memoiTs were written for the religious, i.e., the cultural needs of the Slovalk nation, and ,p rompted by it, the predecessors of the Sl01Vaks took part in this work passively and actively, and, therefore, this literary work belongs also to our (Slovaik) national treasure." As for the content and extent of the cultural mission of Cyril and Methodius, Slovak scholars of Slavistics agree with K. J. Grot that in Great Moravia was made not only "the most important attempt at a political unification of the Slovanic peoples" - the Greater Moravian Union - but also that: 1. there "were laid the foundations for a national Church and a national Christian education; 2. there originated the draft and the directive for the future, for the entire subsequent, historic development of Slavdom, its world role and relation to Roman-Oermanic Europe, to the West, and to the Asi·a tic question; 3. the foundation of ChurchSlovanic literature and education in the Slovaruc South among the Bu:lgars and Serbs, and in the East among the Russians, and partly also among other western Slavs, was only a continuation of that wo'.t1k which Cyril and Methodius had !begun in Great Moravia." THE FALL OF GRJEAT MORJAVIA The Great Moravian Empire was established after the Slovanic tribes in the Danube region became united to fight a common enemy that threatened their existence - �58 SLOVAKIA the aggressive Germans. The regents of the empire were often forced to take up arms· to safeguard their independ.. ence. The danger of German aggression, however, was never removed. Great Moravia was able to withstand German pressure only as long as she was united and had a strong ruler, a personality like Svatopluk. When the mighty Svatopluk died, the external danger that threatened Great Moravia increased and, at the same time, internal dissention hastened the downfall of the first independent state of central Europe. Svatopluk's eldest son, Mojmir II, succeeded him as ruler of Great Moravia. A younger son, Svatopluk II, received a grant principality which was subject to Mojmir's rule. Mojmir II was a wise ruler and possessed the fighting traits of his illustrious father. He wanted to secure the independence of his country, but the times were very difficult. The Slovanic tribes, which the great Svatopluk had conquered by force, anxiously awaited the first opportunity to secede from Great Moravia. Soon after his accession to the throne, Mojmir Il was forced to relinquish Pannonia. The Czechs had seceded from the empire already in 895, because they preferred to be vassals of the German king than to be subject to Mojmir's rule. Shortly thereafter, the Serbians and the Vislani fell away, so that the total area of the empire under Mojmir II was reduced to that once ruled over by Rastislav. It was a state inhabited only by the Slovaks who formed the nucleus of Great Moravia. After the other Slovanic tribes seceded from the empire, the Slovaks remained alone on the historical crossroads of Europe. Mojmir II used all means at his disposal to secure his country against attack from its neighbors. In the meantime, Mojmir's younger brother, Svatopluk II, dissatisfied with his brother's rule, was being prodded by the Germans to revolt. German armies invaded Slovakia three times and pillaged the border lands, but Mojmir II staunchly defended his domain and successfully repulsed the invading Germans and even took over his brother's domain. The Germans garve Srviitopluk ]I a title land in Bavaria. �SLOVAKIA 59 In 900 A. D. the Germans _again invaded Mojmir's territory, this time aided by the Czechs. After a terrific battle Mojmir II was forced to sue for peace, because his country was completely exhausted from constant warfare. After a peace was negotiated with the Germans, Mojmir sought to renew the church organization in the land of the Slovaks. After the expulsion of the disciples of Methodius and the death of Bishop Wiching, the Church was in a state of collapse. Mojmir II sent a special delegation to Rome with his request for aid. Pope John IX heard his plea and appointed an archbishop and two bishops to take over the burdens of the Church in the land of the Slovaks. Mojmir :LI worked assiduously and courageously to save his country from impending doom, but the odds were against him. To the danger from the west was added the menace from the east. The fierce Magyars, who from 896 had settled in the valley of the lower Danube and made continual attacks on their neighbors, tore into Slovakia in 902. Mojmir rallied his forces and successfully repulsed the Magyar hordes. But the nomadic Mongols were not to be denied. After every setback, they retreated and prepared for a new attack. The Slovaks defended the independence of their country heroically, but finally were overpowered by the overwhelming forces of their enemies. In 906 Moj.mir's state collapsed and the Slovak nation lost its independence. (Continu ed) • • • Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A. HROBAK "The tragedy of Czecho-Slovakia's fate hinged, of course, not on whether this democracy treated her minorities 'justly' or not, but on the fact that the minorities were used as 'Trojan horses' for the aggressive policies of the neighboring Powers. After all, it is not even debatable that Germany's minorities, and particularly the Jews, have been treated with much less 'justice' than Czecho-Slovakia's minorities. The same statement applies to the fate of the minirities in Hungary and Poland. The Polish treatment of her minorities in � SLOVAKIA 53 (9) Dr. E. Zatko published three volumes regarding the endeavors of Tuka for Slovak independence. (10) About the origin of national states in Central Europe see: C. A. Macartney, " NATIONAL STATES AND NATIONAL MINORITIES" (London, 1935), also his "HUNGARY AND HER SUCCESSORS" (London, 1937), in which he devotes some 100 pages to Slovakia. • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK (Continued from last issue) ME'l'HODIUS AGAIN JiN ROME In the meantime Pope John VIII effected the liberation of Arclibishop Methodius and punished the Bavarian bishops. To put a stop to the wars between Germany and the Great Moravian Empire, the Pope forbade the use of the Slovanic liturgy and ordered Methodius to come to Rome. Methodius learned that the German hierarchy had accused him of preaching heresy. Svatopluk sent his personal messenger (Zemezizeii) along with Archbishop Methodius to Rome, because he wanted to place his country under the protection of the Holy See. When Methodius reached Rome, he proved to the Pope's satisfaction that the charges placed against him were without foundation. Pope John VIII approved the apostolic work of Methodius and his priests. He gave the Archbishop a letter for Svatopluk which stated that he again permits the use of the Slovanic liturgy in Svatopluk's country and accepted King Svatopluk and his whole nation under the protection of St. Peter. When Archbishop Methodius returned to the land of the Slovaks, he and his priests labored zealously in the vineyard of the Lord to gain all the people of Svatopluk's country for the kingdom of Christ. But this mission, as we shall see, was soon to be hindered by Svatopluk himself. Svatopluk had accepted Christianity and had begged the Pope to protect the territory of the Slovak people, yet his life was not that of a true Christian. Svatopluk was a �54 SLOVAKIA fearless wairrior; he used any and all means to extend his power and attain his ends. In his private life he followed some pagan practices. Because Archbishop Methodius reproached Sviitopluk for his sinful life, he fell into disfavor with the regent. The regent of Great Moravia hated the Germans, yet he preferred to support the German clergymen, especially Wiching the bishop of Nitra, who conveniently overlooked Sviitopluk's shortcomings and incited him against Methodius. The saintly archbishop was hurt deeply by Sviitopluk's conduct, but suffered the humiliation silently because he knew that open opposition would only threaten the future of his apostolic work and hasten the downfall of haughty Sviitopluk's Great Moravia. When Archbishop Methodius felt that his life was drawing to a close, he called his priests, magnates and people together and, pointing to the priest Gorazd, said: "He is a free man of your country, well versed in Latin books, and orthodox. May it be the will of God and your love as it is mine." With these words Methodius named Gorazd, the Slovak, as his successor and died in 885. After Methodius died, Sviitopluk was dominated completely by German clergymen. He persecuted Slovak priests and finally chased them out of his realm. But this did not enhance his position with the Germans. King Arnulf was determined to prevent the existence of a large Slovanic state as a neighbor of his empire. Secrety he sought allies against Sviitopluk to break him and destroy his kingdom . .Arnn.tlf succeeded in gaining the wild Magyairs who ha,d come over the Carpathians several years before and had begun to colonize the fertile plains of the Danube and the Tisa. Arnulf attacked Sviitopluk's stronghold on several occasions, but in vain. During Sviitopluk's lifetime Great Moravia successfully resisted all assaults of the Germans. One of the mightiest rulers of the land of the Slovaks passed on with the last years of his life shrouded in mystery, when Sviitopluk died in 894. One beautiful legend has it that Sviitopluk realized at the end Ot:f his days that power, glory and military suc~ses cannot -satisfy the soul of a man with a burdened conscience. So, he decided to spend the last years of his life �SLOVAKIA 55 doing penance in a monastery. Svatopluk left ho.s royal palace and went up to Zobor. There in the mountain he divested himself of his royal attire, killed his horse, and buried his sword. Then, dressed as a beggar, he knocked on the gate of the Zobor monastery and begged the monks to let him in. They did. Svatopluk spent the rest of his days in prayer, but nobody knew that he was the mighty ruler of Great Moravia. It was only at his death that Svatopluk revealed to the amazed monks his true identity. In 1885 - when Slavdom celebrated the millell!ial memorial of the death of Methodius - the Russian historian Konstantin Grot asked: "What was Slavdom prior to CyrJ and Methodius ?" and answered: "Scattered over the vast spaces of middle Europe, Russia and the Balkan Peninsula, among foreign and hostile nations, the Slovanic race, although gifted by nature with beautiful spiritual endowments, represented a torn, disjointed mass of different tribes without any consciousness of racial relationship ... " Cyril and Methodius unified the people of Rastislav, and their disciples brought Christian culture and national consciousness to the other Slovanic peoples in a comparatively short time thereafter. Saints Cyril and Methodius performed their mission, spreading the Gospel of Christ, within the territory settled by the ancient Slovaks. This has been well estab~hed by phuological analysis of the Cyrilo-Methodius texts, the Cividalian Gospel Book, legends and chronicles, names of people, rivers, mountains, c'hurches, and places, and, furthermore, ,b y scientific study of dialects am.d "bor.rowed" or foreign words. Dr. John Stanislav, Slovak historian and philologist, states with certainty that Met!hodius resided in Nitra and performed his mission in the land of the Slovaks. Dr. Francis Dvornik, Czech historian and rphilologist, confirmed this,. even though indirectly, when 'he wrote that "Slovanic liturgy in S'lovakia 01\ltlived the catastrophe of the Great Moravian IDmpire," and that the territory of present'day Slovakia was "in a definite sense the most cultured rpart of the Magyar empire" (more co'I'rectly: the Hungarian empire). Dvornik also noted that the Slovanic monks, after being e:,cpelled f:rom Czech lands, from the monastery of �56 SLOVAKIA Sazava, in 1055, found refuge in Slovakia, as well as the historical fact that Slovaikia rund her ancient Slovanic centers served as "half-way transmittin g centers" not only between Croatia, but even Kievian Russia. As far a:s the literary efforts of the Slovax .Aipostles and their immediate disciples are concerned, the document "Skazani" tells us that Constantin e (Cyril) and Methodius translated and wrote ma/Ily other books ( "i proceje knigy") . Dr. Stanislav wrote that "after his arrival in Great Mora,via, Oonstantin e translated abnost the entire ecclesia;stical ritual" and also completed the translation of the Gospel texts of all four evangelists , as well as the Acts of the Apostles and the Psalms. St. Methodius, according to Stanislav, continued in the woJ'lk !begun by his brother and, after the issuance of the glorious Bull, "Industriae tuae," by which the Slova;nic liturgy again was approved and permitted, "made a compendium of everything that was translated during the twelve years (869-881) of 'his independen t lea'dershi!p of t'he Great Moravian mission. He selected two priest 'rapidw,riters' and with them translated - probably dictated to them - the entire text of the Holy Bible - the Old and New Testaments , besides the books of the Maccrubees, within eight months." -Methodius also tra/Ilslated, or had translated, the Latin Missal, whrich is preserved as the so...called Kiev Missal; written in Gla,golic letters it is preserved in a copy from the tenth century with elements of the Great Mora,vian tongue. Stanislav also mentions the translation of the ri-. tual, the breviary and the oredo, which, according to the 'biogrruphy of Methodius, Svatopluk was swpposed to hruve prayed in the Slovak translation . Of the non-liturgic al books of the saintly brothers, Stanislav mentions the translation of the Nomocanon , or the Ko.rmcaja book, i.e., the collection of laws and regulations of the Byzantian rulers and Church Fathers, then Cyril's polemic treatise in Greek against the Jews which was translated by Methodius, and the original works "A P,reface to the Gospels" and "Writings About the True Faith," both written by Constantine . Among the original mementoes b,e- �SLOVAKIA 57 long the so--called Pannonian-Moravian Legends, "The Life of St. Cyril amd Methodius," written, according to Stanislav, without a doubt in Great Moravia, also the "Praises of Cyril and Methodius," a'lld "about the end of the ancient SloV'a!k epoch of Slovak culture" - the legend about Naurn. One of the "1Morarvian-1Slova.k sons," Stanislav claims, also com... posed the ancient Slovak legend about St. Wenceslaus around the year 935. Sltanis1'av states quite clearly that this literary activity developed on Slovak territory and that in the "great wora along with Oyril and Methodius undoubtedly other sons of the Slovaik nation had a part, especially Gorazd. Traces of this are found particularly in many words of these mementoes." And since "these memoiTs were written for the religious, i.e., the cultural needs of the Slovalk nation, and ,p rompted by it, the predecessors of the Sl01Vaks took part in this work passively and actively, and, therefore, this literary work belongs also to our (Slovaik) national treasure." As for the content and extent of the cultural mission of Cyril and Methodius, Slovak scholars of Slavistics agree with K. J. Grot that in Great Moravia was made not only "the most important attempt at a political unification of the Slovanic peoples" - the Greater Moravian Union - but also that: 1. there "were laid the foundations for a national Church and a national Christian education; 2. there originated the draft and the directive for the future, for the entire subsequent, historic development of Slavdom, its world role and relation to Roman-Oermanic Europe, to the West, and to the Asi·a tic question; 3. the foundation of ChurchSlovanic literature and education in the Slovaruc South among the Bu:lgars and Serbs, and in the East among the Russians, and partly also among other western Slavs, was only a continuation of that wo'.t1k which Cyril and Methodius had !begun in Great Moravia." THE FALL OF GRJEAT MORJAVIA The Great Moravian Empire was established after the Slovanic tribes in the Danube region became united to fight a common enemy that threatened their existence - �58 SLOVAKIA the aggressive Germans. The regents of the empire were often forced to take up arms· to safeguard their independ.. ence. The danger of German aggression, however, was never removed. Great Moravia was able to withstand German pressure only as long as she was united and had a strong ruler, a personality like Svatopluk. When the mighty Svatopluk died, the external danger that threatened Great Moravia increased and, at the same time, internal dissention hastened the downfall of the first independent state of central Europe. Svatopluk's eldest son, Mojmir II, succeeded him as ruler of Great Moravia. A younger son, Svatopluk II, received a grant principality which was subject to Mojmir's rule. Mojmir II was a wise ruler and possessed the fighting traits of his illustrious father. He wanted to secure the independence of his country, but the times were very difficult. The Slovanic tribes, which the great Svatopluk had conquered by force, anxiously awaited the first opportunity to secede from Great Moravia. Soon after his accession to the throne, Mojmir Il was forced to relinquish Pannonia. The Czechs had seceded from the empire already in 895, because they preferred to be vassals of the German king than to be subject to Mojmir's rule. Shortly thereafter, the Serbians and the Vislani fell away, so that the total area of the empire under Mojmir II was reduced to that once ruled over by Rastislav. It was a state inhabited only by the Slovaks who formed the nucleus of Great Moravia. After the other Slovanic tribes seceded from the empire, the Slovaks remained alone on the historical crossroads of Europe. Mojmir II used all means at his disposal to secure his country against attack from its neighbors. In the meantime, Mojmir's younger brother, Svatopluk II, dissatisfied with his brother's rule, was being prodded by the Germans to revolt. German armies invaded Slovakia three times and pillaged the border lands, but Mojmir II staunchly defended his domain and successfully repulsed the invading Germans and even took over his brother's domain. The Germans garve Srviitopluk ]I a title land in Bavaria. �SLOVAKIA 59 In 900 A. D. the Germans _again invaded Mojmir's territory, this time aided by the Czechs. After a terrific battle Mojmir II was forced to sue for peace, because his country was completely exhausted from constant warfare. After a peace was negotiated with the Germans, Mojmir sought to renew the church organization in the land of the Slovaks. After the expulsion of the disciples of Methodius and the death of Bishop Wiching, the Church was in a state of collapse. Mojmir II sent a special delegation to Rome with his request for aid. Pope John IX heard his plea and appointed an archbishop and two bishops to take over the burdens of the Church in the land of the Slovaks. Mojmir :LI worked assiduously and courageously to save his country from impending doom, but the odds were against him. To the danger from the west was added the menace from the east. The fierce Magyars, who from 896 had settled in the valley of the lower Danube and made continual attacks on their neighbors, tore into Slovakia in 902. Mojmir rallied his forces and successfully repulsed the Magyar hordes. But the nomadic Mongols were not to be denied. After every setback, they retreated and prepared for a new attack. The Slovaks defended the independence of their country heroically, but finally were overpowered by the overwhelming forces of their enemies. In 906 Moj.mir's state collapsed and the Slovak nation lost its independence. (Continu ed) • • • Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A. HROBAK "The tragedy of Czecho-Slovakia's fate hinged, of course, not on whether this democracy treated her minorities 'justly' or not, but on the fact that the minorities were used as 'Trojan horses' for the aggressive policies of the neighboring Powers. After all, it is not even debatable that Germany's minorities, and particularly the Jews, have been treated with much less 'justice' than Czecho-Slovakia's minorities. The same statement applies to the fate of the minirities in Hungary and Poland. The Polish treatment of her minorities in � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 53 (9) Dr. E. Zatko published three volumes regarding the endeavors of Tuka for Slovak independence. (10) About the origin of national states in Central Europe see: C. A. Macartney, " NATIONAL STATES AND NATIONAL MINORITIES" (London, 1935), also his "HUNGARY AND HER SUCCESSORS" (London, 1937), in which he devotes some 100 pages to Slovakia. • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK (Continued from last issue) ME'l'HODIUS AGAIN JiN ROME In the meantime Pope John VIII effected the liberation of Arclibishop Methodius and punished the Bavarian bishops. To put a stop to the wars between Germany and the Great Moravian Empire, the Pope forbade the use of the Slovanic liturgy and ordered Methodius to come to Rome. Methodius learned that the German hierarchy had accused him of preaching heresy. Svatopluk sent his personal messenger (Zemezizeii) along with Archbishop Methodius to Rome, because he wanted to place his country under the protection of the Holy See. When Methodius reached Rome, he proved to the Pope's satisfaction that the charges placed against him were without foundation. Pope John VIII approved the apostolic work of Methodius and his priests. He gave the Archbishop a letter for Svatopluk which stated that he again permits the use of the Slovanic liturgy in Svatopluk's country and accepted King Svatopluk and his whole nation under the protection of St. Peter. When Archbishop Methodius returned to the land of the Slovaks, he and his priests labored zealously in the vineyard of the Lord to gain all the people of Svatopluk's country for the kingdom of Christ. But this mission, as we shall see, was soon to be hindered by Svatopluk himself. Svatopluk had accepted Christianity and had begged the Pope to protect the territory of the Slovak people, yet his life was not that of a true Christian. Svatopluk was a 54 SLOVAKIA fearless wairrior; he used any and all means to extend his power and attain his ends. In his private life he followed some pagan practices. Because Archbishop Methodius reproached Sviitopluk for his sinful life, he fell into disfavor with the regent. The regent of Great Moravia hated the Germans, yet he preferred to support the German clergymen, especially Wiching the bishop of Nitra, who conveniently overlooked Sviitopluk's shortcomings and incited him against Methodius. The saintly archbishop was hurt deeply by Sviitopluk's conduct, but suffered the humiliation silently because he knew that open opposition would only threaten the future of his apostolic work and hasten the downfall of haughty Sviitopluk's Great Moravia. When Archbishop Methodius felt that his life was drawing to a close, he called his priests, magnates and people together and, pointing to the priest Gorazd, said: "He is a free man of your country, well versed in Latin books, and orthodox. May it be the will of God and your love as it is mine." With these words Methodius named Gorazd, the Slovak, as his successor and died in 885. After Methodius died, Sviitopluk was dominated completely by German clergymen. He persecuted Slovak priests and finally chased them out of his realm. But this did not enhance his position with the Germans. King Arnulf was determined to prevent the existence of a large Slovanic state as a neighbor of his empire. Secrety he sought allies against Sviitopluk to break him and destroy his kingdom . .Arnn.tlf succeeded in gaining the wild Magyairs who ha,d come over the Carpathians several years before and had begun to colonize the fertile plains of the Danube and the Tisa. Arnulf attacked Sviitopluk's stronghold on several occasions, but in vain. During Sviitopluk's lifetime Great Moravia successfully resisted all assaults of the Germans. One of the mightiest rulers of the land of the Slovaks passed on with the last years of his life shrouded in mystery, when Sviitopluk died in 894. One beautiful legend has it that Sviitopluk realized at the end Ot:f his days that power, glory and military suc~ses cannot -satisfy the soul of a man with a burdened conscience. So, he decided to spend the last years of his life SLOVAKIA 55 doing penance in a monastery. Svatopluk left ho.s royal palace and went up to Zobor. There in the mountain he divested himself of his royal attire, killed his horse, and buried his sword. Then, dressed as a beggar, he knocked on the gate of the Zobor monastery and begged the monks to let him in. They did. Svatopluk spent the rest of his days in prayer, but nobody knew that he was the mighty ruler of Great Moravia. It was only at his death that Svatopluk revealed to the amazed monks his true identity. In 1885 - when Slavdom celebrated the millell!ial memorial of the death of Methodius - the Russian historian Konstantin Grot asked: "What was Slavdom prior to CyrJ and Methodius ?" and answered: "Scattered over the vast spaces of middle Europe, Russia and the Balkan Peninsula, among foreign and hostile nations, the Slovanic race, although gifted by nature with beautiful spiritual endowments, represented a torn, disjointed mass of different tribes without any consciousness of racial relationship ... " Cyril and Methodius unified the people of Rastislav, and their disciples brought Christian culture and national consciousness to the other Slovanic peoples in a comparatively short time thereafter. Saints Cyril and Methodius performed their mission, spreading the Gospel of Christ, within the territory settled by the ancient Slovaks. This has been well estab~hed by phuological analysis of the Cyrilo-Methodius texts, the Cividalian Gospel Book, legends and chronicles, names of people, rivers, mountains, c'hurches, and places, and, furthermore, ,b y scientific study of dialects am.d "bor.rowed" or foreign words. Dr. John Stanislav, Slovak historian and philologist, states with certainty that Met!hodius resided in Nitra and performed his mission in the land of the Slovaks. Dr. Francis Dvornik, Czech historian and rphilologist, confirmed this,. even though indirectly, when 'he wrote that "Slovanic liturgy in S'lovakia 01\ltlived the catastrophe of the Great Moravian IDmpire," and that the territory of present'day Slovakia was "in a definite sense the most cultured rpart of the Magyar empire" (more co'I'rectly: the Hungarian empire). Dvornik also noted that the Slovanic monks, after being e:,cpelled f:rom Czech lands, from the monastery of 56 SLOVAKIA Sazava, in 1055, found refuge in Slovakia, as well as the historical fact that Slovaikia rund her ancient Slovanic centers served as "half-way transmittin g centers" not only between Croatia, but even Kievian Russia. As far a:s the literary efforts of the Slovax .Aipostles and their immediate disciples are concerned, the document "Skazani" tells us that Constantin e (Cyril) and Methodius translated and wrote ma/Ily other books ( "i proceje knigy") . Dr. Stanislav wrote that "after his arrival in Great Mora,via, Oonstantin e translated abnost the entire ecclesia;stical ritual" and also completed the translation of the Gospel texts of all four evangelists , as well as the Acts of the Apostles and the Psalms. St. Methodius, according to Stanislav, continued in the woJ'lk !begun by his brother and, after the issuance of the glorious Bull, "Industriae tuae," by which the Slova;nic liturgy again was approved and permitted, "made a compendium of everything that was translated during the twelve years (869-881) of 'his independen t lea'dershi!p of t'he Great Moravian mission. He selected two priest 'rapidw,riters' and with them translated - probably dictated to them - the entire text of the Holy Bible - the Old and New Testaments , besides the books of the Maccrubees, within eight months." -Methodius also tra/Ilslated, or had translated, the Latin Missal, whrich is preserved as the so...called Kiev Missal; written in Gla,golic letters it is preserved in a copy from the tenth century with elements of the Great Mora,vian tongue. Stanislav also mentions the translation of the ri-. tual, the breviary and the oredo, which, according to the 'biogrruphy of Methodius, Svatopluk was swpposed to hruve prayed in the Slovak translation . Of the non-liturgic al books of the saintly brothers, Stanislav mentions the translation of the Nomocanon , or the Ko.rmcaja book, i.e., the collection of laws and regulations of the Byzantian rulers and Church Fathers, then Cyril's polemic treatise in Greek against the Jews which was translated by Methodius, and the original works "A P,reface to the Gospels" and "Writings About the True Faith," both written by Constantine . Among the original mementoes b,e- SLOVAKIA 57 long the so--called Pannonian-Moravian Legends, "The Life of St. Cyril amd Methodius," written, according to Stanislav, without a doubt in Great Moravia, also the "Praises of Cyril and Methodius," a'lld "about the end of the ancient SloV'a!k epoch of Slovak culture" - the legend about Naurn. One of the "1Morarvian-1Slova.k sons," Stanislav claims, also com... posed the ancient Slovak legend about St. Wenceslaus around the year 935. Sltanis1'av states quite clearly that this literary activity developed on Slovak territory and that in the "great wora along with Oyril and Methodius undoubtedly other sons of the Slovaik nation had a part, especially Gorazd. Traces of this are found particularly in many words of these mementoes." And since "these memoiTs were written for the religious, i.e., the cultural needs of the Slovalk nation, and ,p rompted by it, the predecessors of the Sl01Vaks took part in this work passively and actively, and, therefore, this literary work belongs also to our (Slovaik) national treasure." As for the content and extent of the cultural mission of Cyril and Methodius, Slovak scholars of Slavistics agree with K. J. Grot that in Great Moravia was made not only "the most important attempt at a political unification of the Slovanic peoples" - the Greater Moravian Union - but also that: 1. there "were laid the foundations for a national Church and a national Christian education; 2. there originated the draft and the directive for the future, for the entire subsequent, historic development of Slavdom, its world role and relation to Roman-Oermanic Europe, to the West, and to the Asi·a tic question; 3. the foundation of ChurchSlovanic literature and education in the Slovaruc South among the Bu:lgars and Serbs, and in the East among the Russians, and partly also among other western Slavs, was only a continuation of that wo'.t1k which Cyril and Methodius had !begun in Great Moravia." THE FALL OF GRJEAT MORJAVIA The Great Moravian Empire was established after the Slovanic tribes in the Danube region became united to fight a common enemy that threatened their existence - 58 SLOVAKIA the aggressive Germans. The regents of the empire were often forced to take up arms· to safeguard their independ.. ence. The danger of German aggression, however, was never removed. Great Moravia was able to withstand German pressure only as long as she was united and had a strong ruler, a personality like Svatopluk. When the mighty Svatopluk died, the external danger that threatened Great Moravia increased and, at the same time, internal dissention hastened the downfall of the first independent state of central Europe. Svatopluk's eldest son, Mojmir II, succeeded him as ruler of Great Moravia. A younger son, Svatopluk II, received a grant principality which was subject to Mojmir's rule. Mojmir II was a wise ruler and possessed the fighting traits of his illustrious father. He wanted to secure the independence of his country, but the times were very difficult. The Slovanic tribes, which the great Svatopluk had conquered by force, anxiously awaited the first opportunity to secede from Great Moravia. Soon after his accession to the throne, Mojmir Il was forced to relinquish Pannonia. The Czechs had seceded from the empire already in 895, because they preferred to be vassals of the German king than to be subject to Mojmir's rule. Shortly thereafter, the Serbians and the Vislani fell away, so that the total area of the empire under Mojmir II was reduced to that once ruled over by Rastislav. It was a state inhabited only by the Slovaks who formed the nucleus of Great Moravia. After the other Slovanic tribes seceded from the empire, the Slovaks remained alone on the historical crossroads of Europe. Mojmir II used all means at his disposal to secure his country against attack from its neighbors. In the meantime, Mojmir's younger brother, Svatopluk II, dissatisfied with his brother's rule, was being prodded by the Germans to revolt. German armies invaded Slovakia three times and pillaged the border lands, but Mojmir II staunchly defended his domain and successfully repulsed the invading Germans and even took over his brother's domain. The Germans garve Srviitopluk ]I a title land in Bavaria. SLOVAKIA 59 In 900 A. D. the Germans _again invaded Mojmir's territory, this time aided by the Czechs. After a terrific battle Mojmir II was forced to sue for peace, because his country was completely exhausted from constant warfare. After a peace was negotiated with the Germans, Mojmir sought to renew the church organization in the land of the Slovaks. After the expulsion of the disciples of Methodius and the death of Bishop Wiching, the Church was in a state of collapse. Mojmir II sent a special delegation to Rome with his request for aid. Pope John IX heard his plea and appointed an archbishop and two bishops to take over the burdens of the Church in the land of the Slovaks. Mojmir :LI worked assiduously and courageously to save his country from impending doom, but the odds were against him. To the danger from the west was added the menace from the east. The fierce Magyars, who from 896 had settled in the valley of the lower Danube and made continual attacks on their neighbors, tore into Slovakia in 902. Mojmir rallied his forces and successfully repulsed the Magyar hordes. But the nomadic Mongols were not to be denied. After every setback, they retreated and prepared for a new attack. The Slovaks defended the independence of their country heroically, but finally were overpowered by the overwhelming forces of their enemies. In 906 Moj.mir's state collapsed and the Slovak nation lost its independence. (Continu ed) • • • Kerner's "Czechoslovakia" (Cont'd.) HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? P.A. HROBAK "The tragedy of Czecho-Slovakia's fate hinged, of course, not on whether this democracy treated her minorities 'justly' or not, but on the fact that the minorities were used as 'Trojan horses' for the aggressive policies of the neighboring Powers. After all, it is not even debatable that Germany's minorities, and particularly the Jews, have been treated with much less 'justice' than Czecho-Slovakia's minorities. The same statement applies to the fate of the minirities in Hungary and Poland. The Polish treatment of her minorities in  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The History of Slovakia (2/9) Description An account of the resource Philip A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 1 (22), March 1957 pp. 53-59 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1957 Relation A related resource continued from <a href="https://slovakia.omeka.net/items/show/200">Vol. 6, No. 3-4 (20-21), pp. 63-83</a><br />continues in <a href="https://slovakia.omeka.net/items/show/241">Vol. 7, No. 2 (23), pp. 57-64</a> LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/2ec1d8d8e06dc222f3bc60fea84e770e.pdf c4d0ffaba97ff359ac0b327c65bede8a PDF Text Text 57 SLOVAKIA Red Czech regime of Prague. Hromadka returned to Prague ten years ago to head the "Czechoslovak National Church; when the Czech Reds took over all power in February 1948, Hromadka and his Czech church voluntarily offered to co·Operate 100 percent! It would seem that the Czech "reformers" are continually reforming against Christianity! (Continued) • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK . CHAPTER THREE AFTER THE FALL OF GREAT MORAVIA There are no clear and reliable reports in historical sources to tell us when and under what circumstances Mojmir's country lost its independence. It is possible that the Slovak army, which clashed with the enemy so frequently, together with courageous Mojmir II, the last of the early Slovak rulers, perished in a final battle for the freedom of Slovakland. However, it is also possible that Mojmir IT, exhausted by constant warfare and without outside help in sight, did not venture into another war which he could not possibly win. Mojmir Il in his ten-year reign proved on more than one occasion that he was a sagacious ruler, and we can be certain that in those trying times he did what he deemed best for his country. From reliable sources we can learn only that in 906 A. D. Mojmir's country no longer was an independent state, because the Magyars marched through Slovakia in that year to aid the Slovanic Glomaches in their fight against the Saxons. Slovakia did not immediately fall prey to the Magyars who passed through it into neighboring countries on foraging expeditions. Slovakia only ceased to be an independent state. She no longer had her own ruler and could no longer defend herself, but she did not as yet belong under the rule of a foreign state. The German empire, exposed to the at- �58 SLOVAKIA tacks of Magyar hordes, could not take possesion of Slovakia, and the nomadic Magyars did not establish any kind of state for quite some time. The Slovaks, then, lost their state, but did not lose or abandon the country which they already had occupied for several centuries and, therefore, regarded it as their own homeland. The Slovaks retreated gradually from the open valleys near the Danube and the Tisa rivers to the North and settled in the hilly areas of Slovakia where they were relatively safe. Slovak geographical names along the banks of the Danube and 'l'isa show how far the land of the Slovaks extended in the tenth century. Despite all the calamities that befell Slovakia, her people preserved itself on her soil. At the foot of mountains, in the extensive valleys and deep gorges of Slovakland, that people safeguard€d its language, its time-honored customs and its Slovanic nature. The people of Slovakia did not mingle with other nations and, therefore, did not succumb to foreign influences. At the beginning of the tenth century, when the Slovak nation lost its political independence, Slovakia had behind it a full century of cultural development which began during the reign of Prince Pribina. Christian culture, which came to the Slovaks from Bavarian Passau (Pasov), Regensburg (Rezno), and Salzburg (Sol'nohrad) and met with the Christian culture of Byzantium, sank such deep roots in Slovakia that it sprea:d from the Slovaks, with the help of Slovak princes and priests, even to the neighboring nations. And this Christian culture outlived the fall of Great Moravia, became the permanent heritage of the Slovak nation, and gave the Slovaks a cultural and moral precedence over their eastern conquerors. With this heritage the Slovak nation placed itself firmly and for all time among the cultured nations of Europe. Even at the height of Magyar aggression, the ecclesiactical organization of Slovakland did not vanish completely. Nitra continued to be the center of religious life .Jt is possible that even after Wiching's death the bishopric was preserved in Nitra, and it is probable that even the Zobor monastery, in which, according to legend, King Sva- �SLOVAKIA 59 topluk died, survived all storms and was the center of Christian culture in the tenth century. The rulers of Great Moravia established in Slovakia a good state organization along western lines. The whole country was divided into smaller districts, called counties ("zupy" or "stolice"), which were governed by commissioners ("zupani"), who resided in castles or citadels ("hrady"). Some of these counties constituted a geographical unit with natural boundries and undoubtedly originated from territories of tribal ,principalities. These counties retained their .significance even after the fall of Great Moravia. The most ancient Slovak castles or citadels, which served as places of refuge for inhabitants of the respective counties, date from this period. The Slovaks had been farmers and husbandmen for several centuries and, therefore, knew how to till the soil and raise livestock. Besides the old . Slovanic art, which they brought from their old home beyond, the Carpathian Mountains, they lean1ed new trades from their neighbors, as is attested to by relics found in old Slovak castles and graves. The people of Slovakia did business with their neighbors; foreign merchants frequently came into Slovakia, bringing with them various commodities, and established places of business beneath the walls of Slovak citadels where marketplaces sprang up in the ninth and tenth centuries. The Slovak nation, therefore, possessed all the prerequisites to live in its own country even without a state of its own. SLOVAKIA ANN E XED BY HU N GA R Y Two states originated in the tenth century on the territory which once belonged under the rule of King Svatopluk: the Czech State in the west, and the Hungarian State in the east. These states, heirs to Great Moravia, developed gradually over the years. About fifteen various Czech tribes inhabited the territory known as Bohemia, which were being united under the rule of the princes of the Pfemysl clan. Prague became the main stronghold of Bohemia in the tenth century. The Pfemysl rulers broke with the Moravian kingdom soon after Svatopluk's death, recognized the supremacy of the �60 SLOVAKIA German empire, accepted Christianity, and began to build a united state on both banks of the Vltava river. Eventually the Czech nation evolved from the union of these tribes in the land of the Boii, Bohemia. One of the outstanding rulers of early Bohemia was Saint Wenceslaus (920-929 A.D.), who concerned himself with consolidating Christianity and living in peace with the Germans to spare his country and nation from a catastrophe that would have resulted from a war with them. Wenceslaus' friendly attitude with the Germans made his. brother Boleslav furious. His plan to put Wenceslaus out of the way was successful, and Boleslav took 9ver the reigns of government after Wenceslaus' murder. But even Boleslav had to yield to the Germans and pay them annual tribute. Succeeding Czech rulers also recognized their dependency on the German empire and helped the German emperors in their frequent wars with their neighbors. The Czech ruler Borivoj was baptized by St. Methodius during King Svatopluk's reign. When St. Methodius died, many of the Slovanic priests persecuted by Svatopluk escaped from Great Moravia into Bohemia. Thus it happened that the Slovanic liturgy was spread throughout Bohemia where it was used along with the Latin liturgy in the tenth century. Among the Slovanic priests who spread Christianity in Bohemia were also a number of Slovaks. It is very likely that Gorazd, successor to St. Methodius, lived in Bohemia and continued in the work which he was forced to abandon in Slovakia. Thus it was that the young Czech state became heir to the territory and the Christian culture of Great Moravia. In the second half of the tenth century the Czech rulers succeeded in uniting all the Czech tribes to build up a comparatively strong state, which--even though dependent on the German empire-made its own expeditions into neighboring countries and extended its boundaries eastward. In 973 A. D. a bishopric was established in Prague, which helped to unify and strenghten the Czech state. But the Hungarian state - which in the later half of the tenth century gradually developed on the territories once ruled by Prince Pribina and his son Kocel (Transda- �SLO\'AK!A 61 nubia)-also became partial heir to Svatopluk's empire and the Christian culture of Great Moravia. The new state inherited not only the lands once governed by the Slovak rulers, but also the culture which had been developed in those lands during the reign of Slovak rulers. The builders of this new state became the Magyars who settled in the fertile Transdanubian territory of Pannonia at the close of the ninth century, after the wild Huns and the bellicose Avars had abandoned the territory. The Magyars were of Turkish-Tartar (Mongolian) origin. Their ancient homeland was somewhere in southern Russia, north of the Black Sea. Like other nations of those times, the Magyars, too, were divided into several tribes until Arpad united them. Because they were exposed to frequent attacks of wild nomadic tribes, the Magyar tribes near the Black Sea began to migrate westward. Under Arpad's leadership they crossed the Carpathian Mountains and, during Svatopluk's reign in Great Moravia, conquered Pannonia, whence they menaced all neighboring nations. The Magyars fought on the side of the Germans against Svatopluk and Mojmir II and, therefore, contributed to the downfall of the Great Moravian Empire at the opening of the tenth century. Nomadic and bellicose in their habits, the Magyars spent most of their lives in the saddle. They were renowned horsemen who specialized in surprise raids on their neighbors. Their swift cavalry units pierced far into foreign lands, swooped down upon rich towns and monasteries to raid them and then, laden with spoils, returned to their encampments. They destroyed whatever they could not haul away. Like all nomads they avoided hard work, spent their time in roisterous living, ate raw meat, drank soured mare's milk, shaved most of their heads and braided the rest of their hair into queues. The Magyars were exceptionally bold and cruel. Their depredatory expeditions took them into the Balkan states, Italy and France, but they looted Germany more often than any other European country. The Magyars suffered a serious setback in 955, when King Otto crushed their forces near Augsburg. Otto's army �62 SLOVAKIA also had a well equipped Czech division. Most of the Magyar invaders perished in battle, but many drowned in the river Lech. After this catastrophe, the Magyars abandoned their predatory expeditions and changed their manner of living. To save themselves they had to settle down and live in peace with the nE:ighbors. In time the adventurous warriors became shepherds and farmers who learned to till the soil from their Slovanic neighbors. Bavarian missionaries came to the Magyars to instruct them in the Christian faith with which they already had become acquainted through their Slovanic neighbors. At the same time missionaries came also from the East so that the currents of western and eastern culture met on the territory of the rising state of Hungary. But Christianity took hold with difficulty among th Magyars who, by their very nature, did not know how to orientate themselves ot Christian teaching. At the close of the tenth century, St. Adalbert, Bishop of Prague, came to Hungary and labored vlith his band of missionaries to convert the Magyars to Christianity. At that time Hungary was ruled by Geza (972-997), who was building a new state in the territory of Pribina's and Kocel's principality. Geza already was a Christian, but still followed many pagan customs. His son Vajk took the name of Stephen at baptism and very zealously continued in the work of consolidating Christianity and building the Hungarian State. The nucleus of the political organization of the Hungarian State was Pannonia, the country which already during the reign of the Slovak princes in the ninth century had played a prominent role in the political and cultural history of central Europe. Slovakia, however, became the nucleus of the ecclesiastical organization of Hungary. It was the same Slovakia which already from the times of Pribina was a Christian country, the land which already during the reign of King Svatopluk had its own bishop and which, at the beginning of the 11th century, became the territory of the first and most significant Hungarian archbishopric, that of Ostrihom (Esztergom). The greater part of the territory, inhabited from time �SLOVAKIA 63 immemorial by the Slovaks, lying east of the Moravia river and north of the Danube, namely, Slovakia, became a part of the Hungarian state sometime at the end of the tenth .and the beginning of the eleventh century. But the western part of the Slovak land, which extended along the central flow of the Moravian river - from which it received its name Moravia (Morava)- seceded from Slovakia during those turbulant times. After losing its independence and a part of its territory, the Slovak nation, pressed on all sides by its stronger neighbors, did not have sufficient space to increase numerically and use all its energy to contribute to the building of its own life. Under such conditions the Slovaks remained a small nation, but even as such, they did not perish amidst the turbulant currents of history which swept over their country for long centuries. Into the new state, which was to be the home of the Slovak people for almost a thousand years, the Slovaks brought everything they had inherited from the times of their state independence. First of all, they excelled over the rest of the nations living in Hungary with their Christian culture. As has been frequently demonstrated in history, so even in this case it was proven tha.t a nation's culture is far more important than its numerical strength and military might. Slovakia, with the remnants of her ecclesiastical organization and state administration from the times of her political independence, preserved her individual status even in the new state of Hungary. After Slovakland was annexed to Hungary, it played a significant role in the building of the new state. This role was especially useful during the formation of international relations between Hungary and the German Empire, Bohemia and Poland, and in the building of internal relationships within the Hungarian state as well. When Hungary was on friendly terms with her western and northern neighbors, Slovakia served as a bridge for making friendly contacts. However, when Hungary was at odds with her neighbors, Slovakia became the battlefield on which issues were settled. The armies of the German Emperor, who wanted to establish his rule over Hun- �64 SLOVAKIA gary, the Czech armies which helped the German Emperor, and the army of the Polish king who became unfriendly with the Hungarian ruler, often tore into Slovakia, devastated the land and killed its people. At the very beginning of the 11th century, St. Stephen of Hungary quarreled with the mighty Polish ruler, Boleslaw the Brave (Chrabry). Polish troops invaded Hungary and occupied the whole of Slovakia as far as the Danube. The Polish occupation of Slovakia, however, was shortlived, because Boleslaw had other wars on his hands at that time and, therefore, was glad to give up Slovakia and conclude a peace pact with King St. Stephen. St. Stephen was an outstanding ruler ; he vanquished his enemies and, by propagating Christianity, fought against the paganism which still prevailed among the Magyars. He founded several Episcopal Sees and monasteries in order to strengthen the unity of the Hungarian State with the aid of ecclesiastical organizations. But pagan chieftains in the southern and eastern regions of his domain revolted against the zealous Christian king. During these crises Stephen found aid and succor in Slovakia. The Slovak magnates Hunt and Poznan gave the King military aid against the pagan rebels and helped to safeguard the integrity of the Hungarian State and Christianity in the Danube basin. Stephen, aware of the fact that various nations inhabited the territory of the Hungarian State, wanted each nation to regard Hungary as its homeland. He trained his son and successor Emery accordingly, that he, too, might rule wisely and justly all the nations of his kingdom. To St. Stephen is ascribed the dictum: A state with only one language is weak. (To be continued) • • • WHO SAID IT? "Some pussy-footing ostriches criticirze the treaty between Soviet Russia aind Ozeohoslovakia. Our close collaboration with the Soviet Union needs no explanation. We do not want anything from the Russia,ns e~cept protection frOiID the Germruns, and the Russians want nothlrng whatsoever from us." - (Jan Masaryk, BUSINESS WEEK, May 13, 1944). � 57 SLOVAKIA Red Czech regime of Prague. Hromadka returned to Prague ten years ago to head the "Czechoslovak National Church; when the Czech Reds took over all power in February 1948, Hromadka and his Czech church voluntarily offered to co·Operate 100 percent! It would seem that the Czech "reformers" are continually reforming against Christianity! (Continued) • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK . CHAPTER THREE AFTER THE FALL OF GREAT MORAVIA There are no clear and reliable reports in historical sources to tell us when and under what circumstances Mojmir's country lost its independence. It is possible that the Slovak army, which clashed with the enemy so frequently, together with courageous Mojmir II, the last of the early Slovak rulers, perished in a final battle for the freedom of Slovakland. However, it is also possible that Mojmir IT, exhausted by constant warfare and without outside help in sight, did not venture into another war which he could not possibly win. Mojmir Il in his ten-year reign proved on more than one occasion that he was a sagacious ruler, and we can be certain that in those trying times he did what he deemed best for his country. From reliable sources we can learn only that in 906 A. D. Mojmir's country no longer was an independent state, because the Magyars marched through Slovakia in that year to aid the Slovanic Glomaches in their fight against the Saxons. Slovakia did not immediately fall prey to the Magyars who passed through it into neighboring countries on foraging expeditions. Slovakia only ceased to be an independent state. She no longer had her own ruler and could no longer defend herself, but she did not as yet belong under the rule of a foreign state. The German empire, exposed to the at- �58 SLOVAKIA tacks of Magyar hordes, could not take possesion of Slovakia, and the nomadic Magyars did not establish any kind of state for quite some time. The Slovaks, then, lost their state, but did not lose or abandon the country which they already had occupied for several centuries and, therefore, regarded it as their own homeland. The Slovaks retreated gradually from the open valleys near the Danube and the Tisa rivers to the North and settled in the hilly areas of Slovakia where they were relatively safe. Slovak geographical names along the banks of the Danube and 'l'isa show how far the land of the Slovaks extended in the tenth century. Despite all the calamities that befell Slovakia, her people preserved itself on her soil. At the foot of mountains, in the extensive valleys and deep gorges of Slovakland, that people safeguard€d its language, its time-honored customs and its Slovanic nature. The people of Slovakia did not mingle with other nations and, therefore, did not succumb to foreign influences. At the beginning of the tenth century, when the Slovak nation lost its political independence, Slovakia had behind it a full century of cultural development which began during the reign of Prince Pribina. Christian culture, which came to the Slovaks from Bavarian Passau (Pasov), Regensburg (Rezno), and Salzburg (Sol'nohrad) and met with the Christian culture of Byzantium, sank such deep roots in Slovakia that it sprea:d from the Slovaks, with the help of Slovak princes and priests, even to the neighboring nations. And this Christian culture outlived the fall of Great Moravia, became the permanent heritage of the Slovak nation, and gave the Slovaks a cultural and moral precedence over their eastern conquerors. With this heritage the Slovak nation placed itself firmly and for all time among the cultured nations of Europe. Even at the height of Magyar aggression, the ecclesiactical organization of Slovakland did not vanish completely. Nitra continued to be the center of religious life .Jt is possible that even after Wiching's death the bishopric was preserved in Nitra, and it is probable that even the Zobor monastery, in which, according to legend, King Sva- �SLOVAKIA 59 topluk died, survived all storms and was the center of Christian culture in the tenth century. The rulers of Great Moravia established in Slovakia a good state organization along western lines. The whole country was divided into smaller districts, called counties ("zupy" or "stolice"), which were governed by commissioners ("zupani"), who resided in castles or citadels ("hrady"). Some of these counties constituted a geographical unit with natural boundries and undoubtedly originated from territories of tribal ,principalities. These counties retained their .significance even after the fall of Great Moravia. The most ancient Slovak castles or citadels, which served as places of refuge for inhabitants of the respective counties, date from this period. The Slovaks had been farmers and husbandmen for several centuries and, therefore, knew how to till the soil and raise livestock. Besides the old . Slovanic art, which they brought from their old home beyond, the Carpathian Mountains, they lean1ed new trades from their neighbors, as is attested to by relics found in old Slovak castles and graves. The people of Slovakia did business with their neighbors; foreign merchants frequently came into Slovakia, bringing with them various commodities, and established places of business beneath the walls of Slovak citadels where marketplaces sprang up in the ninth and tenth centuries. The Slovak nation, therefore, possessed all the prerequisites to live in its own country even without a state of its own. SLOVAKIA ANN E XED BY HU N GA R Y Two states originated in the tenth century on the territory which once belonged under the rule of King Svatopluk: the Czech State in the west, and the Hungarian State in the east. These states, heirs to Great Moravia, developed gradually over the years. About fifteen various Czech tribes inhabited the territory known as Bohemia, which were being united under the rule of the princes of the Pfemysl clan. Prague became the main stronghold of Bohemia in the tenth century. The Pfemysl rulers broke with the Moravian kingdom soon after Svatopluk's death, recognized the supremacy of the �60 SLOVAKIA German empire, accepted Christianity, and began to build a united state on both banks of the Vltava river. Eventually the Czech nation evolved from the union of these tribes in the land of the Boii, Bohemia. One of the outstanding rulers of early Bohemia was Saint Wenceslaus (920-929 A.D.), who concerned himself with consolidating Christianity and living in peace with the Germans to spare his country and nation from a catastrophe that would have resulted from a war with them. Wenceslaus' friendly attitude with the Germans made his. brother Boleslav furious. His plan to put Wenceslaus out of the way was successful, and Boleslav took 9ver the reigns of government after Wenceslaus' murder. But even Boleslav had to yield to the Germans and pay them annual tribute. Succeeding Czech rulers also recognized their dependency on the German empire and helped the German emperors in their frequent wars with their neighbors. The Czech ruler Borivoj was baptized by St. Methodius during King Svatopluk's reign. When St. Methodius died, many of the Slovanic priests persecuted by Svatopluk escaped from Great Moravia into Bohemia. Thus it happened that the Slovanic liturgy was spread throughout Bohemia where it was used along with the Latin liturgy in the tenth century. Among the Slovanic priests who spread Christianity in Bohemia were also a number of Slovaks. It is very likely that Gorazd, successor to St. Methodius, lived in Bohemia and continued in the work which he was forced to abandon in Slovakia. Thus it was that the young Czech state became heir to the territory and the Christian culture of Great Moravia. In the second half of the tenth century the Czech rulers succeeded in uniting all the Czech tribes to build up a comparatively strong state, which--even though dependent on the German empire-made its own expeditions into neighboring countries and extended its boundaries eastward. In 973 A. D. a bishopric was established in Prague, which helped to unify and strenghten the Czech state. But the Hungarian state - which in the later half of the tenth century gradually developed on the territories once ruled by Prince Pribina and his son Kocel (Transda- �SLO\'AK!A 61 nubia)-also became partial heir to Svatopluk's empire and the Christian culture of Great Moravia. The new state inherited not only the lands once governed by the Slovak rulers, but also the culture which had been developed in those lands during the reign of Slovak rulers. The builders of this new state became the Magyars who settled in the fertile Transdanubian territory of Pannonia at the close of the ninth century, after the wild Huns and the bellicose Avars had abandoned the territory. The Magyars were of Turkish-Tartar (Mongolian) origin. Their ancient homeland was somewhere in southern Russia, north of the Black Sea. Like other nations of those times, the Magyars, too, were divided into several tribes until Arpad united them. Because they were exposed to frequent attacks of wild nomadic tribes, the Magyar tribes near the Black Sea began to migrate westward. Under Arpad's leadership they crossed the Carpathian Mountains and, during Svatopluk's reign in Great Moravia, conquered Pannonia, whence they menaced all neighboring nations. The Magyars fought on the side of the Germans against Svatopluk and Mojmir II and, therefore, contributed to the downfall of the Great Moravian Empire at the opening of the tenth century. Nomadic and bellicose in their habits, the Magyars spent most of their lives in the saddle. They were renowned horsemen who specialized in surprise raids on their neighbors. Their swift cavalry units pierced far into foreign lands, swooped down upon rich towns and monasteries to raid them and then, laden with spoils, returned to their encampments. They destroyed whatever they could not haul away. Like all nomads they avoided hard work, spent their time in roisterous living, ate raw meat, drank soured mare's milk, shaved most of their heads and braided the rest of their hair into queues. The Magyars were exceptionally bold and cruel. Their depredatory expeditions took them into the Balkan states, Italy and France, but they looted Germany more often than any other European country. The Magyars suffered a serious setback in 955, when King Otto crushed their forces near Augsburg. Otto's army �62 SLOVAKIA also had a well equipped Czech division. Most of the Magyar invaders perished in battle, but many drowned in the river Lech. After this catastrophe, the Magyars abandoned their predatory expeditions and changed their manner of living. To save themselves they had to settle down and live in peace with the nE:ighbors. In time the adventurous warriors became shepherds and farmers who learned to till the soil from their Slovanic neighbors. Bavarian missionaries came to the Magyars to instruct them in the Christian faith with which they already had become acquainted through their Slovanic neighbors. At the same time missionaries came also from the East so that the currents of western and eastern culture met on the territory of the rising state of Hungary. But Christianity took hold with difficulty among th Magyars who, by their very nature, did not know how to orientate themselves ot Christian teaching. At the close of the tenth century, St. Adalbert, Bishop of Prague, came to Hungary and labored vlith his band of missionaries to convert the Magyars to Christianity. At that time Hungary was ruled by Geza (972-997), who was building a new state in the territory of Pribina's and Kocel's principality. Geza already was a Christian, but still followed many pagan customs. His son Vajk took the name of Stephen at baptism and very zealously continued in the work of consolidating Christianity and building the Hungarian State. The nucleus of the political organization of the Hungarian State was Pannonia, the country which already during the reign of the Slovak princes in the ninth century had played a prominent role in the political and cultural history of central Europe. Slovakia, however, became the nucleus of the ecclesiastical organization of Hungary. It was the same Slovakia which already from the times of Pribina was a Christian country, the land which already during the reign of King Svatopluk had its own bishop and which, at the beginning of the 11th century, became the territory of the first and most significant Hungarian archbishopric, that of Ostrihom (Esztergom). The greater part of the territory, inhabited from time �SLOVAKIA 63 immemorial by the Slovaks, lying east of the Moravia river and north of the Danube, namely, Slovakia, became a part of the Hungarian state sometime at the end of the tenth .and the beginning of the eleventh century. But the western part of the Slovak land, which extended along the central flow of the Moravian river - from which it received its name Moravia (Morava)- seceded from Slovakia during those turbulant times. After losing its independence and a part of its territory, the Slovak nation, pressed on all sides by its stronger neighbors, did not have sufficient space to increase numerically and use all its energy to contribute to the building of its own life. Under such conditions the Slovaks remained a small nation, but even as such, they did not perish amidst the turbulant currents of history which swept over their country for long centuries. Into the new state, which was to be the home of the Slovak people for almost a thousand years, the Slovaks brought everything they had inherited from the times of their state independence. First of all, they excelled over the rest of the nations living in Hungary with their Christian culture. As has been frequently demonstrated in history, so even in this case it was proven tha.t a nation's culture is far more important than its numerical strength and military might. Slovakia, with the remnants of her ecclesiastical organization and state administration from the times of her political independence, preserved her individual status even in the new state of Hungary. After Slovakland was annexed to Hungary, it played a significant role in the building of the new state. This role was especially useful during the formation of international relations between Hungary and the German Empire, Bohemia and Poland, and in the building of internal relationships within the Hungarian state as well. When Hungary was on friendly terms with her western and northern neighbors, Slovakia served as a bridge for making friendly contacts. However, when Hungary was at odds with her neighbors, Slovakia became the battlefield on which issues were settled. The armies of the German Emperor, who wanted to establish his rule over Hun- �64 SLOVAKIA gary, the Czech armies which helped the German Emperor, and the army of the Polish king who became unfriendly with the Hungarian ruler, often tore into Slovakia, devastated the land and killed its people. At the very beginning of the 11th century, St. Stephen of Hungary quarreled with the mighty Polish ruler, Boleslaw the Brave (Chrabry). Polish troops invaded Hungary and occupied the whole of Slovakia as far as the Danube. The Polish occupation of Slovakia, however, was shortlived, because Boleslaw had other wars on his hands at that time and, therefore, was glad to give up Slovakia and conclude a peace pact with King St. Stephen. St. Stephen was an outstanding ruler ; he vanquished his enemies and, by propagating Christianity, fought against the paganism which still prevailed among the Magyars. He founded several Episcopal Sees and monasteries in order to strengthen the unity of the Hungarian State with the aid of ecclesiastical organizations. But pagan chieftains in the southern and eastern regions of his domain revolted against the zealous Christian king. During these crises Stephen found aid and succor in Slovakia. The Slovak magnates Hunt and Poznan gave the King military aid against the pagan rebels and helped to safeguard the integrity of the Hungarian State and Christianity in the Danube basin. Stephen, aware of the fact that various nations inhabited the territory of the Hungarian State, wanted each nation to regard Hungary as its homeland. He trained his son and successor Emery accordingly, that he, too, might rule wisely and justly all the nations of his kingdom. To St. Stephen is ascribed the dictum: A state with only one language is weak. (To be continued) • • • WHO SAID IT? "Some pussy-footing ostriches criticirze the treaty between Soviet Russia aind Ozeohoslovakia. Our close collaboration with the Soviet Union needs no explanation. We do not want anything from the Russia,ns e~cept protection frOiID the Germruns, and the Russians want nothlrng whatsoever from us." - (Jan Masaryk, BUSINESS WEEK, May 13, 1944). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 57 SLOVAKIA Red Czech regime of Prague. Hromadka returned to Prague ten years ago to head the "Czechoslovak National Church; when the Czech Reds took over all power in February 1948, Hromadka and his Czech church voluntarily offered to co·Operate 100 percent! It would seem that the Czech "reformers" are continually reforming against Christianity! (Continued) • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK . CHAPTER THREE AFTER THE FALL OF GREAT MORAVIA There are no clear and reliable reports in historical sources to tell us when and under what circumstances Mojmir's country lost its independence. It is possible that the Slovak army, which clashed with the enemy so frequently, together with courageous Mojmir II, the last of the early Slovak rulers, perished in a final battle for the freedom of Slovakland. However, it is also possible that Mojmir IT, exhausted by constant warfare and without outside help in sight, did not venture into another war which he could not possibly win. Mojmir Il in his ten-year reign proved on more than one occasion that he was a sagacious ruler, and we can be certain that in those trying times he did what he deemed best for his country. From reliable sources we can learn only that in 906 A. D. Mojmir's country no longer was an independent state, because the Magyars marched through Slovakia in that year to aid the Slovanic Glomaches in their fight against the Saxons. Slovakia did not immediately fall prey to the Magyars who passed through it into neighboring countries on foraging expeditions. Slovakia only ceased to be an independent state. She no longer had her own ruler and could no longer defend herself, but she did not as yet belong under the rule of a foreign state. The German empire, exposed to the at- 58 SLOVAKIA tacks of Magyar hordes, could not take possesion of Slovakia, and the nomadic Magyars did not establish any kind of state for quite some time. The Slovaks, then, lost their state, but did not lose or abandon the country which they already had occupied for several centuries and, therefore, regarded it as their own homeland. The Slovaks retreated gradually from the open valleys near the Danube and the Tisa rivers to the North and settled in the hilly areas of Slovakia where they were relatively safe. Slovak geographical names along the banks of the Danube and 'l'isa show how far the land of the Slovaks extended in the tenth century. Despite all the calamities that befell Slovakia, her people preserved itself on her soil. At the foot of mountains, in the extensive valleys and deep gorges of Slovakland, that people safeguard€d its language, its time-honored customs and its Slovanic nature. The people of Slovakia did not mingle with other nations and, therefore, did not succumb to foreign influences. At the beginning of the tenth century, when the Slovak nation lost its political independence, Slovakia had behind it a full century of cultural development which began during the reign of Prince Pribina. Christian culture, which came to the Slovaks from Bavarian Passau (Pasov), Regensburg (Rezno), and Salzburg (Sol'nohrad) and met with the Christian culture of Byzantium, sank such deep roots in Slovakia that it sprea:d from the Slovaks, with the help of Slovak princes and priests, even to the neighboring nations. And this Christian culture outlived the fall of Great Moravia, became the permanent heritage of the Slovak nation, and gave the Slovaks a cultural and moral precedence over their eastern conquerors. With this heritage the Slovak nation placed itself firmly and for all time among the cultured nations of Europe. Even at the height of Magyar aggression, the ecclesiactical organization of Slovakland did not vanish completely. Nitra continued to be the center of religious life .Jt is possible that even after Wiching's death the bishopric was preserved in Nitra, and it is probable that even the Zobor monastery, in which, according to legend, King Sva- SLOVAKIA 59 topluk died, survived all storms and was the center of Christian culture in the tenth century. The rulers of Great Moravia established in Slovakia a good state organization along western lines. The whole country was divided into smaller districts, called counties ("zupy" or "stolice"), which were governed by commissioners ("zupani"), who resided in castles or citadels ("hrady"). Some of these counties constituted a geographical unit with natural boundries and undoubtedly originated from territories of tribal ,principalities. These counties retained their .significance even after the fall of Great Moravia. The most ancient Slovak castles or citadels, which served as places of refuge for inhabitants of the respective counties, date from this period. The Slovaks had been farmers and husbandmen for several centuries and, therefore, knew how to till the soil and raise livestock. Besides the old . Slovanic art, which they brought from their old home beyond, the Carpathian Mountains, they lean1ed new trades from their neighbors, as is attested to by relics found in old Slovak castles and graves. The people of Slovakia did business with their neighbors; foreign merchants frequently came into Slovakia, bringing with them various commodities, and established places of business beneath the walls of Slovak citadels where marketplaces sprang up in the ninth and tenth centuries. The Slovak nation, therefore, possessed all the prerequisites to live in its own country even without a state of its own. SLOVAKIA ANN E XED BY HU N GA R Y Two states originated in the tenth century on the territory which once belonged under the rule of King Svatopluk: the Czech State in the west, and the Hungarian State in the east. These states, heirs to Great Moravia, developed gradually over the years. About fifteen various Czech tribes inhabited the territory known as Bohemia, which were being united under the rule of the princes of the Pfemysl clan. Prague became the main stronghold of Bohemia in the tenth century. The Pfemysl rulers broke with the Moravian kingdom soon after Svatopluk's death, recognized the supremacy of the 60 SLOVAKIA German empire, accepted Christianity, and began to build a united state on both banks of the Vltava river. Eventually the Czech nation evolved from the union of these tribes in the land of the Boii, Bohemia. One of the outstanding rulers of early Bohemia was Saint Wenceslaus (920-929 A.D.), who concerned himself with consolidating Christianity and living in peace with the Germans to spare his country and nation from a catastrophe that would have resulted from a war with them. Wenceslaus' friendly attitude with the Germans made his. brother Boleslav furious. His plan to put Wenceslaus out of the way was successful, and Boleslav took 9ver the reigns of government after Wenceslaus' murder. But even Boleslav had to yield to the Germans and pay them annual tribute. Succeeding Czech rulers also recognized their dependency on the German empire and helped the German emperors in their frequent wars with their neighbors. The Czech ruler Borivoj was baptized by St. Methodius during King Svatopluk's reign. When St. Methodius died, many of the Slovanic priests persecuted by Svatopluk escaped from Great Moravia into Bohemia. Thus it happened that the Slovanic liturgy was spread throughout Bohemia where it was used along with the Latin liturgy in the tenth century. Among the Slovanic priests who spread Christianity in Bohemia were also a number of Slovaks. It is very likely that Gorazd, successor to St. Methodius, lived in Bohemia and continued in the work which he was forced to abandon in Slovakia. Thus it was that the young Czech state became heir to the territory and the Christian culture of Great Moravia. In the second half of the tenth century the Czech rulers succeeded in uniting all the Czech tribes to build up a comparatively strong state, which--even though dependent on the German empire-made its own expeditions into neighboring countries and extended its boundaries eastward. In 973 A. D. a bishopric was established in Prague, which helped to unify and strenghten the Czech state. But the Hungarian state - which in the later half of the tenth century gradually developed on the territories once ruled by Prince Pribina and his son Kocel (Transda- SLO\'AK!A 61 nubia)-also became partial heir to Svatopluk's empire and the Christian culture of Great Moravia. The new state inherited not only the lands once governed by the Slovak rulers, but also the culture which had been developed in those lands during the reign of Slovak rulers. The builders of this new state became the Magyars who settled in the fertile Transdanubian territory of Pannonia at the close of the ninth century, after the wild Huns and the bellicose Avars had abandoned the territory. The Magyars were of Turkish-Tartar (Mongolian) origin. Their ancient homeland was somewhere in southern Russia, north of the Black Sea. Like other nations of those times, the Magyars, too, were divided into several tribes until Arpad united them. Because they were exposed to frequent attacks of wild nomadic tribes, the Magyar tribes near the Black Sea began to migrate westward. Under Arpad's leadership they crossed the Carpathian Mountains and, during Svatopluk's reign in Great Moravia, conquered Pannonia, whence they menaced all neighboring nations. The Magyars fought on the side of the Germans against Svatopluk and Mojmir II and, therefore, contributed to the downfall of the Great Moravian Empire at the opening of the tenth century. Nomadic and bellicose in their habits, the Magyars spent most of their lives in the saddle. They were renowned horsemen who specialized in surprise raids on their neighbors. Their swift cavalry units pierced far into foreign lands, swooped down upon rich towns and monasteries to raid them and then, laden with spoils, returned to their encampments. They destroyed whatever they could not haul away. Like all nomads they avoided hard work, spent their time in roisterous living, ate raw meat, drank soured mare's milk, shaved most of their heads and braided the rest of their hair into queues. The Magyars were exceptionally bold and cruel. Their depredatory expeditions took them into the Balkan states, Italy and France, but they looted Germany more often than any other European country. The Magyars suffered a serious setback in 955, when King Otto crushed their forces near Augsburg. Otto's army 62 SLOVAKIA also had a well equipped Czech division. Most of the Magyar invaders perished in battle, but many drowned in the river Lech. After this catastrophe, the Magyars abandoned their predatory expeditions and changed their manner of living. To save themselves they had to settle down and live in peace with the nE:ighbors. In time the adventurous warriors became shepherds and farmers who learned to till the soil from their Slovanic neighbors. Bavarian missionaries came to the Magyars to instruct them in the Christian faith with which they already had become acquainted through their Slovanic neighbors. At the same time missionaries came also from the East so that the currents of western and eastern culture met on the territory of the rising state of Hungary. But Christianity took hold with difficulty among th Magyars who, by their very nature, did not know how to orientate themselves ot Christian teaching. At the close of the tenth century, St. Adalbert, Bishop of Prague, came to Hungary and labored vlith his band of missionaries to convert the Magyars to Christianity. At that time Hungary was ruled by Geza (972-997), who was building a new state in the territory of Pribina's and Kocel's principality. Geza already was a Christian, but still followed many pagan customs. His son Vajk took the name of Stephen at baptism and very zealously continued in the work of consolidating Christianity and building the Hungarian State. The nucleus of the political organization of the Hungarian State was Pannonia, the country which already during the reign of the Slovak princes in the ninth century had played a prominent role in the political and cultural history of central Europe. Slovakia, however, became the nucleus of the ecclesiastical organization of Hungary. It was the same Slovakia which already from the times of Pribina was a Christian country, the land which already during the reign of King Svatopluk had its own bishop and which, at the beginning of the 11th century, became the territory of the first and most significant Hungarian archbishopric, that of Ostrihom (Esztergom). The greater part of the territory, inhabited from time SLOVAKIA 63 immemorial by the Slovaks, lying east of the Moravia river and north of the Danube, namely, Slovakia, became a part of the Hungarian state sometime at the end of the tenth .and the beginning of the eleventh century. But the western part of the Slovak land, which extended along the central flow of the Moravian river - from which it received its name Moravia (Morava)- seceded from Slovakia during those turbulant times. After losing its independence and a part of its territory, the Slovak nation, pressed on all sides by its stronger neighbors, did not have sufficient space to increase numerically and use all its energy to contribute to the building of its own life. Under such conditions the Slovaks remained a small nation, but even as such, they did not perish amidst the turbulant currents of history which swept over their country for long centuries. Into the new state, which was to be the home of the Slovak people for almost a thousand years, the Slovaks brought everything they had inherited from the times of their state independence. First of all, they excelled over the rest of the nations living in Hungary with their Christian culture. As has been frequently demonstrated in history, so even in this case it was proven tha.t a nation's culture is far more important than its numerical strength and military might. Slovakia, with the remnants of her ecclesiastical organization and state administration from the times of her political independence, preserved her individual status even in the new state of Hungary. After Slovakland was annexed to Hungary, it played a significant role in the building of the new state. This role was especially useful during the formation of international relations between Hungary and the German Empire, Bohemia and Poland, and in the building of internal relationships within the Hungarian state as well. When Hungary was on friendly terms with her western and northern neighbors, Slovakia served as a bridge for making friendly contacts. However, when Hungary was at odds with her neighbors, Slovakia became the battlefield on which issues were settled. The armies of the German Emperor, who wanted to establish his rule over Hun- 64 SLOVAKIA gary, the Czech armies which helped the German Emperor, and the army of the Polish king who became unfriendly with the Hungarian ruler, often tore into Slovakia, devastated the land and killed its people. At the very beginning of the 11th century, St. Stephen of Hungary quarreled with the mighty Polish ruler, Boleslaw the Brave (Chrabry). Polish troops invaded Hungary and occupied the whole of Slovakia as far as the Danube. The Polish occupation of Slovakia, however, was shortlived, because Boleslaw had other wars on his hands at that time and, therefore, was glad to give up Slovakia and conclude a peace pact with King St. Stephen. St. Stephen was an outstanding ruler ; he vanquished his enemies and, by propagating Christianity, fought against the paganism which still prevailed among the Magyars. He founded several Episcopal Sees and monasteries in order to strengthen the unity of the Hungarian State with the aid of ecclesiastical organizations. But pagan chieftains in the southern and eastern regions of his domain revolted against the zealous Christian king. During these crises Stephen found aid and succor in Slovakia. The Slovak magnates Hunt and Poznan gave the King military aid against the pagan rebels and helped to safeguard the integrity of the Hungarian State and Christianity in the Danube basin. Stephen, aware of the fact that various nations inhabited the territory of the Hungarian State, wanted each nation to regard Hungary as its homeland. He trained his son and successor Emery accordingly, that he, too, might rule wisely and justly all the nations of his kingdom. To St. Stephen is ascribed the dictum: A state with only one language is weak. (To be continued) • • • WHO SAID IT? "Some pussy-footing ostriches criticirze the treaty between Soviet Russia aind Ozeohoslovakia. Our close collaboration with the Soviet Union needs no explanation. We do not want anything from the Russia,ns e~cept protection frOiID the Germruns, and the Russians want nothlrng whatsoever from us." - (Jan Masaryk, BUSINESS WEEK, May 13, 1944).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The History of Slovakia (3/9) Description An account of the resource Philip A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2 (23), June 1957 pp. 57-64 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1957 Relation A related resource continued from <a href="https://slovakia.omeka.net/items/show/252">Vol. 7, No. 1 (22), pp. 53-59</a><br />continues in <a href="https://slovakia.omeka.net/items/show/229">Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25), pp. 88-96</a> LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/7dc3bb2a80b7ecccde225334813a36b2.pdf 655dbddf4c55c09b133a0c019ccebd3e PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 88 The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A . HROBAK (Continu ed ) During St. Stephen's reign two holy hermits, SS. Andrew-Svorad and Benedict, came to Slovakia from Poland and Jived for a time in the forest near the confluence of the Dunajec and Visla rivers. Later they went to the Benedictine monastery on Mt. Zobor near Nitra. Desiring to continue their lives as hermits even in Slovakia, they left the monastery and retreated to the hills which stretched along the banks of the V ah near Trencin. Many legends have been recorded about these two selfless, holy men. The oldest of these, originating about 1070 A. D., was recorded by the Zobor monk Maurus, who later became bishop of Pee (Patikostolie). The Hungarian State which was gradually being formed in the Danube Basin was not united geographically, racially, or culturally. A large part of the population was of Slovanic origin. We must bear in mind that Slovanic peoples inhabited and developed the territory long before the advent of the Magyars, because the Magyars settled in the central part of the country. It took several centuries before these various parts of the Danube Basin grew together, before the hilly countries were settled and the borders of the Hungarian State spread to the highest crests of the Carpathian Mountain range which enclosed the Danube Basin. In such a political formation Slovakia did not lose her independence suddenly, but preserved her individuality even in the new State. The historical nucleus of Slovakia was from the beginning that part of the Slovak country which already in the first half of the ninth century appeared in history as the Nitra principality of Pribina, which even during the reign of Rastislav in Great Moravia had its own ruler - Svatopluk - and which during the latter's reign had its own bishop. The historical Slovakia, whose main citadel was Nitra, extended from the Danube to the north �SLOVAKIA 89 deep into the Slovak mountains and in the east spread even beyond the river Hron. Within the framework of the Hungarian State, Slovakia became the terrritory of the Ostrihom archbishopric and formed a part of the separate grant principality which was ruled by the sons or the younger brothers of the Hungarian king. In size, the territory was about one-third that of the entire Hungarian kingdom and was made up of two parts: In the east, near the upper end of the Tisa river, Bihar belonged to it, and, in the west, the western half of present-day Slovakia, that is historic Slovakia with Nitra as its stronghold. Slovakia, which was more mature even culturally, had a greater political significance than Bihar. Due to frequent struggles for the throne among the rulers of Hungary and the other members of the Arpad clan, the vassal princes who governed Slovakia had an opportunity to make close ties with their neighbors, especially with the Slovanic States. The grant princes resided in Nitra and often sought the aid of Polish, Czech and Russian rulers with whom they were on friendly terms and to whom they were related. Since German emperors, who sought to strengthen their rule in Hungary, often intervened in the internal struggles of Hungary, the territory of Slovakia in the eleventh century was the scene of many bloody battles. Emery, St. Stephen's son, was the first of the vassal princes to rule Slovakia; he also was the Crown Prince of Hungary. Because Emery died before his illustrious father, Vazul, the eldest member of the Arpad dynasty, was destined to be the successor to the throne of Hungary. Vazul, however, did not excel in Christian virtues, lived as a pagan and was imprisoned in the Nitra Castle, where even today the "Tower of Vazul" bears memory to that prince. Vazul's sons - Andrew, Bela and Levanta - were still pagans. When their father was blinded, they fled the country. Andrew and Levanta escaped to Russia, while Bela sought refuge at the court of the Czech King Bretislav. When Henry, the German Emperor, invaded Slovakia in 1042 A. D. to force the Hungarian king to acknowledge the supremacy of the German Empire, Bretislav came to �90 SLOVAKIA the aid of the Emperor with a large Czech army. Bela, who fought on the side of the victors, was made ruler of Slovakia. But Bela's reign did not last long; the Hungarian king drove him out of the principality soon after Henry returned to Germa.ny. Bela then sought the asylum of the court of King Casimir of Poland. The Polish monarch, engaged in a war with the Prussians and Lithuanians, welcomed Bela's aid. Bela won renown as an intrepid fighter. Shortly thereafter he was baptized, receiving the name of Adalbert, and wed to a Polish princess. In the meantime Bela's brother, Andrew, was baptized at the Russian court. The burden of kingship fell upon his shoulders in 1047. But at that time another rebellion was stirred up by the pagan Magyars in Hungary who wanted to destroy all vestiges of Christianity and institute paganism in the State. When Andrew took over the throne of Hungary, he called Bela from Poland and appointed him ruler of the principality of Slovakia. Bela was subject to his brother, but had his own court, coined his own money and in all respects was the ruler of his country. Since the German emperor never gave up the idea of subjecting Hungary to his rule, Bela often had to fight the Germans who invaded Slovakia. Andrew died in 1060 and Bela succeeded him as King of Hungary. Geza, his eldest son, was made prince regent of Slovakia, and Ladislaus, a younger son, was made ruler of Bihar. Geza proved himself an exceptional ruler, successfully defending his land against all neighbors, even against Salamon who became King of Hungary after Bela's death. In 1069 Geza repulsed the Czechs who had invaded Slovakia and occupied the land as far as Trencin. The following year Geza took the offensive and invaded Moravia. Heading Slovak divisions Geza often fought against the Hungarian king and the German emperor, Henry IV. In 1074 Geza defeated Salamon decisively and forced him into exile. When Geza ascended the throne of Hungary, he appointed Ladislaus regent of Slovakia. Geza, as a vassal prince, had founded the Abbey of St. Benedict in the Hron valley and endowed it with extensive lands in 1075. While in Nitra, he became a great �SLOVAKIA 91 devotee of St. (Andrew) Svorad and St. Benedict. He prized highly the iron chain which the saintly Svorad had worn and which had been given him by the abbot of Mt. Zobor Monastery. As the ruler of Nitra, he saw to it that the Episcopal See of Nitra was re-established. When Geza died in 1077, Ladislaus became King of Hungary. Lampert, a younger brother, was given the title of grant prince, but Ladislaus himself ruled over the entire State. At the end of the eleventh century Slovakia vanished as a grant principality, but even then did not lose its individual status in the Hungarian State. When Slovakia lost its status as a grant principality at the end of the eleventh century and was absorbed in the rest of the Hungarian kingdom, she ceased to play for a time an independent role within the state. In the political development of Hungary, Slovakia in the twelfth century did not have an independent significance not only because it did not form a political unit, but also because in those times the balance of political life in Hungary gravitated toward the South. At the beginning of the twelfth century the Hungarian lords gained the territories of Croatia and Dalmatia, strengthened their positions in those countries and came under the influence of the Byzantine Empire with which they established close contacts. Christian Europe was aroused to a high pitch of religious fervor and enthusiasm at the end of the eleventh century; the urge to liberate the Holy Land from the Mohammedan Turks was widespread on the entire continent. The Pope himself called upon all Christian rulers of Europe to march against the enemies of Christianity with the banner of the Cross as their standard. The first crusading expedition set out already in 1096 A.D. While the main forces of the crusade hurried by land or by sea to Asia to free the holy places from the infidels, motley contingents of adventurers, who ruthlessly pillaged their way across Europe, came after them. One wing of such an undisciplined group of French and German soldiers, under the leadership of Folkmar, raced through Bohemia and Moravia into Slovakia and looted the whole country. The inhabitants of the Vah valley and Nitra fought these adventurous despoilers. �92 SLOVAKIA They defeated a large part of Folkmar's warriors and put the rest to flight; but Folkmar continued to trail the Crusaders with his warriors. Similar catastrophies befell Slovakia in the twelfth century, when German emperors aided by Czech rulers threatened the independence of Hungary. Thus, in 1108, Emperor Henry V set out against Hungary to make war on the erudite King Koloman (1095--1116). The Czech Svatopluk took part in the expedition. When Emperor Henry besieged Bratislava, Svatopluk tore into Slovakia through Moravia to help him devastate the land. The Czech armies laid waste the V ah valley area from Trencin to the Danube, but could not aid the Emperor in Hungary proper, because Svatopluk was forced to return to Bohemia by domestic issues. Svatopluk again invaded Slovakia the following year, devastated the entire country as far as Nitra, but failed to take the castle there. Enraged by this failure, Svatopluk's warriors swooped down on the vicinity, burnt many villages and then returned to their country with much loot. Hostil~ relations between Hungary and Bohemia invariably were the cause of much bloodshed and misery in Slovakia. Therefore, Slovakia welcomed a much needed breathing spell after the defeat of King Stephen II (11161131) by the Czechs on the Moravian-Slovak border,when his successor Bela II (1131-1141), made peace with Sobeslav (1125-1140), the Czech king. War in the west between Hungary and Bohemia caused much suffering in western Slovakia, while hostilities in the east between Hungary and Poland brought disaster to eastern Slovakia. Peace was restored only after several campaigns and Slovakia lived in peace in the twelfth century. While political conditions in Slovakia were more stabilized in the twelfth century, important changes took place in the religious and cultural life of Slovakia. Already in 1083 A.D., during the reign of the saintly monarch Ladislaus, the hermits Andrew Svorad and Benedict were canonized and their remains were buried with great solemnity in St. Emeram's Church in Nitra. The Nitra bishopric, restored during Koloman's reign, included the central Vah �SLOVAKIA 93 and the Kysuca valleys, the region which later became the County of Trencin. King Koloman (Colman) issued a decree establishing ecclesiastical courts in Bratislava and Nitra. Probably at this time, too, the Benedictine abbeys of St. Mary in Kliz (upper Nitra) and Sts. Cosmas and Damian in Ludanice (Topolcany district) were founded. In the forest areas of central Slovakia, in 1135 A.D., an abbey of Premonstratentians was founded in Bzovik by the Slovak nobleman Lampert, who was a descendant of the ancient Hunt family. St. Stephen's abbey, church properties of which were near the Krupina and Ipel (Eipel) rivers, became an important center of cultural and religious life in this territory. The Spis prepositure also was established at the beginning of the twelfth century; it had jurisdiction over that part of the Ostrihom (Esztergom) archdiocese on the Slovak-Polish boundary. About the same time the Knight Templars also founded several monasteries in Slovakia. The Slovaks called the Templars "Red Monks" because of the red cross on their white cloaks. There were several Templar monasteries in Turiec and Liptov where many legends about the "Red Monks" are preserved even to this day. SLOVAKIA BEFORE THE INVASION OF THE TURKS The catastrophies which befell Slovakia from the ninth century were responsible for the fact that Slovakia lost its independence and finally became a part of the Hungarian State. But Slovakia, even after its incorporation into the Hungarian State, became the stage for constant warfare waged between Hungary and its neighbors. Slovakia suffered economically and its population was depleted. Yet it weathered all these storms and survived. Slovakia never ceased to be the country of the Slovak nation and the people, even under most adverse conditions, never left their homeland for others to move in. Of course, Slovakia was not as densely populated from the tenth to the twelfth centuries as it is today. Where the fertility of the soil assured a livehood, there people would settle. The most fertile regions were the lowlands of western and southern Slovakia along the banks of the Vah, �94 SLOVAKIA Nitra, Hron and Ipel rivers and, consequently, these regions attracted more people. From these areas the population advanced up the river valleys into the forest regions of northern and central Slovakia and, in the 11th and 12th centuries, established new colonies in the river basins and mountain velleys whereever it could till the soil and devote itself to animal husbandry. Already in the 11th century a stream of settlers, which advanced against the current of the Nitra, got as far as Turiec, where they came upon several older settlements which had existed since the times of Great Moravia. It was there that this group met up with another which was advancing up the Vah. From the confluence of the Turiec and Vah rivers, the population penetrated farther to the east, so that already in the 12th century Liptov was settled, whence the Slovaks gradually spread into the neighboring valleys. In the south, the Slovaks settled in the foothills of the Slovak mountains, penetrated into the northern part of the valley between the Danube and the Tisa, settled on the right bank of the Danube, where already in the 9th century there were several Slovak settlements, occupied th country along the north bank of the Tisa River and continued against the current of its tributaries into the fertile lowlands of eastern Slovakia, where they met with colonists who had come there from the west. Among the settled areas of Slovakia were the extensive mountainous regions which at that time were covered by a dense forest. Such a forest spread between the Hron and Ipel rivers (the Hont Forest), near the upper flow of the Hron (the Zvolen Forest), and near the upper flow of the Hornad (the Spis Forest). In these forest regions there were only small colonies which subsisted by hunting and animal husbandry. The greater the increase in population in the fertile areas of western and southern Slovakia, the greater was the stream of settlers which pressed into the mountainous regions. In those times countries and states did not have any accurate boundaries. Ordinarily the boundary was a forest which covered especially the hilly regions and descended �SLOVAKIA 95 down the slopes deeply into the valleys and plains. The broad belt of a dense forest was the safest border and, of course, the most reliable defense against an enemy. But even individual regions were separated from each other by forests. The western boundary of Slovakia was such a forest which covered the Small and the White Carpathian Mountains, stretched as far west as the Morava river and in places in the east came very close to the river Vah. The northern boundary of Slovakia ran along the forest which covered the crests of the Carpathian s and extended deeply on the north and south into the Slovak valleys. Such forests also separated the Nitra river valley from the Turiec Basin, Turiec from the Hron area and Liptov from Spis. HIGHWAYS OF SLOVAKIA Roads cutting through these forests connected the individual areas of Slovakia, and Slovakia with its neighbors as well. At the point where the roads led out of the bordering forest huge gates were erected. In times of danger these gates would be barricaded with huge trees. Sentry outposts were established near the frontier gates; it was their duty to defend the country against enemy attacks. When frontier guards noticed that a hostile army had entered the forest, they would barricade the gate and ma,ke a fire on the hill to signal that danger threatened . Geographic al terms, all relating to the word "gate" (brana)-li ke Brana, Branka, Branc, Branisko, Podbranc, Zavory, Zelezne vrata, Kamenne vrata, Vratna - indicate the places where such gates were erected. But outpost settlements were established not only near the frontier gates, but also along the entire frontier and near all roads. The memory of these sentry outposts has been preserved in such names as Hradiste, Hradok, Vysehrad, Hradec, Hradova, Hradna, Hradecnica (all from "hrad" - castle, fortress, citadel), Straz (guard), Straza, Straze, Strazisko, Straziste, Strazka, Strazky, Strazov, Straznica, Strazna hora, Strazske, Strehova. Sentry duty at these gates, along the frontier and near the roads, was often done by warlike foreigners, such as the Plavci, Pecheni and the Sikuli, who began to settle in Hungary in the 11th century. These tribes were by their origin, nature and tongue related to �li6 SLOVAKIA the Magyars with whom they later fused. In some Slovak areas even the Magyars settled as frontier guards. 'fhe names of villages, such as Sekule, Pecenady, Pecenice, Pecenany, Besenov, Besenova, Uhorska Ves, Plavec, tell us just where garrisons of foreign warriors did sentry duty. In many places only the "graves of pagans" are recalled as testimonials to these sentry posts. The most important roads which connected Slovakia with neighboring countries were: 1. The Bohemian highway, which led from Germany to Prague, passed through Brno, and near Holic entered Slovak territory. Through Sastin it led to Jablonica, where there was an outpost gate guarded on the east and west by a border garrison. Bi:ksad, Smolenice and Boleraz were outposts of this kind. This road then went through Trnava, crossed the river Vah near Sintava and continued on to Ostrihom, Vacov and Budin. 2. A second highway led from Znojmo in Moravia through Breclav into Brodsky, then through Straz and Sastin into Senice, and thence into Krajny where it entered the regions of the Vah Valley. 3. Another road crossed these roads near Sastin which led to Olomouc, Uhorske Hradiste, Straznice in Slovakia and then went along the left bank of the Morava into Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. 4. On the northeastern tip of the Alps near the Danube, at the southern spurs of the Carpathians, there was a famous gate through which the road branched out on both banks of the Danube to the east. From Bratislava one of these roads led to Nitra through Senec and Sintava, while the other passed through Trnava on its way up the Vah to northern Slovakia. This was the Vah valley road, which detoured through the Vlar pass into Moravia, through the Jablunkov defile to the Morava Gate, and thence into Poland, while another side road went along the Orava river to the Visla. From the Vah highway a side road went through Hlohovec into Nitra and through Turiec, below the castle of Vysehrad, toward the upper flow of the Nitra. (To be continued) � SLOVAKIA 88 The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A . HROBAK (Continu ed ) During St. Stephen's reign two holy hermits, SS. Andrew-Svorad and Benedict, came to Slovakia from Poland and Jived for a time in the forest near the confluence of the Dunajec and Visla rivers. Later they went to the Benedictine monastery on Mt. Zobor near Nitra. Desiring to continue their lives as hermits even in Slovakia, they left the monastery and retreated to the hills which stretched along the banks of the V ah near Trencin. Many legends have been recorded about these two selfless, holy men. The oldest of these, originating about 1070 A. D., was recorded by the Zobor monk Maurus, who later became bishop of Pee (Patikostolie). The Hungarian State which was gradually being formed in the Danube Basin was not united geographically, racially, or culturally. A large part of the population was of Slovanic origin. We must bear in mind that Slovanic peoples inhabited and developed the territory long before the advent of the Magyars, because the Magyars settled in the central part of the country. It took several centuries before these various parts of the Danube Basin grew together, before the hilly countries were settled and the borders of the Hungarian State spread to the highest crests of the Carpathian Mountain range which enclosed the Danube Basin. In such a political formation Slovakia did not lose her independence suddenly, but preserved her individuality even in the new State. The historical nucleus of Slovakia was from the beginning that part of the Slovak country which already in the first half of the ninth century appeared in history as the Nitra principality of Pribina, which even during the reign of Rastislav in Great Moravia had its own ruler - Svatopluk - and which during the latter's reign had its own bishop. The historical Slovakia, whose main citadel was Nitra, extended from the Danube to the north �SLOVAKIA 89 deep into the Slovak mountains and in the east spread even beyond the river Hron. Within the framework of the Hungarian State, Slovakia became the terrritory of the Ostrihom archbishopric and formed a part of the separate grant principality which was ruled by the sons or the younger brothers of the Hungarian king. In size, the territory was about one-third that of the entire Hungarian kingdom and was made up of two parts: In the east, near the upper end of the Tisa river, Bihar belonged to it, and, in the west, the western half of present-day Slovakia, that is historic Slovakia with Nitra as its stronghold. Slovakia, which was more mature even culturally, had a greater political significance than Bihar. Due to frequent struggles for the throne among the rulers of Hungary and the other members of the Arpad clan, the vassal princes who governed Slovakia had an opportunity to make close ties with their neighbors, especially with the Slovanic States. The grant princes resided in Nitra and often sought the aid of Polish, Czech and Russian rulers with whom they were on friendly terms and to whom they were related. Since German emperors, who sought to strengthen their rule in Hungary, often intervened in the internal struggles of Hungary, the territory of Slovakia in the eleventh century was the scene of many bloody battles. Emery, St. Stephen's son, was the first of the vassal princes to rule Slovakia; he also was the Crown Prince of Hungary. Because Emery died before his illustrious father, Vazul, the eldest member of the Arpad dynasty, was destined to be the successor to the throne of Hungary. Vazul, however, did not excel in Christian virtues, lived as a pagan and was imprisoned in the Nitra Castle, where even today the "Tower of Vazul" bears memory to that prince. Vazul's sons - Andrew, Bela and Levanta - were still pagans. When their father was blinded, they fled the country. Andrew and Levanta escaped to Russia, while Bela sought refuge at the court of the Czech King Bretislav. When Henry, the German Emperor, invaded Slovakia in 1042 A. D. to force the Hungarian king to acknowledge the supremacy of the German Empire, Bretislav came to �90 SLOVAKIA the aid of the Emperor with a large Czech army. Bela, who fought on the side of the victors, was made ruler of Slovakia. But Bela's reign did not last long; the Hungarian king drove him out of the principality soon after Henry returned to Germa.ny. Bela then sought the asylum of the court of King Casimir of Poland. The Polish monarch, engaged in a war with the Prussians and Lithuanians, welcomed Bela's aid. Bela won renown as an intrepid fighter. Shortly thereafter he was baptized, receiving the name of Adalbert, and wed to a Polish princess. In the meantime Bela's brother, Andrew, was baptized at the Russian court. The burden of kingship fell upon his shoulders in 1047. But at that time another rebellion was stirred up by the pagan Magyars in Hungary who wanted to destroy all vestiges of Christianity and institute paganism in the State. When Andrew took over the throne of Hungary, he called Bela from Poland and appointed him ruler of the principality of Slovakia. Bela was subject to his brother, but had his own court, coined his own money and in all respects was the ruler of his country. Since the German emperor never gave up the idea of subjecting Hungary to his rule, Bela often had to fight the Germans who invaded Slovakia. Andrew died in 1060 and Bela succeeded him as King of Hungary. Geza, his eldest son, was made prince regent of Slovakia, and Ladislaus, a younger son, was made ruler of Bihar. Geza proved himself an exceptional ruler, successfully defending his land against all neighbors, even against Salamon who became King of Hungary after Bela's death. In 1069 Geza repulsed the Czechs who had invaded Slovakia and occupied the land as far as Trencin. The following year Geza took the offensive and invaded Moravia. Heading Slovak divisions Geza often fought against the Hungarian king and the German emperor, Henry IV. In 1074 Geza defeated Salamon decisively and forced him into exile. When Geza ascended the throne of Hungary, he appointed Ladislaus regent of Slovakia. Geza, as a vassal prince, had founded the Abbey of St. Benedict in the Hron valley and endowed it with extensive lands in 1075. While in Nitra, he became a great �SLOVAKIA 91 devotee of St. (Andrew) Svorad and St. Benedict. He prized highly the iron chain which the saintly Svorad had worn and which had been given him by the abbot of Mt. Zobor Monastery. As the ruler of Nitra, he saw to it that the Episcopal See of Nitra was re-established. When Geza died in 1077, Ladislaus became King of Hungary. Lampert, a younger brother, was given the title of grant prince, but Ladislaus himself ruled over the entire State. At the end of the eleventh century Slovakia vanished as a grant principality, but even then did not lose its individual status in the Hungarian State. When Slovakia lost its status as a grant principality at the end of the eleventh century and was absorbed in the rest of the Hungarian kingdom, she ceased to play for a time an independent role within the state. In the political development of Hungary, Slovakia in the twelfth century did not have an independent significance not only because it did not form a political unit, but also because in those times the balance of political life in Hungary gravitated toward the South. At the beginning of the twelfth century the Hungarian lords gained the territories of Croatia and Dalmatia, strengthened their positions in those countries and came under the influence of the Byzantine Empire with which they established close contacts. Christian Europe was aroused to a high pitch of religious fervor and enthusiasm at the end of the eleventh century; the urge to liberate the Holy Land from the Mohammedan Turks was widespread on the entire continent. The Pope himself called upon all Christian rulers of Europe to march against the enemies of Christianity with the banner of the Cross as their standard. The first crusading expedition set out already in 1096 A.D. While the main forces of the crusade hurried by land or by sea to Asia to free the holy places from the infidels, motley contingents of adventurers, who ruthlessly pillaged their way across Europe, came after them. One wing of such an undisciplined group of French and German soldiers, under the leadership of Folkmar, raced through Bohemia and Moravia into Slovakia and looted the whole country. The inhabitants of the Vah valley and Nitra fought these adventurous despoilers. �92 SLOVAKIA They defeated a large part of Folkmar's warriors and put the rest to flight; but Folkmar continued to trail the Crusaders with his warriors. Similar catastrophies befell Slovakia in the twelfth century, when German emperors aided by Czech rulers threatened the independence of Hungary. Thus, in 1108, Emperor Henry V set out against Hungary to make war on the erudite King Koloman (1095--1116). The Czech Svatopluk took part in the expedition. When Emperor Henry besieged Bratislava, Svatopluk tore into Slovakia through Moravia to help him devastate the land. The Czech armies laid waste the V ah valley area from Trencin to the Danube, but could not aid the Emperor in Hungary proper, because Svatopluk was forced to return to Bohemia by domestic issues. Svatopluk again invaded Slovakia the following year, devastated the entire country as far as Nitra, but failed to take the castle there. Enraged by this failure, Svatopluk's warriors swooped down on the vicinity, burnt many villages and then returned to their country with much loot. Hostil~ relations between Hungary and Bohemia invariably were the cause of much bloodshed and misery in Slovakia. Therefore, Slovakia welcomed a much needed breathing spell after the defeat of King Stephen II (11161131) by the Czechs on the Moravian-Slovak border,when his successor Bela II (1131-1141), made peace with Sobeslav (1125-1140), the Czech king. War in the west between Hungary and Bohemia caused much suffering in western Slovakia, while hostilities in the east between Hungary and Poland brought disaster to eastern Slovakia. Peace was restored only after several campaigns and Slovakia lived in peace in the twelfth century. While political conditions in Slovakia were more stabilized in the twelfth century, important changes took place in the religious and cultural life of Slovakia. Already in 1083 A.D., during the reign of the saintly monarch Ladislaus, the hermits Andrew Svorad and Benedict were canonized and their remains were buried with great solemnity in St. Emeram's Church in Nitra. The Nitra bishopric, restored during Koloman's reign, included the central Vah �SLOVAKIA 93 and the Kysuca valleys, the region which later became the County of Trencin. King Koloman (Colman) issued a decree establishing ecclesiastical courts in Bratislava and Nitra. Probably at this time, too, the Benedictine abbeys of St. Mary in Kliz (upper Nitra) and Sts. Cosmas and Damian in Ludanice (Topolcany district) were founded. In the forest areas of central Slovakia, in 1135 A.D., an abbey of Premonstratentians was founded in Bzovik by the Slovak nobleman Lampert, who was a descendant of the ancient Hunt family. St. Stephen's abbey, church properties of which were near the Krupina and Ipel (Eipel) rivers, became an important center of cultural and religious life in this territory. The Spis prepositure also was established at the beginning of the twelfth century; it had jurisdiction over that part of the Ostrihom (Esztergom) archdiocese on the Slovak-Polish boundary. About the same time the Knight Templars also founded several monasteries in Slovakia. The Slovaks called the Templars "Red Monks" because of the red cross on their white cloaks. There were several Templar monasteries in Turiec and Liptov where many legends about the "Red Monks" are preserved even to this day. SLOVAKIA BEFORE THE INVASION OF THE TURKS The catastrophies which befell Slovakia from the ninth century were responsible for the fact that Slovakia lost its independence and finally became a part of the Hungarian State. But Slovakia, even after its incorporation into the Hungarian State, became the stage for constant warfare waged between Hungary and its neighbors. Slovakia suffered economically and its population was depleted. Yet it weathered all these storms and survived. Slovakia never ceased to be the country of the Slovak nation and the people, even under most adverse conditions, never left their homeland for others to move in. Of course, Slovakia was not as densely populated from the tenth to the twelfth centuries as it is today. Where the fertility of the soil assured a livehood, there people would settle. The most fertile regions were the lowlands of western and southern Slovakia along the banks of the Vah, �94 SLOVAKIA Nitra, Hron and Ipel rivers and, consequently, these regions attracted more people. From these areas the population advanced up the river valleys into the forest regions of northern and central Slovakia and, in the 11th and 12th centuries, established new colonies in the river basins and mountain velleys whereever it could till the soil and devote itself to animal husbandry. Already in the 11th century a stream of settlers, which advanced against the current of the Nitra, got as far as Turiec, where they came upon several older settlements which had existed since the times of Great Moravia. It was there that this group met up with another which was advancing up the Vah. From the confluence of the Turiec and Vah rivers, the population penetrated farther to the east, so that already in the 12th century Liptov was settled, whence the Slovaks gradually spread into the neighboring valleys. In the south, the Slovaks settled in the foothills of the Slovak mountains, penetrated into the northern part of the valley between the Danube and the Tisa, settled on the right bank of the Danube, where already in the 9th century there were several Slovak settlements, occupied th country along the north bank of the Tisa River and continued against the current of its tributaries into the fertile lowlands of eastern Slovakia, where they met with colonists who had come there from the west. Among the settled areas of Slovakia were the extensive mountainous regions which at that time were covered by a dense forest. Such a forest spread between the Hron and Ipel rivers (the Hont Forest), near the upper flow of the Hron (the Zvolen Forest), and near the upper flow of the Hornad (the Spis Forest). In these forest regions there were only small colonies which subsisted by hunting and animal husbandry. The greater the increase in population in the fertile areas of western and southern Slovakia, the greater was the stream of settlers which pressed into the mountainous regions. In those times countries and states did not have any accurate boundaries. Ordinarily the boundary was a forest which covered especially the hilly regions and descended �SLOVAKIA 95 down the slopes deeply into the valleys and plains. The broad belt of a dense forest was the safest border and, of course, the most reliable defense against an enemy. But even individual regions were separated from each other by forests. The western boundary of Slovakia was such a forest which covered the Small and the White Carpathian Mountains, stretched as far west as the Morava river and in places in the east came very close to the river Vah. The northern boundary of Slovakia ran along the forest which covered the crests of the Carpathian s and extended deeply on the north and south into the Slovak valleys. Such forests also separated the Nitra river valley from the Turiec Basin, Turiec from the Hron area and Liptov from Spis. HIGHWAYS OF SLOVAKIA Roads cutting through these forests connected the individual areas of Slovakia, and Slovakia with its neighbors as well. At the point where the roads led out of the bordering forest huge gates were erected. In times of danger these gates would be barricaded with huge trees. Sentry outposts were established near the frontier gates; it was their duty to defend the country against enemy attacks. When frontier guards noticed that a hostile army had entered the forest, they would barricade the gate and ma,ke a fire on the hill to signal that danger threatened . Geographic al terms, all relating to the word "gate" (brana)-li ke Brana, Branka, Branc, Branisko, Podbranc, Zavory, Zelezne vrata, Kamenne vrata, Vratna - indicate the places where such gates were erected. But outpost settlements were established not only near the frontier gates, but also along the entire frontier and near all roads. The memory of these sentry outposts has been preserved in such names as Hradiste, Hradok, Vysehrad, Hradec, Hradova, Hradna, Hradecnica (all from "hrad" - castle, fortress, citadel), Straz (guard), Straza, Straze, Strazisko, Straziste, Strazka, Strazky, Strazov, Straznica, Strazna hora, Strazske, Strehova. Sentry duty at these gates, along the frontier and near the roads, was often done by warlike foreigners, such as the Plavci, Pecheni and the Sikuli, who began to settle in Hungary in the 11th century. These tribes were by their origin, nature and tongue related to �li6 SLOVAKIA the Magyars with whom they later fused. In some Slovak areas even the Magyars settled as frontier guards. 'fhe names of villages, such as Sekule, Pecenady, Pecenice, Pecenany, Besenov, Besenova, Uhorska Ves, Plavec, tell us just where garrisons of foreign warriors did sentry duty. In many places only the "graves of pagans" are recalled as testimonials to these sentry posts. The most important roads which connected Slovakia with neighboring countries were: 1. The Bohemian highway, which led from Germany to Prague, passed through Brno, and near Holic entered Slovak territory. Through Sastin it led to Jablonica, where there was an outpost gate guarded on the east and west by a border garrison. Bi:ksad, Smolenice and Boleraz were outposts of this kind. This road then went through Trnava, crossed the river Vah near Sintava and continued on to Ostrihom, Vacov and Budin. 2. A second highway led from Znojmo in Moravia through Breclav into Brodsky, then through Straz and Sastin into Senice, and thence into Krajny where it entered the regions of the Vah Valley. 3. Another road crossed these roads near Sastin which led to Olomouc, Uhorske Hradiste, Straznice in Slovakia and then went along the left bank of the Morava into Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. 4. On the northeastern tip of the Alps near the Danube, at the southern spurs of the Carpathians, there was a famous gate through which the road branched out on both banks of the Danube to the east. From Bratislava one of these roads led to Nitra through Senec and Sintava, while the other passed through Trnava on its way up the Vah to northern Slovakia. This was the Vah valley road, which detoured through the Vlar pass into Moravia, through the Jablunkov defile to the Morava Gate, and thence into Poland, while another side road went along the Orava river to the Visla. From the Vah highway a side road went through Hlohovec into Nitra and through Turiec, below the castle of Vysehrad, toward the upper flow of the Nitra. (To be continued) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 88 The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A . HROBAK (Continu ed ) During St. Stephen's reign two holy hermits, SS. Andrew-Svorad and Benedict, came to Slovakia from Poland and Jived for a time in the forest near the confluence of the Dunajec and Visla rivers. Later they went to the Benedictine monastery on Mt. Zobor near Nitra. Desiring to continue their lives as hermits even in Slovakia, they left the monastery and retreated to the hills which stretched along the banks of the V ah near Trencin. Many legends have been recorded about these two selfless, holy men. The oldest of these, originating about 1070 A. D., was recorded by the Zobor monk Maurus, who later became bishop of Pee (Patikostolie). The Hungarian State which was gradually being formed in the Danube Basin was not united geographically, racially, or culturally. A large part of the population was of Slovanic origin. We must bear in mind that Slovanic peoples inhabited and developed the territory long before the advent of the Magyars, because the Magyars settled in the central part of the country. It took several centuries before these various parts of the Danube Basin grew together, before the hilly countries were settled and the borders of the Hungarian State spread to the highest crests of the Carpathian Mountain range which enclosed the Danube Basin. In such a political formation Slovakia did not lose her independence suddenly, but preserved her individuality even in the new State. The historical nucleus of Slovakia was from the beginning that part of the Slovak country which already in the first half of the ninth century appeared in history as the Nitra principality of Pribina, which even during the reign of Rastislav in Great Moravia had its own ruler - Svatopluk - and which during the latter's reign had its own bishop. The historical Slovakia, whose main citadel was Nitra, extended from the Danube to the north SLOVAKIA 89 deep into the Slovak mountains and in the east spread even beyond the river Hron. Within the framework of the Hungarian State, Slovakia became the terrritory of the Ostrihom archbishopric and formed a part of the separate grant principality which was ruled by the sons or the younger brothers of the Hungarian king. In size, the territory was about one-third that of the entire Hungarian kingdom and was made up of two parts: In the east, near the upper end of the Tisa river, Bihar belonged to it, and, in the west, the western half of present-day Slovakia, that is historic Slovakia with Nitra as its stronghold. Slovakia, which was more mature even culturally, had a greater political significance than Bihar. Due to frequent struggles for the throne among the rulers of Hungary and the other members of the Arpad clan, the vassal princes who governed Slovakia had an opportunity to make close ties with their neighbors, especially with the Slovanic States. The grant princes resided in Nitra and often sought the aid of Polish, Czech and Russian rulers with whom they were on friendly terms and to whom they were related. Since German emperors, who sought to strengthen their rule in Hungary, often intervened in the internal struggles of Hungary, the territory of Slovakia in the eleventh century was the scene of many bloody battles. Emery, St. Stephen's son, was the first of the vassal princes to rule Slovakia; he also was the Crown Prince of Hungary. Because Emery died before his illustrious father, Vazul, the eldest member of the Arpad dynasty, was destined to be the successor to the throne of Hungary. Vazul, however, did not excel in Christian virtues, lived as a pagan and was imprisoned in the Nitra Castle, where even today the "Tower of Vazul" bears memory to that prince. Vazul's sons - Andrew, Bela and Levanta - were still pagans. When their father was blinded, they fled the country. Andrew and Levanta escaped to Russia, while Bela sought refuge at the court of the Czech King Bretislav. When Henry, the German Emperor, invaded Slovakia in 1042 A. D. to force the Hungarian king to acknowledge the supremacy of the German Empire, Bretislav came to 90 SLOVAKIA the aid of the Emperor with a large Czech army. Bela, who fought on the side of the victors, was made ruler of Slovakia. But Bela's reign did not last long; the Hungarian king drove him out of the principality soon after Henry returned to Germa.ny. Bela then sought the asylum of the court of King Casimir of Poland. The Polish monarch, engaged in a war with the Prussians and Lithuanians, welcomed Bela's aid. Bela won renown as an intrepid fighter. Shortly thereafter he was baptized, receiving the name of Adalbert, and wed to a Polish princess. In the meantime Bela's brother, Andrew, was baptized at the Russian court. The burden of kingship fell upon his shoulders in 1047. But at that time another rebellion was stirred up by the pagan Magyars in Hungary who wanted to destroy all vestiges of Christianity and institute paganism in the State. When Andrew took over the throne of Hungary, he called Bela from Poland and appointed him ruler of the principality of Slovakia. Bela was subject to his brother, but had his own court, coined his own money and in all respects was the ruler of his country. Since the German emperor never gave up the idea of subjecting Hungary to his rule, Bela often had to fight the Germans who invaded Slovakia. Andrew died in 1060 and Bela succeeded him as King of Hungary. Geza, his eldest son, was made prince regent of Slovakia, and Ladislaus, a younger son, was made ruler of Bihar. Geza proved himself an exceptional ruler, successfully defending his land against all neighbors, even against Salamon who became King of Hungary after Bela's death. In 1069 Geza repulsed the Czechs who had invaded Slovakia and occupied the land as far as Trencin. The following year Geza took the offensive and invaded Moravia. Heading Slovak divisions Geza often fought against the Hungarian king and the German emperor, Henry IV. In 1074 Geza defeated Salamon decisively and forced him into exile. When Geza ascended the throne of Hungary, he appointed Ladislaus regent of Slovakia. Geza, as a vassal prince, had founded the Abbey of St. Benedict in the Hron valley and endowed it with extensive lands in 1075. While in Nitra, he became a great SLOVAKIA 91 devotee of St. (Andrew) Svorad and St. Benedict. He prized highly the iron chain which the saintly Svorad had worn and which had been given him by the abbot of Mt. Zobor Monastery. As the ruler of Nitra, he saw to it that the Episcopal See of Nitra was re-established. When Geza died in 1077, Ladislaus became King of Hungary. Lampert, a younger brother, was given the title of grant prince, but Ladislaus himself ruled over the entire State. At the end of the eleventh century Slovakia vanished as a grant principality, but even then did not lose its individual status in the Hungarian State. When Slovakia lost its status as a grant principality at the end of the eleventh century and was absorbed in the rest of the Hungarian kingdom, she ceased to play for a time an independent role within the state. In the political development of Hungary, Slovakia in the twelfth century did not have an independent significance not only because it did not form a political unit, but also because in those times the balance of political life in Hungary gravitated toward the South. At the beginning of the twelfth century the Hungarian lords gained the territories of Croatia and Dalmatia, strengthened their positions in those countries and came under the influence of the Byzantine Empire with which they established close contacts. Christian Europe was aroused to a high pitch of religious fervor and enthusiasm at the end of the eleventh century; the urge to liberate the Holy Land from the Mohammedan Turks was widespread on the entire continent. The Pope himself called upon all Christian rulers of Europe to march against the enemies of Christianity with the banner of the Cross as their standard. The first crusading expedition set out already in 1096 A.D. While the main forces of the crusade hurried by land or by sea to Asia to free the holy places from the infidels, motley contingents of adventurers, who ruthlessly pillaged their way across Europe, came after them. One wing of such an undisciplined group of French and German soldiers, under the leadership of Folkmar, raced through Bohemia and Moravia into Slovakia and looted the whole country. The inhabitants of the Vah valley and Nitra fought these adventurous despoilers. 92 SLOVAKIA They defeated a large part of Folkmar's warriors and put the rest to flight; but Folkmar continued to trail the Crusaders with his warriors. Similar catastrophies befell Slovakia in the twelfth century, when German emperors aided by Czech rulers threatened the independence of Hungary. Thus, in 1108, Emperor Henry V set out against Hungary to make war on the erudite King Koloman (1095--1116). The Czech Svatopluk took part in the expedition. When Emperor Henry besieged Bratislava, Svatopluk tore into Slovakia through Moravia to help him devastate the land. The Czech armies laid waste the V ah valley area from Trencin to the Danube, but could not aid the Emperor in Hungary proper, because Svatopluk was forced to return to Bohemia by domestic issues. Svatopluk again invaded Slovakia the following year, devastated the entire country as far as Nitra, but failed to take the castle there. Enraged by this failure, Svatopluk's warriors swooped down on the vicinity, burnt many villages and then returned to their country with much loot. Hostil~ relations between Hungary and Bohemia invariably were the cause of much bloodshed and misery in Slovakia. Therefore, Slovakia welcomed a much needed breathing spell after the defeat of King Stephen II (11161131) by the Czechs on the Moravian-Slovak border,when his successor Bela II (1131-1141), made peace with Sobeslav (1125-1140), the Czech king. War in the west between Hungary and Bohemia caused much suffering in western Slovakia, while hostilities in the east between Hungary and Poland brought disaster to eastern Slovakia. Peace was restored only after several campaigns and Slovakia lived in peace in the twelfth century. While political conditions in Slovakia were more stabilized in the twelfth century, important changes took place in the religious and cultural life of Slovakia. Already in 1083 A.D., during the reign of the saintly monarch Ladislaus, the hermits Andrew Svorad and Benedict were canonized and their remains were buried with great solemnity in St. Emeram's Church in Nitra. The Nitra bishopric, restored during Koloman's reign, included the central Vah SLOVAKIA 93 and the Kysuca valleys, the region which later became the County of Trencin. King Koloman (Colman) issued a decree establishing ecclesiastical courts in Bratislava and Nitra. Probably at this time, too, the Benedictine abbeys of St. Mary in Kliz (upper Nitra) and Sts. Cosmas and Damian in Ludanice (Topolcany district) were founded. In the forest areas of central Slovakia, in 1135 A.D., an abbey of Premonstratentians was founded in Bzovik by the Slovak nobleman Lampert, who was a descendant of the ancient Hunt family. St. Stephen's abbey, church properties of which were near the Krupina and Ipel (Eipel) rivers, became an important center of cultural and religious life in this territory. The Spis prepositure also was established at the beginning of the twelfth century; it had jurisdiction over that part of the Ostrihom (Esztergom) archdiocese on the Slovak-Polish boundary. About the same time the Knight Templars also founded several monasteries in Slovakia. The Slovaks called the Templars "Red Monks" because of the red cross on their white cloaks. There were several Templar monasteries in Turiec and Liptov where many legends about the "Red Monks" are preserved even to this day. SLOVAKIA BEFORE THE INVASION OF THE TURKS The catastrophies which befell Slovakia from the ninth century were responsible for the fact that Slovakia lost its independence and finally became a part of the Hungarian State. But Slovakia, even after its incorporation into the Hungarian State, became the stage for constant warfare waged between Hungary and its neighbors. Slovakia suffered economically and its population was depleted. Yet it weathered all these storms and survived. Slovakia never ceased to be the country of the Slovak nation and the people, even under most adverse conditions, never left their homeland for others to move in. Of course, Slovakia was not as densely populated from the tenth to the twelfth centuries as it is today. Where the fertility of the soil assured a livehood, there people would settle. The most fertile regions were the lowlands of western and southern Slovakia along the banks of the Vah, 94 SLOVAKIA Nitra, Hron and Ipel rivers and, consequently, these regions attracted more people. From these areas the population advanced up the river valleys into the forest regions of northern and central Slovakia and, in the 11th and 12th centuries, established new colonies in the river basins and mountain velleys whereever it could till the soil and devote itself to animal husbandry. Already in the 11th century a stream of settlers, which advanced against the current of the Nitra, got as far as Turiec, where they came upon several older settlements which had existed since the times of Great Moravia. It was there that this group met up with another which was advancing up the Vah. From the confluence of the Turiec and Vah rivers, the population penetrated farther to the east, so that already in the 12th century Liptov was settled, whence the Slovaks gradually spread into the neighboring valleys. In the south, the Slovaks settled in the foothills of the Slovak mountains, penetrated into the northern part of the valley between the Danube and the Tisa, settled on the right bank of the Danube, where already in the 9th century there were several Slovak settlements, occupied th country along the north bank of the Tisa River and continued against the current of its tributaries into the fertile lowlands of eastern Slovakia, where they met with colonists who had come there from the west. Among the settled areas of Slovakia were the extensive mountainous regions which at that time were covered by a dense forest. Such a forest spread between the Hron and Ipel rivers (the Hont Forest), near the upper flow of the Hron (the Zvolen Forest), and near the upper flow of the Hornad (the Spis Forest). In these forest regions there were only small colonies which subsisted by hunting and animal husbandry. The greater the increase in population in the fertile areas of western and southern Slovakia, the greater was the stream of settlers which pressed into the mountainous regions. In those times countries and states did not have any accurate boundaries. Ordinarily the boundary was a forest which covered especially the hilly regions and descended SLOVAKIA 95 down the slopes deeply into the valleys and plains. The broad belt of a dense forest was the safest border and, of course, the most reliable defense against an enemy. But even individual regions were separated from each other by forests. The western boundary of Slovakia was such a forest which covered the Small and the White Carpathian Mountains, stretched as far west as the Morava river and in places in the east came very close to the river Vah. The northern boundary of Slovakia ran along the forest which covered the crests of the Carpathian s and extended deeply on the north and south into the Slovak valleys. Such forests also separated the Nitra river valley from the Turiec Basin, Turiec from the Hron area and Liptov from Spis. HIGHWAYS OF SLOVAKIA Roads cutting through these forests connected the individual areas of Slovakia, and Slovakia with its neighbors as well. At the point where the roads led out of the bordering forest huge gates were erected. In times of danger these gates would be barricaded with huge trees. Sentry outposts were established near the frontier gates; it was their duty to defend the country against enemy attacks. When frontier guards noticed that a hostile army had entered the forest, they would barricade the gate and ma,ke a fire on the hill to signal that danger threatened . Geographic al terms, all relating to the word "gate" (brana)-li ke Brana, Branka, Branc, Branisko, Podbranc, Zavory, Zelezne vrata, Kamenne vrata, Vratna - indicate the places where such gates were erected. But outpost settlements were established not only near the frontier gates, but also along the entire frontier and near all roads. The memory of these sentry outposts has been preserved in such names as Hradiste, Hradok, Vysehrad, Hradec, Hradova, Hradna, Hradecnica (all from "hrad" - castle, fortress, citadel), Straz (guard), Straza, Straze, Strazisko, Straziste, Strazka, Strazky, Strazov, Straznica, Strazna hora, Strazske, Strehova. Sentry duty at these gates, along the frontier and near the roads, was often done by warlike foreigners, such as the Plavci, Pecheni and the Sikuli, who began to settle in Hungary in the 11th century. These tribes were by their origin, nature and tongue related to li6 SLOVAKIA the Magyars with whom they later fused. In some Slovak areas even the Magyars settled as frontier guards. 'fhe names of villages, such as Sekule, Pecenady, Pecenice, Pecenany, Besenov, Besenova, Uhorska Ves, Plavec, tell us just where garrisons of foreign warriors did sentry duty. In many places only the "graves of pagans" are recalled as testimonials to these sentry posts. The most important roads which connected Slovakia with neighboring countries were: 1. The Bohemian highway, which led from Germany to Prague, passed through Brno, and near Holic entered Slovak territory. Through Sastin it led to Jablonica, where there was an outpost gate guarded on the east and west by a border garrison. Bi:ksad, Smolenice and Boleraz were outposts of this kind. This road then went through Trnava, crossed the river Vah near Sintava and continued on to Ostrihom, Vacov and Budin. 2. A second highway led from Znojmo in Moravia through Breclav into Brodsky, then through Straz and Sastin into Senice, and thence into Krajny where it entered the regions of the Vah Valley. 3. Another road crossed these roads near Sastin which led to Olomouc, Uhorske Hradiste, Straznice in Slovakia and then went along the left bank of the Morava into Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. 4. On the northeastern tip of the Alps near the Danube, at the southern spurs of the Carpathians, there was a famous gate through which the road branched out on both banks of the Danube to the east. From Bratislava one of these roads led to Nitra through Senec and Sintava, while the other passed through Trnava on its way up the Vah to northern Slovakia. This was the Vah valley road, which detoured through the Vlar pass into Moravia, through the Jablunkov defile to the Morava Gate, and thence into Poland, while another side road went along the Orava river to the Visla. From the Vah highway a side road went through Hlohovec into Nitra and through Turiec, below the castle of Vysehrad, toward the upper flow of the Nitra. (To be continued)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The History of Slovakia (4/9) Description An account of the resource Philip A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25), September-December 1957 pp. 88-96 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 Relation A related resource continued from <a href="https://slovakia.omeka.net/items/show/241">Vol. 7, No. 2 (23), pp. 57-64</a><br />continues in <a href="https://slovakia.omeka.net/items/show/278">Vol. 8, No. 1 (26), pp. 60-64</a> LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/8534412d8641d0b5d9a0de8dfe911fad.pdf 08a3a0dc0b145a9d3398e78412eb677d PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 83 failed utterly to satisfy the aspirations of the Slovaks and other non-Czech nations of Czecho-Slovakia for political self-expression. Twenty years of Masaryk-Benes rule in Czecho-Slovakia definitely proved that true liberty was more foreign to the Masaryk and Benes regimes than it was to the Habsburgs, hence, the seed of federalism was not even planted by them. Czecho-Slovakia was supposed to be patterned after Switzerland or the United States, but the fact is that she was not. (The End.) • • • THE SLOVAKS WERE THERE : MAJOR JOHN L. POLERECKY FOUGHT FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE In 1781, when the defeated army of Cornwallis surrendered its arms to General George Washington at Yorktown, Va., among the "French Hussars" who encircled the defeated, as the ceremony of "surrendering arms" took place, was a son of Slovakia, Major John L. Polerecky, whose father hailed from Polerieka, Turiec Province, Slovakia. The story of John Polerecky's participation in the American Revolution for the independence of America was unfolded by Dr. Joseph Cincik, Ph.D., professor of history and art, Cleveland, Ohio, and a member of the Slovak Institute there. Mr. Cincik, a distant relative of Major Polerecky, spent much time and money in travel and research to gather the facts of the Polerecky story. When the complete story of Polerecky is published, it will be fully documented with photocopies of original documents from Slovakia, France, and the National Archives in Washington, D. C. What is presented here is from a portion of Dr. Cincik's manuscript on Major Polerecky. When Francis Rakoczy of Hungary revolted against the Habsburgs and lost, he was forced to flee for his life in 1711. He fled to Poland and later made his way to France. Rakoczy was not through with his fight against Vienna, and Louis XIV was happy to accept his services when he offered them to him in 1713. Rakoczy was ac- �84 SLOVAKIA companied by, among others, two of his most trusted soldiers: Count Andrew Polerecky and Count Nicholas Bercsenyi, who were excellent horsemen. They formed the core of command of Rak6czy's light cavalry. In time King Louis ordered them to organize two regiments of riders in the Alsace region. Polerecky organized a regiment of Hussars in Rosenheim-Malsheim. It was in Alsace that Andrew Polerecky fathered two sons, Frederick and John, the latter being the man of Yorktown, Va. Both of Andrew's sons studied at the Royal Military Academy. While Frederick remained in the service of the French kings till the end of the monarchy, John promoted to a Major by royal decree of Louis XV (original in the National Archives), chose to go to America with the expeditionary army of Rochambeau to help the colonists rid themselves of British rule. His immediate superior was the Duke de Lauzun, commander of the light cavalry of French Volunteers, or the Duke's deputy, Theobald de Dillon. Major Polerecky was often entrusted with the communication and dispatch services, among other things. They participated in the battles along the Hudson river above present-day New York City in the first half of 1781 and then in the White Plains and Kingsbridge regions before June 21, 1781, in the battle for the city. Polerecky and the Hussars of the Due de Lauzun harrassed the British "Green Dragoons" under Lt. Col. Banaster Tarleton, who was known as "bloody Tarleton." At the beginning of the siege of Yorktown and Gloucester Point, Lauzun's legion, or a large part of it, implemented Weedon's Militia from Virginia near Gloucester to neutralize Tarleton's Dragoons. Major John Polerecky and his men moved between Yorktown and Gloucester Point, keeping communications open between the two points for the benefit of coordinating the movements of the allied armies of the French and the American colonists. It was during the siege of Yorktown, at the beginning of October, 1781, that Major Polerecky became acquainted with Col. Henry Dearborn (1751-1829), who had just been named Deputy Quarter Master General, and with Col. Benjamin Lincoln (1733-1810), who later became Generals of the �SLOVAKIA 85 American Army and Secretaries of the War after the Revolution. They became fast friends, and it was this friendship that decided for Polerecky to remain permanently in America. With the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to Washington's Army on October 19, 1781, Col. Lincoln, representing George Washington, accepted the surrender of Lord Cornwallis from the hands of Col. Charles O'Hara, representing Cornwallis. Several moments later, Major John Polerecky "under the poplars" south of Yorktown, with the Hussars of the Due de Lauzun encircling the defeated units of the British Army, took over the arms of the defeated. As stated, Dearborn and Lincoln had something to do with Major Polerecky's decision to settle in America. There is a document in the National Archives, Washington, D. C., which tells us that Polerecky requested his commander Due de Lauzun, permission to resign from the French Hussars, and the request was granted in Philadelpjhia, October 1, 1783. But conditions in France after 1781 undoubtedly settled the problem for Polerecky more than anything else. On October 20, 1781, the day after Cornwallis's surrender, General Rochambeau, Commander-in-Chief of the French forces in America, sent the Due de Lauzun to Paris to report personally to King Louis XVI the victory over the British. Polerecky accompanied his commander. France was not the France they knew before embarking for America with Rochambeau to help the colonists win their independence from the British. The remnants of the Hussars of Lauzun's Legion, which remained in France, while the main force fought in America were spiritless; their numbers had dwindled, because the Hussars were sent to other wars than the American, and Lauzun felt badly about it, since it was not done with his knowledge and approval. In Paris intrigue was rampant against the Due de Lauzun and his Volunteer Legion of Hussars. Major Polerecky was informed about the situation that prevailed by his brother, Brigadier General Andrew F. Polerecky who served with the French forces at the Royal Court in Versailles. Polerecky left France disheartened and returned to America. �86 SLOVAKIA Upon his return, Major John Polerecky resumed his friendship with General Dearborn and General Lincoln. He went to Boston and at the end of 1784 decided to buy a farm in Maine, near that of Henry Dearborn, who had settled in Monmouth, Maine, in June of 1784. Through Lincoln, who was now in the real estate business, Major Polerecky bought 40 acres of land early in 1785 from one Luis Cavalier in the village of Pownalborough (today it's Dresden), between the East and Kenebeck rivers, a territory settled by the French, particularly the descendants of the Huguenots. It was in Pownalborough that Major John Polerecky became acquainted with and married Nancy Pushard (sometimes - "Pochard") in June, 1785. Nancy, the youngest of the Puschard children, was born in America. By an act of the Massachusetts Congress, signed by the famous John Hancock, Governor of Massachusetts and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Polerecky became a naturalized citizen of the country he had helped to become independent of alien rule. His friendship with Dearborn and Lincoln added to his prestige among the old settlers. Polerecky held various public offices from 1789 to 1794 in his community ( "Hogreeve; Pound Keeper; Surveyor of Highways"). Gen. Henry Dearborn frequently visited Polerecky in the "Old Court House" in Dresden. When General Dearborn was appointed Military Marshal for the District of Maine on August 26, 1790, he appointed John Polerecky as his Deputy Marshal. That year a census of the people in Maine was made; Dearborn appointed Polerecky as Census Commissioner of the southeastern coastal district of Maine and the outlying islands. In 1794, when the western part of Pownalborough was incorporated as the town of "Fayette" ( changed later for reasons unrecorded to "Dresden"), Polerecky was elected Town Clerk. In 1796, he applied for the job of lighthouse keeper on the Island of Seguin, which he got with the help of Dearborn and Lincoln, In 1805, John Polerecky resigned his job and was again elected Town Clerk, serving in this capacity for twenty-three years more. From the records of the town of Dresden, Dr. Joseph Cincik learned that Polerecky's older brother, Andrew, also �SLOVAKIA 87 settled there. A Brigadier General in the French Army and a Knight of the Order of St. Louis, Andrew, with the aid of other officers of Chamborant's Hussar Regiment, attempted to aid the escape of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette and their family, after their first unsuccessful attempt to escape to Varennes (June 20-21, 1791). Andrew Polerecky's plan, however, was betrayed and he himself had to flee to save his life. In time he came to America, to his brother's home in Dresden. When Major John L. Polerecky gave up the office of Town Clerk of Dresden, Maine, on March 3, 1828, he was eighty years old. Did John Polerecky and Nancy have any children? Yes - seven. When John Polerecky died, his wife had him buried in the courtyard of their home, under the trees which John had planted - the home which is today called the "Frank Cates House" in Dresden. Nancy had her husband's remains removed to Pine Grove Cemetery in 1858, when the cemetery was opened; she bought a spacious lot in it. On the right of John Polerecky's tombstone, there is one of white marble - Nancy's - and then the stones of all the children and some grandchildren. Daniel, it appears, outlived the others, dying October 23, 1891 ... and with Daniel G. Polerecky went the family name. The daughters married, too, and their descendants had English names; they settled in Maine and Massachusetts. Lucy Polerecky, who became Mrs. Kidder, outlived her sisters. The American Legion never forgets the grave of Major John L. Polerecky. Every year, behind a large bronze plaque of the American Revolution, a new American Flag is placed, the eternal symbol of the freedom for which John L. Polerecky fought and was ready to give his life. Because of Polerecky the Slovaks can say that they were there, too, close to George Washington, when the fight for independence was won. And they say it proudly, at the same time uttering a prayer and a resolve that America shall ever remain free and independent to help Slovakia, the land of the Polereckys, gain its freedom and independence from the hostile forces of the present Czecho-Communist regime of Prague and Moscow. � SLOVAKIA 83 failed utterly to satisfy the aspirations of the Slovaks and other non-Czech nations of Czecho-Slovakia for political self-expression. Twenty years of Masaryk-Benes rule in Czecho-Slovakia definitely proved that true liberty was more foreign to the Masaryk and Benes regimes than it was to the Habsburgs, hence, the seed of federalism was not even planted by them. Czecho-Slovakia was supposed to be patterned after Switzerland or the United States, but the fact is that she was not. (The End.) • • • THE SLOVAKS WERE THERE : MAJOR JOHN L. POLERECKY FOUGHT FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE In 1781, when the defeated army of Cornwallis surrendered its arms to General George Washington at Yorktown, Va., among the "French Hussars" who encircled the defeated, as the ceremony of "surrendering arms" took place, was a son of Slovakia, Major John L. Polerecky, whose father hailed from Polerieka, Turiec Province, Slovakia. The story of John Polerecky's participation in the American Revolution for the independence of America was unfolded by Dr. Joseph Cincik, Ph.D., professor of history and art, Cleveland, Ohio, and a member of the Slovak Institute there. Mr. Cincik, a distant relative of Major Polerecky, spent much time and money in travel and research to gather the facts of the Polerecky story. When the complete story of Polerecky is published, it will be fully documented with photocopies of original documents from Slovakia, France, and the National Archives in Washington, D. C. What is presented here is from a portion of Dr. Cincik's manuscript on Major Polerecky. When Francis Rakoczy of Hungary revolted against the Habsburgs and lost, he was forced to flee for his life in 1711. He fled to Poland and later made his way to France. Rakoczy was not through with his fight against Vienna, and Louis XIV was happy to accept his services when he offered them to him in 1713. Rakoczy was ac- �84 SLOVAKIA companied by, among others, two of his most trusted soldiers: Count Andrew Polerecky and Count Nicholas Bercsenyi, who were excellent horsemen. They formed the core of command of Rak6czy's light cavalry. In time King Louis ordered them to organize two regiments of riders in the Alsace region. Polerecky organized a regiment of Hussars in Rosenheim-Malsheim. It was in Alsace that Andrew Polerecky fathered two sons, Frederick and John, the latter being the man of Yorktown, Va. Both of Andrew's sons studied at the Royal Military Academy. While Frederick remained in the service of the French kings till the end of the monarchy, John promoted to a Major by royal decree of Louis XV (original in the National Archives), chose to go to America with the expeditionary army of Rochambeau to help the colonists rid themselves of British rule. His immediate superior was the Duke de Lauzun, commander of the light cavalry of French Volunteers, or the Duke's deputy, Theobald de Dillon. Major Polerecky was often entrusted with the communication and dispatch services, among other things. They participated in the battles along the Hudson river above present-day New York City in the first half of 1781 and then in the White Plains and Kingsbridge regions before June 21, 1781, in the battle for the city. Polerecky and the Hussars of the Due de Lauzun harrassed the British "Green Dragoons" under Lt. Col. Banaster Tarleton, who was known as "bloody Tarleton." At the beginning of the siege of Yorktown and Gloucester Point, Lauzun's legion, or a large part of it, implemented Weedon's Militia from Virginia near Gloucester to neutralize Tarleton's Dragoons. Major John Polerecky and his men moved between Yorktown and Gloucester Point, keeping communications open between the two points for the benefit of coordinating the movements of the allied armies of the French and the American colonists. It was during the siege of Yorktown, at the beginning of October, 1781, that Major Polerecky became acquainted with Col. Henry Dearborn (1751-1829), who had just been named Deputy Quarter Master General, and with Col. Benjamin Lincoln (1733-1810), who later became Generals of the �SLOVAKIA 85 American Army and Secretaries of the War after the Revolution. They became fast friends, and it was this friendship that decided for Polerecky to remain permanently in America. With the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to Washington's Army on October 19, 1781, Col. Lincoln, representing George Washington, accepted the surrender of Lord Cornwallis from the hands of Col. Charles O'Hara, representing Cornwallis. Several moments later, Major John Polerecky "under the poplars" south of Yorktown, with the Hussars of the Due de Lauzun encircling the defeated units of the British Army, took over the arms of the defeated. As stated, Dearborn and Lincoln had something to do with Major Polerecky's decision to settle in America. There is a document in the National Archives, Washington, D. C., which tells us that Polerecky requested his commander Due de Lauzun, permission to resign from the French Hussars, and the request was granted in Philadelpjhia, October 1, 1783. But conditions in France after 1781 undoubtedly settled the problem for Polerecky more than anything else. On October 20, 1781, the day after Cornwallis's surrender, General Rochambeau, Commander-in-Chief of the French forces in America, sent the Due de Lauzun to Paris to report personally to King Louis XVI the victory over the British. Polerecky accompanied his commander. France was not the France they knew before embarking for America with Rochambeau to help the colonists win their independence from the British. The remnants of the Hussars of Lauzun's Legion, which remained in France, while the main force fought in America were spiritless; their numbers had dwindled, because the Hussars were sent to other wars than the American, and Lauzun felt badly about it, since it was not done with his knowledge and approval. In Paris intrigue was rampant against the Due de Lauzun and his Volunteer Legion of Hussars. Major Polerecky was informed about the situation that prevailed by his brother, Brigadier General Andrew F. Polerecky who served with the French forces at the Royal Court in Versailles. Polerecky left France disheartened and returned to America. �86 SLOVAKIA Upon his return, Major John Polerecky resumed his friendship with General Dearborn and General Lincoln. He went to Boston and at the end of 1784 decided to buy a farm in Maine, near that of Henry Dearborn, who had settled in Monmouth, Maine, in June of 1784. Through Lincoln, who was now in the real estate business, Major Polerecky bought 40 acres of land early in 1785 from one Luis Cavalier in the village of Pownalborough (today it's Dresden), between the East and Kenebeck rivers, a territory settled by the French, particularly the descendants of the Huguenots. It was in Pownalborough that Major John Polerecky became acquainted with and married Nancy Pushard (sometimes - "Pochard") in June, 1785. Nancy, the youngest of the Puschard children, was born in America. By an act of the Massachusetts Congress, signed by the famous John Hancock, Governor of Massachusetts and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Polerecky became a naturalized citizen of the country he had helped to become independent of alien rule. His friendship with Dearborn and Lincoln added to his prestige among the old settlers. Polerecky held various public offices from 1789 to 1794 in his community ( "Hogreeve; Pound Keeper; Surveyor of Highways"). Gen. Henry Dearborn frequently visited Polerecky in the "Old Court House" in Dresden. When General Dearborn was appointed Military Marshal for the District of Maine on August 26, 1790, he appointed John Polerecky as his Deputy Marshal. That year a census of the people in Maine was made; Dearborn appointed Polerecky as Census Commissioner of the southeastern coastal district of Maine and the outlying islands. In 1794, when the western part of Pownalborough was incorporated as the town of "Fayette" ( changed later for reasons unrecorded to "Dresden"), Polerecky was elected Town Clerk. In 1796, he applied for the job of lighthouse keeper on the Island of Seguin, which he got with the help of Dearborn and Lincoln, In 1805, John Polerecky resigned his job and was again elected Town Clerk, serving in this capacity for twenty-three years more. From the records of the town of Dresden, Dr. Joseph Cincik learned that Polerecky's older brother, Andrew, also �SLOVAKIA 87 settled there. A Brigadier General in the French Army and a Knight of the Order of St. Louis, Andrew, with the aid of other officers of Chamborant's Hussar Regiment, attempted to aid the escape of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette and their family, after their first unsuccessful attempt to escape to Varennes (June 20-21, 1791). Andrew Polerecky's plan, however, was betrayed and he himself had to flee to save his life. In time he came to America, to his brother's home in Dresden. When Major John L. Polerecky gave up the office of Town Clerk of Dresden, Maine, on March 3, 1828, he was eighty years old. Did John Polerecky and Nancy have any children? Yes - seven. When John Polerecky died, his wife had him buried in the courtyard of their home, under the trees which John had planted - the home which is today called the "Frank Cates House" in Dresden. Nancy had her husband's remains removed to Pine Grove Cemetery in 1858, when the cemetery was opened; she bought a spacious lot in it. On the right of John Polerecky's tombstone, there is one of white marble - Nancy's - and then the stones of all the children and some grandchildren. Daniel, it appears, outlived the others, dying October 23, 1891 ... and with Daniel G. Polerecky went the family name. The daughters married, too, and their descendants had English names; they settled in Maine and Massachusetts. Lucy Polerecky, who became Mrs. Kidder, outlived her sisters. The American Legion never forgets the grave of Major John L. Polerecky. Every year, behind a large bronze plaque of the American Revolution, a new American Flag is placed, the eternal symbol of the freedom for which John L. Polerecky fought and was ready to give his life. Because of Polerecky the Slovaks can say that they were there, too, close to George Washington, when the fight for independence was won. And they say it proudly, at the same time uttering a prayer and a resolve that America shall ever remain free and independent to help Slovakia, the land of the Polereckys, gain its freedom and independence from the hostile forces of the present Czecho-Communist regime of Prague and Moscow. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 83 failed utterly to satisfy the aspirations of the Slovaks and other non-Czech nations of Czecho-Slovakia for political self-expression. Twenty years of Masaryk-Benes rule in Czecho-Slovakia definitely proved that true liberty was more foreign to the Masaryk and Benes regimes than it was to the Habsburgs, hence, the seed of federalism was not even planted by them. Czecho-Slovakia was supposed to be patterned after Switzerland or the United States, but the fact is that she was not. (The End.) • • • THE SLOVAKS WERE THERE : MAJOR JOHN L. POLERECKY FOUGHT FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE In 1781, when the defeated army of Cornwallis surrendered its arms to General George Washington at Yorktown, Va., among the "French Hussars" who encircled the defeated, as the ceremony of "surrendering arms" took place, was a son of Slovakia, Major John L. Polerecky, whose father hailed from Polerieka, Turiec Province, Slovakia. The story of John Polerecky's participation in the American Revolution for the independence of America was unfolded by Dr. Joseph Cincik, Ph.D., professor of history and art, Cleveland, Ohio, and a member of the Slovak Institute there. Mr. Cincik, a distant relative of Major Polerecky, spent much time and money in travel and research to gather the facts of the Polerecky story. When the complete story of Polerecky is published, it will be fully documented with photocopies of original documents from Slovakia, France, and the National Archives in Washington, D. C. What is presented here is from a portion of Dr. Cincik's manuscript on Major Polerecky. When Francis Rakoczy of Hungary revolted against the Habsburgs and lost, he was forced to flee for his life in 1711. He fled to Poland and later made his way to France. Rakoczy was not through with his fight against Vienna, and Louis XIV was happy to accept his services when he offered them to him in 1713. Rakoczy was ac- 84 SLOVAKIA companied by, among others, two of his most trusted soldiers: Count Andrew Polerecky and Count Nicholas Bercsenyi, who were excellent horsemen. They formed the core of command of Rak6czy's light cavalry. In time King Louis ordered them to organize two regiments of riders in the Alsace region. Polerecky organized a regiment of Hussars in Rosenheim-Malsheim. It was in Alsace that Andrew Polerecky fathered two sons, Frederick and John, the latter being the man of Yorktown, Va. Both of Andrew's sons studied at the Royal Military Academy. While Frederick remained in the service of the French kings till the end of the monarchy, John promoted to a Major by royal decree of Louis XV (original in the National Archives), chose to go to America with the expeditionary army of Rochambeau to help the colonists rid themselves of British rule. His immediate superior was the Duke de Lauzun, commander of the light cavalry of French Volunteers, or the Duke's deputy, Theobald de Dillon. Major Polerecky was often entrusted with the communication and dispatch services, among other things. They participated in the battles along the Hudson river above present-day New York City in the first half of 1781 and then in the White Plains and Kingsbridge regions before June 21, 1781, in the battle for the city. Polerecky and the Hussars of the Due de Lauzun harrassed the British "Green Dragoons" under Lt. Col. Banaster Tarleton, who was known as "bloody Tarleton." At the beginning of the siege of Yorktown and Gloucester Point, Lauzun's legion, or a large part of it, implemented Weedon's Militia from Virginia near Gloucester to neutralize Tarleton's Dragoons. Major John Polerecky and his men moved between Yorktown and Gloucester Point, keeping communications open between the two points for the benefit of coordinating the movements of the allied armies of the French and the American colonists. It was during the siege of Yorktown, at the beginning of October, 1781, that Major Polerecky became acquainted with Col. Henry Dearborn (1751-1829), who had just been named Deputy Quarter Master General, and with Col. Benjamin Lincoln (1733-1810), who later became Generals of the SLOVAKIA 85 American Army and Secretaries of the War after the Revolution. They became fast friends, and it was this friendship that decided for Polerecky to remain permanently in America. With the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to Washington's Army on October 19, 1781, Col. Lincoln, representing George Washington, accepted the surrender of Lord Cornwallis from the hands of Col. Charles O'Hara, representing Cornwallis. Several moments later, Major John Polerecky "under the poplars" south of Yorktown, with the Hussars of the Due de Lauzun encircling the defeated units of the British Army, took over the arms of the defeated. As stated, Dearborn and Lincoln had something to do with Major Polerecky's decision to settle in America. There is a document in the National Archives, Washington, D. C., which tells us that Polerecky requested his commander Due de Lauzun, permission to resign from the French Hussars, and the request was granted in Philadelpjhia, October 1, 1783. But conditions in France after 1781 undoubtedly settled the problem for Polerecky more than anything else. On October 20, 1781, the day after Cornwallis's surrender, General Rochambeau, Commander-in-Chief of the French forces in America, sent the Due de Lauzun to Paris to report personally to King Louis XVI the victory over the British. Polerecky accompanied his commander. France was not the France they knew before embarking for America with Rochambeau to help the colonists win their independence from the British. The remnants of the Hussars of Lauzun's Legion, which remained in France, while the main force fought in America were spiritless; their numbers had dwindled, because the Hussars were sent to other wars than the American, and Lauzun felt badly about it, since it was not done with his knowledge and approval. In Paris intrigue was rampant against the Due de Lauzun and his Volunteer Legion of Hussars. Major Polerecky was informed about the situation that prevailed by his brother, Brigadier General Andrew F. Polerecky who served with the French forces at the Royal Court in Versailles. Polerecky left France disheartened and returned to America. 86 SLOVAKIA Upon his return, Major John Polerecky resumed his friendship with General Dearborn and General Lincoln. He went to Boston and at the end of 1784 decided to buy a farm in Maine, near that of Henry Dearborn, who had settled in Monmouth, Maine, in June of 1784. Through Lincoln, who was now in the real estate business, Major Polerecky bought 40 acres of land early in 1785 from one Luis Cavalier in the village of Pownalborough (today it's Dresden), between the East and Kenebeck rivers, a territory settled by the French, particularly the descendants of the Huguenots. It was in Pownalborough that Major John Polerecky became acquainted with and married Nancy Pushard (sometimes - "Pochard") in June, 1785. Nancy, the youngest of the Puschard children, was born in America. By an act of the Massachusetts Congress, signed by the famous John Hancock, Governor of Massachusetts and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Polerecky became a naturalized citizen of the country he had helped to become independent of alien rule. His friendship with Dearborn and Lincoln added to his prestige among the old settlers. Polerecky held various public offices from 1789 to 1794 in his community ( "Hogreeve; Pound Keeper; Surveyor of Highways"). Gen. Henry Dearborn frequently visited Polerecky in the "Old Court House" in Dresden. When General Dearborn was appointed Military Marshal for the District of Maine on August 26, 1790, he appointed John Polerecky as his Deputy Marshal. That year a census of the people in Maine was made; Dearborn appointed Polerecky as Census Commissioner of the southeastern coastal district of Maine and the outlying islands. In 1794, when the western part of Pownalborough was incorporated as the town of "Fayette" ( changed later for reasons unrecorded to "Dresden"), Polerecky was elected Town Clerk. In 1796, he applied for the job of lighthouse keeper on the Island of Seguin, which he got with the help of Dearborn and Lincoln, In 1805, John Polerecky resigned his job and was again elected Town Clerk, serving in this capacity for twenty-three years more. From the records of the town of Dresden, Dr. Joseph Cincik learned that Polerecky's older brother, Andrew, also SLOVAKIA 87 settled there. A Brigadier General in the French Army and a Knight of the Order of St. Louis, Andrew, with the aid of other officers of Chamborant's Hussar Regiment, attempted to aid the escape of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette and their family, after their first unsuccessful attempt to escape to Varennes (June 20-21, 1791). Andrew Polerecky's plan, however, was betrayed and he himself had to flee to save his life. In time he came to America, to his brother's home in Dresden. When Major John L. Polerecky gave up the office of Town Clerk of Dresden, Maine, on March 3, 1828, he was eighty years old. Did John Polerecky and Nancy have any children? Yes - seven. When John Polerecky died, his wife had him buried in the courtyard of their home, under the trees which John had planted - the home which is today called the "Frank Cates House" in Dresden. Nancy had her husband's remains removed to Pine Grove Cemetery in 1858, when the cemetery was opened; she bought a spacious lot in it. On the right of John Polerecky's tombstone, there is one of white marble - Nancy's - and then the stones of all the children and some grandchildren. Daniel, it appears, outlived the others, dying October 23, 1891 ... and with Daniel G. Polerecky went the family name. The daughters married, too, and their descendants had English names; they settled in Maine and Massachusetts. Lucy Polerecky, who became Mrs. Kidder, outlived her sisters. The American Legion never forgets the grave of Major John L. Polerecky. Every year, behind a large bronze plaque of the American Revolution, a new American Flag is placed, the eternal symbol of the freedom for which John L. Polerecky fought and was ready to give his life. Because of Polerecky the Slovaks can say that they were there, too, close to George Washington, when the fight for independence was won. And they say it proudly, at the same time uttering a prayer and a resolve that America shall ever remain free and independent to help Slovakia, the land of the Polereckys, gain its freedom and independence from the hostile forces of the present Czecho-Communist regime of Prague and Moscow.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Slovaks Were There: Major John L. Polerecký Fought for America's Independence Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25), September-December 1957 pp. 83-87 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/218e2241811501c4c8784e87b1cac2aa.pdf f7d9d2582542081c8057ab064b2c2cf5 PDF Text Text SLOV AKIA PubHshed VOL. VII quarterly by the Slovak League of America MARCH, 1957 NO. 1 (22) THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. JOSEPH TISO'S EXECUTION JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM When Monsignor Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of thewartime Slovak Republic, was executed on the gallows on April 18, 1947, a victim of Communist and Czech vengeance, with the assistance of the adherents of Czecho-Communist collaboration most of whom are today living in exile, the Vatican broadcast, commenting on the reaction of the world press to Tiso's murder, said: "As a martyr of his love for his country, Dr. Tiso-who finally died in a very nice manner and as a priest internally very dignified, even though the manner of putting him to death was not befitting a priest-shall continue to live in the Catholic Slovak nation. Tendencious articles in the world press cannot change this fact." Ten years later, it is not necessary to prove the truthfulness of that forecast. Shortly after the first President of the Slovak Republic was surrendered to his vengeful political opponents, there resounded in the American and world press so many manifestations of sympathy, admiration, and respect for Dr. Joseph Tiso, as had been tendered no Slovak in the thousand-year-old stirring history of the Slovak people. Verily, Dr. Tiso outgrew the Slovak framework and "continues to live today" not only in the hearts of his Slovak people, but in the hearts of millions of people who love truth and freedom. Slovakia and the Slovak nation still belongs to the world which did not succumb to Communism, to the world which, so to speak, is personified in Dr. Tiso and his fate. And many people even here on the American continent today see in Tiso the first great victim of Communism in the attack on the civilized world. With decent and intelligent people, the name of Tiso has �2 SLOVAKIA become the key to sympathy for and frequently also to the knowledge of Slovakia and our fight and destiny. In this unusual turn of world public opinion, it is interesting to recall what Dr. Joseph Tiso said when he was asked by the so-called National Court in Bratislava why he had left Slovakia. Tiso at that time had replied: "I left Slovakia, because I wished to make the claims of the Slovak nation to its own way of life better known and more understandable to the Western powers." Of course, we know that the Western powers did not allow the living Tiso to do this, but we also have knowledge that they did not know, and still do not know, how to prevent the dead Tiso from fulfilling his mission. 'Dhe political murder, of which Dr. Tiso was the victim, did not bring about a change of heart only in alien circles, in circles frequently unfavorable to Slovakia and disinterested in the fate of Slovak nation. The crime committed against Dr. Tiso has stirred the conscience and awakened from national lethargy and indifference the Slovaks themselves, and especially the Slovaks beyond the borders of Slovakia who could not partake of the blessings of Slovak independence. If at the present time, outside the borders of Slovakia, the absolute majority of informed Slovaks is again in the fight for the sacred Slovak cause of freedom and independence, without any reservations whatsoever, this is due in a large measure to the death of Tiso, the hevo and martyr of the 'Slovak nation. Today there is not a single country in the free world, where the Slovaks do not annually commemorate March 14, 1939, Slovak Independence Day, and the Slovak Day of Infamy, April 18, 1947-the day that the Benes Czechs-Czech Socialists and Communists- shamefully put Dr. Tiso to death on the gallows. And in all these manifestations and celebrations, the personality, heroic fight and martyr's death of President Dr. Joseph Tiso stand out pre-eminently as a symbol, as a permanent light of Slovak history. On this tenth anniversary of the Bratislava murder, it is appropriate, I believe, to point out the fundamental principles, which led Dr. Joseph Tiso in his work for his �SLOVAKIA 3 people all the way up to the gallows and which characterized one historical period of the Slovak nation. Tiso on Politics, Nation and State Like Andrew Hlinka, Dr. Joseph Tiso left to Slovak generations no compact work about his views on Slovak national life, on their mission and on the ideological foundations of Slovak politics. Always in the middle of obstinate struggles for the preservation of his people and Slovak national existence, in which he played the foremost role since 1918, Dr. Tiso had little time to write books, so he probably postponed the task for a time when he would depart from the political arena. But this was denied hilli by the executioner. Although ideologically he formulate<l the Slovak struggles for national life, and systematically in his countless manifestations and reflections placed the foundations of and consciously developed the fundamental principles of Slovak national ideology in a manner as no one else had in his century, or in previous centuries, a systematic explanation of Tiso's views still awaits the efforts of an expert. The first step in this direction was made by Prof. Dr. Stephen Polakovic during the lifetime of Dr. Tiso, when he expertly and systematically collected in the work "Tiso's Doctrine"l the fundamental concept of Dr. Tiso relating to nation, nationalism, state, religion, and social questions. Even though the volume bears the seal of war conditions in Slovakia, it remains for us thusJar, along with the final speech of Dr. Tiso before the Bratislava Court, which was edited by Dr. Joseph Pauco2, a priceless source of knowledge of the fundamental ideas, aims and efforts of Slovak political life in the first half of this century. These two literary works are not only a source of knowing the past, but also a sum total of the fundamental directives for national and political work, about which Dr. Joseph Tiso, as if following the example of the Old Testamnt prophets, said: "In profound humility we are paying tribute to our good God for the lig}:tt of principles of the natural law, according to which we conducted ourselves in the fight for �4 SLOVAKIA independence, as well as in our work of construction. A return to the natural law can be the only foundation upon which a new world can be built, a world of contentment, order, and permanent peace"3. Placing the foundation of Slovak politics on the Natural Law, Dr. Tiso also defined the aims and the ways of Slovak politics. "Our Slovak State was not born out of hatred, but out of our great love for our homeland," proclaimed Dr. Tiso on March 16, 1939. "Let us above all else be led by this thought: no hatred toward anyone, but love, an ardent love for our State, which inspires us to work and sacrifice ... " "A practical manifestation of the Natural Law is an~ shall remain our old goal: Slovakia for the Slovaks. Slovakia in its entirety and indivisible and without reservations in the legal, cultural, economical, and social departments, so that the independent Slovak nation might be the living carrier of all power and the consumer of all that the Slovak country contains and represents." Regarding politics as a service to the nation, Dr. Tiso during his many years of political activity pleaded tha.t political factors learn to depersonalize themselves. His understanding of politics was that "the interest of the nation is the highest directive of political work;" politics is not supposed to be "medium for several individuals, who with it would conceal their own materialistic interests. Politics serves the nation." As Tiso saw it, even "the State should serve the nation, therefore, it has the right to existence only insofar as it does not threaten the interests of the nation." As far as State order is concerned, this must "be subordinated to the law of morality and law; the State must respect the rigihts of the individual, the family, society, and hold sacred the right ,o f parents to educate their children, the right of free confession; it guarantees the right of private ownership and sefeguards the peaceful coexistence of labor and capital, of employer and employee." "Not force, but law which is founded on truth," was the thesis of Dr. Joseph Tiso, and he followed it in the full �SLOVAKIA 5 sense of the word throughout his life, because he preached and believed that "no one will be mistaken who builds on the nation and always has only the interests of his nation in mind. We have ta:ken over this thesis from stirring times for the future so that we might strengthen ourselves in the old convictions that individuals retire but the nation remains, and the person, who, separated completely from his own person, stands unconditionally in the service of the nation, knows how to hold his ground and is the only one fit to lead and to speak in the name of the nation." "The politician, more than any one else, must be the guardian of the traditional values of the nation and must be the ever ready interpreter of the Natural Law in any given situation. Should any one lack the one or the other, he is not fit to be the representative of the nation, because he will either become a figure tossed about by contemporary political or social currents which has no connection with the living corpus of the nation, or else he will be a museum guardian of the nation who stands afar from contemporary routes along which life flows and on which the fate of the future of the nation is determined." "Whoever boasts that he is a loyal son of the nation, he must also ponder what he is giving to his nation. Whether an infection which causes a fever, or bacilli which cause decay and can bring the nation to the grave; or whether he contributes labor which shall forever remain in the nation as a cell of healthy social and cultural development." "A nation whose sons do not know how to bear a blow and personal sacrifices, such a nation will not get far. The nation lives, the whole lives, only by the fight and work of individuals." "Love for the nation is a religious precept, and a person sins against the Fourth Commandment who does not love his nation. He bears a stigma not only as an earthly t raitor, but also as a transgressor who does not keep the Divine Commandmants." Every loyal son of the Slovak nation, acording to Tiso, "sanctifies his nationalism with a Christian spirit, so that �ti SLOVAKIA nationalism be not a slogan or a mantle of dubious aims, but an internal motivating force to create values for the benefit of the national whole." In the Spirit of Tiso for a New Independence From the above quotations it is quite evident that the main principles of Dr. Joseph Tiso's ideology were: 1. Natural Law; 2. Love in place of hatred; 3. Right instead of violence; 4. Respect for morality; 5. Nation above the State. 6. Loyalty to traditions; 7. Personal selflessness and sacrifice of political factors; 8. Nationalism sanctified by Ohristianity; 9. Social justice; and 10. Religious tolerance. During the decades of his successful political activity, Dr. Tiso developed these ideas not only in his manifestations to the people, but also in his classically and stately styled reflections, parliamentary speeches, and presidential messages, so that the expert schooled in statecraft and sociology will have little difficulty in systematically elaborating his ideology. nr. Tiso himself indicated Christianity as the outlet of his ideas, especially the philosophy of St. Thomas4, and in the social sphere the Papal Encyclicals. On the question of nationalism Tiso said that "the symbol of Slovak nationalism is Stur"5, because "Stur's nationalism was the dynamic force in individuals whom he prompted to work and socrifice for the nation; it was the connecting link of individuals into a rock-firm whole with a united aim and a united will ... "6 A study of Dr. Tiso's manifestations reveals that he frequently tied in his talks with the spiritual-political heritage of the followers of Louis Stur, the great Slovak patriot and "father of modern Slovak nationalsm." And Tiso did this consciously to preserve the continuity of Slovak ideological-politica l development and so that the Slovaks could build on traditions. If we compare the basic ideas of Stur's political and philosophical manifestations - which are dealt with in several published works7 - with Tiso's, then the ideological structure, as well as the entire political activity of Dr. Tiso, of course, shows an entire series of preferences and varied outlines. �SLOVAKIA 7 Objectively it may already be said today that tying in with Stur and the idelogical continuity of former Slovak generations, Dr. Tiso anchors more deeply in Christian world outlook on the individual and his relation to the state, nation, family, and society. His ideology is firmly founded on the principles of modern sociology and statecraft; it has solid philosophical foundations and a strictly logical system; it emanates from an idea and stresses the primacy of spirituality, but it depends on the reality of life and respects actuality; it is the result of long years of study and political experience, drawn from daily contact with the nation and into unceasing struggle with its enemies, so that it is, as it were, forged in the fire of battles and tested in confrontation with the actual life of the nation in the phase of its political formation, but also in the phase .of struggles for its natural rights and, finally, also in the period of building up its own state. In comparison to the ideology of the Sturites, we are concerned, therefore, with an ideology whose foundations are not only broader by far, but one which was more thought out, mature and tested ·b y life. Divine Providence had allowed Dr. Joseph Tiso a life of political activity almost as long as Stur's entire life (1815-1856) and, hence, he <!ould see the ideas, which he promulgated and foT which he labored and fought, validated in national life. If we should compare Dr. Tiso as a politician and ideologue with other factors of Slovak life, then objectively it can be said that during the last 100 years there was no political factor in Slovakia who could compare with Dr. Joseph Tiso as far as preparation for political activity, working out of ideology and the concert of expressed principles with their validation unto self-immolation are concerned. If any of them did shine in theoretical expressions and plans, either fate did not grant them to measure up with reality, or they were only gleaners of grain where Dr. Joseph Tiso was the owner of fruitful fields of ideological and character wealth. Living Slovak generations will therefore hardly find a better example than Dr. Tiso, or a better ideology than �8 SLOVAKIA the one he sanctified with his blood. Anchored in eternal principles and designed for the future of the Slovak nation, it can be the most certain course for winning a new and full independence for the Slovaks. Czech chauvinism and Communist hatred did not kill the idea of Slovak indepedence by murdering Dr. Tiso. Conversely, they gave the nation more martyrs and, therefore, the idea shall win out sooner or later. REFERIDNCIDS: 1. "Tisova nauka," Dr. Stefan Polakovic, Bratislava, 1941. ~- "Dr . Joz.e f Tiso o sebe," edited by Dr. Joseph Pauco, Passaic, N. J., 1952. 3. This and other quotations are taken from either one of the previous two references. 4. "All who recall our thesis that 'the nation is the substance and the state only the form' should know that is state-political formula is the practical consequence of the state•.p olitical theory Wihich is built on the foundations O'f Thomistic philosophy." SOOVAK, 1935. 5. See "Prve posolstvo" (The First Message), Ruizomberok, August 16, 1939. Already in 1936 Dr. Tiso had proclaimed: "It is this monument of Louis Stur, built in the Banovce country, that shall be the visible proof of the fact that we have progressed so far that only we, Slovak Catholics, have not forgotten our Slovak past and we pay our respects to the memory of our national awakeners even when they are Evangelicals (Lutherans), as was Stur." - SLOVAK, 1936. 6. Dr. Tiso also characterized Stiir's nationalism in this manner: "Stiir's nationalism - built on the foundation of the independent Slovak nation and the genuine Slovak language, because it acknowledges the law of God and the law nature - was the natural foundation of the life of the Slovak nation." - SLOVAK, 1936. 7. Among the most significant works are those of Professor Cfzevsky, Dr. Stephen Polakovic, Dr. Samuel S. Osusky, Profesor Rap ant, and Dr. Joseph Pauco. • • • WHO SAID IT? "The right of se1f-<leteiimination in:cluded in the .AJtlantic Charter does not carpry wliith it the right O!f any government to commit wholesale muTder or the right to make slaJVes of its own people, or of any other peoples in the world." - F. D. Roosevelt, Feb. 12, 1943. �SLOVAKIA 9 I WAS EDITOR OF PRESIDENT TISO'S NEWSPAPER JOSEPH PAUCO ( Msgr. Joseph Tiso, prelate of the Catholic Church, was president of the Slovak Republic from 1939 to 1945. The proCommunist regime of Dr. Edward Benes executed him on the gallows, April 18, 1947, after a lengthy mock trial, before which the presiding judge had declared, echoing the words of Benes, that "Tiso must hang." Dr. Pauco's article is a brief recollection of the years he spent in free Bratislava as "Tiso's" editor.) Shortly after I was appointed editor of the "SLOVAK," the official organ of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, my secretary entered my office to announce that President. Dr. Joseph Tiso wished to see me. "Where is he?" I asked excitedly. "In my office," replied the secretary. At that time I had a visitor, whom I requested to be excused because President Tiso had arrived, but the latter was already coming through the door of my office. Overhearing my request of the visitor, the President, greeting me and shaking my hand, said: "Now, Joe, you just finish your business with your visitor. I am a citizen like anyone else." That was characteristic of Dr. Joseph Tiso, the President of the Slovak Republic, who always considered himself only "one of the people." When my predecessor, Dr. Aladar Kocis, handed over the editoTShip of the "SLOVAK," he reminded me that, among other things, I should visit President Tiso regularly. Dr. Joseph Tiso, he told me, wanted to be informed about what was going on in the editorial office of the largest Slovak daily, which was otherwise regarded as the official newspaper of Dr. Tiso, since he was the chairman of the entire enterprise. But Dr. Tiso did not feel the necessity of personal contacts with the editorial office because of commercial considerations. He was mainly concerned with the spirit of the enterprise. It was necessary to defend Slovak interests. He �10 was aware of the great influence of the press and, hence, fully appreciated it. As a youthful journalist I naturally welcomed the support of the President. I visited Dr. Tiso regularly once a week, and when circumstances called for it even more frequently. Of course, besides personal visi½S, there were also many phone calls between the editorial office of the "SLOVAK" and the president's palace. The editor-in-chief always had the doors to t~e president's office open to him; there was no specified time for his visits. Whenever I phoned Tiso's personal secretary, Dr. Karol Murin, that I would like to see the president, in every instance he replied that I should come over at once. If my memory does not fail me, I believe I had to wait a half-hour or a bit more only twice in three years to see Dr. Tiso; and this happened because Tiso was in conference with foreign diplomatic representatives. Entering the president's office, I usually found Dr. Tiso at his desk, going through his mail or studying various state papers, proposed legislative acts, and activities of the various branches of government or the Hlinka Party, of which he was chairman. When I greeted him, he would raise his head, remove his spectacles and reply: "Welcome, young man, welcome!" Whenever I missed a meeting with the President, for some reason other, at the very next meeting he would ask where I had been, whether I had been i_ll. During these visits there were various matters that interested me. Of these not the least interesting was to observe the effects of the visitor before me. Once it would •b e a prime minister, other times a worker from the countryside; then again some deputy, economic expert, high officer, a foreign correspondent, or a member of the Cabinet. Once in a while some one would come up with an alarming report or rumor. President Tiso excluded no one from visiting him; he listened attentively to all and in every instance did whatever he could to satisfy all comers. Whenever I met him, �SLOVAKIA 11 President Tiso usually was either in a pensive or a smiling mood. Even at times when he appeared in a serious mood, and during our convers,a tion it would seem to me that in his mind he is returning to the fresh impressions of previous visitors, yet in a short while his face would brighten up and his melodious voice would ring out in healthy laughter. President Tiso had a real sense of humor. Dr. Joseph Tiso never acted in an affected or artificial manner. Once in 1939, when he was being welcomed in Nitra, an event which I witnessed, the district official addressed Tiso as "Your Excellency." At that Time Dr. Tiso smilingly reminded him: "Without the excellency, Mr. official!" From that time on, I never heard anyone address Dr. Tiso as "His Excellency." In his study Tiso was happy to be addressed simply as "Mr. President" (Pan prezident), as he was when his parishioners called him "Reverend Deacon." Conversations with Tiso usually began with his asking about one's health, his family, and his work. He was always very much interested in the work of our editorial office. President Tiso was not often curious about details, unless it was a matter of immediate interest, like, for example, the political side of our editorial work. Furthermore there was not a single visit during which we would not touch upon the most serious objective and personal moments which influenced Slovak politics. Dr. Tiso spoke openly about individual resolutions of the Parliament, the deputies, ministers, the Germans, and in general about everything that had any influence on Slovak life and the presidential office. On occasions Dr. Tiso recalled many innovations especially of his political opponents. He criticized them unsparingly and talked about them with feelings of bitterness; his criticism was sincere at all times, whether it concerned Slovaks or foreigners. I always felt refreshed in the President's study. Usu.ally Dr. Tiso gave no directives how any article was to be written. On the other hand, however, he willingly read the �12 SLOVAKIA more delicate articles before they went to print. Even when I asked him what from the ideological standpoint we should deal with most on the pages of the "SLOVAK," he would usually reply: "Hold the line. Don't let yourself be broken. Don't be discouraged-persevere!" Nothing more and nothing less. Otherwise, however, the editorial office of the "SLOVAK" had an exemplary coworker in the person of President Tiso. His speeches, articles and messages were care-fully prepared. Dr. Tiso prepared and wrote them himself. On occasions, especially for Christmas and March 14th, the President gave us articles written in his own hand so that we might have them on time; these were usually accompanied by the remark: "Correct as you see fit." On his visits to us, he would always compliment all the workers connected with the paper, saying: "Fine work, men; keep up the good work; give the best that's in you!" I'll conclude with what I had mentioned at the beginning: the visits of President Tiso to the editorial office of the "SLOVAK." He came among us regularly. When he visited us the first time, all of us were very surprised that he was accompanied only by his personal secretary. No secret, no public police came with him; none in or outside the building; and none in his auto. On occasions he visited us coming on foot alone, without a bodyguard. That was Tiso: his people did not fear him, and he did not fear his people. No man in Slovakia was more revered and loved than was Tiso. I attended many gatherings which Dr. Tiso addressed; I traveled with him. Not once did he have more than one person accompany him. Not to guard him, but simply to accompany him. President Tiso moved about freely and without fear in Bratislava and everywhere in Slovakia, just as he did at the altar where he daily said the Holy Mass to his Divine Master. • • • REOOMMENDED $3.00; SLOVAK FOR (the set); "!Ih-obailr's "SLOVAK DE)SSONS" BOOKS: "The Slovaks" (Juircha.k BEGINNERS" (Books I-III) $1.50 English-Sl01Va:k Dictionary" $4.00 ; (iHroba.k) $3.50. �SLOVAKIA 13 EIGHT FATAL DAYS IN THE LIFE OF DR. JOSEPH TISO KAROL MURiN (The author of this article was the personal secretary of President Dr. Joseph Tiso from 1938 until Tiso's tragic end in 1947. At the present time Dr. Karol Murin is on the profes• sorial staff of Montreal University.) On April 8, 1945, just a month before the conclusion of World War II in the West, at President Tiso's request, I went to Munich to ask for an audience with His Eminence Cardinal Faulhaber. The reason was that I was to inform the Cardinal of Monsignor Tiso's arrivel in Kremsmlinster and petition him to graciously do what he could to protect the President of Slovakia. Munich at that time was a shambles. The Cardinal received me in the afternoon; his residence was damaged extensively by bombs and shells. After waiting for a moment in a small, poorly furnished room, Cardinal Faulhaber made his appearance, the burdens of the war clearly apparent on his features. After the customary Slovak greeting "Laudetur ... ," I went on one knee before him, kissed his ring, and then presented myself. The Cardinal replied to the greeting and asked me to be seated. After a few introductory words, I told him the purpose of my visit. I must admit that I did expect several questions. During the war years it had become the custom to classify people only into two categories: the democrats on the one side, and the nazis and fascists on the other. No one asked why or how a person got to be on the one or the other side, or even what one did. According to that attitude, which excluded all colors between black and white, Stalin and the bolsheviks were regarded as democrats, while Dr. Tiso was supposed to be a nazi; Benes, despite his pro-Soviet and evident bolshevizing tendencies and the fact that he was responsible for the death of thousands of people, was regarded as a "moral" democrat, while Dr. Tiso, despite his prayers and many acts of kindness and his great love for �14 SLOV.AlKIA his Slovak people, or . just because of this, was regarded as a criminal. Cardinal Faulhaber, however, never did belong among the people who measured morality according to their own interest and evaluated their neighbor and acknowledged his right to life only according to the benefit they might reap from him. He was accustomed to judge and measure 9,ccording to the eternal and unchangeable principles of 8hrist. That is why he had become the symbol of the fight against nazi blunders, and the world regarded him highly for it. "I know about your President," began Cardinal Faulhaber, "and I know that he defended the Christian Faith in Slovakia." From what he further said, it was evident that he was well-informed about Slovakia and especially about the activity of President Tiso. He immediately set himself to the task of doing what he could to secure the safety of Tiso in the face of the surge of passions resulting for the most part from the false information propagated by Dr. Edward Benes. The three alternatives mentioned by the Cardinal are proof of his love for President Tiso : 1. He invited the President to his residence; 2. he offered as a temporary abode for President Tiso the Capuchin monastery at Alt Otting; or, 3. the Scheyrn monastery. Both monasteries were in the Freising-Munich Archdiocese which Cardinal Faulhaber administered. According to circumstances, as they might develop in regard to Tiso, the Slovak President was free to resort to the alternative most favorable to him. My audience with Cardinal Faulhaber lasted two hours. He told me about what especially worried him and made him fearful about the future: about the plans formulated by fanatics for the last days of the war, about the night of the long knives ("Nacht der langen Messer"), during which they intended to liquidate revered and respected Catholic priests and laity. The last half hour of my visit I spent with the Cardinal in his study. Looking over a map of Bavaria, His Eminence compared the advantages and disadvantages uf �SLOVAKIA 15 the two monasteries; the Scheyrn Monastery was more advantageous, except, of course, if the "night of the long knives" should be realized. At the end of my visit I thanked Cardinal Faulhaber sincerely for the time he gave me, asked for his blessing, and departed after His Eminence bade me Godspeed. President Tiso was happy to hear my report about my visit to Cardinal Faulhaber after I returned to Kremsmtiunster. In no time at all, President Tiso decided to accept the hospitality of the Archbishop's palace only as a last resort; he did not wish to burden one of the outstanding Princes of the Church with the cares and troubles of his Slovak people and his own person, because he was aware of the fact that the saintly Cardinal was greatly burdened by the troubles of his own German people. At the beginning of May, 1945, when Dr. Joseph Tiso left Kremsmtinster for the West, he was not definitely certain whether he would seek refuge at Alt Otting or Scheyrn. In any event, however, he decided to first stop at Alt Otting. On the first leg of his journey, President Tiso was supposed to leave a written or oral message for me at the rectory of the Bavarian community of Stammham. I set out after President Tiso about two weeks later, stopping first at Stammham, where the pastor told mf': that I would find the person I was seeking at the first place we had talked about. That same afternoon I met with President Tiso in the monastery at Alt Otting. My first task was to again make contact with Cardinal Faulhaber. Since the war had just ended in the West, everything was chaos and confusion; outside the military, there was no public transportation to speak of; and no one was permitted to travel even short distances without a permit. After about a week in Alt Otting, which, by the way, is one of the most famous of pilgrimage cities, I was quite fortunate in getting to Munich. The Cardinal received me shortly after I was nounced. He was in ·b etter spirits than he had been April 8th: the "night of the long knives," thank God, not come about! In due time the Cardinal told me of anon did his �16 SLOV.A.I{JA plan to help President Tiso: he wanted to secure a plane to take Tiso to the Vatican. However, before he could begin working out his plan, the Cardinal said, he wanted to get the assent of the Papal Nuncio. During the entire war, the Nuncio for Germany was Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo. Cardinal Faulhaber asked me to look him up as soon as possible and present his desire to help Dr. Joseph Tiso to him, reckoning also with help to transport Tiso to the Vatican. In the Cardinal's name I was to ask His Excellency whether he agreed with his step. At that time the Papal Nuncio, His Excellency Cesare Orsenigo, resided in Eichstatt in northern Bavaria. To get to him by auto I needed gasoline and to get gasoline I had to see the American authorities. Aware of this, Cardinal Faulhaber wrote a letter telling whoever it may concern that I was his courier, carrying mail and reports from the Cardinal to the Papal Nuncio. For a longer time the Cardinal could not send mail to the Nuncio, so he really appreciated this opportunity to do so. Besides that Cardinal Faulhaber gave me a general recommendat ion which I could use as I thought best. The next day I travelled by auto to Eichstatt. Below the portals to the Archbishop's palace, by sheer accident, I met with a group of four Slovaks, who had come by auto. After hearty handshakes and embraces, all gratefully accompanied me on my journey. Archbishop Orsenigo received me warmly. After I gave him the mail from Cardinal Faulhaber, he listened with great interest to my report about the fate of Preside,1t Tiso. To the Cardinal's question he replied thusly: "Tell His Eminence that I not only agree that he do everything possible in his power to save Dr. Tiso, but that I most ardently beg him to do so." Then the Archbishop said that he was completely out of contact with the world, adding that a certain member of the Swiss diplomatic corps in Berlin is supposed to visit him this same afternoon and take his first mail in a long time to the Vatican. He graciously offered to be of service if I had anything to send outside the borders of Germany. �SLOVAKIA 17 As soon as Cardinal Faulhaber had the Nuncio's reply, he immediately wrote a letter to the Vatican in which he told of his intention to transport Dr. Tiso by plane to the Vatican. His greatest worry was how to send the letter. Besides American planes only an accidental diplomat, who saved his petrol well, could be considered. In about a week I was supposed to return for further reports and advice. After eight days, I visited Cardinal Faulhaber again, who greeted me and then told me of the unfortunate thing tkat had happened. He was almost in tears. The Cardinal told me that the day after he had written the letter to the Vatican in regard to Tiso, he had secured a way of getting the letter to the Vatican. According to a promise made to the Cardinal by a person unknown to me, this person was supposed to take the letter before his departure from Munich. But the day before my last visit to Cardinal Faulhaber, when he asked his chancery whether there was any reply from the Vatican in regard to Tiso, he learned to his utter sorrow that the letter was still in his palace, the person who promised to deliver it to the Vatican evidently forgetting to pick it up. This unexpected delay worried the Cardinal and his concern was great, as if he had a foreboding that so very much depended on those eight days. After giving vent to his great disappointment, Cardinal Faulhaber again gave me his blessing and asked me to return in a week. I did return, but only after over two years. After my last visit to the Cardinal, we learned about the arrest of the members of the Slovak Government in Kremsmlinster. President Tiso asked for reports about what had happened there. My request for a travel permit into Upper Austria lay on the desk of the CIC in Alt btting for several days. Fate came into play. With the CIC in Alt btting there collaborated a man by the name of Spigler who was originally from Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. When he came upon my name, Spigler immediately came to the monastery and forbade me to leave the building. After two days he took me to jail. During my confinement in the monastery, it became �18 SLOVAKIA quite evident that this Bratislava agent, full of personal resentment, found out that President Tiso was in the monastery. After my arrest President Tiso wrote to Cardinal Faulhaber, respectfully requesting His Eminence to notify the American authorities that he was staying in the monastery and that he use his influence to set me free, as well as that he c-o ntinue to give consideration to his own case. The Capuchin Provincial delivered the President's letter to Cardinal Faulhaber. In the meantime, I was transferred to a concentration camp where frightful conditions prevailed. One hot and sultry afternoon, at the beginning of June, 1945, a jeep pulled up before the barbed-wire camp. I became numb when I sighted President Tiso in it. It was at this point that my pilgrimage to various concentrati0!1 camps with President Tiso began, the tour which finally ended in the Bratislava jail. We felt the benefiscence of good Cardinal Faulhaber once again in the concentration camp at Garmisch Partenkirchen. It was on his initiative that the events, which had taken place during the reception of our group in this camp, were investigated. The Cardinal's effort to help Dr. Joseph Tiso did not result in success. Nevertheless, the Slovaks will never forget that Cardinal Faulhaber, now deceased, really did try to save Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of the Slovak Republic . • • • WHO SAID IT? "W:t"th eq'll!al enlthusfasm we are today manifesting for the ideaJls of our, and onliy our, Owchoslovruk Democracy, which is on its way of development ,t o a new poople's fomn . . . . T.he unreseJ:1ved alliance with Oll!r Eastern ncighbor, witlh the mighty USSR, bUft also our friend!ly coot'acts wirtih the rest ,of tlhe world, especiaUy with our western democracies, gives us the feeUng of oerlainty that no mrutter what might h!appen a!broad, O'Ur ,inJternatiiona1 positt'ion is £i:nm rund we need not fea1r that we can come uipon new d'aingera aind dlnifiou[ties." ([)r. Joseph Lettrich, Vice,Ohairm.an of the Exem.rt.ive Oommittee of the "Coundl of Free Czechoslov.aJkia,'' CAIS, November 18, 1947). �SLOVAKIA 19 SLOVAKIA: TRIAL OF DR. JOSEPH TISO (Under previous order of the House, the Hon. Ray J . Madden from Indiana, was recognized for 20 minutes to make the following address on the floor of the House of Representatives, March 31, 1947): Mr. Speaker, America and all liberty-loving nations should at this time concentrate against international situations which might bring about war in the future. I have, on several occasions, stated on the floor of Congress that the application of the principles of the Atlantic Charter is our greatest antidote for future peace. Self-government, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion is essential for smaller countries as it is for th~ large nations. Our Nation, during World War II, spent billions of dollars and sacrificed in lives and casualties to preserve the above principles in order to insure liberty and fnture peace. Since VJ-day, aggression and tyranny has again launched in certain areas of Europe. The latest example of persecution, unfair trial, and threatened execution for political belief is that of Dr. Joseph Tiso, former President of the Interim Republic of Slovakia. Dr. Tiso has been acclaimed a hero in the eyes of nearly all the people of Slovakia and the prevailing majority of Americans of Slovak ancestry. My attention has been called to the fact that over 80 percent of the Slovak American fraternal organizations have forthrightly declared themselves to be of the opinion that Tiso was a hero in the defense of the best interests of the Slovak people. During his presidency, Slovakia thrived, progressed, and developed internally more than it had during any five years of the existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The communistic control now over the country of Slovakia will execute Dr. Tiso, a political prisoner, unless our Government intervenes. This communistic control is inflicted upon the people of Slovakia in spite of the fact that the election of May 26, 1946, gave over 64 percent of the total vote cast against the present government. The press is likewise controlled, at least to the extent that the newspaper cannot publish what they think. This is evidenced in the fact that four American newspapers have �20 SLOVAKIA been barred in Slovakia. The present communistic government will brook no freedom of political thought; though the people voted for Christian democracy, they received totalitarian communism. The archbishop of Slovakia testified at the trial of Dr. Tiso. He is and has been a respected member not only of the hierarchy of Czecho-Slovakia, but of the official family of Czecho-Slovakia, including its President Edward Benes. Appearing as a witness for Dr. Tiso, the archbishop testified that: Tiso acted and worked in the interest of Slovakia and was never a traitor, and that his electeion as President of Slovakia was the will of 90 percent of the Slovaks at that time and was acclaimed by the bishops, priests, and ministers of both the Catholic and Protestant churches. It is apparent that Czecho-Slovakia has been re-created with the aid of Moscow and that Moscow will undoubtedly demand the extinction of Slovak national leaders of ability and high intelelct. The ways of the Communists are devious and it behooves us to understand more of the Slovak situation. In the meantime, the least that freedom loving nations can ask is that the so-called peoples courts in the Communist-dominated countries in eastern Europe, refrain from any further political executions or from liquidating political opposition by long-term imprisonment as in the case of Archbishop Stepinac. All of this adds up to the price we will have to pay to aid in the establishing of true democracy in the countries of eastern Europe to insure world peace. In supporting President Truman's international program, we cannot be unmindful of what is happening throughout this region in Europe, comprising over 100,000,000 Christians who have nothing in common with communism. We have heard of political executions, imprisonment, and banishment of outstanding citizens in Poland, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and other small countries. Thousands of brave Polish soldiers who fought to stamp out fascism are now prohibited from returning to their native Poland by a communistic controlled government. Americans are asking the question "do we not have at least a moral obli- �SLOVAKIA 21 gation to veice our protest against such trials and executions?" The judge who presided at the trial of Dr. Tiso, previous to the trial, vowed personal vengeance on Tiso and was provided this opportunity by being placed in charge ef the case. These facts, though not appearing in the American press releases, are not disputed. Almost uninimously, the people of Slovak descent in America, are rising in protest to the impending execution of Dr. Tiso. I ask the Members of Congress to join with me in protesting this unjust conviction by interceding with President Truman and Secretary Marshall to use their good offices to prevent this injustice. We might as well apply the words of the Honorable Judge Robert H. Jackson: All experience teaches that there are certain things you cannot do under guise of judicial trial. * * * You must put no man on trial before anything that is called a court, if you are not prepared to establish his personal guilt * * * If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict. - Congressional Record. • ON TISO'S BEHALF: • • PLEA OF THE COUNCIL OF SLOVAK BISHOPS To the Presidium of the Slovak National Council in Bratislava: The Catholic Episcopal Council of Slovakia, in past years, has more frequently turned to appropriate governmental offices in the interest of those who were suffering, were imprisoned or persecuted - without regard to whetlier Catholics or non-Catholics were concerned. The example of the Divine Samaritan and His positive command prompted and encouraged us to raise our protective voice in the interests of the people who were suffering on account of political or racial reasons and we did that at a time when we could expect various humiliations in return. �22 SLOVAKIA This noblest Model in all history and His commandment, expressed in the Gospel, we bear in mind even now, when we respectfully commend to Your graciousness the fate of the former President Dr. Joseph Tiso. We do this not only because a Catholic priest is concerned, but also because the solution of his personal problem shall have a far-reaching influence on the thinking and behavior of a part of the Slovak nation in respect to the renovated Czecho- Slovak Republic and its representatives. Furthermore, we are prompted to take this step also by the generally known actuality, which is conceded by all objective critics, that Dr. Joseph Tiso always was a zealous priest, of a virtuous life. In his extensive activity he tried to work for the good of the whole, and personally did not enrich himself. The administration of justice belongs among the most difficult tasks of state power. Experience proves that this delicate task is aggravated when the judgment of political transgressions is concerned. History tells us how many fatal mistakes were made during political trials - and this results from the delicate task of impartially judging the activities of a political opponent. So, it is no rarity that after rendering severe verdicts in political trials, sooner or later a call for their revision was made. In judging the activity especially of a political factor his intentions also should be given · consideration. The majority of the Slovak nation is convinced with us that the intentions of Dr. Joseph Tiso while performing public functions were the best. Certainly some mistakes were made and the Catholic Bishops of Slovakia did not fail to bring these to his attention. However, here we must mention the generally known reality that even the most clever political factors frequently made serious mistakes. Nevertheless an unbiased observer - whether a contemporary or historian - can deduce an over-all judgment only when he evaluates also the good and positive things they did. And this thesis often outweighs the mistakes which they made in their weakness. �S LOVAKIA 23 It will be pertinent to the matter at hand to shed some light also from another viewpoint on the mistakes which are ascribed to Dr. Joseph Tiso. We respectfully point out at least some of the circumstances. After the most recent announcements of the present governmental factors even the 2ilina events of October, 1938, are presented in a different light than that shed by the one-sided propaganda to persuade the public; nay, even in the press it was demonstrated that in these political changes practically all Slovak political parties had participated. Here it is necessary to recall also the very important document which has just now been made public during the Nuremberg trials; we mean the letter of the ruler of the Hungarian realm sent to Berlin in March 13, 1939. This weighty circumstance gives an altogether different significance to the March 14, 1939, decision of Dr. Joseph Tiso and the other political factors of that time. One should think about what would have happened with the Slovak nation if the plan of Horthy had succeeded? We also know that after the issuance of anti-Jewish regulations, Dr. Joseph Tiso did want to resign from the presidency. That he did not do so happened because he tried to hamper and ameliorate the effects of those provisions, as well as to prevent a greater evil. It is worthy of consideration that what the ruler of the larger and more independent Hungary could not prevent in his country Dr. Joseph Tiso could not prevent in Slovakia. After considering all the circumstances after the passage of time, even other pilloried political mistakes - such as the war in the east, the events of August 29, 1944 can be judged otherwise than the manner in which it is done by a one-sided propaganda. The entire Slovak public is following the developments of events around Dr. Joseph Tiso with attention and in its majority is taking a negative stand towards those efforts which would incite hatred against his person. Thereby the unfortunate splintering of the nation is increased when unity of all forces is so greatly desired for the important �24 SLOVAKIA work of construction. It will be to the credit of the farsightedness of the State and will serve the peace of the nation, if the case of Dr. Joseph Tiso is solved in a cautious way and not with merciless hardness. The above thoughts have prompted us to respectfully submit our plea for your gracious consideration and favorable decision. With an expression of profound respect: (Signatures) : Dr. Karol Kmefko, Archbishop-Bishop of Nitra; Jozef Carsky, Bishop-Apostolic Administrator; Dr. Andrej Skraltik, Bishop on Banska Bystrica; Dr. Jozef Tomanocy; Dr. Karol Jantausch; Dr. Eduard Necsey, ordaining Bishop. Bratislava, January 8, 1946. • • • HERO AND PATRIOT OF SLOVAKIA The smaller nations have been the marytrs in tlte maelstrom that evil men made out of Europe in the last decade. Changing fortunes of war often presented a double crown of martyrdom. Honest men in these minor states often found it difficult to see where the path of honor lay, but once their conscience revealed the way they remained steadfast in what they believed their sacred duty. Slovakia has presented such a puzzling picture. The Slovaks had long sought and had long been denied their independence. When the moment dawned for freedom before the last war, there is no doubt that the patriots of that land felt that their long-deferred ambitions had been realized. There was outside wonder at the auspices under which freedom came but there can be no question about the sincerity of the Slovak patriots who meant to use their new prerogatives solely for the good of Slovakia. Chief among these was Monsignor Joseph Tiso who was elected president of the new republic. The war's outcome threw Slovakia as part of the old Czecho-Slovakian state into the Red orbit. Monsignor Tiso was placed on trial for treason. It could not be proved that he was a traitor to Slovakia for the simple reason that he never was a traitor to Slovakia. But that did not prevent �SLOVAKIA 25 his condemnation and execution. History is filled with these rigged trials and martyrs deaths. The condemned priest left a noble testament to his beloved Slovak people. On the eve of his unjust execution he wrote: "In the spirit of the sacrifice I am about to make, I send this message to the Slovak nation: "In harmony and unison pursue always, everywhere and in every respect the great principle: FOR GOD AND FOR THE NATION. "This is not only the unequivocal intent of Slovak history, but also the explicit command of God, Who has made it the law of nature a11J has inculcated it into the soul of the nation and every one of its members. "This precept I have served all my life and, therefore, I consider myself first of all a martyr of God's law. Secondly, I feel that I am a martyr in the defense of Christianity against bolshevism, against which our nation must in all possible ways defend itself, not only in the spirit of its Christian character, but also in the interest of its future. "As I beg you to remember me in your prayers, so do I promise. to pray to God Almighty for you and supplicate that he bless the Slovak nation in its vital struggle for God artd for the nation, so that the Slovak nation will always remain a faithful and devoted son of the Church of Christ." When this black night in Europe passes with the destruction of the powers of darkness incarnated in atheistic communism Father Tiso will be seen as the hero that he truly was. - (The Catholic Universe Bulletin, Cleveland, 0 ., 6-27-47). • • • THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT SWVAKIA P.A. HROBAK Today there is no doubt that the original homeland ancestors of present-day Slovaks was somewhere the of beyond the Carpathian Mountains. We know that the Slovaks came into their present territory - which was later incorrectly called "Uhry" (hura=hora; uhor, uhorie= near, at the foot of, the mountains)-through the western Carpathians. Historical records do not tell us exastly when the Slovak ancients migrated from their original homeland, � SLOV AKIA PubHshed VOL. VII quarterly by the Slovak League of America MARCH, 1957 NO. 1 (22) THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. JOSEPH TISO'S EXECUTION JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM When Monsignor Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of thewartime Slovak Republic, was executed on the gallows on April 18, 1947, a victim of Communist and Czech vengeance, with the assistance of the adherents of Czecho-Communist collaboration most of whom are today living in exile, the Vatican broadcast, commenting on the reaction of the world press to Tiso's murder, said: "As a martyr of his love for his country, Dr. Tiso-who finally died in a very nice manner and as a priest internally very dignified, even though the manner of putting him to death was not befitting a priest-shall continue to live in the Catholic Slovak nation. Tendencious articles in the world press cannot change this fact." Ten years later, it is not necessary to prove the truthfulness of that forecast. Shortly after the first President of the Slovak Republic was surrendered to his vengeful political opponents, there resounded in the American and world press so many manifestations of sympathy, admiration, and respect for Dr. Joseph Tiso, as had been tendered no Slovak in the thousand-year-old stirring history of the Slovak people. Verily, Dr. Tiso outgrew the Slovak framework and "continues to live today" not only in the hearts of his Slovak people, but in the hearts of millions of people who love truth and freedom. Slovakia and the Slovak nation still belongs to the world which did not succumb to Communism, to the world which, so to speak, is personified in Dr. Tiso and his fate. And many people even here on the American continent today see in Tiso the first great victim of Communism in the attack on the civilized world. With decent and intelligent people, the name of Tiso has �2 SLOVAKIA become the key to sympathy for and frequently also to the knowledge of Slovakia and our fight and destiny. In this unusual turn of world public opinion, it is interesting to recall what Dr. Joseph Tiso said when he was asked by the so-called National Court in Bratislava why he had left Slovakia. Tiso at that time had replied: "I left Slovakia, because I wished to make the claims of the Slovak nation to its own way of life better known and more understandable to the Western powers." Of course, we know that the Western powers did not allow the living Tiso to do this, but we also have knowledge that they did not know, and still do not know, how to prevent the dead Tiso from fulfilling his mission. 'Dhe political murder, of which Dr. Tiso was the victim, did not bring about a change of heart only in alien circles, in circles frequently unfavorable to Slovakia and disinterested in the fate of Slovak nation. The crime committed against Dr. Tiso has stirred the conscience and awakened from national lethargy and indifference the Slovaks themselves, and especially the Slovaks beyond the borders of Slovakia who could not partake of the blessings of Slovak independence. If at the present time, outside the borders of Slovakia, the absolute majority of informed Slovaks is again in the fight for the sacred Slovak cause of freedom and independence, without any reservations whatsoever, this is due in a large measure to the death of Tiso, the hevo and martyr of the 'Slovak nation. Today there is not a single country in the free world, where the Slovaks do not annually commemorate March 14, 1939, Slovak Independence Day, and the Slovak Day of Infamy, April 18, 1947-the day that the Benes Czechs-Czech Socialists and Communists- shamefully put Dr. Tiso to death on the gallows. And in all these manifestations and celebrations, the personality, heroic fight and martyr's death of President Dr. Joseph Tiso stand out pre-eminently as a symbol, as a permanent light of Slovak history. On this tenth anniversary of the Bratislava murder, it is appropriate, I believe, to point out the fundamental principles, which led Dr. Joseph Tiso in his work for his �SLOVAKIA 3 people all the way up to the gallows and which characterized one historical period of the Slovak nation. Tiso on Politics, Nation and State Like Andrew Hlinka, Dr. Joseph Tiso left to Slovak generations no compact work about his views on Slovak national life, on their mission and on the ideological foundations of Slovak politics. Always in the middle of obstinate struggles for the preservation of his people and Slovak national existence, in which he played the foremost role since 1918, Dr. Tiso had little time to write books, so he probably postponed the task for a time when he would depart from the political arena. But this was denied hilli by the executioner. Although ideologically he formulate<l the Slovak struggles for national life, and systematically in his countless manifestations and reflections placed the foundations of and consciously developed the fundamental principles of Slovak national ideology in a manner as no one else had in his century, or in previous centuries, a systematic explanation of Tiso's views still awaits the efforts of an expert. The first step in this direction was made by Prof. Dr. Stephen Polakovic during the lifetime of Dr. Tiso, when he expertly and systematically collected in the work "Tiso's Doctrine"l the fundamental concept of Dr. Tiso relating to nation, nationalism, state, religion, and social questions. Even though the volume bears the seal of war conditions in Slovakia, it remains for us thusJar, along with the final speech of Dr. Tiso before the Bratislava Court, which was edited by Dr. Joseph Pauco2, a priceless source of knowledge of the fundamental ideas, aims and efforts of Slovak political life in the first half of this century. These two literary works are not only a source of knowing the past, but also a sum total of the fundamental directives for national and political work, about which Dr. Joseph Tiso, as if following the example of the Old Testamnt prophets, said: "In profound humility we are paying tribute to our good God for the lig}:tt of principles of the natural law, according to which we conducted ourselves in the fight for �4 SLOVAKIA independence, as well as in our work of construction. A return to the natural law can be the only foundation upon which a new world can be built, a world of contentment, order, and permanent peace"3. Placing the foundation of Slovak politics on the Natural Law, Dr. Tiso also defined the aims and the ways of Slovak politics. "Our Slovak State was not born out of hatred, but out of our great love for our homeland," proclaimed Dr. Tiso on March 16, 1939. "Let us above all else be led by this thought: no hatred toward anyone, but love, an ardent love for our State, which inspires us to work and sacrifice ... " "A practical manifestation of the Natural Law is an~ shall remain our old goal: Slovakia for the Slovaks. Slovakia in its entirety and indivisible and without reservations in the legal, cultural, economical, and social departments, so that the independent Slovak nation might be the living carrier of all power and the consumer of all that the Slovak country contains and represents." Regarding politics as a service to the nation, Dr. Tiso during his many years of political activity pleaded tha.t political factors learn to depersonalize themselves. His understanding of politics was that "the interest of the nation is the highest directive of political work;" politics is not supposed to be "medium for several individuals, who with it would conceal their own materialistic interests. Politics serves the nation." As Tiso saw it, even "the State should serve the nation, therefore, it has the right to existence only insofar as it does not threaten the interests of the nation." As far as State order is concerned, this must "be subordinated to the law of morality and law; the State must respect the rigihts of the individual, the family, society, and hold sacred the right ,o f parents to educate their children, the right of free confession; it guarantees the right of private ownership and sefeguards the peaceful coexistence of labor and capital, of employer and employee." "Not force, but law which is founded on truth," was the thesis of Dr. Joseph Tiso, and he followed it in the full �SLOVAKIA 5 sense of the word throughout his life, because he preached and believed that "no one will be mistaken who builds on the nation and always has only the interests of his nation in mind. We have ta:ken over this thesis from stirring times for the future so that we might strengthen ourselves in the old convictions that individuals retire but the nation remains, and the person, who, separated completely from his own person, stands unconditionally in the service of the nation, knows how to hold his ground and is the only one fit to lead and to speak in the name of the nation." "The politician, more than any one else, must be the guardian of the traditional values of the nation and must be the ever ready interpreter of the Natural Law in any given situation. Should any one lack the one or the other, he is not fit to be the representative of the nation, because he will either become a figure tossed about by contemporary political or social currents which has no connection with the living corpus of the nation, or else he will be a museum guardian of the nation who stands afar from contemporary routes along which life flows and on which the fate of the future of the nation is determined." "Whoever boasts that he is a loyal son of the nation, he must also ponder what he is giving to his nation. Whether an infection which causes a fever, or bacilli which cause decay and can bring the nation to the grave; or whether he contributes labor which shall forever remain in the nation as a cell of healthy social and cultural development." "A nation whose sons do not know how to bear a blow and personal sacrifices, such a nation will not get far. The nation lives, the whole lives, only by the fight and work of individuals." "Love for the nation is a religious precept, and a person sins against the Fourth Commandment who does not love his nation. He bears a stigma not only as an earthly t raitor, but also as a transgressor who does not keep the Divine Commandmants." Every loyal son of the Slovak nation, acording to Tiso, "sanctifies his nationalism with a Christian spirit, so that �ti SLOVAKIA nationalism be not a slogan or a mantle of dubious aims, but an internal motivating force to create values for the benefit of the national whole." In the Spirit of Tiso for a New Independence From the above quotations it is quite evident that the main principles of Dr. Joseph Tiso's ideology were: 1. Natural Law; 2. Love in place of hatred; 3. Right instead of violence; 4. Respect for morality; 5. Nation above the State. 6. Loyalty to traditions; 7. Personal selflessness and sacrifice of political factors; 8. Nationalism sanctified by Ohristianity; 9. Social justice; and 10. Religious tolerance. During the decades of his successful political activity, Dr. Tiso developed these ideas not only in his manifestations to the people, but also in his classically and stately styled reflections, parliamentary speeches, and presidential messages, so that the expert schooled in statecraft and sociology will have little difficulty in systematically elaborating his ideology. nr. Tiso himself indicated Christianity as the outlet of his ideas, especially the philosophy of St. Thomas4, and in the social sphere the Papal Encyclicals. On the question of nationalism Tiso said that "the symbol of Slovak nationalism is Stur"5, because "Stur's nationalism was the dynamic force in individuals whom he prompted to work and socrifice for the nation; it was the connecting link of individuals into a rock-firm whole with a united aim and a united will ... "6 A study of Dr. Tiso's manifestations reveals that he frequently tied in his talks with the spiritual-political heritage of the followers of Louis Stur, the great Slovak patriot and "father of modern Slovak nationalsm." And Tiso did this consciously to preserve the continuity of Slovak ideological-politica l development and so that the Slovaks could build on traditions. If we compare the basic ideas of Stur's political and philosophical manifestations - which are dealt with in several published works7 - with Tiso's, then the ideological structure, as well as the entire political activity of Dr. Tiso, of course, shows an entire series of preferences and varied outlines. �SLOVAKIA 7 Objectively it may already be said today that tying in with Stur and the idelogical continuity of former Slovak generations, Dr. Tiso anchors more deeply in Christian world outlook on the individual and his relation to the state, nation, family, and society. His ideology is firmly founded on the principles of modern sociology and statecraft; it has solid philosophical foundations and a strictly logical system; it emanates from an idea and stresses the primacy of spirituality, but it depends on the reality of life and respects actuality; it is the result of long years of study and political experience, drawn from daily contact with the nation and into unceasing struggle with its enemies, so that it is, as it were, forged in the fire of battles and tested in confrontation with the actual life of the nation in the phase of its political formation, but also in the phase .of struggles for its natural rights and, finally, also in the period of building up its own state. In comparison to the ideology of the Sturites, we are concerned, therefore, with an ideology whose foundations are not only broader by far, but one which was more thought out, mature and tested ·b y life. Divine Providence had allowed Dr. Joseph Tiso a life of political activity almost as long as Stur's entire life (1815-1856) and, hence, he <!ould see the ideas, which he promulgated and foT which he labored and fought, validated in national life. If we should compare Dr. Tiso as a politician and ideologue with other factors of Slovak life, then objectively it can be said that during the last 100 years there was no political factor in Slovakia who could compare with Dr. Joseph Tiso as far as preparation for political activity, working out of ideology and the concert of expressed principles with their validation unto self-immolation are concerned. If any of them did shine in theoretical expressions and plans, either fate did not grant them to measure up with reality, or they were only gleaners of grain where Dr. Joseph Tiso was the owner of fruitful fields of ideological and character wealth. Living Slovak generations will therefore hardly find a better example than Dr. Tiso, or a better ideology than �8 SLOVAKIA the one he sanctified with his blood. Anchored in eternal principles and designed for the future of the Slovak nation, it can be the most certain course for winning a new and full independence for the Slovaks. Czech chauvinism and Communist hatred did not kill the idea of Slovak indepedence by murdering Dr. Tiso. Conversely, they gave the nation more martyrs and, therefore, the idea shall win out sooner or later. REFERIDNCIDS: 1. "Tisova nauka," Dr. Stefan Polakovic, Bratislava, 1941. ~- "Dr . Joz.e f Tiso o sebe," edited by Dr. Joseph Pauco, Passaic, N. J., 1952. 3. This and other quotations are taken from either one of the previous two references. 4. "All who recall our thesis that 'the nation is the substance and the state only the form' should know that is state-political formula is the practical consequence of the state•.p olitical theory Wihich is built on the foundations O'f Thomistic philosophy." SOOVAK, 1935. 5. See "Prve posolstvo" (The First Message), Ruizomberok, August 16, 1939. Already in 1936 Dr. Tiso had proclaimed: "It is this monument of Louis Stur, built in the Banovce country, that shall be the visible proof of the fact that we have progressed so far that only we, Slovak Catholics, have not forgotten our Slovak past and we pay our respects to the memory of our national awakeners even when they are Evangelicals (Lutherans), as was Stur." - SLOVAK, 1936. 6. Dr. Tiso also characterized Stiir's nationalism in this manner: "Stiir's nationalism - built on the foundation of the independent Slovak nation and the genuine Slovak language, because it acknowledges the law of God and the law nature - was the natural foundation of the life of the Slovak nation." - SLOVAK, 1936. 7. Among the most significant works are those of Professor Cfzevsky, Dr. Stephen Polakovic, Dr. Samuel S. Osusky, Profesor Rap ant, and Dr. Joseph Pauco. • • • WHO SAID IT? "The right of se1f-<leteiimination in:cluded in the .AJtlantic Charter does not carpry wliith it the right O!f any government to commit wholesale muTder or the right to make slaJVes of its own people, or of any other peoples in the world." - F. D. Roosevelt, Feb. 12, 1943. �SLOVAKIA 9 I WAS EDITOR OF PRESIDENT TISO'S NEWSPAPER JOSEPH PAUCO ( Msgr. Joseph Tiso, prelate of the Catholic Church, was president of the Slovak Republic from 1939 to 1945. The proCommunist regime of Dr. Edward Benes executed him on the gallows, April 18, 1947, after a lengthy mock trial, before which the presiding judge had declared, echoing the words of Benes, that "Tiso must hang." Dr. Pauco's article is a brief recollection of the years he spent in free Bratislava as "Tiso's" editor.) Shortly after I was appointed editor of the "SLOVAK," the official organ of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, my secretary entered my office to announce that President. Dr. Joseph Tiso wished to see me. "Where is he?" I asked excitedly. "In my office," replied the secretary. At that time I had a visitor, whom I requested to be excused because President Tiso had arrived, but the latter was already coming through the door of my office. Overhearing my request of the visitor, the President, greeting me and shaking my hand, said: "Now, Joe, you just finish your business with your visitor. I am a citizen like anyone else." That was characteristic of Dr. Joseph Tiso, the President of the Slovak Republic, who always considered himself only "one of the people." When my predecessor, Dr. Aladar Kocis, handed over the editoTShip of the "SLOVAK," he reminded me that, among other things, I should visit President Tiso regularly. Dr. Joseph Tiso, he told me, wanted to be informed about what was going on in the editorial office of the largest Slovak daily, which was otherwise regarded as the official newspaper of Dr. Tiso, since he was the chairman of the entire enterprise. But Dr. Tiso did not feel the necessity of personal contacts with the editorial office because of commercial considerations. He was mainly concerned with the spirit of the enterprise. It was necessary to defend Slovak interests. He �10 was aware of the great influence of the press and, hence, fully appreciated it. As a youthful journalist I naturally welcomed the support of the President. I visited Dr. Tiso regularly once a week, and when circumstances called for it even more frequently. Of course, besides personal visi½S, there were also many phone calls between the editorial office of the "SLOVAK" and the president's palace. The editor-in-chief always had the doors to t~e president's office open to him; there was no specified time for his visits. Whenever I phoned Tiso's personal secretary, Dr. Karol Murin, that I would like to see the president, in every instance he replied that I should come over at once. If my memory does not fail me, I believe I had to wait a half-hour or a bit more only twice in three years to see Dr. Tiso; and this happened because Tiso was in conference with foreign diplomatic representatives. Entering the president's office, I usually found Dr. Tiso at his desk, going through his mail or studying various state papers, proposed legislative acts, and activities of the various branches of government or the Hlinka Party, of which he was chairman. When I greeted him, he would raise his head, remove his spectacles and reply: "Welcome, young man, welcome!" Whenever I missed a meeting with the President, for some reason other, at the very next meeting he would ask where I had been, whether I had been i_ll. During these visits there were various matters that interested me. Of these not the least interesting was to observe the effects of the visitor before me. Once it would •b e a prime minister, other times a worker from the countryside; then again some deputy, economic expert, high officer, a foreign correspondent, or a member of the Cabinet. Once in a while some one would come up with an alarming report or rumor. President Tiso excluded no one from visiting him; he listened attentively to all and in every instance did whatever he could to satisfy all comers. Whenever I met him, �SLOVAKIA 11 President Tiso usually was either in a pensive or a smiling mood. Even at times when he appeared in a serious mood, and during our convers,a tion it would seem to me that in his mind he is returning to the fresh impressions of previous visitors, yet in a short while his face would brighten up and his melodious voice would ring out in healthy laughter. President Tiso had a real sense of humor. Dr. Joseph Tiso never acted in an affected or artificial manner. Once in 1939, when he was being welcomed in Nitra, an event which I witnessed, the district official addressed Tiso as "Your Excellency." At that Time Dr. Tiso smilingly reminded him: "Without the excellency, Mr. official!" From that time on, I never heard anyone address Dr. Tiso as "His Excellency." In his study Tiso was happy to be addressed simply as "Mr. President" (Pan prezident), as he was when his parishioners called him "Reverend Deacon." Conversations with Tiso usually began with his asking about one's health, his family, and his work. He was always very much interested in the work of our editorial office. President Tiso was not often curious about details, unless it was a matter of immediate interest, like, for example, the political side of our editorial work. Furthermore there was not a single visit during which we would not touch upon the most serious objective and personal moments which influenced Slovak politics. Dr. Tiso spoke openly about individual resolutions of the Parliament, the deputies, ministers, the Germans, and in general about everything that had any influence on Slovak life and the presidential office. On occasions Dr. Tiso recalled many innovations especially of his political opponents. He criticized them unsparingly and talked about them with feelings of bitterness; his criticism was sincere at all times, whether it concerned Slovaks or foreigners. I always felt refreshed in the President's study. Usu.ally Dr. Tiso gave no directives how any article was to be written. On the other hand, however, he willingly read the �12 SLOVAKIA more delicate articles before they went to print. Even when I asked him what from the ideological standpoint we should deal with most on the pages of the "SLOVAK," he would usually reply: "Hold the line. Don't let yourself be broken. Don't be discouraged-persevere!" Nothing more and nothing less. Otherwise, however, the editorial office of the "SLOVAK" had an exemplary coworker in the person of President Tiso. His speeches, articles and messages were care-fully prepared. Dr. Tiso prepared and wrote them himself. On occasions, especially for Christmas and March 14th, the President gave us articles written in his own hand so that we might have them on time; these were usually accompanied by the remark: "Correct as you see fit." On his visits to us, he would always compliment all the workers connected with the paper, saying: "Fine work, men; keep up the good work; give the best that's in you!" I'll conclude with what I had mentioned at the beginning: the visits of President Tiso to the editorial office of the "SLOVAK." He came among us regularly. When he visited us the first time, all of us were very surprised that he was accompanied only by his personal secretary. No secret, no public police came with him; none in or outside the building; and none in his auto. On occasions he visited us coming on foot alone, without a bodyguard. That was Tiso: his people did not fear him, and he did not fear his people. No man in Slovakia was more revered and loved than was Tiso. I attended many gatherings which Dr. Tiso addressed; I traveled with him. Not once did he have more than one person accompany him. Not to guard him, but simply to accompany him. President Tiso moved about freely and without fear in Bratislava and everywhere in Slovakia, just as he did at the altar where he daily said the Holy Mass to his Divine Master. • • • REOOMMENDED $3.00; SLOVAK FOR (the set); "!Ih-obailr's "SLOVAK DE)SSONS" BOOKS: "The Slovaks" (Juircha.k BEGINNERS" (Books I-III) $1.50 English-Sl01Va:k Dictionary" $4.00 ; (iHroba.k) $3.50. �SLOVAKIA 13 EIGHT FATAL DAYS IN THE LIFE OF DR. JOSEPH TISO KAROL MURiN (The author of this article was the personal secretary of President Dr. Joseph Tiso from 1938 until Tiso's tragic end in 1947. At the present time Dr. Karol Murin is on the profes• sorial staff of Montreal University.) On April 8, 1945, just a month before the conclusion of World War II in the West, at President Tiso's request, I went to Munich to ask for an audience with His Eminence Cardinal Faulhaber. The reason was that I was to inform the Cardinal of Monsignor Tiso's arrivel in Kremsmlinster and petition him to graciously do what he could to protect the President of Slovakia. Munich at that time was a shambles. The Cardinal received me in the afternoon; his residence was damaged extensively by bombs and shells. After waiting for a moment in a small, poorly furnished room, Cardinal Faulhaber made his appearance, the burdens of the war clearly apparent on his features. After the customary Slovak greeting "Laudetur ... ," I went on one knee before him, kissed his ring, and then presented myself. The Cardinal replied to the greeting and asked me to be seated. After a few introductory words, I told him the purpose of my visit. I must admit that I did expect several questions. During the war years it had become the custom to classify people only into two categories: the democrats on the one side, and the nazis and fascists on the other. No one asked why or how a person got to be on the one or the other side, or even what one did. According to that attitude, which excluded all colors between black and white, Stalin and the bolsheviks were regarded as democrats, while Dr. Tiso was supposed to be a nazi; Benes, despite his pro-Soviet and evident bolshevizing tendencies and the fact that he was responsible for the death of thousands of people, was regarded as a "moral" democrat, while Dr. Tiso, despite his prayers and many acts of kindness and his great love for �14 SLOV.AlKIA his Slovak people, or . just because of this, was regarded as a criminal. Cardinal Faulhaber, however, never did belong among the people who measured morality according to their own interest and evaluated their neighbor and acknowledged his right to life only according to the benefit they might reap from him. He was accustomed to judge and measure 9,ccording to the eternal and unchangeable principles of 8hrist. That is why he had become the symbol of the fight against nazi blunders, and the world regarded him highly for it. "I know about your President," began Cardinal Faulhaber, "and I know that he defended the Christian Faith in Slovakia." From what he further said, it was evident that he was well-informed about Slovakia and especially about the activity of President Tiso. He immediately set himself to the task of doing what he could to secure the safety of Tiso in the face of the surge of passions resulting for the most part from the false information propagated by Dr. Edward Benes. The three alternatives mentioned by the Cardinal are proof of his love for President Tiso : 1. He invited the President to his residence; 2. he offered as a temporary abode for President Tiso the Capuchin monastery at Alt Otting; or, 3. the Scheyrn monastery. Both monasteries were in the Freising-Munich Archdiocese which Cardinal Faulhaber administered. According to circumstances, as they might develop in regard to Tiso, the Slovak President was free to resort to the alternative most favorable to him. My audience with Cardinal Faulhaber lasted two hours. He told me about what especially worried him and made him fearful about the future: about the plans formulated by fanatics for the last days of the war, about the night of the long knives ("Nacht der langen Messer"), during which they intended to liquidate revered and respected Catholic priests and laity. The last half hour of my visit I spent with the Cardinal in his study. Looking over a map of Bavaria, His Eminence compared the advantages and disadvantages uf �SLOVAKIA 15 the two monasteries; the Scheyrn Monastery was more advantageous, except, of course, if the "night of the long knives" should be realized. At the end of my visit I thanked Cardinal Faulhaber sincerely for the time he gave me, asked for his blessing, and departed after His Eminence bade me Godspeed. President Tiso was happy to hear my report about my visit to Cardinal Faulhaber after I returned to Kremsmtiunster. In no time at all, President Tiso decided to accept the hospitality of the Archbishop's palace only as a last resort; he did not wish to burden one of the outstanding Princes of the Church with the cares and troubles of his Slovak people and his own person, because he was aware of the fact that the saintly Cardinal was greatly burdened by the troubles of his own German people. At the beginning of May, 1945, when Dr. Joseph Tiso left Kremsmtinster for the West, he was not definitely certain whether he would seek refuge at Alt Otting or Scheyrn. In any event, however, he decided to first stop at Alt Otting. On the first leg of his journey, President Tiso was supposed to leave a written or oral message for me at the rectory of the Bavarian community of Stammham. I set out after President Tiso about two weeks later, stopping first at Stammham, where the pastor told mf': that I would find the person I was seeking at the first place we had talked about. That same afternoon I met with President Tiso in the monastery at Alt Otting. My first task was to again make contact with Cardinal Faulhaber. Since the war had just ended in the West, everything was chaos and confusion; outside the military, there was no public transportation to speak of; and no one was permitted to travel even short distances without a permit. After about a week in Alt Otting, which, by the way, is one of the most famous of pilgrimage cities, I was quite fortunate in getting to Munich. The Cardinal received me shortly after I was nounced. He was in ·b etter spirits than he had been April 8th: the "night of the long knives," thank God, not come about! In due time the Cardinal told me of anon did his �16 SLOV.A.I{JA plan to help President Tiso: he wanted to secure a plane to take Tiso to the Vatican. However, before he could begin working out his plan, the Cardinal said, he wanted to get the assent of the Papal Nuncio. During the entire war, the Nuncio for Germany was Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo. Cardinal Faulhaber asked me to look him up as soon as possible and present his desire to help Dr. Joseph Tiso to him, reckoning also with help to transport Tiso to the Vatican. In the Cardinal's name I was to ask His Excellency whether he agreed with his step. At that time the Papal Nuncio, His Excellency Cesare Orsenigo, resided in Eichstatt in northern Bavaria. To get to him by auto I needed gasoline and to get gasoline I had to see the American authorities. Aware of this, Cardinal Faulhaber wrote a letter telling whoever it may concern that I was his courier, carrying mail and reports from the Cardinal to the Papal Nuncio. For a longer time the Cardinal could not send mail to the Nuncio, so he really appreciated this opportunity to do so. Besides that Cardinal Faulhaber gave me a general recommendat ion which I could use as I thought best. The next day I travelled by auto to Eichstatt. Below the portals to the Archbishop's palace, by sheer accident, I met with a group of four Slovaks, who had come by auto. After hearty handshakes and embraces, all gratefully accompanied me on my journey. Archbishop Orsenigo received me warmly. After I gave him the mail from Cardinal Faulhaber, he listened with great interest to my report about the fate of Preside,1t Tiso. To the Cardinal's question he replied thusly: "Tell His Eminence that I not only agree that he do everything possible in his power to save Dr. Tiso, but that I most ardently beg him to do so." Then the Archbishop said that he was completely out of contact with the world, adding that a certain member of the Swiss diplomatic corps in Berlin is supposed to visit him this same afternoon and take his first mail in a long time to the Vatican. He graciously offered to be of service if I had anything to send outside the borders of Germany. �SLOVAKIA 17 As soon as Cardinal Faulhaber had the Nuncio's reply, he immediately wrote a letter to the Vatican in which he told of his intention to transport Dr. Tiso by plane to the Vatican. His greatest worry was how to send the letter. Besides American planes only an accidental diplomat, who saved his petrol well, could be considered. In about a week I was supposed to return for further reports and advice. After eight days, I visited Cardinal Faulhaber again, who greeted me and then told me of the unfortunate thing tkat had happened. He was almost in tears. The Cardinal told me that the day after he had written the letter to the Vatican in regard to Tiso, he had secured a way of getting the letter to the Vatican. According to a promise made to the Cardinal by a person unknown to me, this person was supposed to take the letter before his departure from Munich. But the day before my last visit to Cardinal Faulhaber, when he asked his chancery whether there was any reply from the Vatican in regard to Tiso, he learned to his utter sorrow that the letter was still in his palace, the person who promised to deliver it to the Vatican evidently forgetting to pick it up. This unexpected delay worried the Cardinal and his concern was great, as if he had a foreboding that so very much depended on those eight days. After giving vent to his great disappointment, Cardinal Faulhaber again gave me his blessing and asked me to return in a week. I did return, but only after over two years. After my last visit to the Cardinal, we learned about the arrest of the members of the Slovak Government in Kremsmlinster. President Tiso asked for reports about what had happened there. My request for a travel permit into Upper Austria lay on the desk of the CIC in Alt btting for several days. Fate came into play. With the CIC in Alt btting there collaborated a man by the name of Spigler who was originally from Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. When he came upon my name, Spigler immediately came to the monastery and forbade me to leave the building. After two days he took me to jail. During my confinement in the monastery, it became �18 SLOVAKIA quite evident that this Bratislava agent, full of personal resentment, found out that President Tiso was in the monastery. After my arrest President Tiso wrote to Cardinal Faulhaber, respectfully requesting His Eminence to notify the American authorities that he was staying in the monastery and that he use his influence to set me free, as well as that he c-o ntinue to give consideration to his own case. The Capuchin Provincial delivered the President's letter to Cardinal Faulhaber. In the meantime, I was transferred to a concentration camp where frightful conditions prevailed. One hot and sultry afternoon, at the beginning of June, 1945, a jeep pulled up before the barbed-wire camp. I became numb when I sighted President Tiso in it. It was at this point that my pilgrimage to various concentrati0!1 camps with President Tiso began, the tour which finally ended in the Bratislava jail. We felt the benefiscence of good Cardinal Faulhaber once again in the concentration camp at Garmisch Partenkirchen. It was on his initiative that the events, which had taken place during the reception of our group in this camp, were investigated. The Cardinal's effort to help Dr. Joseph Tiso did not result in success. Nevertheless, the Slovaks will never forget that Cardinal Faulhaber, now deceased, really did try to save Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of the Slovak Republic . • • • WHO SAID IT? "W:t"th eq'll!al enlthusfasm we are today manifesting for the ideaJls of our, and onliy our, Owchoslovruk Democracy, which is on its way of development ,t o a new poople's fomn . . . . T.he unreseJ:1ved alliance with Oll!r Eastern ncighbor, witlh the mighty USSR, bUft also our friend!ly coot'acts wirtih the rest ,of tlhe world, especiaUy with our western democracies, gives us the feeUng of oerlainty that no mrutter what might h!appen a!broad, O'Ur ,inJternatiiona1 positt'ion is £i:nm rund we need not fea1r that we can come uipon new d'aingera aind dlnifiou[ties." ([)r. Joseph Lettrich, Vice,Ohairm.an of the Exem.rt.ive Oommittee of the "Coundl of Free Czechoslov.aJkia,'' CAIS, November 18, 1947). �SLOVAKIA 19 SLOVAKIA: TRIAL OF DR. JOSEPH TISO (Under previous order of the House, the Hon. Ray J . Madden from Indiana, was recognized for 20 minutes to make the following address on the floor of the House of Representatives, March 31, 1947): Mr. Speaker, America and all liberty-loving nations should at this time concentrate against international situations which might bring about war in the future. I have, on several occasions, stated on the floor of Congress that the application of the principles of the Atlantic Charter is our greatest antidote for future peace. Self-government, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion is essential for smaller countries as it is for th~ large nations. Our Nation, during World War II, spent billions of dollars and sacrificed in lives and casualties to preserve the above principles in order to insure liberty and fnture peace. Since VJ-day, aggression and tyranny has again launched in certain areas of Europe. The latest example of persecution, unfair trial, and threatened execution for political belief is that of Dr. Joseph Tiso, former President of the Interim Republic of Slovakia. Dr. Tiso has been acclaimed a hero in the eyes of nearly all the people of Slovakia and the prevailing majority of Americans of Slovak ancestry. My attention has been called to the fact that over 80 percent of the Slovak American fraternal organizations have forthrightly declared themselves to be of the opinion that Tiso was a hero in the defense of the best interests of the Slovak people. During his presidency, Slovakia thrived, progressed, and developed internally more than it had during any five years of the existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The communistic control now over the country of Slovakia will execute Dr. Tiso, a political prisoner, unless our Government intervenes. This communistic control is inflicted upon the people of Slovakia in spite of the fact that the election of May 26, 1946, gave over 64 percent of the total vote cast against the present government. The press is likewise controlled, at least to the extent that the newspaper cannot publish what they think. This is evidenced in the fact that four American newspapers have �20 SLOVAKIA been barred in Slovakia. The present communistic government will brook no freedom of political thought; though the people voted for Christian democracy, they received totalitarian communism. The archbishop of Slovakia testified at the trial of Dr. Tiso. He is and has been a respected member not only of the hierarchy of Czecho-Slovakia, but of the official family of Czecho-Slovakia, including its President Edward Benes. Appearing as a witness for Dr. Tiso, the archbishop testified that: Tiso acted and worked in the interest of Slovakia and was never a traitor, and that his electeion as President of Slovakia was the will of 90 percent of the Slovaks at that time and was acclaimed by the bishops, priests, and ministers of both the Catholic and Protestant churches. It is apparent that Czecho-Slovakia has been re-created with the aid of Moscow and that Moscow will undoubtedly demand the extinction of Slovak national leaders of ability and high intelelct. The ways of the Communists are devious and it behooves us to understand more of the Slovak situation. In the meantime, the least that freedom loving nations can ask is that the so-called peoples courts in the Communist-dominated countries in eastern Europe, refrain from any further political executions or from liquidating political opposition by long-term imprisonment as in the case of Archbishop Stepinac. All of this adds up to the price we will have to pay to aid in the establishing of true democracy in the countries of eastern Europe to insure world peace. In supporting President Truman's international program, we cannot be unmindful of what is happening throughout this region in Europe, comprising over 100,000,000 Christians who have nothing in common with communism. We have heard of political executions, imprisonment, and banishment of outstanding citizens in Poland, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and other small countries. Thousands of brave Polish soldiers who fought to stamp out fascism are now prohibited from returning to their native Poland by a communistic controlled government. Americans are asking the question "do we not have at least a moral obli- �SLOVAKIA 21 gation to veice our protest against such trials and executions?" The judge who presided at the trial of Dr. Tiso, previous to the trial, vowed personal vengeance on Tiso and was provided this opportunity by being placed in charge ef the case. These facts, though not appearing in the American press releases, are not disputed. Almost uninimously, the people of Slovak descent in America, are rising in protest to the impending execution of Dr. Tiso. I ask the Members of Congress to join with me in protesting this unjust conviction by interceding with President Truman and Secretary Marshall to use their good offices to prevent this injustice. We might as well apply the words of the Honorable Judge Robert H. Jackson: All experience teaches that there are certain things you cannot do under guise of judicial trial. * * * You must put no man on trial before anything that is called a court, if you are not prepared to establish his personal guilt * * * If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict. - Congressional Record. • ON TISO'S BEHALF: • • PLEA OF THE COUNCIL OF SLOVAK BISHOPS To the Presidium of the Slovak National Council in Bratislava: The Catholic Episcopal Council of Slovakia, in past years, has more frequently turned to appropriate governmental offices in the interest of those who were suffering, were imprisoned or persecuted - without regard to whetlier Catholics or non-Catholics were concerned. The example of the Divine Samaritan and His positive command prompted and encouraged us to raise our protective voice in the interests of the people who were suffering on account of political or racial reasons and we did that at a time when we could expect various humiliations in return. �22 SLOVAKIA This noblest Model in all history and His commandment, expressed in the Gospel, we bear in mind even now, when we respectfully commend to Your graciousness the fate of the former President Dr. Joseph Tiso. We do this not only because a Catholic priest is concerned, but also because the solution of his personal problem shall have a far-reaching influence on the thinking and behavior of a part of the Slovak nation in respect to the renovated Czecho- Slovak Republic and its representatives. Furthermore, we are prompted to take this step also by the generally known actuality, which is conceded by all objective critics, that Dr. Joseph Tiso always was a zealous priest, of a virtuous life. In his extensive activity he tried to work for the good of the whole, and personally did not enrich himself. The administration of justice belongs among the most difficult tasks of state power. Experience proves that this delicate task is aggravated when the judgment of political transgressions is concerned. History tells us how many fatal mistakes were made during political trials - and this results from the delicate task of impartially judging the activities of a political opponent. So, it is no rarity that after rendering severe verdicts in political trials, sooner or later a call for their revision was made. In judging the activity especially of a political factor his intentions also should be given · consideration. The majority of the Slovak nation is convinced with us that the intentions of Dr. Joseph Tiso while performing public functions were the best. Certainly some mistakes were made and the Catholic Bishops of Slovakia did not fail to bring these to his attention. However, here we must mention the generally known reality that even the most clever political factors frequently made serious mistakes. Nevertheless an unbiased observer - whether a contemporary or historian - can deduce an over-all judgment only when he evaluates also the good and positive things they did. And this thesis often outweighs the mistakes which they made in their weakness. �S LOVAKIA 23 It will be pertinent to the matter at hand to shed some light also from another viewpoint on the mistakes which are ascribed to Dr. Joseph Tiso. We respectfully point out at least some of the circumstances. After the most recent announcements of the present governmental factors even the 2ilina events of October, 1938, are presented in a different light than that shed by the one-sided propaganda to persuade the public; nay, even in the press it was demonstrated that in these political changes practically all Slovak political parties had participated. Here it is necessary to recall also the very important document which has just now been made public during the Nuremberg trials; we mean the letter of the ruler of the Hungarian realm sent to Berlin in March 13, 1939. This weighty circumstance gives an altogether different significance to the March 14, 1939, decision of Dr. Joseph Tiso and the other political factors of that time. One should think about what would have happened with the Slovak nation if the plan of Horthy had succeeded? We also know that after the issuance of anti-Jewish regulations, Dr. Joseph Tiso did want to resign from the presidency. That he did not do so happened because he tried to hamper and ameliorate the effects of those provisions, as well as to prevent a greater evil. It is worthy of consideration that what the ruler of the larger and more independent Hungary could not prevent in his country Dr. Joseph Tiso could not prevent in Slovakia. After considering all the circumstances after the passage of time, even other pilloried political mistakes - such as the war in the east, the events of August 29, 1944 can be judged otherwise than the manner in which it is done by a one-sided propaganda. The entire Slovak public is following the developments of events around Dr. Joseph Tiso with attention and in its majority is taking a negative stand towards those efforts which would incite hatred against his person. Thereby the unfortunate splintering of the nation is increased when unity of all forces is so greatly desired for the important �24 SLOVAKIA work of construction. It will be to the credit of the farsightedness of the State and will serve the peace of the nation, if the case of Dr. Joseph Tiso is solved in a cautious way and not with merciless hardness. The above thoughts have prompted us to respectfully submit our plea for your gracious consideration and favorable decision. With an expression of profound respect: (Signatures) : Dr. Karol Kmefko, Archbishop-Bishop of Nitra; Jozef Carsky, Bishop-Apostolic Administrator; Dr. Andrej Skraltik, Bishop on Banska Bystrica; Dr. Jozef Tomanocy; Dr. Karol Jantausch; Dr. Eduard Necsey, ordaining Bishop. Bratislava, January 8, 1946. • • • HERO AND PATRIOT OF SLOVAKIA The smaller nations have been the marytrs in tlte maelstrom that evil men made out of Europe in the last decade. Changing fortunes of war often presented a double crown of martyrdom. Honest men in these minor states often found it difficult to see where the path of honor lay, but once their conscience revealed the way they remained steadfast in what they believed their sacred duty. Slovakia has presented such a puzzling picture. The Slovaks had long sought and had long been denied their independence. When the moment dawned for freedom before the last war, there is no doubt that the patriots of that land felt that their long-deferred ambitions had been realized. There was outside wonder at the auspices under which freedom came but there can be no question about the sincerity of the Slovak patriots who meant to use their new prerogatives solely for the good of Slovakia. Chief among these was Monsignor Joseph Tiso who was elected president of the new republic. The war's outcome threw Slovakia as part of the old Czecho-Slovakian state into the Red orbit. Monsignor Tiso was placed on trial for treason. It could not be proved that he was a traitor to Slovakia for the simple reason that he never was a traitor to Slovakia. But that did not prevent �SLOVAKIA 25 his condemnation and execution. History is filled with these rigged trials and martyrs deaths. The condemned priest left a noble testament to his beloved Slovak people. On the eve of his unjust execution he wrote: "In the spirit of the sacrifice I am about to make, I send this message to the Slovak nation: "In harmony and unison pursue always, everywhere and in every respect the great principle: FOR GOD AND FOR THE NATION. "This is not only the unequivocal intent of Slovak history, but also the explicit command of God, Who has made it the law of nature a11J has inculcated it into the soul of the nation and every one of its members. "This precept I have served all my life and, therefore, I consider myself first of all a martyr of God's law. Secondly, I feel that I am a martyr in the defense of Christianity against bolshevism, against which our nation must in all possible ways defend itself, not only in the spirit of its Christian character, but also in the interest of its future. "As I beg you to remember me in your prayers, so do I promise. to pray to God Almighty for you and supplicate that he bless the Slovak nation in its vital struggle for God artd for the nation, so that the Slovak nation will always remain a faithful and devoted son of the Church of Christ." When this black night in Europe passes with the destruction of the powers of darkness incarnated in atheistic communism Father Tiso will be seen as the hero that he truly was. - (The Catholic Universe Bulletin, Cleveland, 0 ., 6-27-47). • • • THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT SWVAKIA P.A. HROBAK Today there is no doubt that the original homeland ancestors of present-day Slovaks was somewhere the of beyond the Carpathian Mountains. We know that the Slovaks came into their present territory - which was later incorrectly called "Uhry" (hura=hora; uhor, uhorie= near, at the foot of, the mountains)-through the western Carpathians. Historical records do not tell us exastly when the Slovak ancients migrated from their original homeland, � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOV AKIA PubHshed VOL. VII quarterly by the Slovak League of America MARCH, 1957 NO. 1 (22) THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. JOSEPH TISO'S EXECUTION JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM When Monsignor Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of thewartime Slovak Republic, was executed on the gallows on April 18, 1947, a victim of Communist and Czech vengeance, with the assistance of the adherents of Czecho-Communist collaboration most of whom are today living in exile, the Vatican broadcast, commenting on the reaction of the world press to Tiso's murder, said: "As a martyr of his love for his country, Dr. Tiso-who finally died in a very nice manner and as a priest internally very dignified, even though the manner of putting him to death was not befitting a priest-shall continue to live in the Catholic Slovak nation. Tendencious articles in the world press cannot change this fact." Ten years later, it is not necessary to prove the truthfulness of that forecast. Shortly after the first President of the Slovak Republic was surrendered to his vengeful political opponents, there resounded in the American and world press so many manifestations of sympathy, admiration, and respect for Dr. Joseph Tiso, as had been tendered no Slovak in the thousand-year-old stirring history of the Slovak people. Verily, Dr. Tiso outgrew the Slovak framework and "continues to live today" not only in the hearts of his Slovak people, but in the hearts of millions of people who love truth and freedom. Slovakia and the Slovak nation still belongs to the world which did not succumb to Communism, to the world which, so to speak, is personified in Dr. Tiso and his fate. And many people even here on the American continent today see in Tiso the first great victim of Communism in the attack on the civilized world. With decent and intelligent people, the name of Tiso has 2 SLOVAKIA become the key to sympathy for and frequently also to the knowledge of Slovakia and our fight and destiny. In this unusual turn of world public opinion, it is interesting to recall what Dr. Joseph Tiso said when he was asked by the so-called National Court in Bratislava why he had left Slovakia. Tiso at that time had replied: "I left Slovakia, because I wished to make the claims of the Slovak nation to its own way of life better known and more understandable to the Western powers." Of course, we know that the Western powers did not allow the living Tiso to do this, but we also have knowledge that they did not know, and still do not know, how to prevent the dead Tiso from fulfilling his mission. 'Dhe political murder, of which Dr. Tiso was the victim, did not bring about a change of heart only in alien circles, in circles frequently unfavorable to Slovakia and disinterested in the fate of Slovak nation. The crime committed against Dr. Tiso has stirred the conscience and awakened from national lethargy and indifference the Slovaks themselves, and especially the Slovaks beyond the borders of Slovakia who could not partake of the blessings of Slovak independence. If at the present time, outside the borders of Slovakia, the absolute majority of informed Slovaks is again in the fight for the sacred Slovak cause of freedom and independence, without any reservations whatsoever, this is due in a large measure to the death of Tiso, the hevo and martyr of the 'Slovak nation. Today there is not a single country in the free world, where the Slovaks do not annually commemorate March 14, 1939, Slovak Independence Day, and the Slovak Day of Infamy, April 18, 1947-the day that the Benes Czechs-Czech Socialists and Communists- shamefully put Dr. Tiso to death on the gallows. And in all these manifestations and celebrations, the personality, heroic fight and martyr's death of President Dr. Joseph Tiso stand out pre-eminently as a symbol, as a permanent light of Slovak history. On this tenth anniversary of the Bratislava murder, it is appropriate, I believe, to point out the fundamental principles, which led Dr. Joseph Tiso in his work for his SLOVAKIA 3 people all the way up to the gallows and which characterized one historical period of the Slovak nation. Tiso on Politics, Nation and State Like Andrew Hlinka, Dr. Joseph Tiso left to Slovak generations no compact work about his views on Slovak national life, on their mission and on the ideological foundations of Slovak politics. Always in the middle of obstinate struggles for the preservation of his people and Slovak national existence, in which he played the foremost role since 1918, Dr. Tiso had little time to write books, so he probably postponed the task for a time when he would depart from the political arena. But this was denied hilli by the executioner. Although ideologically he formulate<l the Slovak struggles for national life, and systematically in his countless manifestations and reflections placed the foundations of and consciously developed the fundamental principles of Slovak national ideology in a manner as no one else had in his century, or in previous centuries, a systematic explanation of Tiso's views still awaits the efforts of an expert. The first step in this direction was made by Prof. Dr. Stephen Polakovic during the lifetime of Dr. Tiso, when he expertly and systematically collected in the work "Tiso's Doctrine"l the fundamental concept of Dr. Tiso relating to nation, nationalism, state, religion, and social questions. Even though the volume bears the seal of war conditions in Slovakia, it remains for us thusJar, along with the final speech of Dr. Tiso before the Bratislava Court, which was edited by Dr. Joseph Pauco2, a priceless source of knowledge of the fundamental ideas, aims and efforts of Slovak political life in the first half of this century. These two literary works are not only a source of knowing the past, but also a sum total of the fundamental directives for national and political work, about which Dr. Joseph Tiso, as if following the example of the Old Testamnt prophets, said: "In profound humility we are paying tribute to our good God for the lig}:tt of principles of the natural law, according to which we conducted ourselves in the fight for 4 SLOVAKIA independence, as well as in our work of construction. A return to the natural law can be the only foundation upon which a new world can be built, a world of contentment, order, and permanent peace"3. Placing the foundation of Slovak politics on the Natural Law, Dr. Tiso also defined the aims and the ways of Slovak politics. "Our Slovak State was not born out of hatred, but out of our great love for our homeland," proclaimed Dr. Tiso on March 16, 1939. "Let us above all else be led by this thought: no hatred toward anyone, but love, an ardent love for our State, which inspires us to work and sacrifice ... " "A practical manifestation of the Natural Law is an~ shall remain our old goal: Slovakia for the Slovaks. Slovakia in its entirety and indivisible and without reservations in the legal, cultural, economical, and social departments, so that the independent Slovak nation might be the living carrier of all power and the consumer of all that the Slovak country contains and represents." Regarding politics as a service to the nation, Dr. Tiso during his many years of political activity pleaded tha.t political factors learn to depersonalize themselves. His understanding of politics was that "the interest of the nation is the highest directive of political work;" politics is not supposed to be "medium for several individuals, who with it would conceal their own materialistic interests. Politics serves the nation." As Tiso saw it, even "the State should serve the nation, therefore, it has the right to existence only insofar as it does not threaten the interests of the nation." As far as State order is concerned, this must "be subordinated to the law of morality and law; the State must respect the rigihts of the individual, the family, society, and hold sacred the right ,o f parents to educate their children, the right of free confession; it guarantees the right of private ownership and sefeguards the peaceful coexistence of labor and capital, of employer and employee." "Not force, but law which is founded on truth," was the thesis of Dr. Joseph Tiso, and he followed it in the full SLOVAKIA 5 sense of the word throughout his life, because he preached and believed that "no one will be mistaken who builds on the nation and always has only the interests of his nation in mind. We have ta:ken over this thesis from stirring times for the future so that we might strengthen ourselves in the old convictions that individuals retire but the nation remains, and the person, who, separated completely from his own person, stands unconditionally in the service of the nation, knows how to hold his ground and is the only one fit to lead and to speak in the name of the nation." "The politician, more than any one else, must be the guardian of the traditional values of the nation and must be the ever ready interpreter of the Natural Law in any given situation. Should any one lack the one or the other, he is not fit to be the representative of the nation, because he will either become a figure tossed about by contemporary political or social currents which has no connection with the living corpus of the nation, or else he will be a museum guardian of the nation who stands afar from contemporary routes along which life flows and on which the fate of the future of the nation is determined." "Whoever boasts that he is a loyal son of the nation, he must also ponder what he is giving to his nation. Whether an infection which causes a fever, or bacilli which cause decay and can bring the nation to the grave; or whether he contributes labor which shall forever remain in the nation as a cell of healthy social and cultural development." "A nation whose sons do not know how to bear a blow and personal sacrifices, such a nation will not get far. The nation lives, the whole lives, only by the fight and work of individuals." "Love for the nation is a religious precept, and a person sins against the Fourth Commandment who does not love his nation. He bears a stigma not only as an earthly t raitor, but also as a transgressor who does not keep the Divine Commandmants." Every loyal son of the Slovak nation, acording to Tiso, "sanctifies his nationalism with a Christian spirit, so that ti SLOVAKIA nationalism be not a slogan or a mantle of dubious aims, but an internal motivating force to create values for the benefit of the national whole." In the Spirit of Tiso for a New Independence From the above quotations it is quite evident that the main principles of Dr. Joseph Tiso's ideology were: 1. Natural Law; 2. Love in place of hatred; 3. Right instead of violence; 4. Respect for morality; 5. Nation above the State. 6. Loyalty to traditions; 7. Personal selflessness and sacrifice of political factors; 8. Nationalism sanctified by Ohristianity; 9. Social justice; and 10. Religious tolerance. During the decades of his successful political activity, Dr. Tiso developed these ideas not only in his manifestations to the people, but also in his classically and stately styled reflections, parliamentary speeches, and presidential messages, so that the expert schooled in statecraft and sociology will have little difficulty in systematically elaborating his ideology. nr. Tiso himself indicated Christianity as the outlet of his ideas, especially the philosophy of St. Thomas4, and in the social sphere the Papal Encyclicals. On the question of nationalism Tiso said that "the symbol of Slovak nationalism is Stur"5, because "Stur's nationalism was the dynamic force in individuals whom he prompted to work and socrifice for the nation; it was the connecting link of individuals into a rock-firm whole with a united aim and a united will ... "6 A study of Dr. Tiso's manifestations reveals that he frequently tied in his talks with the spiritual-political heritage of the followers of Louis Stur, the great Slovak patriot and "father of modern Slovak nationalsm." And Tiso did this consciously to preserve the continuity of Slovak ideological-politica l development and so that the Slovaks could build on traditions. If we compare the basic ideas of Stur's political and philosophical manifestations - which are dealt with in several published works7 - with Tiso's, then the ideological structure, as well as the entire political activity of Dr. Tiso, of course, shows an entire series of preferences and varied outlines. SLOVAKIA 7 Objectively it may already be said today that tying in with Stur and the idelogical continuity of former Slovak generations, Dr. Tiso anchors more deeply in Christian world outlook on the individual and his relation to the state, nation, family, and society. His ideology is firmly founded on the principles of modern sociology and statecraft; it has solid philosophical foundations and a strictly logical system; it emanates from an idea and stresses the primacy of spirituality, but it depends on the reality of life and respects actuality; it is the result of long years of study and political experience, drawn from daily contact with the nation and into unceasing struggle with its enemies, so that it is, as it were, forged in the fire of battles and tested in confrontation with the actual life of the nation in the phase of its political formation, but also in the phase .of struggles for its natural rights and, finally, also in the period of building up its own state. In comparison to the ideology of the Sturites, we are concerned, therefore, with an ideology whose foundations are not only broader by far, but one which was more thought out, mature and tested ·b y life. Divine Providence had allowed Dr. Joseph Tiso a life of political activity almost as long as Stur's entire life (1815-1856) and, hence, he <!ould see the ideas, which he promulgated and foT which he labored and fought, validated in national life. If we should compare Dr. Tiso as a politician and ideologue with other factors of Slovak life, then objectively it can be said that during the last 100 years there was no political factor in Slovakia who could compare with Dr. Joseph Tiso as far as preparation for political activity, working out of ideology and the concert of expressed principles with their validation unto self-immolation are concerned. If any of them did shine in theoretical expressions and plans, either fate did not grant them to measure up with reality, or they were only gleaners of grain where Dr. Joseph Tiso was the owner of fruitful fields of ideological and character wealth. Living Slovak generations will therefore hardly find a better example than Dr. Tiso, or a better ideology than 8 SLOVAKIA the one he sanctified with his blood. Anchored in eternal principles and designed for the future of the Slovak nation, it can be the most certain course for winning a new and full independence for the Slovaks. Czech chauvinism and Communist hatred did not kill the idea of Slovak indepedence by murdering Dr. Tiso. Conversely, they gave the nation more martyrs and, therefore, the idea shall win out sooner or later. REFERIDNCIDS: 1. "Tisova nauka," Dr. Stefan Polakovic, Bratislava, 1941. ~- "Dr . Joz.e f Tiso o sebe," edited by Dr. Joseph Pauco, Passaic, N. J., 1952. 3. This and other quotations are taken from either one of the previous two references. 4. "All who recall our thesis that 'the nation is the substance and the state only the form' should know that is state-political formula is the practical consequence of the state•.p olitical theory Wihich is built on the foundations O'f Thomistic philosophy." SOOVAK, 1935. 5. See "Prve posolstvo" (The First Message), Ruizomberok, August 16, 1939. Already in 1936 Dr. Tiso had proclaimed: "It is this monument of Louis Stur, built in the Banovce country, that shall be the visible proof of the fact that we have progressed so far that only we, Slovak Catholics, have not forgotten our Slovak past and we pay our respects to the memory of our national awakeners even when they are Evangelicals (Lutherans), as was Stur." - SLOVAK, 1936. 6. Dr. Tiso also characterized Stiir's nationalism in this manner: "Stiir's nationalism - built on the foundation of the independent Slovak nation and the genuine Slovak language, because it acknowledges the law of God and the law nature - was the natural foundation of the life of the Slovak nation." - SLOVAK, 1936. 7. Among the most significant works are those of Professor Cfzevsky, Dr. Stephen Polakovic, Dr. Samuel S. Osusky, Profesor Rap ant, and Dr. Joseph Pauco. • • • WHO SAID IT? "The right of se1f-<leteiimination in:cluded in the .AJtlantic Charter does not carpry wliith it the right O!f any government to commit wholesale muTder or the right to make slaJVes of its own people, or of any other peoples in the world." - F. D. Roosevelt, Feb. 12, 1943. SLOVAKIA 9 I WAS EDITOR OF PRESIDENT TISO'S NEWSPAPER JOSEPH PAUCO ( Msgr. Joseph Tiso, prelate of the Catholic Church, was president of the Slovak Republic from 1939 to 1945. The proCommunist regime of Dr. Edward Benes executed him on the gallows, April 18, 1947, after a lengthy mock trial, before which the presiding judge had declared, echoing the words of Benes, that "Tiso must hang." Dr. Pauco's article is a brief recollection of the years he spent in free Bratislava as "Tiso's" editor.) Shortly after I was appointed editor of the "SLOVAK," the official organ of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, my secretary entered my office to announce that President. Dr. Joseph Tiso wished to see me. "Where is he?" I asked excitedly. "In my office," replied the secretary. At that time I had a visitor, whom I requested to be excused because President Tiso had arrived, but the latter was already coming through the door of my office. Overhearing my request of the visitor, the President, greeting me and shaking my hand, said: "Now, Joe, you just finish your business with your visitor. I am a citizen like anyone else." That was characteristic of Dr. Joseph Tiso, the President of the Slovak Republic, who always considered himself only "one of the people." When my predecessor, Dr. Aladar Kocis, handed over the editoTShip of the "SLOVAK," he reminded me that, among other things, I should visit President Tiso regularly. Dr. Joseph Tiso, he told me, wanted to be informed about what was going on in the editorial office of the largest Slovak daily, which was otherwise regarded as the official newspaper of Dr. Tiso, since he was the chairman of the entire enterprise. But Dr. Tiso did not feel the necessity of personal contacts with the editorial office because of commercial considerations. He was mainly concerned with the spirit of the enterprise. It was necessary to defend Slovak interests. He 10 was aware of the great influence of the press and, hence, fully appreciated it. As a youthful journalist I naturally welcomed the support of the President. I visited Dr. Tiso regularly once a week, and when circumstances called for it even more frequently. Of course, besides personal visi½S, there were also many phone calls between the editorial office of the "SLOVAK" and the president's palace. The editor-in-chief always had the doors to t~e president's office open to him; there was no specified time for his visits. Whenever I phoned Tiso's personal secretary, Dr. Karol Murin, that I would like to see the president, in every instance he replied that I should come over at once. If my memory does not fail me, I believe I had to wait a half-hour or a bit more only twice in three years to see Dr. Tiso; and this happened because Tiso was in conference with foreign diplomatic representatives. Entering the president's office, I usually found Dr. Tiso at his desk, going through his mail or studying various state papers, proposed legislative acts, and activities of the various branches of government or the Hlinka Party, of which he was chairman. When I greeted him, he would raise his head, remove his spectacles and reply: "Welcome, young man, welcome!" Whenever I missed a meeting with the President, for some reason other, at the very next meeting he would ask where I had been, whether I had been i_ll. During these visits there were various matters that interested me. Of these not the least interesting was to observe the effects of the visitor before me. Once it would •b e a prime minister, other times a worker from the countryside; then again some deputy, economic expert, high officer, a foreign correspondent, or a member of the Cabinet. Once in a while some one would come up with an alarming report or rumor. President Tiso excluded no one from visiting him; he listened attentively to all and in every instance did whatever he could to satisfy all comers. Whenever I met him, SLOVAKIA 11 President Tiso usually was either in a pensive or a smiling mood. Even at times when he appeared in a serious mood, and during our convers,a tion it would seem to me that in his mind he is returning to the fresh impressions of previous visitors, yet in a short while his face would brighten up and his melodious voice would ring out in healthy laughter. President Tiso had a real sense of humor. Dr. Joseph Tiso never acted in an affected or artificial manner. Once in 1939, when he was being welcomed in Nitra, an event which I witnessed, the district official addressed Tiso as "Your Excellency." At that Time Dr. Tiso smilingly reminded him: "Without the excellency, Mr. official!" From that time on, I never heard anyone address Dr. Tiso as "His Excellency." In his study Tiso was happy to be addressed simply as "Mr. President" (Pan prezident), as he was when his parishioners called him "Reverend Deacon." Conversations with Tiso usually began with his asking about one's health, his family, and his work. He was always very much interested in the work of our editorial office. President Tiso was not often curious about details, unless it was a matter of immediate interest, like, for example, the political side of our editorial work. Furthermore there was not a single visit during which we would not touch upon the most serious objective and personal moments which influenced Slovak politics. Dr. Tiso spoke openly about individual resolutions of the Parliament, the deputies, ministers, the Germans, and in general about everything that had any influence on Slovak life and the presidential office. On occasions Dr. Tiso recalled many innovations especially of his political opponents. He criticized them unsparingly and talked about them with feelings of bitterness; his criticism was sincere at all times, whether it concerned Slovaks or foreigners. I always felt refreshed in the President's study. Usu.ally Dr. Tiso gave no directives how any article was to be written. On the other hand, however, he willingly read the 12 SLOVAKIA more delicate articles before they went to print. Even when I asked him what from the ideological standpoint we should deal with most on the pages of the "SLOVAK," he would usually reply: "Hold the line. Don't let yourself be broken. Don't be discouraged-persevere!" Nothing more and nothing less. Otherwise, however, the editorial office of the "SLOVAK" had an exemplary coworker in the person of President Tiso. His speeches, articles and messages were care-fully prepared. Dr. Tiso prepared and wrote them himself. On occasions, especially for Christmas and March 14th, the President gave us articles written in his own hand so that we might have them on time; these were usually accompanied by the remark: "Correct as you see fit." On his visits to us, he would always compliment all the workers connected with the paper, saying: "Fine work, men; keep up the good work; give the best that's in you!" I'll conclude with what I had mentioned at the beginning: the visits of President Tiso to the editorial office of the "SLOVAK." He came among us regularly. When he visited us the first time, all of us were very surprised that he was accompanied only by his personal secretary. No secret, no public police came with him; none in or outside the building; and none in his auto. On occasions he visited us coming on foot alone, without a bodyguard. That was Tiso: his people did not fear him, and he did not fear his people. No man in Slovakia was more revered and loved than was Tiso. I attended many gatherings which Dr. Tiso addressed; I traveled with him. Not once did he have more than one person accompany him. Not to guard him, but simply to accompany him. President Tiso moved about freely and without fear in Bratislava and everywhere in Slovakia, just as he did at the altar where he daily said the Holy Mass to his Divine Master. • • • REOOMMENDED $3.00; SLOVAK FOR (the set); "!Ih-obailr's "SLOVAK DE)SSONS" BOOKS: "The Slovaks" (Juircha.k BEGINNERS" (Books I-III) $1.50 English-Sl01Va:k Dictionary" $4.00 ; (iHroba.k) $3.50. SLOVAKIA 13 EIGHT FATAL DAYS IN THE LIFE OF DR. JOSEPH TISO KAROL MURiN (The author of this article was the personal secretary of President Dr. Joseph Tiso from 1938 until Tiso's tragic end in 1947. At the present time Dr. Karol Murin is on the profes• sorial staff of Montreal University.) On April 8, 1945, just a month before the conclusion of World War II in the West, at President Tiso's request, I went to Munich to ask for an audience with His Eminence Cardinal Faulhaber. The reason was that I was to inform the Cardinal of Monsignor Tiso's arrivel in Kremsmlinster and petition him to graciously do what he could to protect the President of Slovakia. Munich at that time was a shambles. The Cardinal received me in the afternoon; his residence was damaged extensively by bombs and shells. After waiting for a moment in a small, poorly furnished room, Cardinal Faulhaber made his appearance, the burdens of the war clearly apparent on his features. After the customary Slovak greeting "Laudetur ... ," I went on one knee before him, kissed his ring, and then presented myself. The Cardinal replied to the greeting and asked me to be seated. After a few introductory words, I told him the purpose of my visit. I must admit that I did expect several questions. During the war years it had become the custom to classify people only into two categories: the democrats on the one side, and the nazis and fascists on the other. No one asked why or how a person got to be on the one or the other side, or even what one did. According to that attitude, which excluded all colors between black and white, Stalin and the bolsheviks were regarded as democrats, while Dr. Tiso was supposed to be a nazi; Benes, despite his pro-Soviet and evident bolshevizing tendencies and the fact that he was responsible for the death of thousands of people, was regarded as a "moral" democrat, while Dr. Tiso, despite his prayers and many acts of kindness and his great love for 14 SLOV.AlKIA his Slovak people, or . just because of this, was regarded as a criminal. Cardinal Faulhaber, however, never did belong among the people who measured morality according to their own interest and evaluated their neighbor and acknowledged his right to life only according to the benefit they might reap from him. He was accustomed to judge and measure 9,ccording to the eternal and unchangeable principles of 8hrist. That is why he had become the symbol of the fight against nazi blunders, and the world regarded him highly for it. "I know about your President," began Cardinal Faulhaber, "and I know that he defended the Christian Faith in Slovakia." From what he further said, it was evident that he was well-informed about Slovakia and especially about the activity of President Tiso. He immediately set himself to the task of doing what he could to secure the safety of Tiso in the face of the surge of passions resulting for the most part from the false information propagated by Dr. Edward Benes. The three alternatives mentioned by the Cardinal are proof of his love for President Tiso : 1. He invited the President to his residence; 2. he offered as a temporary abode for President Tiso the Capuchin monastery at Alt Otting; or, 3. the Scheyrn monastery. Both monasteries were in the Freising-Munich Archdiocese which Cardinal Faulhaber administered. According to circumstances, as they might develop in regard to Tiso, the Slovak President was free to resort to the alternative most favorable to him. My audience with Cardinal Faulhaber lasted two hours. He told me about what especially worried him and made him fearful about the future: about the plans formulated by fanatics for the last days of the war, about the night of the long knives ("Nacht der langen Messer"), during which they intended to liquidate revered and respected Catholic priests and laity. The last half hour of my visit I spent with the Cardinal in his study. Looking over a map of Bavaria, His Eminence compared the advantages and disadvantages uf SLOVAKIA 15 the two monasteries; the Scheyrn Monastery was more advantageous, except, of course, if the "night of the long knives" should be realized. At the end of my visit I thanked Cardinal Faulhaber sincerely for the time he gave me, asked for his blessing, and departed after His Eminence bade me Godspeed. President Tiso was happy to hear my report about my visit to Cardinal Faulhaber after I returned to Kremsmtiunster. In no time at all, President Tiso decided to accept the hospitality of the Archbishop's palace only as a last resort; he did not wish to burden one of the outstanding Princes of the Church with the cares and troubles of his Slovak people and his own person, because he was aware of the fact that the saintly Cardinal was greatly burdened by the troubles of his own German people. At the beginning of May, 1945, when Dr. Joseph Tiso left Kremsmtinster for the West, he was not definitely certain whether he would seek refuge at Alt Otting or Scheyrn. In any event, however, he decided to first stop at Alt Otting. On the first leg of his journey, President Tiso was supposed to leave a written or oral message for me at the rectory of the Bavarian community of Stammham. I set out after President Tiso about two weeks later, stopping first at Stammham, where the pastor told mf': that I would find the person I was seeking at the first place we had talked about. That same afternoon I met with President Tiso in the monastery at Alt Otting. My first task was to again make contact with Cardinal Faulhaber. Since the war had just ended in the West, everything was chaos and confusion; outside the military, there was no public transportation to speak of; and no one was permitted to travel even short distances without a permit. After about a week in Alt Otting, which, by the way, is one of the most famous of pilgrimage cities, I was quite fortunate in getting to Munich. The Cardinal received me shortly after I was nounced. He was in ·b etter spirits than he had been April 8th: the "night of the long knives," thank God, not come about! In due time the Cardinal told me of anon did his 16 SLOV.A.I{JA plan to help President Tiso: he wanted to secure a plane to take Tiso to the Vatican. However, before he could begin working out his plan, the Cardinal said, he wanted to get the assent of the Papal Nuncio. During the entire war, the Nuncio for Germany was Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo. Cardinal Faulhaber asked me to look him up as soon as possible and present his desire to help Dr. Joseph Tiso to him, reckoning also with help to transport Tiso to the Vatican. In the Cardinal's name I was to ask His Excellency whether he agreed with his step. At that time the Papal Nuncio, His Excellency Cesare Orsenigo, resided in Eichstatt in northern Bavaria. To get to him by auto I needed gasoline and to get gasoline I had to see the American authorities. Aware of this, Cardinal Faulhaber wrote a letter telling whoever it may concern that I was his courier, carrying mail and reports from the Cardinal to the Papal Nuncio. For a longer time the Cardinal could not send mail to the Nuncio, so he really appreciated this opportunity to do so. Besides that Cardinal Faulhaber gave me a general recommendat ion which I could use as I thought best. The next day I travelled by auto to Eichstatt. Below the portals to the Archbishop's palace, by sheer accident, I met with a group of four Slovaks, who had come by auto. After hearty handshakes and embraces, all gratefully accompanied me on my journey. Archbishop Orsenigo received me warmly. After I gave him the mail from Cardinal Faulhaber, he listened with great interest to my report about the fate of Preside,1t Tiso. To the Cardinal's question he replied thusly: "Tell His Eminence that I not only agree that he do everything possible in his power to save Dr. Tiso, but that I most ardently beg him to do so." Then the Archbishop said that he was completely out of contact with the world, adding that a certain member of the Swiss diplomatic corps in Berlin is supposed to visit him this same afternoon and take his first mail in a long time to the Vatican. He graciously offered to be of service if I had anything to send outside the borders of Germany. SLOVAKIA 17 As soon as Cardinal Faulhaber had the Nuncio's reply, he immediately wrote a letter to the Vatican in which he told of his intention to transport Dr. Tiso by plane to the Vatican. His greatest worry was how to send the letter. Besides American planes only an accidental diplomat, who saved his petrol well, could be considered. In about a week I was supposed to return for further reports and advice. After eight days, I visited Cardinal Faulhaber again, who greeted me and then told me of the unfortunate thing tkat had happened. He was almost in tears. The Cardinal told me that the day after he had written the letter to the Vatican in regard to Tiso, he had secured a way of getting the letter to the Vatican. According to a promise made to the Cardinal by a person unknown to me, this person was supposed to take the letter before his departure from Munich. But the day before my last visit to Cardinal Faulhaber, when he asked his chancery whether there was any reply from the Vatican in regard to Tiso, he learned to his utter sorrow that the letter was still in his palace, the person who promised to deliver it to the Vatican evidently forgetting to pick it up. This unexpected delay worried the Cardinal and his concern was great, as if he had a foreboding that so very much depended on those eight days. After giving vent to his great disappointment, Cardinal Faulhaber again gave me his blessing and asked me to return in a week. I did return, but only after over two years. After my last visit to the Cardinal, we learned about the arrest of the members of the Slovak Government in Kremsmlinster. President Tiso asked for reports about what had happened there. My request for a travel permit into Upper Austria lay on the desk of the CIC in Alt btting for several days. Fate came into play. With the CIC in Alt btting there collaborated a man by the name of Spigler who was originally from Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. When he came upon my name, Spigler immediately came to the monastery and forbade me to leave the building. After two days he took me to jail. During my confinement in the monastery, it became 18 SLOVAKIA quite evident that this Bratislava agent, full of personal resentment, found out that President Tiso was in the monastery. After my arrest President Tiso wrote to Cardinal Faulhaber, respectfully requesting His Eminence to notify the American authorities that he was staying in the monastery and that he use his influence to set me free, as well as that he c-o ntinue to give consideration to his own case. The Capuchin Provincial delivered the President's letter to Cardinal Faulhaber. In the meantime, I was transferred to a concentration camp where frightful conditions prevailed. One hot and sultry afternoon, at the beginning of June, 1945, a jeep pulled up before the barbed-wire camp. I became numb when I sighted President Tiso in it. It was at this point that my pilgrimage to various concentrati0!1 camps with President Tiso began, the tour which finally ended in the Bratislava jail. We felt the benefiscence of good Cardinal Faulhaber once again in the concentration camp at Garmisch Partenkirchen. It was on his initiative that the events, which had taken place during the reception of our group in this camp, were investigated. The Cardinal's effort to help Dr. Joseph Tiso did not result in success. Nevertheless, the Slovaks will never forget that Cardinal Faulhaber, now deceased, really did try to save Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of the Slovak Republic . • • • WHO SAID IT? "W:t"th eq'll!al enlthusfasm we are today manifesting for the ideaJls of our, and onliy our, Owchoslovruk Democracy, which is on its way of development ,t o a new poople's fomn . . . . T.he unreseJ:1ved alliance with Oll!r Eastern ncighbor, witlh the mighty USSR, bUft also our friend!ly coot'acts wirtih the rest ,of tlhe world, especiaUy with our western democracies, gives us the feeUng of oerlainty that no mrutter what might h!appen a!broad, O'Ur ,inJternatiiona1 positt'ion is £i:nm rund we need not fea1r that we can come uipon new d'aingera aind dlnifiou[ties." ([)r. Joseph Lettrich, Vice,Ohairm.an of the Exem.rt.ive Oommittee of the "Coundl of Free Czechoslov.aJkia,'' CAIS, November 18, 1947). SLOVAKIA 19 SLOVAKIA: TRIAL OF DR. JOSEPH TISO (Under previous order of the House, the Hon. Ray J . Madden from Indiana, was recognized for 20 minutes to make the following address on the floor of the House of Representatives, March 31, 1947): Mr. Speaker, America and all liberty-loving nations should at this time concentrate against international situations which might bring about war in the future. I have, on several occasions, stated on the floor of Congress that the application of the principles of the Atlantic Charter is our greatest antidote for future peace. Self-government, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion is essential for smaller countries as it is for th~ large nations. Our Nation, during World War II, spent billions of dollars and sacrificed in lives and casualties to preserve the above principles in order to insure liberty and fnture peace. Since VJ-day, aggression and tyranny has again launched in certain areas of Europe. The latest example of persecution, unfair trial, and threatened execution for political belief is that of Dr. Joseph Tiso, former President of the Interim Republic of Slovakia. Dr. Tiso has been acclaimed a hero in the eyes of nearly all the people of Slovakia and the prevailing majority of Americans of Slovak ancestry. My attention has been called to the fact that over 80 percent of the Slovak American fraternal organizations have forthrightly declared themselves to be of the opinion that Tiso was a hero in the defense of the best interests of the Slovak people. During his presidency, Slovakia thrived, progressed, and developed internally more than it had during any five years of the existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The communistic control now over the country of Slovakia will execute Dr. Tiso, a political prisoner, unless our Government intervenes. This communistic control is inflicted upon the people of Slovakia in spite of the fact that the election of May 26, 1946, gave over 64 percent of the total vote cast against the present government. The press is likewise controlled, at least to the extent that the newspaper cannot publish what they think. This is evidenced in the fact that four American newspapers have 20 SLOVAKIA been barred in Slovakia. The present communistic government will brook no freedom of political thought; though the people voted for Christian democracy, they received totalitarian communism. The archbishop of Slovakia testified at the trial of Dr. Tiso. He is and has been a respected member not only of the hierarchy of Czecho-Slovakia, but of the official family of Czecho-Slovakia, including its President Edward Benes. Appearing as a witness for Dr. Tiso, the archbishop testified that: Tiso acted and worked in the interest of Slovakia and was never a traitor, and that his electeion as President of Slovakia was the will of 90 percent of the Slovaks at that time and was acclaimed by the bishops, priests, and ministers of both the Catholic and Protestant churches. It is apparent that Czecho-Slovakia has been re-created with the aid of Moscow and that Moscow will undoubtedly demand the extinction of Slovak national leaders of ability and high intelelct. The ways of the Communists are devious and it behooves us to understand more of the Slovak situation. In the meantime, the least that freedom loving nations can ask is that the so-called peoples courts in the Communist-dominated countries in eastern Europe, refrain from any further political executions or from liquidating political opposition by long-term imprisonment as in the case of Archbishop Stepinac. All of this adds up to the price we will have to pay to aid in the establishing of true democracy in the countries of eastern Europe to insure world peace. In supporting President Truman's international program, we cannot be unmindful of what is happening throughout this region in Europe, comprising over 100,000,000 Christians who have nothing in common with communism. We have heard of political executions, imprisonment, and banishment of outstanding citizens in Poland, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and other small countries. Thousands of brave Polish soldiers who fought to stamp out fascism are now prohibited from returning to their native Poland by a communistic controlled government. Americans are asking the question "do we not have at least a moral obli- SLOVAKIA 21 gation to veice our protest against such trials and executions?" The judge who presided at the trial of Dr. Tiso, previous to the trial, vowed personal vengeance on Tiso and was provided this opportunity by being placed in charge ef the case. These facts, though not appearing in the American press releases, are not disputed. Almost uninimously, the people of Slovak descent in America, are rising in protest to the impending execution of Dr. Tiso. I ask the Members of Congress to join with me in protesting this unjust conviction by interceding with President Truman and Secretary Marshall to use their good offices to prevent this injustice. We might as well apply the words of the Honorable Judge Robert H. Jackson: All experience teaches that there are certain things you cannot do under guise of judicial trial. * * * You must put no man on trial before anything that is called a court, if you are not prepared to establish his personal guilt * * * If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict. - Congressional Record. • ON TISO'S BEHALF: • • PLEA OF THE COUNCIL OF SLOVAK BISHOPS To the Presidium of the Slovak National Council in Bratislava: The Catholic Episcopal Council of Slovakia, in past years, has more frequently turned to appropriate governmental offices in the interest of those who were suffering, were imprisoned or persecuted - without regard to whetlier Catholics or non-Catholics were concerned. The example of the Divine Samaritan and His positive command prompted and encouraged us to raise our protective voice in the interests of the people who were suffering on account of political or racial reasons and we did that at a time when we could expect various humiliations in return. 22 SLOVAKIA This noblest Model in all history and His commandment, expressed in the Gospel, we bear in mind even now, when we respectfully commend to Your graciousness the fate of the former President Dr. Joseph Tiso. We do this not only because a Catholic priest is concerned, but also because the solution of his personal problem shall have a far-reaching influence on the thinking and behavior of a part of the Slovak nation in respect to the renovated Czecho- Slovak Republic and its representatives. Furthermore, we are prompted to take this step also by the generally known actuality, which is conceded by all objective critics, that Dr. Joseph Tiso always was a zealous priest, of a virtuous life. In his extensive activity he tried to work for the good of the whole, and personally did not enrich himself. The administration of justice belongs among the most difficult tasks of state power. Experience proves that this delicate task is aggravated when the judgment of political transgressions is concerned. History tells us how many fatal mistakes were made during political trials - and this results from the delicate task of impartially judging the activities of a political opponent. So, it is no rarity that after rendering severe verdicts in political trials, sooner or later a call for their revision was made. In judging the activity especially of a political factor his intentions also should be given · consideration. The majority of the Slovak nation is convinced with us that the intentions of Dr. Joseph Tiso while performing public functions were the best. Certainly some mistakes were made and the Catholic Bishops of Slovakia did not fail to bring these to his attention. However, here we must mention the generally known reality that even the most clever political factors frequently made serious mistakes. Nevertheless an unbiased observer - whether a contemporary or historian - can deduce an over-all judgment only when he evaluates also the good and positive things they did. And this thesis often outweighs the mistakes which they made in their weakness. S LOVAKIA 23 It will be pertinent to the matter at hand to shed some light also from another viewpoint on the mistakes which are ascribed to Dr. Joseph Tiso. We respectfully point out at least some of the circumstances. After the most recent announcements of the present governmental factors even the 2ilina events of October, 1938, are presented in a different light than that shed by the one-sided propaganda to persuade the public; nay, even in the press it was demonstrated that in these political changes practically all Slovak political parties had participated. Here it is necessary to recall also the very important document which has just now been made public during the Nuremberg trials; we mean the letter of the ruler of the Hungarian realm sent to Berlin in March 13, 1939. This weighty circumstance gives an altogether different significance to the March 14, 1939, decision of Dr. Joseph Tiso and the other political factors of that time. One should think about what would have happened with the Slovak nation if the plan of Horthy had succeeded? We also know that after the issuance of anti-Jewish regulations, Dr. Joseph Tiso did want to resign from the presidency. That he did not do so happened because he tried to hamper and ameliorate the effects of those provisions, as well as to prevent a greater evil. It is worthy of consideration that what the ruler of the larger and more independent Hungary could not prevent in his country Dr. Joseph Tiso could not prevent in Slovakia. After considering all the circumstances after the passage of time, even other pilloried political mistakes - such as the war in the east, the events of August 29, 1944 can be judged otherwise than the manner in which it is done by a one-sided propaganda. The entire Slovak public is following the developments of events around Dr. Joseph Tiso with attention and in its majority is taking a negative stand towards those efforts which would incite hatred against his person. Thereby the unfortunate splintering of the nation is increased when unity of all forces is so greatly desired for the important 24 SLOVAKIA work of construction. It will be to the credit of the farsightedness of the State and will serve the peace of the nation, if the case of Dr. Joseph Tiso is solved in a cautious way and not with merciless hardness. The above thoughts have prompted us to respectfully submit our plea for your gracious consideration and favorable decision. With an expression of profound respect: (Signatures) : Dr. Karol Kmefko, Archbishop-Bishop of Nitra; Jozef Carsky, Bishop-Apostolic Administrator; Dr. Andrej Skraltik, Bishop on Banska Bystrica; Dr. Jozef Tomanocy; Dr. Karol Jantausch; Dr. Eduard Necsey, ordaining Bishop. Bratislava, January 8, 1946. • • • HERO AND PATRIOT OF SLOVAKIA The smaller nations have been the marytrs in tlte maelstrom that evil men made out of Europe in the last decade. Changing fortunes of war often presented a double crown of martyrdom. Honest men in these minor states often found it difficult to see where the path of honor lay, but once their conscience revealed the way they remained steadfast in what they believed their sacred duty. Slovakia has presented such a puzzling picture. The Slovaks had long sought and had long been denied their independence. When the moment dawned for freedom before the last war, there is no doubt that the patriots of that land felt that their long-deferred ambitions had been realized. There was outside wonder at the auspices under which freedom came but there can be no question about the sincerity of the Slovak patriots who meant to use their new prerogatives solely for the good of Slovakia. Chief among these was Monsignor Joseph Tiso who was elected president of the new republic. The war's outcome threw Slovakia as part of the old Czecho-Slovakian state into the Red orbit. Monsignor Tiso was placed on trial for treason. It could not be proved that he was a traitor to Slovakia for the simple reason that he never was a traitor to Slovakia. But that did not prevent SLOVAKIA 25 his condemnation and execution. History is filled with these rigged trials and martyrs deaths. The condemned priest left a noble testament to his beloved Slovak people. On the eve of his unjust execution he wrote: "In the spirit of the sacrifice I am about to make, I send this message to the Slovak nation: "In harmony and unison pursue always, everywhere and in every respect the great principle: FOR GOD AND FOR THE NATION. "This is not only the unequivocal intent of Slovak history, but also the explicit command of God, Who has made it the law of nature a11J has inculcated it into the soul of the nation and every one of its members. "This precept I have served all my life and, therefore, I consider myself first of all a martyr of God's law. Secondly, I feel that I am a martyr in the defense of Christianity against bolshevism, against which our nation must in all possible ways defend itself, not only in the spirit of its Christian character, but also in the interest of its future. "As I beg you to remember me in your prayers, so do I promise. to pray to God Almighty for you and supplicate that he bless the Slovak nation in its vital struggle for God artd for the nation, so that the Slovak nation will always remain a faithful and devoted son of the Church of Christ." When this black night in Europe passes with the destruction of the powers of darkness incarnated in atheistic communism Father Tiso will be seen as the hero that he truly was. - (The Catholic Universe Bulletin, Cleveland, 0 ., 6-27-47). • • • THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT SWVAKIA P.A. HROBAK Today there is no doubt that the original homeland ancestors of present-day Slovaks was somewhere the of beyond the Carpathian Mountains. We know that the Slovaks came into their present territory - which was later incorrectly called "Uhry" (hura=hora; uhor, uhorie= near, at the foot of, the mountains)-through the western Carpathians. Historical records do not tell us exastly when the Slovak ancients migrated from their original homeland,  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Tenth Anniversary of Dr. Joseph Tiso's Execution Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 1 (22), March 1957<br />pp. 1-25<br /><ul><li>"Dr. Joseph Tiso's Execution," Joseph Kirschbaum, pp. 1-8.</li> <li>"I Was Editor of President Tiso's Newspaper," Joseph Paučo, pp. 9-12.</li> <li>"Eight Fatal Days in the Life of Dr. Joseph Tiso," Karol Murín, pp. 13-18.</li> <li>Slovakia: Trial of Dr. Joseph Tiso, pp. 19-21.</li> <li>On Tiso's Behalf: Plea of the Council of Slovak Bishops, pp. 21-24.</li> <li>Hero and Patriot of Slovakia, pp. 24-25.</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Paučo, Jozef, 1914-1975 Murín, Karol, 1913-1998 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1957 LCNAF SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/3b06eafbb103932906c0f41ea6435c28.pdf a73b5b1ffcc7add9063381196649c47c PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 25 his condemnation and execution. History is filled with these rigged trials and martyrs deaths. The condemned priest left a noble testament to his beloved Slovak people. On the eve of his unjust execution he wrote: "In the spirit of the sacrifice I am about to make, I send this message to the Slovak nation: "In harmony and unison pursue always, everywhere and in every respect the great principle: FOR GOD AND FOR THE NATION. "This is not only the unequivocal intent of Slovak history, but also the explicit command of God, Who has made it the law of nature a11J has inculcated it into the soul of the nation and every one of its members. "This precept I have served all my life and, therefore, I consider myself first of all a martyr of God's law. Secondly, I feel that I am a martyr in the defense of Christianity against bolshevism, against which our nation must in all possible ways defend itself, not only in the spirit of its Christian character, but also in the interest of its future. "As I beg you to remember me in your prayers, so do I promise. to pray to God Almighty for you and supplicate that he bless the Slovak nation in its vital struggle for God artd for the nation, so that the Slovak nation will always remain a faithful and devoted son of the Church of Christ." When this black night in Europe passes with the destruction of the powers of darkness incarnated in atheistic communism Father Tiso will be seen as the hero that he truly was. - (The Catholic Universe Bulletin, Cleveland, 0 ., 6-27-47). • • • THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT SWVAKIA P.A. HROBAK Today there is no doubt that the original homeland ancestors of present-day Slovaks was somewhere the of beyond the Carpathian Mountains. We know that the Slovaks came into their present territory - which was later incorrectly called "Uhry" (hura=hora; uhor, uhorie= near, at the foot of, the mountains)-through the western Carpathians. Historical records do not tell us exastly when the Slovak ancients migrated from their original homeland, �26 SLOVAKIA but it appears that this happened before the sixth, and not later than the beginning of the sixth, century. The question what territory the ancestors of the Slovaks occupied or settled, and whether 1918 or 1938 Slova'k~a was smaller or larger than that territory, intrigued many scholars of history, archeology, and philosophy. Their studies definitely proved that the ancestors of the Slovaks had occupied a territory vastly greater than the area of present-day Slovakia; they proved that the Slovaks settled even beyond the Danube and occupied the northern area between the Tisa and Danube rivers. Paul J. Safarik, in his "Slovanske Starozitnosti" (Slovanic Antiquities), dealt with the question whether the ancestors of the Slovak nation had settled also on the territory beyond the Danube. He replied in the affirmative, stating that if we are willing to consider ancient testimonies about the Slovanic inhabitants of that area with an open mind, we shall come to the conviction that they belong nowhere more properly than to the Moravians and the Slovaks. Safarik pla.ced the Slovak boundary in the center of Moravia. About the boundary between the Tisa and the Danube rivers, he said: "At Pest\ Vacov, and beneath Mt. Matra there was at that time a boundary between the Bulgarians and inhabitants of Moravia, and the salt mines in Marmaros were in possession of the former." Saifarik's views were accepted by several excellent scholars, among them: Joseph Skultety (0 byvalom Hornom Uhorsku, 1929, 1932; 0 Slovakoch, 1928; Zo slovenskej minulosti, 1936); Roessler (Zeitpunct, 93); K. J. Grot (Moravija i Mad'jary s poloviny IX. do nacala X. veka Petrograd, 1881) ; Maretic (Slaveni u davnini). :r..ubor Niederle, however, let the question of Pannonia to the philologists. After Safarik, various historians and philologists devoted their time to this question. And the Magyars, who inhabited the territory in question at the present time, did also. Professor John Melich, eminent Magyar historian and philologist, supports Safarik's deduction in his book "A honfoglalaskori Magyarorszag" (Budapest, 1925-29); Ele- �SLOVAKIA 27 mer Moor did also in his excellent, objective work "Westungarn im Mittelalter im Spiegel der Orstnamen (Segedin, 1936; and Ungarische Jahrblicher, 1929); likewise, Stephen Kniezsa, in several articles published in 1:Jhe "Archivum Europae Centro-orientalis" and in the "Ungarische Jahrblicher" (1937-38). Moor's work practically exhausted all sources about western Hungary (Transdanubia); Melich's did not go quite as far, nor did the studies of Kniezsa. These studies, however, even of themselves are sufficient to convince us that the ancestors of the Slovak nation had settled on a muc:1 greater territory than present Slovakia. We know that Prince Pribina and his son Kocer fled from Nitra to Pannonia; they resided in Blatnohrad. The source, which describes their activity, comes to us from 871 A.D. and is called: "Libellum de Conversone Bagoariorum et Caranthanorum." This document, recording the events of 850, mentions the names of the magnates in Pribina's escort: 15 are Slovanic, while 17 are German. A careful scrutiny of the Slovanic names will convince us that these names were common with western Slovans, particularly with the dwellers of ancient Nitra. Old Latin documents from Nitra record the names of magnates which have the same linguistic foundation as the names of Pribina's magnates. But so do many personal names of southern and eastern Slovakia, as well as eastern Moravia! Taking all the given data and connecting them with the fact that Pribina and Kocer were Slovaks, we must conclude that the majority of the 15 names are Slovak. Melich, stating that the Magyars found Slovaks in Pannonia when they came there (p. 397), said that the namt':s existing on the territory of the Pribina-Kocer principality make it apparently certain that the 'Slovaks, the western Slovans (Slavs), also inhabited the land from Balaton Lake to the north, probobly to the northern line of Tet-SokoroBakon (p. 395). "It seems to me," said Melidh, "that the proofs presented confirm the testimony of geographical names. Pribina-Kocel"s Slovans (Slavs) were Slovaks. However, in- �28 SLOVAKIA asmuch as even from Balaton Lake to the south the S'lovans live here and there, they were Slovaks for the most part" (p. 396). Names of rivers and places also prove that the Slovaks settled in northern Pannonia. According to Dr. Melich, the name 'B alaton is Slovak, because if it were of southern Slav (Yugoslav) origin, the Magyar equivalent would have to be written "Balaton" (long "a"). Near the Bakon Forest is a stream which the Magyars today call "Cuha;" this is derived from the Slovak "Sucha" (dry); if it were of Yugoslav origin, according to Melich again, it would have t o be written "Cuha" (long "u"). There are many such names in Pannonia. The city of Veszprem (Vesprim) is orf western-Slav origin; it comes from Bezprem. A person named Bezprem is mentioned in the history of Brevnov, Bohemia, in the twelfth century; we also find the name in old Slovak documents. Furthermore, the name orf the town of Tihany is derived from tlte Slovak name Tichoii and is so written in documents of the 11th century. The name of the town Noszlop somes from the Slovak noun "Neostup," just like the Moravian "Ostopovice, Vostopovice" are derived from the noun "Ostup." According to these and similar appellations, Professor Melich concludes (p. 395) the Slovaks lived from the Balaton Lake to the north. His researches, convincing as they are, reveal much more. On the right bank of the Danube we find towns and cities with apparently Slovak names: Ostrihom, Budin, Tetin, Vesprim, Vysegrad-Vysehrad, and opposite P,a rkaii we find Neszmely (from the Slovak Nesmily), which are mentioned as a harbor and a river crossing in 1237-1240. In the west, Slovak settlements extended proba;bly to the river Raab. These names demonstrate that northern Pannonia was occupied by the Slovaks, and partly by the Germans, before the advent of the Magyars. There are not many Slovaks there today. But there is an appreciable number Jf them south of Ostrihom and above the Bako:n Forest. Some chronicles, that of "Anonymous" among them, say that the �SLOVAKIA 29 Magyars annihilated the Slovaks there, but the fact is that even in the 12th and succeeding centuries. many persons with Slovak names are mentioned in the documents of Veszprem, Tihany, and other places. Melich placed the southern Slovans between the Tisa and Danube rivers, because he was particularly influenced by the name of the "Zagy,a" river (p. 101). Of course, he did not know from what southern Slovanic tongue it might be derived. To a 'Slovanic philologist, towever, it is quite obvious that the name of the river which flows through that particul·a r territory cannot be deduced from any other than the Slovak language. The Magyar name "Zagyva," like the Czech "Sazava," comes from the Slovak "Sadzava," the Magyars using "-gy-" in place of the Slovak "-dz-" (Palugya-Paludza; Privigye-Prievidza; Pomogy-Pomedzi; etc.). Moor was correct in this regard, adding that, in the meantime, it appeared that Professor Melich had corrected his earlier views on the subject. Moor showed that names of this type could not be ascribed to any Slovanic language other than Slovak. The city of Miskolc, much in the news during the recent Hungarian revolt, is also of Slovak origin (Miskovec). Amd there are many such names close to and far from the area a:bove the Matra ond the Beech Forest. For example, north of Jager is the community of Balatony; the latter is as much a Slovak name as is Balaton, as well as: Topol'cany, Sucha, Novaky, Trstene, Kl'acany, Vysnova, Vfbove, Hradisfany, Domoslav, Dubie.any, Hlohovec, Suchof, and many others. Today's Ferto-Szent-Miklos was mentioned in the thirteenth century as "Neweg , Neueg;" but in northeastern Vesprem a group of seven communities is also recalled under the common name of "Nywig, Nywog, Neueg." We have the same proofs from that same time (13th century) for N evidzany (Tekov County) , that is, all these settlements were called by one and the same name: Nevidza. These names are especially important in the determination of the tribal adherance of the Slovans beyond the Danube and beneath Mt. Matra. They tell us that these Slovans (Slavs) were the ancestors of the Slovaks. �30 SLOVAKIA Moor literally fought against Kniezsa over the name "Pomogy" (Ungarische Jahrblicher, 1937, p. 278; and 1938. p. 36). A name of this type is also in Zelezna (Vas) County, near Kormend: it is "Geregye (from the Slovak "Gradza," which today would sound "Hradza"). Anotrer such important name is "Bogyoszlo" (from the Slovak "Budislav); if it were derived from a south Slorvanic language, it would have to be written "Bodoszlo" in Magyar. We find this appellation in several counties (Bihar Pese - to the south on the Danube--Sopron, and Zelezna. Names from the area of Balaton Lake, even south of it, are proofs that the ancestors of the Slov8!ks once occupied that territory. They are typical western-Slovanic. One even need not be a philologist to arrive at the fact that they are of Slov.anic origin; for example, Kustany (Kosfany); Nagy-Szokoly (Sokol); Nyedam puszta, Rosztopan puszta, etc. Some of the names may appear a bit "mixed" up, but a knowledge of documentary material and the evolution of the Magyar language always help one to find the original Slovanic or, respectively, Slovak form. The counties of Vesprem, Zalan, Komarno (also the transdanubian paret), Zelezna, Sopron, Moson, Rab, and others up to the Drava river, are swarmed with Slovanic names. Documents of the eleventh century contain a multitude of Slovanic p e r s o n a I names (Budivoj; Kazimir; Vojtech; Dobron; Vranis; Milose; Gnevku (Hnevek) ; Zlauku (Slavek) ; Radoan (Radovan); Vaclav; etc.). On the Danube, in most ancient times, the boundary between the Slovak and the Bulgarian nations was between Vacov (derived from "Vaclav") and Pese. According to what has been uncovered by archeologists, philologists, and historians, we ,a re quite certain that the territory of the ancient Slovaks extended in the west from beyond the Nezider Lake, through Zelezna County probably up to Kormend (from the Slovak "kremen"), below Balaton Lake; of course, we know that north of Balaton Lake there were large Slov·a k settlements in olden times; between the Danube and Tisa rivers the boundary went below the southern slope of Mt. Matra. �SLOVAKIA 31 Today there still may be doubt about the origm of several of these cities and villages, but their names tell us clearly that they were founded by Slovaks. According to Anonymou s, the Slovaks were there before the 12th century; and it is more than probable that the "Slovene" Slovaks were there when the Magyars came to Hungary. According to an ethnograph ic map of 1773, there were not many Slovaks in some places, but a large number in others. A solid Slovak territory extends here deeply to Pese, and even farther south. Beautiful central Slovak is still spoken in the vicinities of Pest', Vacov, and other cities and towns. According to names mentioned in ancient documents, the eastern boundary extended to the Tisa river and most probably went northeast as far as Zemplin. In an ancient Hungaro-P olish chronicle the river Topl'a: is recalled by its old Slova,k name "Cepla" (Tepla). This clearly proves that the Slovaks must have inhabited the area. From the philologica l standpoint, the question of the Slovaks in Moravia is altogether clear. The Slovaks there in the 8-lOth centuries occupied a greater space to the west and south than they do now. To, the south they had fortificatio ns on the river Dyja and reached as far as the Danube. Philologica l studies also show that Slovak influence also extended to southern Poland: the dialects used there indicate that probably from the 13th century there was a common developmen t with the Slovak and not the Polish language. Furthermo re, together with archeologic al studies, they tell us that the Slovaks today occupy only about a third of the territory which was settled by their ancestors before the Magyars came into the Danube area. With the passaga of time, Paul J. Safarik's determinat ion of ancient Slovak frontiers has been confirmed by scientific studies of historians, ethnograph ers, philologists , and archeologis ts. RIDFERENCE S: Risa Verkomoravs ka, 1933, compiled by Dr. Jan Stanislav. Slovensky zivotny priestor v minulosti a dnes, Dr. Frantisek Bokes, 1943. Slovensko v praveku, Dr. Jan Eisner, 1933. Knieza Pribina, Dr. Frantisek Hrus ovsky, 1933; also Slovenske dejiny, �SLOVAKIA 32 1939; Vefka Morava a Pofsko, rn33. Ungarns Volkerschaften im XI. Jahrhundert, Dr. I. Kn iesza, 1938. Zur Geschichte der ungarisch-slowakischen ethnischen Grenze, Dr. I. K niezsa, 19 41. Slovanske starozitnosti, P avel J . Safa rik, Vol. II, 2nd ed., 1863. Slovenske starozitnosti, Dr. I'..ubor Niederle, 1906, 1910. Narodopisni mapa Uher podle ured. lexikonu osad z r. 1n3, A . P e trov , 1924. Pribinovi Vermozi , Dr. J an Stanislav, 1939-40. Nehai'ite l'ud moj, Dr. Jo zef Skult ety, 1928 . • • • MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Ph.D. The University of California recently published an excellent symposium on the great Polish poet and patriot, Adam Mickiewicz, whose centenary has been commemorated throughout the world since 1955. Altogether 30 scholars and experts in Slavistics, representing over 20 nations and universities, contributed to this remarkable volume, edited by the eminent Polish scholar, professor Waclaw Lednicki. The volume has been published under the impressive title "Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature," and the editor actually succeeded in presenting Mickiewicz's influence on World literatures. Slovakia is represented by two contributions and is also mentioned in an article of a Czech scholar, who quite sincerely tried not to make the usual mistake of confusing Slovak and Czech poets and writers. The main article on Slovak literature in connection with Mickiekicz was written by the known expert in Slavic studies, professor Dimitry Cizevsky from Harvard, who in his scholarly study deals mainly with the poetry of two outstanding Slovak romantics: r..udovit Stur and Janka KraP. Cizevsky admits "that Mickiewicz's influence on Slovak literature was undoubtedly significant," but he warns at the same time against the "parallels" which are not parallels at all. This remark refers mainly to a Polish expert on Slovak poetry, Wladyslaw Bobek, whose work twenty-five years ago aimed to demonstrate the part which the poetry of Mickiewicz played in the works of - out of the theo- � SLOVAKIA 25 his condemnation and execution. History is filled with these rigged trials and martyrs deaths. The condemned priest left a noble testament to his beloved Slovak people. On the eve of his unjust execution he wrote: "In the spirit of the sacrifice I am about to make, I send this message to the Slovak nation: "In harmony and unison pursue always, everywhere and in every respect the great principle: FOR GOD AND FOR THE NATION. "This is not only the unequivocal intent of Slovak history, but also the explicit command of God, Who has made it the law of nature a11J has inculcated it into the soul of the nation and every one of its members. "This precept I have served all my life and, therefore, I consider myself first of all a martyr of God's law. Secondly, I feel that I am a martyr in the defense of Christianity against bolshevism, against which our nation must in all possible ways defend itself, not only in the spirit of its Christian character, but also in the interest of its future. "As I beg you to remember me in your prayers, so do I promise. to pray to God Almighty for you and supplicate that he bless the Slovak nation in its vital struggle for God artd for the nation, so that the Slovak nation will always remain a faithful and devoted son of the Church of Christ." When this black night in Europe passes with the destruction of the powers of darkness incarnated in atheistic communism Father Tiso will be seen as the hero that he truly was. - (The Catholic Universe Bulletin, Cleveland, 0 ., 6-27-47). • • • THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT SWVAKIA P.A. HROBAK Today there is no doubt that the original homeland ancestors of present-day Slovaks was somewhere the of beyond the Carpathian Mountains. We know that the Slovaks came into their present territory - which was later incorrectly called "Uhry" (hura=hora; uhor, uhorie= near, at the foot of, the mountains)-through the western Carpathians. Historical records do not tell us exastly when the Slovak ancients migrated from their original homeland, �26 SLOVAKIA but it appears that this happened before the sixth, and not later than the beginning of the sixth, century. The question what territory the ancestors of the Slovaks occupied or settled, and whether 1918 or 1938 Slova'k~a was smaller or larger than that territory, intrigued many scholars of history, archeology, and philosophy. Their studies definitely proved that the ancestors of the Slovaks had occupied a territory vastly greater than the area of present-day Slovakia; they proved that the Slovaks settled even beyond the Danube and occupied the northern area between the Tisa and Danube rivers. Paul J. Safarik, in his "Slovanske Starozitnosti" (Slovanic Antiquities), dealt with the question whether the ancestors of the Slovak nation had settled also on the territory beyond the Danube. He replied in the affirmative, stating that if we are willing to consider ancient testimonies about the Slovanic inhabitants of that area with an open mind, we shall come to the conviction that they belong nowhere more properly than to the Moravians and the Slovaks. Safarik pla.ced the Slovak boundary in the center of Moravia. About the boundary between the Tisa and the Danube rivers, he said: "At Pest\ Vacov, and beneath Mt. Matra there was at that time a boundary between the Bulgarians and inhabitants of Moravia, and the salt mines in Marmaros were in possession of the former." Saifarik's views were accepted by several excellent scholars, among them: Joseph Skultety (0 byvalom Hornom Uhorsku, 1929, 1932; 0 Slovakoch, 1928; Zo slovenskej minulosti, 1936); Roessler (Zeitpunct, 93); K. J. Grot (Moravija i Mad'jary s poloviny IX. do nacala X. veka Petrograd, 1881) ; Maretic (Slaveni u davnini). :r..ubor Niederle, however, let the question of Pannonia to the philologists. After Safarik, various historians and philologists devoted their time to this question. And the Magyars, who inhabited the territory in question at the present time, did also. Professor John Melich, eminent Magyar historian and philologist, supports Safarik's deduction in his book "A honfoglalaskori Magyarorszag" (Budapest, 1925-29); Ele- �SLOVAKIA 27 mer Moor did also in his excellent, objective work "Westungarn im Mittelalter im Spiegel der Orstnamen (Segedin, 1936; and Ungarische Jahrblicher, 1929); likewise, Stephen Kniezsa, in several articles published in 1:Jhe "Archivum Europae Centro-orientalis" and in the "Ungarische Jahrblicher" (1937-38). Moor's work practically exhausted all sources about western Hungary (Transdanubia); Melich's did not go quite as far, nor did the studies of Kniezsa. These studies, however, even of themselves are sufficient to convince us that the ancestors of the Slovak nation had settled on a muc:1 greater territory than present Slovakia. We know that Prince Pribina and his son Kocer fled from Nitra to Pannonia; they resided in Blatnohrad. The source, which describes their activity, comes to us from 871 A.D. and is called: "Libellum de Conversone Bagoariorum et Caranthanorum." This document, recording the events of 850, mentions the names of the magnates in Pribina's escort: 15 are Slovanic, while 17 are German. A careful scrutiny of the Slovanic names will convince us that these names were common with western Slovans, particularly with the dwellers of ancient Nitra. Old Latin documents from Nitra record the names of magnates which have the same linguistic foundation as the names of Pribina's magnates. But so do many personal names of southern and eastern Slovakia, as well as eastern Moravia! Taking all the given data and connecting them with the fact that Pribina and Kocer were Slovaks, we must conclude that the majority of the 15 names are Slovak. Melich, stating that the Magyars found Slovaks in Pannonia when they came there (p. 397), said that the namt':s existing on the territory of the Pribina-Kocer principality make it apparently certain that the 'Slovaks, the western Slovans (Slavs), also inhabited the land from Balaton Lake to the north, probobly to the northern line of Tet-SokoroBakon (p. 395). "It seems to me," said Melidh, "that the proofs presented confirm the testimony of geographical names. Pribina-Kocel"s Slovans (Slavs) were Slovaks. However, in- �28 SLOVAKIA asmuch as even from Balaton Lake to the south the S'lovans live here and there, they were Slovaks for the most part" (p. 396). Names of rivers and places also prove that the Slovaks settled in northern Pannonia. According to Dr. Melich, the name 'B alaton is Slovak, because if it were of southern Slav (Yugoslav) origin, the Magyar equivalent would have to be written "Balaton" (long "a"). Near the Bakon Forest is a stream which the Magyars today call "Cuha;" this is derived from the Slovak "Sucha" (dry); if it were of Yugoslav origin, according to Melich again, it would have t o be written "Cuha" (long "u"). There are many such names in Pannonia. The city of Veszprem (Vesprim) is orf western-Slav origin; it comes from Bezprem. A person named Bezprem is mentioned in the history of Brevnov, Bohemia, in the twelfth century; we also find the name in old Slovak documents. Furthermore, the name orf the town of Tihany is derived from tlte Slovak name Tichoii and is so written in documents of the 11th century. The name of the town Noszlop somes from the Slovak noun "Neostup," just like the Moravian "Ostopovice, Vostopovice" are derived from the noun "Ostup." According to these and similar appellations, Professor Melich concludes (p. 395) the Slovaks lived from the Balaton Lake to the north. His researches, convincing as they are, reveal much more. On the right bank of the Danube we find towns and cities with apparently Slovak names: Ostrihom, Budin, Tetin, Vesprim, Vysegrad-Vysehrad, and opposite P,a rkaii we find Neszmely (from the Slovak Nesmily), which are mentioned as a harbor and a river crossing in 1237-1240. In the west, Slovak settlements extended proba;bly to the river Raab. These names demonstrate that northern Pannonia was occupied by the Slovaks, and partly by the Germans, before the advent of the Magyars. There are not many Slovaks there today. But there is an appreciable number Jf them south of Ostrihom and above the Bako:n Forest. Some chronicles, that of "Anonymous" among them, say that the �SLOVAKIA 29 Magyars annihilated the Slovaks there, but the fact is that even in the 12th and succeeding centuries. many persons with Slovak names are mentioned in the documents of Veszprem, Tihany, and other places. Melich placed the southern Slovans between the Tisa and Danube rivers, because he was particularly influenced by the name of the "Zagy,a" river (p. 101). Of course, he did not know from what southern Slovanic tongue it might be derived. To a 'Slovanic philologist, towever, it is quite obvious that the name of the river which flows through that particul·a r territory cannot be deduced from any other than the Slovak language. The Magyar name "Zagyva," like the Czech "Sazava," comes from the Slovak "Sadzava," the Magyars using "-gy-" in place of the Slovak "-dz-" (Palugya-Paludza; Privigye-Prievidza; Pomogy-Pomedzi; etc.). Moor was correct in this regard, adding that, in the meantime, it appeared that Professor Melich had corrected his earlier views on the subject. Moor showed that names of this type could not be ascribed to any Slovanic language other than Slovak. The city of Miskolc, much in the news during the recent Hungarian revolt, is also of Slovak origin (Miskovec). Amd there are many such names close to and far from the area a:bove the Matra ond the Beech Forest. For example, north of Jager is the community of Balatony; the latter is as much a Slovak name as is Balaton, as well as: Topol'cany, Sucha, Novaky, Trstene, Kl'acany, Vysnova, Vfbove, Hradisfany, Domoslav, Dubie.any, Hlohovec, Suchof, and many others. Today's Ferto-Szent-Miklos was mentioned in the thirteenth century as "Neweg , Neueg;" but in northeastern Vesprem a group of seven communities is also recalled under the common name of "Nywig, Nywog, Neueg." We have the same proofs from that same time (13th century) for N evidzany (Tekov County) , that is, all these settlements were called by one and the same name: Nevidza. These names are especially important in the determination of the tribal adherance of the Slovans beyond the Danube and beneath Mt. Matra. They tell us that these Slovans (Slavs) were the ancestors of the Slovaks. �30 SLOVAKIA Moor literally fought against Kniezsa over the name "Pomogy" (Ungarische Jahrblicher, 1937, p. 278; and 1938. p. 36). A name of this type is also in Zelezna (Vas) County, near Kormend: it is "Geregye (from the Slovak "Gradza," which today would sound "Hradza"). Anotrer such important name is "Bogyoszlo" (from the Slovak "Budislav); if it were derived from a south Slorvanic language, it would have to be written "Bodoszlo" in Magyar. We find this appellation in several counties (Bihar Pese - to the south on the Danube--Sopron, and Zelezna. Names from the area of Balaton Lake, even south of it, are proofs that the ancestors of the Slov8!ks once occupied that territory. They are typical western-Slovanic. One even need not be a philologist to arrive at the fact that they are of Slov.anic origin; for example, Kustany (Kosfany); Nagy-Szokoly (Sokol); Nyedam puszta, Rosztopan puszta, etc. Some of the names may appear a bit "mixed" up, but a knowledge of documentary material and the evolution of the Magyar language always help one to find the original Slovanic or, respectively, Slovak form. The counties of Vesprem, Zalan, Komarno (also the transdanubian paret), Zelezna, Sopron, Moson, Rab, and others up to the Drava river, are swarmed with Slovanic names. Documents of the eleventh century contain a multitude of Slovanic p e r s o n a I names (Budivoj; Kazimir; Vojtech; Dobron; Vranis; Milose; Gnevku (Hnevek) ; Zlauku (Slavek) ; Radoan (Radovan); Vaclav; etc.). On the Danube, in most ancient times, the boundary between the Slovak and the Bulgarian nations was between Vacov (derived from "Vaclav") and Pese. According to what has been uncovered by archeologists, philologists, and historians, we ,a re quite certain that the territory of the ancient Slovaks extended in the west from beyond the Nezider Lake, through Zelezna County probably up to Kormend (from the Slovak "kremen"), below Balaton Lake; of course, we know that north of Balaton Lake there were large Slov·a k settlements in olden times; between the Danube and Tisa rivers the boundary went below the southern slope of Mt. Matra. �SLOVAKIA 31 Today there still may be doubt about the origm of several of these cities and villages, but their names tell us clearly that they were founded by Slovaks. According to Anonymou s, the Slovaks were there before the 12th century; and it is more than probable that the "Slovene" Slovaks were there when the Magyars came to Hungary. According to an ethnograph ic map of 1773, there were not many Slovaks in some places, but a large number in others. A solid Slovak territory extends here deeply to Pese, and even farther south. Beautiful central Slovak is still spoken in the vicinities of Pest', Vacov, and other cities and towns. According to names mentioned in ancient documents, the eastern boundary extended to the Tisa river and most probably went northeast as far as Zemplin. In an ancient Hungaro-P olish chronicle the river Topl'a: is recalled by its old Slova,k name "Cepla" (Tepla). This clearly proves that the Slovaks must have inhabited the area. From the philologica l standpoint, the question of the Slovaks in Moravia is altogether clear. The Slovaks there in the 8-lOth centuries occupied a greater space to the west and south than they do now. To, the south they had fortificatio ns on the river Dyja and reached as far as the Danube. Philologica l studies also show that Slovak influence also extended to southern Poland: the dialects used there indicate that probably from the 13th century there was a common developmen t with the Slovak and not the Polish language. Furthermo re, together with archeologic al studies, they tell us that the Slovaks today occupy only about a third of the territory which was settled by their ancestors before the Magyars came into the Danube area. With the passaga of time, Paul J. Safarik's determinat ion of ancient Slovak frontiers has been confirmed by scientific studies of historians, ethnograph ers, philologists , and archeologis ts. RIDFERENCE S: Risa Verkomoravs ka, 1933, compiled by Dr. Jan Stanislav. Slovensky zivotny priestor v minulosti a dnes, Dr. Frantisek Bokes, 1943. Slovensko v praveku, Dr. Jan Eisner, 1933. Knieza Pribina, Dr. Frantisek Hrus ovsky, 1933; also Slovenske dejiny, �SLOVAKIA 32 1939; Vefka Morava a Pofsko, rn33. Ungarns Volkerschaften im XI. Jahrhundert, Dr. I. Kn iesza, 1938. Zur Geschichte der ungarisch-slowakischen ethnischen Grenze, Dr. I. K niezsa, 19 41. Slovanske starozitnosti, P avel J . Safa rik, Vol. II, 2nd ed., 1863. Slovenske starozitnosti, Dr. I'..ubor Niederle, 1906, 1910. Narodopisni mapa Uher podle ured. lexikonu osad z r. 1n3, A . P e trov , 1924. Pribinovi Vermozi , Dr. J an Stanislav, 1939-40. Nehai'ite l'ud moj, Dr. Jo zef Skult ety, 1928 . • • • MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Ph.D. The University of California recently published an excellent symposium on the great Polish poet and patriot, Adam Mickiewicz, whose centenary has been commemorated throughout the world since 1955. Altogether 30 scholars and experts in Slavistics, representing over 20 nations and universities, contributed to this remarkable volume, edited by the eminent Polish scholar, professor Waclaw Lednicki. The volume has been published under the impressive title "Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature," and the editor actually succeeded in presenting Mickiewicz's influence on World literatures. Slovakia is represented by two contributions and is also mentioned in an article of a Czech scholar, who quite sincerely tried not to make the usual mistake of confusing Slovak and Czech poets and writers. The main article on Slovak literature in connection with Mickiekicz was written by the known expert in Slavic studies, professor Dimitry Cizevsky from Harvard, who in his scholarly study deals mainly with the poetry of two outstanding Slovak romantics: r..udovit Stur and Janka KraP. Cizevsky admits "that Mickiewicz's influence on Slovak literature was undoubtedly significant," but he warns at the same time against the "parallels" which are not parallels at all. This remark refers mainly to a Polish expert on Slovak poetry, Wladyslaw Bobek, whose work twenty-five years ago aimed to demonstrate the part which the poetry of Mickiewicz played in the works of - out of the theo- � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 25 his condemnation and execution. History is filled with these rigged trials and martyrs deaths. The condemned priest left a noble testament to his beloved Slovak people. On the eve of his unjust execution he wrote: "In the spirit of the sacrifice I am about to make, I send this message to the Slovak nation: "In harmony and unison pursue always, everywhere and in every respect the great principle: FOR GOD AND FOR THE NATION. "This is not only the unequivocal intent of Slovak history, but also the explicit command of God, Who has made it the law of nature a11J has inculcated it into the soul of the nation and every one of its members. "This precept I have served all my life and, therefore, I consider myself first of all a martyr of God's law. Secondly, I feel that I am a martyr in the defense of Christianity against bolshevism, against which our nation must in all possible ways defend itself, not only in the spirit of its Christian character, but also in the interest of its future. "As I beg you to remember me in your prayers, so do I promise. to pray to God Almighty for you and supplicate that he bless the Slovak nation in its vital struggle for God artd for the nation, so that the Slovak nation will always remain a faithful and devoted son of the Church of Christ." When this black night in Europe passes with the destruction of the powers of darkness incarnated in atheistic communism Father Tiso will be seen as the hero that he truly was. - (The Catholic Universe Bulletin, Cleveland, 0 ., 6-27-47). • • • THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT SWVAKIA P.A. HROBAK Today there is no doubt that the original homeland ancestors of present-day Slovaks was somewhere the of beyond the Carpathian Mountains. We know that the Slovaks came into their present territory - which was later incorrectly called "Uhry" (hura=hora; uhor, uhorie= near, at the foot of, the mountains)-through the western Carpathians. Historical records do not tell us exastly when the Slovak ancients migrated from their original homeland, 26 SLOVAKIA but it appears that this happened before the sixth, and not later than the beginning of the sixth, century. The question what territory the ancestors of the Slovaks occupied or settled, and whether 1918 or 1938 Slova'k~a was smaller or larger than that territory, intrigued many scholars of history, archeology, and philosophy. Their studies definitely proved that the ancestors of the Slovaks had occupied a territory vastly greater than the area of present-day Slovakia; they proved that the Slovaks settled even beyond the Danube and occupied the northern area between the Tisa and Danube rivers. Paul J. Safarik, in his "Slovanske Starozitnosti" (Slovanic Antiquities), dealt with the question whether the ancestors of the Slovak nation had settled also on the territory beyond the Danube. He replied in the affirmative, stating that if we are willing to consider ancient testimonies about the Slovanic inhabitants of that area with an open mind, we shall come to the conviction that they belong nowhere more properly than to the Moravians and the Slovaks. Safarik pla.ced the Slovak boundary in the center of Moravia. About the boundary between the Tisa and the Danube rivers, he said: "At Pest\ Vacov, and beneath Mt. Matra there was at that time a boundary between the Bulgarians and inhabitants of Moravia, and the salt mines in Marmaros were in possession of the former." Saifarik's views were accepted by several excellent scholars, among them: Joseph Skultety (0 byvalom Hornom Uhorsku, 1929, 1932; 0 Slovakoch, 1928; Zo slovenskej minulosti, 1936); Roessler (Zeitpunct, 93); K. J. Grot (Moravija i Mad'jary s poloviny IX. do nacala X. veka Petrograd, 1881) ; Maretic (Slaveni u davnini). :r..ubor Niederle, however, let the question of Pannonia to the philologists. After Safarik, various historians and philologists devoted their time to this question. And the Magyars, who inhabited the territory in question at the present time, did also. Professor John Melich, eminent Magyar historian and philologist, supports Safarik's deduction in his book "A honfoglalaskori Magyarorszag" (Budapest, 1925-29); Ele- SLOVAKIA 27 mer Moor did also in his excellent, objective work "Westungarn im Mittelalter im Spiegel der Orstnamen (Segedin, 1936; and Ungarische Jahrblicher, 1929); likewise, Stephen Kniezsa, in several articles published in 1:Jhe "Archivum Europae Centro-orientalis" and in the "Ungarische Jahrblicher" (1937-38). Moor's work practically exhausted all sources about western Hungary (Transdanubia); Melich's did not go quite as far, nor did the studies of Kniezsa. These studies, however, even of themselves are sufficient to convince us that the ancestors of the Slovak nation had settled on a muc:1 greater territory than present Slovakia. We know that Prince Pribina and his son Kocer fled from Nitra to Pannonia; they resided in Blatnohrad. The source, which describes their activity, comes to us from 871 A.D. and is called: "Libellum de Conversone Bagoariorum et Caranthanorum." This document, recording the events of 850, mentions the names of the magnates in Pribina's escort: 15 are Slovanic, while 17 are German. A careful scrutiny of the Slovanic names will convince us that these names were common with western Slovans, particularly with the dwellers of ancient Nitra. Old Latin documents from Nitra record the names of magnates which have the same linguistic foundation as the names of Pribina's magnates. But so do many personal names of southern and eastern Slovakia, as well as eastern Moravia! Taking all the given data and connecting them with the fact that Pribina and Kocer were Slovaks, we must conclude that the majority of the 15 names are Slovak. Melich, stating that the Magyars found Slovaks in Pannonia when they came there (p. 397), said that the namt':s existing on the territory of the Pribina-Kocer principality make it apparently certain that the 'Slovaks, the western Slovans (Slavs), also inhabited the land from Balaton Lake to the north, probobly to the northern line of Tet-SokoroBakon (p. 395). "It seems to me," said Melidh, "that the proofs presented confirm the testimony of geographical names. Pribina-Kocel"s Slovans (Slavs) were Slovaks. However, in- 28 SLOVAKIA asmuch as even from Balaton Lake to the south the S'lovans live here and there, they were Slovaks for the most part" (p. 396). Names of rivers and places also prove that the Slovaks settled in northern Pannonia. According to Dr. Melich, the name 'B alaton is Slovak, because if it were of southern Slav (Yugoslav) origin, the Magyar equivalent would have to be written "Balaton" (long "a"). Near the Bakon Forest is a stream which the Magyars today call "Cuha;" this is derived from the Slovak "Sucha" (dry); if it were of Yugoslav origin, according to Melich again, it would have t o be written "Cuha" (long "u"). There are many such names in Pannonia. The city of Veszprem (Vesprim) is orf western-Slav origin; it comes from Bezprem. A person named Bezprem is mentioned in the history of Brevnov, Bohemia, in the twelfth century; we also find the name in old Slovak documents. Furthermore, the name orf the town of Tihany is derived from tlte Slovak name Tichoii and is so written in documents of the 11th century. The name of the town Noszlop somes from the Slovak noun "Neostup," just like the Moravian "Ostopovice, Vostopovice" are derived from the noun "Ostup." According to these and similar appellations, Professor Melich concludes (p. 395) the Slovaks lived from the Balaton Lake to the north. His researches, convincing as they are, reveal much more. On the right bank of the Danube we find towns and cities with apparently Slovak names: Ostrihom, Budin, Tetin, Vesprim, Vysegrad-Vysehrad, and opposite P,a rkaii we find Neszmely (from the Slovak Nesmily), which are mentioned as a harbor and a river crossing in 1237-1240. In the west, Slovak settlements extended proba;bly to the river Raab. These names demonstrate that northern Pannonia was occupied by the Slovaks, and partly by the Germans, before the advent of the Magyars. There are not many Slovaks there today. But there is an appreciable number Jf them south of Ostrihom and above the Bako:n Forest. Some chronicles, that of "Anonymous" among them, say that the SLOVAKIA 29 Magyars annihilated the Slovaks there, but the fact is that even in the 12th and succeeding centuries. many persons with Slovak names are mentioned in the documents of Veszprem, Tihany, and other places. Melich placed the southern Slovans between the Tisa and Danube rivers, because he was particularly influenced by the name of the "Zagy,a" river (p. 101). Of course, he did not know from what southern Slovanic tongue it might be derived. To a 'Slovanic philologist, towever, it is quite obvious that the name of the river which flows through that particul·a r territory cannot be deduced from any other than the Slovak language. The Magyar name "Zagyva," like the Czech "Sazava," comes from the Slovak "Sadzava," the Magyars using "-gy-" in place of the Slovak "-dz-" (Palugya-Paludza; Privigye-Prievidza; Pomogy-Pomedzi; etc.). Moor was correct in this regard, adding that, in the meantime, it appeared that Professor Melich had corrected his earlier views on the subject. Moor showed that names of this type could not be ascribed to any Slovanic language other than Slovak. The city of Miskolc, much in the news during the recent Hungarian revolt, is also of Slovak origin (Miskovec). Amd there are many such names close to and far from the area a:bove the Matra ond the Beech Forest. For example, north of Jager is the community of Balatony; the latter is as much a Slovak name as is Balaton, as well as: Topol'cany, Sucha, Novaky, Trstene, Kl'acany, Vysnova, Vfbove, Hradisfany, Domoslav, Dubie.any, Hlohovec, Suchof, and many others. Today's Ferto-Szent-Miklos was mentioned in the thirteenth century as "Neweg , Neueg;" but in northeastern Vesprem a group of seven communities is also recalled under the common name of "Nywig, Nywog, Neueg." We have the same proofs from that same time (13th century) for N evidzany (Tekov County) , that is, all these settlements were called by one and the same name: Nevidza. These names are especially important in the determination of the tribal adherance of the Slovans beyond the Danube and beneath Mt. Matra. They tell us that these Slovans (Slavs) were the ancestors of the Slovaks. 30 SLOVAKIA Moor literally fought against Kniezsa over the name "Pomogy" (Ungarische Jahrblicher, 1937, p. 278; and 1938. p. 36). A name of this type is also in Zelezna (Vas) County, near Kormend: it is "Geregye (from the Slovak "Gradza," which today would sound "Hradza"). Anotrer such important name is "Bogyoszlo" (from the Slovak "Budislav); if it were derived from a south Slorvanic language, it would have to be written "Bodoszlo" in Magyar. We find this appellation in several counties (Bihar Pese - to the south on the Danube--Sopron, and Zelezna. Names from the area of Balaton Lake, even south of it, are proofs that the ancestors of the Slov8!ks once occupied that territory. They are typical western-Slovanic. One even need not be a philologist to arrive at the fact that they are of Slov.anic origin; for example, Kustany (Kosfany); Nagy-Szokoly (Sokol); Nyedam puszta, Rosztopan puszta, etc. Some of the names may appear a bit "mixed" up, but a knowledge of documentary material and the evolution of the Magyar language always help one to find the original Slovanic or, respectively, Slovak form. The counties of Vesprem, Zalan, Komarno (also the transdanubian paret), Zelezna, Sopron, Moson, Rab, and others up to the Drava river, are swarmed with Slovanic names. Documents of the eleventh century contain a multitude of Slovanic p e r s o n a I names (Budivoj; Kazimir; Vojtech; Dobron; Vranis; Milose; Gnevku (Hnevek) ; Zlauku (Slavek) ; Radoan (Radovan); Vaclav; etc.). On the Danube, in most ancient times, the boundary between the Slovak and the Bulgarian nations was between Vacov (derived from "Vaclav") and Pese. According to what has been uncovered by archeologists, philologists, and historians, we ,a re quite certain that the territory of the ancient Slovaks extended in the west from beyond the Nezider Lake, through Zelezna County probably up to Kormend (from the Slovak "kremen"), below Balaton Lake; of course, we know that north of Balaton Lake there were large Slov·a k settlements in olden times; between the Danube and Tisa rivers the boundary went below the southern slope of Mt. Matra. SLOVAKIA 31 Today there still may be doubt about the origm of several of these cities and villages, but their names tell us clearly that they were founded by Slovaks. According to Anonymou s, the Slovaks were there before the 12th century; and it is more than probable that the "Slovene" Slovaks were there when the Magyars came to Hungary. According to an ethnograph ic map of 1773, there were not many Slovaks in some places, but a large number in others. A solid Slovak territory extends here deeply to Pese, and even farther south. Beautiful central Slovak is still spoken in the vicinities of Pest', Vacov, and other cities and towns. According to names mentioned in ancient documents, the eastern boundary extended to the Tisa river and most probably went northeast as far as Zemplin. In an ancient Hungaro-P olish chronicle the river Topl'a: is recalled by its old Slova,k name "Cepla" (Tepla). This clearly proves that the Slovaks must have inhabited the area. From the philologica l standpoint, the question of the Slovaks in Moravia is altogether clear. The Slovaks there in the 8-lOth centuries occupied a greater space to the west and south than they do now. To, the south they had fortificatio ns on the river Dyja and reached as far as the Danube. Philologica l studies also show that Slovak influence also extended to southern Poland: the dialects used there indicate that probably from the 13th century there was a common developmen t with the Slovak and not the Polish language. Furthermo re, together with archeologic al studies, they tell us that the Slovaks today occupy only about a third of the territory which was settled by their ancestors before the Magyars came into the Danube area. With the passaga of time, Paul J. Safarik's determinat ion of ancient Slovak frontiers has been confirmed by scientific studies of historians, ethnograph ers, philologists , and archeologis ts. RIDFERENCE S: Risa Verkomoravs ka, 1933, compiled by Dr. Jan Stanislav. Slovensky zivotny priestor v minulosti a dnes, Dr. Frantisek Bokes, 1943. Slovensko v praveku, Dr. Jan Eisner, 1933. Knieza Pribina, Dr. Frantisek Hrus ovsky, 1933; also Slovenske dejiny, SLOVAKIA 32 1939; Vefka Morava a Pofsko, rn33. Ungarns Volkerschaften im XI. Jahrhundert, Dr. I. Kn iesza, 1938. Zur Geschichte der ungarisch-slowakischen ethnischen Grenze, Dr. I. K niezsa, 19 41. Slovanske starozitnosti, P avel J . Safa rik, Vol. II, 2nd ed., 1863. Slovenske starozitnosti, Dr. I'..ubor Niederle, 1906, 1910. Narodopisni mapa Uher podle ured. lexikonu osad z r. 1n3, A . P e trov , 1924. Pribinovi Vermozi , Dr. J an Stanislav, 1939-40. Nehai'ite l'ud moj, Dr. Jo zef Skult ety, 1928 . • • • MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Ph.D. The University of California recently published an excellent symposium on the great Polish poet and patriot, Adam Mickiewicz, whose centenary has been commemorated throughout the world since 1955. Altogether 30 scholars and experts in Slavistics, representing over 20 nations and universities, contributed to this remarkable volume, edited by the eminent Polish scholar, professor Waclaw Lednicki. The volume has been published under the impressive title "Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature," and the editor actually succeeded in presenting Mickiewicz's influence on World literatures. Slovakia is represented by two contributions and is also mentioned in an article of a Czech scholar, who quite sincerely tried not to make the usual mistake of confusing Slovak and Czech poets and writers. The main article on Slovak literature in connection with Mickiekicz was written by the known expert in Slavic studies, professor Dimitry Cizevsky from Harvard, who in his scholarly study deals mainly with the poetry of two outstanding Slovak romantics: r..udovit Stur and Janka KraP. Cizevsky admits "that Mickiewicz's influence on Slovak literature was undoubtedly significant," but he warns at the same time against the "parallels" which are not parallels at all. This remark refers mainly to a Polish expert on Slovak poetry, Wladyslaw Bobek, whose work twenty-five years ago aimed to demonstrate the part which the poetry of Mickiewicz played in the works of - out of the theo-  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Territory of Ancient Slovakia Description An account of the resource P. A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 1 (22), March 1957 pp. 25-32 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1957 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/4158c1b37feed48334f6b3974afaa39e.pdf d021647b2206e32781612172f4cb5cfe PDF Text Text 41 SLOVAKIA (13) See Waclaw Lednicki, Life and Culture of Poland (New York: Ray Publishers, 1944), p. 176 etc. (14) See Roman Dyboski, Poland in World Civilization (New York, 1950), p. 213. (15) See J . Nechon's essay on Stefan Zeronski in Harvard Slavic Studies, Vol. II, (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), pp. 323-324. • • • WF, MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES (Address By Hon. William F. Knowland Before Inaugural Nationalities Banquet, January 20, 1957) It is most fitting that this banquet, held on the eve of the public inaugural ceremonies of the President and Vice President of the United States, should be under the sponsorship of the Nationalities Advisory Committee and the Inaugural Nationalities committee. Firstly, with the exception of American Indians, in this new world all of us ourse1ves or our parents, grandparent.a, or more distant forebears, came front the old worlds of Europe, Asia, or Africa. While as citizens of the United States our loyalty is to this great ·r epublic it is also natural that there remain ties of historic interests, family or racial connections, and religious beliefs, together with our natural humanitarian instincts, that makes what happens in Budapest, Berlin, London, Peiping, Cairo, or any other city large or small more than just newspaper datelines. Secondly, the naJtiona:lities groups throughout our country made notable contriibutions to the reelection of our great president Dwight D. Eisenhower a:nd our able and effective Vice President Rihard M. Nixon. Not only are you entitled to be here to witness the culmination of your individual and •c ollective constructive labors in the last campaign but you have earned the right to a respectful hearing to your recommendations. There are many great problems confronting our country domestic and foreign. The President in his address on the Middle East resolution, in his staite of ,t he Union message, in his inaugural address tomorrow, or in future special messaiges to the Congress will discuss them. �42 SLOVAKIA To me the greatest issue of the day is human freedom. Under either Republican or Democratic administra tions our foreign policy should be based 1.11pon it. What advances freedom we should surpport and what retards or endangers it we should oppose. There are principles that cannot be compromis ed without fatal effects on the compriser or on the sacrificial victim Czecho-Slovakia was a casualty of such a deal. Munich should have taught the world that appeaseme nt is not the road to peace but is only surrender on the installment plan. Communism is an evil thing. It is destructive of religion, freedom, family life, and other hum,a n rights that f.ree men honor and hold dear. Dare we forget the admonition in Second Corinthian s : "Do not bear the yoke with unbelievers . For what has justice in common with iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" Kadar, Khrushche v, Gomulka, Chou en Lai are not to be trusted. The rpolicy of internation al communism has been, is, and will remain the destruction of freedom and national sovereignty . Any notion in Europe, Asia, or the Middle East that ignores this basic fact will do so at its peril. A propaganda barrage is developing here and ahroiad to give eCOIJlomic aid to the communist states of Eastern Europe. For what purpose? To lessen the drain on the Soviet Union so it will have more economic resources to use against the nations of the free world or to suibvert the uncommitte d countrit's outside the Iron Curtain? To sustain godless local communist chieftains who would not last a month were it not for the support of Soviet bayonets within their borders? To give character and prestige to men whose hands a:re red witih the blood of those patriots whose love of freedom for their countryme n was greater than their love of life? Are we to bolster sagging communim economies whose own workers by strikes, slow downs, or srubotage in rthe face of death penalties and pri.. ~on terms have contributed to the weakening of an important segment of the communist regime? �SLOVAKIA 43 None of these things make sense to me. I shall oppose the taking of a single, dollar from the over'burdened American ta~payer to build the economic strength of any communist coUJil.try behind the Soviet Tron Curtain or to give military aid to any communist state anywhere in the wodd. If the Sovielt Union wants peace there is an honm·aible proposal that could be made to that Government. Withdraw all Soviet forces from Poland, Albania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria and ,gua•r antee free elections under United Nations supervision. Let the people decide, free from the farce of Gomulka counterfeit elections such as Poland was insulted with on Sunday, J ,a nuary 20, while Soviet troops still occupy that restless country. Let the great powers and the United Nations guarantee the neutrality of all of these eastern European states after the withdrawal of all Soviet troops and after the free elections under United Nati'Ons auspices have been held. Both the Soviet Union and the West could then be assured that these free states would ibe similar to the neutral position which is today existing in Austria, Switzerland, and Sweden. They could not ibe used as a springboard for invasion against the free world or against the Soviet Union. The free world has no quarrel with the people of Russia. They were the first victims of Communist aggression. It is not the Russian people ibut the Soviet Communist regime which has broken aU of its international agreements with non-Comrmunist powers and which has been a distur.. ber of the peace of the world and still threatens it. With such a settlement in Eastern Euro.pe the 'burdens of armaments could be lifted to a considerable extent from the backs of the people of the free world and the Soviet Union as well. 'l'hen the people of Russia who do not have the privileges of the small but relatively well off Communist Party hierarchy would 'be a:ble to enjoy during this lifetime better housing, more consumer goods and a certain amount of luxuries which are now enjoyed by urban and rural wo'I'kers in the free world. But let us not as a great Republic ever compromise �44 SLOVAKIA the basic principle of human freedom. Let us never give our moral or legal blessing to the enslavement oif millions behind the J.ron Curtain who long to be free. Nor should we permit any international organization of which we are a member to compromise us in this regard. How can any nation ignore the moral issue involved in Roviet destruction of freedom in Hungary and subsequently want sanctions applied in the case of trouble in the Middle East? What organization can survive such a double standard? Either we have a system of law and order or the doctrine of might makes right is recognized. Communism cannot 1b e allowed to place itself above international law or God-gi,v en moral law. Our first Republican President Abraham Lincoln, said: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. • • • The fiery trial thvough which we pass will light us down to the latest generation. • • * We, yes even we, have the power and bear the responsibility. • • * In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free. * * • We shall nobly save or meanly lose this last best ho.p e on earth." • • • INDEPENDENCE AN D THE SLOVAK PAST ,Joseph Kirschbaum, LL. D., Ph. D. The question of the national existence of the Slovak nation, the efforts expended by the Slovaks for national and state independence, are treated in various works of political writers. In their analysis of the problems of Central Europe, writers try to be objective, but their literary efforts demonstrate that they answer the question only partially and usually incorr-ectly. Not taking into account the use of tendencious sources, it appears that the fault lies particularly in the approach to the problem of Slovak efforts for independence from the downfall of the first state of the Slovaks, Great Moravia. !Many political writers identify creations of dynasties with creations of nations, especially in multi--national states, and overlooik the universalistir tendencies of Europe in the early centuries of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. � 41 SLOVAKIA (13) See Waclaw Lednicki, Life and Culture of Poland (New York: Ray Publishers, 1944), p. 176 etc. (14) See Roman Dyboski, Poland in World Civilization (New York, 1950), p. 213. (15) See J . Nechon's essay on Stefan Zeronski in Harvard Slavic Studies, Vol. II, (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), pp. 323-324. • • • WF, MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES (Address By Hon. William F. Knowland Before Inaugural Nationalities Banquet, January 20, 1957) It is most fitting that this banquet, held on the eve of the public inaugural ceremonies of the President and Vice President of the United States, should be under the sponsorship of the Nationalities Advisory Committee and the Inaugural Nationalities committee. Firstly, with the exception of American Indians, in this new world all of us ourse1ves or our parents, grandparent.a, or more distant forebears, came front the old worlds of Europe, Asia, or Africa. While as citizens of the United States our loyalty is to this great ·r epublic it is also natural that there remain ties of historic interests, family or racial connections, and religious beliefs, together with our natural humanitarian instincts, that makes what happens in Budapest, Berlin, London, Peiping, Cairo, or any other city large or small more than just newspaper datelines. Secondly, the naJtiona:lities groups throughout our country made notable contriibutions to the reelection of our great president Dwight D. Eisenhower a:nd our able and effective Vice President Rihard M. Nixon. Not only are you entitled to be here to witness the culmination of your individual and •c ollective constructive labors in the last campaign but you have earned the right to a respectful hearing to your recommendations. There are many great problems confronting our country domestic and foreign. The President in his address on the Middle East resolution, in his staite of ,t he Union message, in his inaugural address tomorrow, or in future special messaiges to the Congress will discuss them. �42 SLOVAKIA To me the greatest issue of the day is human freedom. Under either Republican or Democratic administra tions our foreign policy should be based 1.11pon it. What advances freedom we should surpport and what retards or endangers it we should oppose. There are principles that cannot be compromis ed without fatal effects on the compriser or on the sacrificial victim Czecho-Slovakia was a casualty of such a deal. Munich should have taught the world that appeaseme nt is not the road to peace but is only surrender on the installment plan. Communism is an evil thing. It is destructive of religion, freedom, family life, and other hum,a n rights that f.ree men honor and hold dear. Dare we forget the admonition in Second Corinthian s : "Do not bear the yoke with unbelievers . For what has justice in common with iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" Kadar, Khrushche v, Gomulka, Chou en Lai are not to be trusted. The rpolicy of internation al communism has been, is, and will remain the destruction of freedom and national sovereignty . Any notion in Europe, Asia, or the Middle East that ignores this basic fact will do so at its peril. A propaganda barrage is developing here and ahroiad to give eCOIJlomic aid to the communist states of Eastern Europe. For what purpose? To lessen the drain on the Soviet Union so it will have more economic resources to use against the nations of the free world or to suibvert the uncommitte d countrit's outside the Iron Curtain? To sustain godless local communist chieftains who would not last a month were it not for the support of Soviet bayonets within their borders? To give character and prestige to men whose hands a:re red witih the blood of those patriots whose love of freedom for their countryme n was greater than their love of life? Are we to bolster sagging communim economies whose own workers by strikes, slow downs, or srubotage in rthe face of death penalties and pri.. ~on terms have contributed to the weakening of an important segment of the communist regime? �SLOVAKIA 43 None of these things make sense to me. I shall oppose the taking of a single, dollar from the over'burdened American ta~payer to build the economic strength of any communist coUJil.try behind the Soviet Tron Curtain or to give military aid to any communist state anywhere in the wodd. If the Sovielt Union wants peace there is an honm·aible proposal that could be made to that Government. Withdraw all Soviet forces from Poland, Albania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria and ,gua•r antee free elections under United Nations supervision. Let the people decide, free from the farce of Gomulka counterfeit elections such as Poland was insulted with on Sunday, J ,a nuary 20, while Soviet troops still occupy that restless country. Let the great powers and the United Nations guarantee the neutrality of all of these eastern European states after the withdrawal of all Soviet troops and after the free elections under United Nati'Ons auspices have been held. Both the Soviet Union and the West could then be assured that these free states would ibe similar to the neutral position which is today existing in Austria, Switzerland, and Sweden. They could not ibe used as a springboard for invasion against the free world or against the Soviet Union. The free world has no quarrel with the people of Russia. They were the first victims of Communist aggression. It is not the Russian people ibut the Soviet Communist regime which has broken aU of its international agreements with non-Comrmunist powers and which has been a distur.. ber of the peace of the world and still threatens it. With such a settlement in Eastern Euro.pe the 'burdens of armaments could be lifted to a considerable extent from the backs of the people of the free world and the Soviet Union as well. 'l'hen the people of Russia who do not have the privileges of the small but relatively well off Communist Party hierarchy would 'be a:ble to enjoy during this lifetime better housing, more consumer goods and a certain amount of luxuries which are now enjoyed by urban and rural wo'I'kers in the free world. But let us not as a great Republic ever compromise �44 SLOVAKIA the basic principle of human freedom. Let us never give our moral or legal blessing to the enslavement oif millions behind the J.ron Curtain who long to be free. Nor should we permit any international organization of which we are a member to compromise us in this regard. How can any nation ignore the moral issue involved in Roviet destruction of freedom in Hungary and subsequently want sanctions applied in the case of trouble in the Middle East? What organization can survive such a double standard? Either we have a system of law and order or the doctrine of might makes right is recognized. Communism cannot 1b e allowed to place itself above international law or God-gi,v en moral law. Our first Republican President Abraham Lincoln, said: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. • • • The fiery trial thvough which we pass will light us down to the latest generation. • • * We, yes even we, have the power and bear the responsibility. • • * In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free. * * • We shall nobly save or meanly lose this last best ho.p e on earth." • • • INDEPENDENCE AN D THE SLOVAK PAST ,Joseph Kirschbaum, LL. D., Ph. D. The question of the national existence of the Slovak nation, the efforts expended by the Slovaks for national and state independence, are treated in various works of political writers. In their analysis of the problems of Central Europe, writers try to be objective, but their literary efforts demonstrate that they answer the question only partially and usually incorr-ectly. Not taking into account the use of tendencious sources, it appears that the fault lies particularly in the approach to the problem of Slovak efforts for independence from the downfall of the first state of the Slovaks, Great Moravia. !Many political writers identify creations of dynasties with creations of nations, especially in multi--national states, and overlooik the universalistir tendencies of Europe in the early centuries of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 41 SLOVAKIA (13) See Waclaw Lednicki, Life and Culture of Poland (New York: Ray Publishers, 1944), p. 176 etc. (14) See Roman Dyboski, Poland in World Civilization (New York, 1950), p. 213. (15) See J . Nechon's essay on Stefan Zeronski in Harvard Slavic Studies, Vol. II, (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), pp. 323-324. • • • WF, MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES (Address By Hon. William F. Knowland Before Inaugural Nationalities Banquet, January 20, 1957) It is most fitting that this banquet, held on the eve of the public inaugural ceremonies of the President and Vice President of the United States, should be under the sponsorship of the Nationalities Advisory Committee and the Inaugural Nationalities committee. Firstly, with the exception of American Indians, in this new world all of us ourse1ves or our parents, grandparent.a, or more distant forebears, came front the old worlds of Europe, Asia, or Africa. While as citizens of the United States our loyalty is to this great ·r epublic it is also natural that there remain ties of historic interests, family or racial connections, and religious beliefs, together with our natural humanitarian instincts, that makes what happens in Budapest, Berlin, London, Peiping, Cairo, or any other city large or small more than just newspaper datelines. Secondly, the naJtiona:lities groups throughout our country made notable contriibutions to the reelection of our great president Dwight D. Eisenhower a:nd our able and effective Vice President Rihard M. Nixon. Not only are you entitled to be here to witness the culmination of your individual and •c ollective constructive labors in the last campaign but you have earned the right to a respectful hearing to your recommendations. There are many great problems confronting our country domestic and foreign. The President in his address on the Middle East resolution, in his staite of ,t he Union message, in his inaugural address tomorrow, or in future special messaiges to the Congress will discuss them. 42 SLOVAKIA To me the greatest issue of the day is human freedom. Under either Republican or Democratic administra tions our foreign policy should be based 1.11pon it. What advances freedom we should surpport and what retards or endangers it we should oppose. There are principles that cannot be compromis ed without fatal effects on the compriser or on the sacrificial victim Czecho-Slovakia was a casualty of such a deal. Munich should have taught the world that appeaseme nt is not the road to peace but is only surrender on the installment plan. Communism is an evil thing. It is destructive of religion, freedom, family life, and other hum,a n rights that f.ree men honor and hold dear. Dare we forget the admonition in Second Corinthian s : "Do not bear the yoke with unbelievers . For what has justice in common with iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" Kadar, Khrushche v, Gomulka, Chou en Lai are not to be trusted. The rpolicy of internation al communism has been, is, and will remain the destruction of freedom and national sovereignty . Any notion in Europe, Asia, or the Middle East that ignores this basic fact will do so at its peril. A propaganda barrage is developing here and ahroiad to give eCOIJlomic aid to the communist states of Eastern Europe. For what purpose? To lessen the drain on the Soviet Union so it will have more economic resources to use against the nations of the free world or to suibvert the uncommitte d countrit's outside the Iron Curtain? To sustain godless local communist chieftains who would not last a month were it not for the support of Soviet bayonets within their borders? To give character and prestige to men whose hands a:re red witih the blood of those patriots whose love of freedom for their countryme n was greater than their love of life? Are we to bolster sagging communim economies whose own workers by strikes, slow downs, or srubotage in rthe face of death penalties and pri.. ~on terms have contributed to the weakening of an important segment of the communist regime? SLOVAKIA 43 None of these things make sense to me. I shall oppose the taking of a single, dollar from the over'burdened American ta~payer to build the economic strength of any communist coUJil.try behind the Soviet Tron Curtain or to give military aid to any communist state anywhere in the wodd. If the Sovielt Union wants peace there is an honm·aible proposal that could be made to that Government. Withdraw all Soviet forces from Poland, Albania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria and ,gua•r antee free elections under United Nations supervision. Let the people decide, free from the farce of Gomulka counterfeit elections such as Poland was insulted with on Sunday, J ,a nuary 20, while Soviet troops still occupy that restless country. Let the great powers and the United Nations guarantee the neutrality of all of these eastern European states after the withdrawal of all Soviet troops and after the free elections under United Nati'Ons auspices have been held. Both the Soviet Union and the West could then be assured that these free states would ibe similar to the neutral position which is today existing in Austria, Switzerland, and Sweden. They could not ibe used as a springboard for invasion against the free world or against the Soviet Union. The free world has no quarrel with the people of Russia. They were the first victims of Communist aggression. It is not the Russian people ibut the Soviet Communist regime which has broken aU of its international agreements with non-Comrmunist powers and which has been a distur.. ber of the peace of the world and still threatens it. With such a settlement in Eastern Euro.pe the 'burdens of armaments could be lifted to a considerable extent from the backs of the people of the free world and the Soviet Union as well. 'l'hen the people of Russia who do not have the privileges of the small but relatively well off Communist Party hierarchy would 'be a:ble to enjoy during this lifetime better housing, more consumer goods and a certain amount of luxuries which are now enjoyed by urban and rural wo'I'kers in the free world. But let us not as a great Republic ever compromise 44 SLOVAKIA the basic principle of human freedom. Let us never give our moral or legal blessing to the enslavement oif millions behind the J.ron Curtain who long to be free. Nor should we permit any international organization of which we are a member to compromise us in this regard. How can any nation ignore the moral issue involved in Roviet destruction of freedom in Hungary and subsequently want sanctions applied in the case of trouble in the Middle East? What organization can survive such a double standard? Either we have a system of law and order or the doctrine of might makes right is recognized. Communism cannot 1b e allowed to place itself above international law or God-gi,v en moral law. Our first Republican President Abraham Lincoln, said: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. • • • The fiery trial thvough which we pass will light us down to the latest generation. • • * We, yes even we, have the power and bear the responsibility. • • * In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free. * * • We shall nobly save or meanly lose this last best ho.p e on earth." • • • INDEPENDENCE AN D THE SLOVAK PAST ,Joseph Kirschbaum, LL. D., Ph. D. The question of the national existence of the Slovak nation, the efforts expended by the Slovaks for national and state independence, are treated in various works of political writers. In their analysis of the problems of Central Europe, writers try to be objective, but their literary efforts demonstrate that they answer the question only partially and usually incorr-ectly. Not taking into account the use of tendencious sources, it appears that the fault lies particularly in the approach to the problem of Slovak efforts for independence from the downfall of the first state of the Slovaks, Great Moravia. !Many political writers identify creations of dynasties with creations of nations, especially in multi--national states, and overlooik the universalistir tendencies of Europe in the early centuries of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource We Must Quit Helping Red Regimes Description An account of the resource Address by Hon. William F. Knowland Before Inaugural Nationalities Banquet, January 20, 1957 Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 1 (22), March 1957 pp. 41-44 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1957