In deporting Jews, “Slovakia is acting in accordance with the Lord God’s command,” Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of the Nazi-dominated puppet state, said at a church meeting in the provincial town of Holitch, according to an English-language broadcast from Berlin today.
“Slovakia wanted at last to be rid of its eternal enemies,” Dr. Tiso was reported as saying, and in doing so “acted in a primitive Christian way.” He charged that Jews in Slovak towns and cities had increased in number “100 times” since the revolution of 1848, and that 38 per cent of the national property was in Jewish hands. “We would be very badly off if we had not rid ourselves of this element harming the state.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
