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Slovak Anti-semitism Only Result of “love for Own People,” States Father Tiso

December 23, 1941
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anti-Semitic activity by the Slovakian government is done for the “love of its own people,” declared Father Joseph Tiso, the Slovakian president, in an interview appearing in the weekly Neue Ordnung, reaching here today.

Tiso, who is a Roman Catholic priest, has been reluctant hitherto to associate himself with the violent anti-Semitism of Premier Tuka and Interior Minister Mach. As a result he was challenged by the Nazis to define his own position. The interview in the Neue Ordnung is evidently an attempt by Tiso to reconcile a priest’s duty as a Christian to “love his neighbor,” with the Slovak government’s anti-Jewish policy. In the interview he states: “All we undertake against Jews is done from love of our own people. Love of neighbor and love of country has been developed into a fruitful struggle against the enemies of Nazism.” He alleges that Jews have always been the enemies of the Slovak nation “which they oppressed politically and economically, and attempted to destroy socially.”

Meanwhile, in Koeniggraetz 20 Jews have been sentenced to prison for disobeying the anti-Jewish regulations, the Prague newspaper, Narodni Politika, reaching here today, reports.

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