ŽIDOVSKÁ KOMUNITA NA SLOVENSKU V ROKU 1944 Z POHĽADU ORÁLNEJ HISTÓRIE

• Authors: Salner Peter

Title variants

EN

Jewish community in Slovakia in 1944 from the perspective of oral history

• Languages of publication: SK

Abstracts

EN

The year 1944 was characterized by dramatic events that negatively affected the fate of Jews in the war-time Slovak Republic including those territories, which became controlled by Hungary after the Vienna Award. This study analyses strategies that helped the Jews to survive. It focuses mainly on the results of the oral history project: The fates of those who survived the Holocaust as well as the already published or hand-written recollections of the then witnesses. Baptism represented a frequent strategy of a rescue based on an assumption that the authority of the Church and the President – a Catholic priest would protect the endangered ones. Various state exemptions were expected to protect not only the concerned person, but his/her whole family. After the Germans occupied Slovakia, the Slovak legislation became invalid. Thus the fake “Aryan” papers were considered to secure ostensibly greater protection. The Slovak National Uprising enabled the Jews to take active part in the fight against fascism. After the Uprising was defeated, the Jews were seeking their rescue in various forms of hiding. However, soon it became clear that no particular strategy could secure their survival. Only individual skills, coincidence, the majority attitudes and/or (non)acting of perpetrators proved to be effective.

Keywords

EN

JEWISH; SURVIVAL STRATEGIES; SLOVAK REPUBLIC; SLOVAK NATIONAL UPRISING; RESCUERS

• Publisher: Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Slovenský národopis (Slovak Ethnology)
• Year: 2025
• Volume: 73
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 76 – 92

Contributors

author

Salner Peter

• Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie SAV, v. v. i., Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6844-0235

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/SN.2025.1.06