Reflecting on his visit to Slovakia, where he spent time in the town where his family were once prominent resident, and spoke with numerous officials and ordinary people, Michael Pinto-Duschinsky considers the country’s past and its attitudes toward Jews:
Compared with nearby Vienna, I was told by an authoritative figure in Bratislava, Slovakia is a safe haven [for Jews]. There are few Jews and few Muslims. However, as another equally qualified personality pointed out, this does not mean that below-the-surface anti-Semitism has disappeared.
A first cause of uncertainty is the continuing defense by some traditionalist Slovak Catholic clerics and others of the reputation of Father Jozef Tiso, Slovakia’s most senior perpetrator during the Second World War. Tiso was responsible for extreme anti-Jewish laws, for the “Aryanization” [i.e., plunder] of Jewish property, for widespread Jewish impoverishment followed by expulsion of most of the country’s Jews to Nazi death camps. Yet there has emerged a whole literature of excuses for him.
These worrying attitudes are accompanied, I was told, by unfavorable perceptions of Jews. Maybe. But I was far more struck, probably because of the people I met, by a surprising and highly gratifying degree of philo-Semitism. A heartening number of groups in Slovakia have a strong sense of responsibility to preserve and celebrate the memory of the country’s lost Jewish life. This gives us [Jews] good reason to reciprocate.
More about: Anti-Semitism, Holocaust, Philo-Semitism, Slovakia