Štefan Haššík

Štefan Haššík (* 25. November 1898 in Dlhé Pole , Austria-Hungary , † 1985 in Cleveland ) was a Slovak and Czechoslovak politicians , functionaries of the Hlinka party and replaced from 1944 to 1945 to the Slovak National Uprising overflowed Ferdinand Čatloš as Defense of the Slovak State .

Life

Haššík participated in the organization of the Slovak People's Party in Eastern Slovakia. From 1925 he was their deputy in the Czechoslovak parliament in Prague . From 1938 to 1939 he was government delegate of the Slovak Autonomous Government in Prague. From 1939 to 1940 he was the governor of the Prešov County , 1940 to 1944 of the Nitra County . During this time he is said to have maintained good contacts with the Jewish community of the Nitra County, for which he was criticized by German agents.

After the resignation of Vojtech Tuka's government as a result of the Slovak national uprising , he became defense minister in the new government under Prime Minister Štefan Tiso in September 1944 , which had already completely declined to the servant of the German occupation power.

When the Red Army invaded Slovakia in the spring of 1945, Haššík was able to reorganize the Slovak army, which had broken up after the national uprising, and draw 41,000 soldiers to the side of the Wehrmacht . The poorly equipped and only minimally trained Slovak armed forces, however, had nothing to oppose the superior strength of the Soviet Union and Slovakia was occupied by the Soviets until April 1945.

End of war

After the end of the war , Haššík fled abroad from the Czechoslovak authorities. On November 11, 1947, he was sentenced to death in absentia in Czechoslovakia. He fled first to Italy , then to Argentina and finally to Cleveland in the United States .

literature

• Milan Stanislav Ďurica : Jozef Tiso (1887–1947). Životopisný profile. , Lúč, Bratislava 2006, ISBN 80-7114-386-3 .
• Jörg Konrad Hoensch : Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia , Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 .
• Karol Sidor : Denníky 1930–1939 , Ústav pamäti národa, Bratislava 2010, ISBN 978-80-89335-23-7 .
• Peter Sokolovič: Hlinkova garda 1938–1945 , Ústav pamäti národa, Bratislava 2009, ISBN 978-80-89335-10-7 .