Vojtech Tuka

Vojtech Tuka (1941)

Vojtech Tuka ( German : Adalbert Tuka , Hungarian : Béla Tuka ; * July 4, 1880 in Štiavnické Bane ; †  August 20, 1946 in Bratislava ) was a Slovak lawyer , university professor , journalist and politician of the Ludaken . As the leader of the radical wing of the party, he was first Vice Prime Minister in 1939, then second Prime Minister and, from 1940, Foreign Minister of the Slovak State .

As Prime Minister (1939–1944), Tuka represented the idea of Slovak National Socialism from 1940 and advocated unreserved collaboration with the Third Reich . He is considered to be the initiator of the 1942 deportations of two thirds of Slovak Jews to German extermination camps . After the Second World War, Tuka was convicted by a Czechoslovak people's court and hanged as a war criminal on August 20, 1946 .

Education and career

Vojtech Tuka was the son of the teacher Anton Tuka. He studied law in Budapest and later in Berlin and Paris . Before that he worked as a police officer in Budapest. At 21 doctorate Tuka as a doctor of law . As the first of his degree, he obtained both doctorate degrees: Doctor of Law and Doctor of Political Science . From 1903 he became a university lecturer in international law in Budapest. From 1907 to 1914 he taught as a professor at the Law Academy in Pécs . From 1914 to 1921 Tuka was a professor for legal philosophy and international law at the University of Pressburg .

Between 1915 and 1916 he was the only one to visit the Catholic priest Jozef Kačka in prison, who was convicted by the Hungarian authorities of pacifist and pro-Russian sermons. In 1919 Tuka turned down an offer from the Hungarian authorities to teach at a newly founded university in Pécs, Hungary , and applied to be a professor at the new Czechoslovak state university in Bratislava.

In his application, Tuka made clear his autonomist position with regard to the legal position of Slovakia in the new Czechoslovak Republic. As a result, Tuka was the only Slovak professor of political science and law with more than 15 years of professional experience who was not admitted to the university.

As early as 1920, the central government in Prague had Tuka interned in the Ilava prison without formal charges . However, due to a lack of evidence, Tuka was soon released. In 1921 Tuka was arrested again by the police and this time interned in Zlaté Moravce . He was released again, but from then on he was kept on a list of people suspected of anti-state activity by the police.

In 1921 Tuka joined the Ludaks and became the personal advisor to party chairman Andrej Hlinka . The small right-wing Ludak party wing found its spokesman in Tuka, which has been promoting an anti-Czech course since joining. As editor-in-chief of the party newspaper Slovák , he began an uncompromising campaign against communism , socialism , Czech free-thinking, all forms of liberalism and freemasonry .

In 1923 Tuka took part in the Hitler putsch in Munich and became vice-chairman of the Hlinka party that same year. He also founded the Rodobrana in 1923 , which acted as a paramilitary order force for the Ludaks. Tuka succeeded in developing the Rodobrana into a powerful semi-military force with which he believed he could dare to march on Pressburg and take over state power. On July 17, 1926, Tuka wrote enthusiastically in Slovák :

“Our brave Rodobrana, the Slovak fascists, are burning with enthusiasm, their muscles are strengthened by their self-confidence. They are inspired by our fascist strength, our program and our fearlessness. "

The unsuccessful November coup of Hitler and the opposition in their own ranks then stopped Tuka from the planned coup. In 1927 the Czechoslovak government was forced to ban the Rodobrana because it was a threat to the state .

From 1925 to 1929 he was a member of the Czechoslovak Parliament . In 1929 Tuka was arrested and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in an internationally acclaimed trial in which he and his close confidante Alexander Mach were accused of spying for the Hungarian authorities. During his long imprisonment that followed, the Hlinka party had an ambiguous relationship with him: on the one hand, Tuka was declared a martyr for propaganda purposes, on the other hand, he was left completely alone in prison by his party members. Tuka's political views only became more effective within the Hlinka party from 1936, when his students, the Nástupists , began to systematically increase their influence in the Ludak leadership.

In 1937 Tuka was granted an amnesty on the condition that he was not allowed to associate with former employees, so that he lived in Pilsen for several months under police surveillance . Tuka soon became an icon of the radical fascistophile wing of the Ludaks and, after the death of Andrej Hlinka in August 1938, was one of the main candidates for the post of party chairman alongside Jozef Tiso and Karol Sidor . These efforts of Tukas, however, were brought to failure by the clerical-conservative wing of the party, which held the decisive positions of power in the party and was largely behind Tiso.

By late autumn 1938, Tuka had already become the main advocate of full Slovak independence within the Hlinka party. Tiso, who was suspicious of him, then prevented Tuka's nomination for the state elections in December 1938 and tried to find a university rector for Tuka instead. However, the Germanophile Tuka managed to win the support of Adolf Hitler for his independence plans in the spring of 1939 . On February 12, 1939, Tuka and the leader of the Slovakian-German ethnic group, Franz Karmasin , met Hitler in Berlin to plan the smashing of Czecho-Slovakia . Tuka told Hitler:

"I place the fate of my people in your hands, my leader, my people await their full liberation from you."

After Slovakia was occupied by the Czech military on March 9 and 10, 1939 (the so-called Homola Putsch ), Tuka was interned together with Alexander Mach , Matúš Černák and other Germanophile politicians. After independence was proclaimed on March 14, 1939, Tuka became Deputy Prime Minister.

ideology

Tuka borrowed his ideology from Italian fascism and later from German National Socialism . He railed against an “amorphous social mass democracy” with its parliamentarianism and “partyism” and proclaimed the need to transform Slovakia into an authoritarian one-party state of national character. He considered the parliamentary-democratic multi-party system in Czechoslovakia, with the legally equal opportunity for all political groups to propagate their ideas, to be intolerable.

The basis of his actions was the conception that no nation can escape its annihilation that does not call its own a sovereign state with all the requirements of totalitarian nationalism . According to Tuka, the Slovaks in Czechoslovakia could not avoid assimilation with the economically and educationally stronger Czech people.

After he had been removed from his Pressburg professorship for international law in 1919 because of his autonomist standpoints and his entitlement to benefits was withdrawn, Tuka developed a consistent hatred of the Czechs and a radical rejection of the Czechoslovak state. As early as 1921 he was working out plans to incorporate Slovakia away from the Czechs into a joint federation with Hungary and Poland.

The anti-Semitism preached by Tuka early on , found wide echo among the Slovaks and also exerted a certain attraction on devout Catholics. Tuka's relationship with the Catholic Church was, however, rather fragile and ambiguous. In order to avoid any possibility of conflict with the church, Tuka pretended to be a strict Catholic. But the nation-state he had devised should be a totalitarian state that constricts the state sphere of the individual. He planned to preserve religion for the people, but only a disaffected knowledge of rulership for the elite. Tuka wanted to adopt the authority idea of Catholicism , but not its dogmatics.

For example, Tuka openly deviated from the position of the Vatican in the “solution of the Jewish question” in Slovakia . When, on April 7, 1943, the Vatican envoy in Bratislava, Monsinieur Giuseppe Burzio, confronted him about his demands for a resumption of the deportations of Jews to Auschwitz and appealed to the Christian character of Slovakia, Tuka replied:

"Our state is not and cannot be Christian, there is no article in our constitution that could declare Slovakia a Christian state."

The paramilitary Hlinka Guard, which had been built up since 1938, ensured the amnestied Tuka, but also Karol Sidor , Alexander Mach and Ferdinand Ďurčanský, a far-reaching say in Slovak domestic politics.

Despite his early approaches, Tuka only formulated his views, which were strongly influenced by fascist and national socialist ideas, after the establishment of the First Slovak Republic. But Tuka's plans for a totalitarian organization of Slovakia according to the National Socialist model never got beyond beginnings because they were inhibited by the conservative party wing of priest Jozef Tiso . Tuka also lacked the support of the Slovak people that Tiso possessed in order to be able to realize his ideas.

Tukas government 1939 to 1944

Domestic power struggle

Vojtech Tuka as Prime Minister (1939)

After Jozef Tiso was elected President in October 1939, Tuka automatically filled the post of Prime Minister . With this, the entire government and executive power passed from Tiso to Tuka. His efforts to radicalize economic and social politics in Slovakia and to align them unilaterally with the Third Reich led to sharp disputes with his previous political student Ferdinand Ďurčanský , who as Slovak foreign minister was keen to achieve a neutral Slovak foreign policy.

But the dismissal and deportation of all Czechs, Czechoslovakists and members of former centralist parties from state administration and business life demanded by the fascist-pro-Nazi partisans initially failed to materialize , as did that of the commander-in-chief of the Hlinka Guard (HG) Alexander Mach and HG- Chief of Staff Karol Murgaš called for a radical solution to the Jewish question . Thus the discontent of the Slovak radicals, who were mainly organized in the paramilitary Hlinka Guard, grew. After the temporary disempowerment of the Hlinka Guard by a government decree of December 21, 1939, enforced by the Catholic-Conservative wing, the radical party wing planned a first attempted coup on January 20, 1940.

The aim of this putsch should be the dissolution of parliament and the introduction of a radical-led dictatorship based on the Führer principle. But since the entire police and state apparatus as well as the Slovak army were behind the president, the plans were temporarily rejected.

A significant strengthening of Tuka's political position came after the government crisis that culminated in Slovakia in early 1940. After Hitler's intervention in the Salzburg dictation from 1940 to 1944, he also became the new foreign minister of the First Slovak Republic, which was dependent on the National Socialist German Reich . After Hitler's radical party wing in Salzburg had been decisively strengthened by Hitler, Tuka declared Slovakia - probably on direct instructions from Hitler - a National Socialist state on July 30, 1940 and announced shortly afterwards at a manifestation rally of the Slovak-German Society :

“For us Slovaks, Salzburg means a new glorious time, because we are entering a new era in which the Slovak National Socialism begins to rule in Slovakia under German supervision. National Socialism means unity, discipline, means joy through work. "

The proclaimed stage of "Slovak National Socialism" was the most tragic period in the six-year existence of the First Slovak Republic. During this time, the state apparatus focused primarily on an inhumane “ solution to the Jewish question ”, the totalization of the regime continued to grow, and Slovak domestic and foreign policy was still oriented thanks to German advisers and the Slovak radicals organized in the paramilitary Hlinka Guard closer to the German Empire. About his government's new line, Tuka stated:

"The party will work in the spirit of Hlinka, but with Hitler's methods."

And further explained Tuka:

"We will not continue to build Hlinka's Slovak People's Party as a Hlinka party, but as a Hitler party and a fascist party."

On August 24, 1940, Tuka propagated his 14 points of Slovak National Socialism , which he made de facto his government program after the Salzburg dictate. This also clearly showed Tuka's radical anti-Semitism. So it is said in relation to the Jews:

“What I said also applies to the Jews. The Jew must be the irreconcilable enemy of National Socialism because he is either a capitalist or a communist. That is why we must also resolve the Jewish question radically, otherwise our plans will collapse [...] We must not continue to suffer so that the Jewish spirit annoys us in economic and business life. We must not continue to suffer so that all of our literature, all of our art, succumbs to the Jewish spirit. It is sometimes said: have mercy on this Jew, he is good. But where is the guarantee that his son will not become the biggest bastard who causes such damage that one can hardly paralyze. "

But neither Tuka nor the German advisors were able to enforce the announced dawn of the new era against the hesitant resistance of President Tiso and his Roman Catholic camp. The opponents of a political co-ordination of Slovakia by the National Socialist German Reich declared themselves ready to work more closely with Berlin in solving the Jewish question and in economic policy, but resisted ideological and political-institutional questions.

In order to weaken the opponents of conformity, Tuka wanted to dismiss four of the eight members of the government, classified as unreliable in the revolutionary sense , in agreement with the German legation . In a letter, Tuka called on President Tiso to replace Conservative Ministers Jozef Sivák , Július Stano , Gejza Medrický and Gejza Fritz with pro-Nazi politicians Karol Murgaš , Matúš Černák , Ján Farkaš and Zoltán Finka . In the longer term, Tuka expected to move President Tiso to retire and to take over the office of President himself.

To ensure that Tuka had a somewhat comparable position of power over Tiso, according to the third German envoy in Bratislava, Hanns Ludin , Tuka could not rely on either Interior Minister Alexander Mach or the Hlinka Guard, but only on strong "moral support" from the Third Reich.

In the autumn of 1940 Tiso rejected all proposals to reshuffle the government and parliament based on the German model. Now that an evolutionary seizure of power by the radicals had failed, preparations for a coup were made by Tuka, Interior Minister Mach, HG Chief of Staff Otomar Kubala , the German ethnic group leader Franz Karmasin and the German envoy in Bratislava Manfred von Killinger . However, the premature betrayal of the coup by army circles, which were opposed to a seizure of power by the Hlinka Guard, already nipped the amateurishly organized coup in the bud. The President, who was able to get the army and, above all, Defense Minister Ferdinand Čatloš on his side, was also able to prevent Tuka from taking over the Defense Ministry, which was supported by the German advisors.

What turned out to be particularly unpleasant for Tuka was the fact that there was a change in the German envoy post as a result of the failed coup attempt: The radical Killinger, who was forced to overthrow, was transferred to Bucharest , his successor was who thought about a balance between the Tiso and Tuka wings Hanns Elard Ludin. Ludin's policy of balancing the two warring camps de facto supported Tiso's counter-initiative against the Tuka camp.

Since Tiso was not able to neutralize the position of Tukas and the other radicals in his function as president, he let himself become a "Führer" (Slovak: Vodca ) by a law on October 23, 1942, imitating the German model Party and state rise, and so gradually regained control of the state apparatus. Above all, he thus had the right to intervene in all state affairs. The Hlinka party as a unified party was transformed into a fascist elite party that totally embraced the state and society, following the example of the NSDAP .

In 1943, Tuka was re-elected chairman of the Slovak-German Society , but his health, especially a second stroke , the increasing blurring of Interior Minister Mach between him and Tiso, and increasing criticism from the ultra-radical circles around Otomar Kubala, intensified its political isolation.

In December 1943, Tuka resigned from his position as vice chairman of the HSĽS-SSNJ. As early as January 1944, Tuka declared himself ready to resign as Prime Minister, especially under the influence of Dieter Wisliceny and some German diplomats. However, as an intense power struggle for the successor to Tuka became apparent, the Hlinka Guard and above all the group around Otomar Kubala and his magazine Náš boj Alexander Mach as prime minister rejected, Tuka's resignation had to be postponed.

After the outbreak of the Slovak national uprising in Banská Bystrica , the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop tried to keep Tuka in his position, despite his state of health. On September 5, 1944, Tuka submitted the resignation of his government and did not take part in further active political life.

Deportation of the Slovak Jews

From 1941 onwards, Tuka concentrated domestically on a radical “solution to the Jewish question”. According to the ideas of Tuka and Interior Minister Alexander Mach, this solution should take place as quickly as possible, following the model of the National Socialist German Reich.

A Jewish code proclaimed by Tuka and Mach on September 10, 1941 through the Enabling Act , which represented a Slovak counterpart to the German Nuremberg Laws , provided the basis for the expropriation, ostracism, internment and finally deportation of over 57,000 Slovak Jews between March and August 1942 September, the committed employee Tukas Augustín Morávek founded the Central Economic Office , which was directly subordinate to the Prime Minister. The Central Economic Office received almost unlimited powers and became the most important organ in the aryanizations and the segregation of Jews from public life.

On December 2, 1941, after secret talks with the German ambassador in Bratislava, Hanns Ludin , Tuka agreed to the forced resettlement of Slovak Jews to the territory of the German Reich without the authorization of the Slovak government and was also prepared to arrange for the deportation of Jews from Slovakia " Colonization fee ”(to cover the“ colonization costs ”) in the amount of 500 Reichsmarks for each deported Jew. Tuka did not inform the Slovak government of the deportations agreed with Ludin until March 3, 1942.

Vojtech Tuka arrives in Berlin in October 1941 to negotiate a solution to the Jewish question in Slovakia and is greeted by Adolf Hitler, with Otto Meissner in the background

An official request from the Third Reich to the Slovak government about Jewish “workers” was not made until the beginning of 1942. Since the Slovak government was not prepared to pay for the livelihood of the impoverished Jewish population after the imposed occupational restrictions, the confiscation of property and cuts in benefits in 2 steps the circle of those who should be included in the deportations. First of all, the age of those “able to work” was reduced from 18 to 16 years. Second, Tuka stated that it was not "humane" to tear families apart so that they were deported together.

The deportations began on March 26, 1942 and lasted, with delays from the end of July, until October 20, 1942. During this time over 57,000 Slovak Jews were transported away in 57 trains, 19 of which went to Auschwitz and 38 to Lublin. Only 300 of these Jews survived. Consent to deportation did not mean that Tuka's government consented to the murder of the Jews. It was assumed that the Jews would be settled in the east and obliged to work. The German Reich left the Slovaks in this belief and promoted the legend of the settlement of Jews in the Generalgouvernement .

There were various reasons for the Tuka's government to stop deportations on October 20, 1942. The pressure of the Slovak people on the government increased during the months of the deportations. The brutality of the deportations, the rounding up, beating, and loading into the transport trains increasingly aroused the sympathy of the Slovak population. As the months went by it became increasingly clear that the Jews were not used to work, as claimed by the German Reich, but were murdered, the resistance grew . As early as the end of May 1942, Adolf Eichmann drove personally to Bratislava to promote the deportations. The Slovak government was further assured that the Jews in the Generalgouvernement are doing well.

But despite the appeasement of Adolf Eichmann, in the summer of 1942 the Slovak government asked the German Reich government how the fate of the deported Slovak Jews was going. They even considered sending a Slovak delegation to the General Government on the spot to get an idea of ​​the situation of the Jews living there. However, since the majority of the Slovak Jews had already been killed at this point in time, the German government could not and would not allow visits by a Slovak delegation under any circumstances. The Catholic Church also put pressure on Tuka's government, with the Catholic Church also exerting influence on President Jozef Tiso, who was himself a Catholic theologian. A pastoral letter published on March 21, 1942 by the Roman Catholic bishops in all Slovak churches represented the first public protest against the anti-Semitic laws of the Tuka government in the last three years and against the deportations.

Tuka himself took a reckless stance on the rumors of the murder of Slovak Jews in Poland. He repeated his request to the German government to allow a Slovak commission to inspect the deported Jews and their living conditions. Nevertheless, he wanted to continue with the deportation transports incessantly. Tuka explained to the government:

“Yes, yes, we will continue with the deportations, but our bishops, pastors, deputies, all are against it. Help me so that I have evidence against you [the rumors], this commission that is investigating the whole matter. I have no doubt that the rumors about the murder of the Jews are wrong. "

Another reason for the government to stop the deportations was the high colonization costs that had to be paid to the German Reich and which had now risen to tens of millions. In addition, the gaps that the deportation of Jews had left in economic life as well as in public life became more and more apparent and could not be closed.

The deportations ended in autumn 1942 mainly because the remaining Jewish population was protected from the deportations either in labor camps or by exemption certificates from President Tiso. Until September 1944, Tiso in particular steadfastly refused any new deportations demanded by Berlin.

However, Tuka was dissatisfied with the deportation stop and asked the German Foreign Office for sharp diplomatic pressure as early as June 1942, when the transports became less frequent . But this surprisingly failed to materialize. In the spring of 1943, radical representatives of the Hlinka Guard also called for the deportations to be resumed. On October 1, Interior Minister Alexander Mach instructed the 14th Department of the Interior Ministry, headed by Anton Vašek, to crack down on Jews. However, this order was no longer thoroughly implemented by the law enforcement agencies.

On December 18, 1943, the German advisor Edmund Veesenmayer arrived in Bratislava with the aim of resuming the deportations of Slovak Jews. Veesenmayer first met Tiso and showed him statistical figures on the Jews still remaining in Slovakia. Veesenmayer actually managed to get concrete promises from Tiso regarding the deportations. However, Tiso did not allow himself to be determined on a precise date for a deportation to the General Government. Veesenmayer avoided asking what to do with the 10,000 Jews who were excluded from the Jewish Code as converted Jews .

The German Reich expected the deportation of these people as well. Veesenmeyer knew, however, that Tiso would hardly comply with this request. Since Tuka was known for his tough attitude towards the Jewish population, Veesenmayer believed he would be more successful with him. Tuka immediately promised Veesenmayer that all baptized Jews would also be deported. He only made his promise conditional on setting up special camps for them with religious support.

But although President Tiso Veesenmayer also gave the assurance that he would not accept any further delay, further deportation transports did not leave Slovakia until autumn 1944, when the country was occupied by German units. The new government set up under Štefan Tiso after Tuka's resignation on September 5, 1944 , was no longer able to develop any political initiative, having sunk completely to the role of vicarious agent of the German occupying power.

Foreign policy

In the protection treaty, the Slovak government renounced an independent foreign policy. In Article 4 of the Protection Treaty it was stipulated that the Slovak government will conduct its foreign policy in close cooperation with the German government . Even Tuka was eventually even forced to ask the Foreign Office in Berlin for permission for government officials to travel abroad.

However, Ferdinand Ďurčanský , who acted as foreign and interior minister in the first phase of the Slovak statehood , not only tried to keep Slovakia as neutral as possible towards the western powers, he also established good contacts with the Soviet Union , which officially declared Slovakia independent on September 16, 1939 State recognized. Due to this and other "arbitrary" acts of určanský in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior, he was soon seen in Berlin as a persona non grata . As a result of the Salzburg dictation, he was finally replaced in the external department by Tuka.

In terms of foreign policy, Tuka initially tried to enforce an annexation of Moravian Slovakia to the Slovak state. The local National Council of Moravian Slovaks (Slovak: Národná rada moravských slovákov ) had already proclaimed annexation to the Slovak state on March 15, 1939, during the invasion of the rest of the Czech Republic by German troops. However, the National Socialists soon made it clear that they would not tolerate further discussions about such plans in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . Nevertheless, Tuka, Interior Minister Mach and also Defense Minister Ferdinand Čatloš nurtured the illusion of a "Greater Slovakia" (Slovak: Velké Slovensko ) until 1943 .

On April 11, during a government meeting, Tuka presented a proposal that Slovakia should provide the German Reich with several divisions for the war effort against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . However, since Defense Minister Ferdinand Čatloš protested strongly against such participation by Slovak armed forces, the government did not accept Tuka's proposal.

After the attack by the Wehrmacht on the Soviet Union , Tuka declared war on June 24, 1941 - without prior consultation with the Council of Ministers, the Parliament or the President - single-handedly on the USSR. Tuka was primarily concerned with forestalling the warring Hungarians by declaring war in order to later demand, from a favorable position, the revision of the Munich Agreement and the reintegration of the territories lost to Hungary. As a result, Stalin declared on July 18, 1941 that the Soviet Union would establish diplomatic relations with the Czechoslovak government in exile . The Soviet Union, which had recognized the Slovak Republic on September 16, 1939, and which had relatively good relations with Slovakia until the Salzburg dictation, spoke out in favor of a renewal of Czechoslovakia under the leadership of Edvard Beneš .

From autumn 1941 Tuka tried relatively successfully to create a Slovak- Croatian - Romanian alliance against enemy Hungary in the shadow of the German Empire .

On November 25, 1941, Tuka signed in Berlin that Slovakia would join the Anti-Comintern Pact . With reference to this alliance, he declared war on December 12, 1941 - again unauthorized and unconstitutional - on the United States and Great Britain . As a result, after the Soviet Union, the United States recognized Edvard Beneš's Czechoslovak government in exile on October 26, 1943.

Escape, trial and execution

Vojtech Tukas grave in the Martinsfriedhof in Bratislava.

When Soviet and Czechoslovak troops advanced further and further from eastern Slovakia towards Bratislava, the seriously ill and immobile Tuka fled to western Austria together with his carers, his personal doctor and his wife Božena Tuková , where he was captured by Allied units after the surrender of the German Empire was taken and delivered to the re-established Czechoslovakia. Tuka's health was already very serious at this point. After a third stroke, his body remained partially paralyzed and he was only able to move using a wheelchair.

In this condition, Tuka had to face the People's Court in Bratislava. The trial began on July 30, 1946 and lasted until August 15, 1946. The first charge dealt with Tuka's arbitrary encounter with Hitler and his demand for the destruction of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Further charges were Tuka's involvement in the formation of the protection treaty and the German-Slovak defense economy agreement , on the basis of which the Slovak government undertook to pursue its foreign policy in close agreement with the German Reich .

Tuka was also charged with the involvement of Slovak troops in the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The indictment read:

"Vojtech Tuka ordered the active participation of the Slovak army in the attack on the USSR and organized the dispatch of 50,000 men to fight behind the borders of Slovakia."

The main point of indictment, however, was Tuka's policy towards the Slovakian Jews. Tuka was primarily charged with the establishment of Jewish labor camps in Slovakia, which he ordered as Prime Minister, and the deportations of Slovak Jews to the German extermination camps in Poland, which he helped to organize . where the majority of them were murdered.

On August 14, 1946, Vojtech Tuka was sentenced to death for his involvement in the smashing of Czechoslovakia, active support of the Nazi regime and for the anti-Jewish measures taken by his government from 1939 to 1944 and hanged as a war criminal on August 20, 1946 .

Works

• A szabadság: Politikai tanulmány. Grill Károly, Budapest 1910.
• The legal systems: outline of a legal philosophy . Limbach, Berlin / Vienna 1941.

literature

• Ján E. Bor: Vojtech Tuka: Úvod do života a diela. [Vojtech Tuka. Introduction to life and work.] Kompas, Turčianský Svätý Martin 1940.
• Ján E. Bor: Dr. Adalbert Tuka: Fighter and Statesman. Unia, Bratislava 1944.
• Christoph Dieckmann : Cooperation and Crime: Forms of “Collaboration” in Eastern Europe 1939-1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89244-690-3 .
• Milan S. Ďurica: Tuka, Vojtech . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 4. Munich 1981, p. 364 f.
• Milan S. Ďurica: Jozef Tiso (1887–1947): Životopisný profil. Lúč, Bratislava 2006, ISBN 80-7114-572-6 .
• Jörg K. Hoensch : Slovakia and Hitler's Ostpolitik: Hlinkas Slovak People's Party between autonomy and separation 1938/1939. Böhlau, Cologne 1965, DNB 452052696 (= contributions to the history of Eastern Europe . Volume 4, also dissertation at the University of Tübingen 1965 DNB 481327894 ).
• Jörg K. Hoensch: Documents on the autonomy policy of the Slovak People's Party Hlinkas. Oldenbourg, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-486-51071-1 .
• Jörg K. Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 .
• Igor-Philip Matić: Edmund Veesenmayer: Agent and diplomat of the National Socialist expansion policy. Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-486-56677-6 .
• Tatjana Tönsmeyer : The Third Reich and Slovakia 1939–1945: Political everyday life between cooperation and obstinacy. Schöningh, Paderborn 2003, ISBN 3-506-77532-4 .
• T. Tönsmeyer:  Tuka Vojtech (Béla, Adalbert). In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 14, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2012–, ISBN 978-3-7001-7312-0 , p. 506 f. (Direct links on p. 506 , p. 507 ).

Web links

Commons : Vojtech Tuka  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Vojtech Tuka in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Vojtech Tuka in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• SLOVENSKÝ ŠTÁT: Tuka chcel odstrániť Tisa , www.tvnoviny.sk, July 4, 2010 (Slovak)

Individual evidence

1. ^ GND entry , German National Library.
2. ↑ Arne Schirrmacher (Ed.): Philipp Lenard: Memories of a natural scientist: Critical annotated edition of the original typescript from 1931/1943. Springer, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-540-89047-8 , p. 302 ( online ).
3. ↑ www.sme.sk, May 27, 1997 ( online ; Slovak).
4. ^ Ján E. Bor: Vojtech Tuka: úvod do života a diela. Kompas, Martin 1940, p. 39.
5. ↑ Peter Broucek: Minister in the corporate state and general in the OKW. Böhlau, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-205-08743-7 , p. 341 ( online ).
6. ^ Ján E. Bor: Vojtech Tuka: úvod do života a diela. Kompas, Martin 1940, p. 44 f.
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m} CV Vojtech Tukas , www.slovensko39-45.estranky.sk, February 11, 2009, accessed on July 12, 2011 (in Slovak).
8. ↑ Milan S. Ďurica: Jozef Tiso (1887-1947). Životopisný profile. Ústav dejín kresťanstva na Slovensku, LÚČ, Bratislava 2006, ISBN 80-7114-572-6 , p. 263.
9. ^ ^{A b} Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 209 ( online ( memento of the original from October 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). 
10. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 162 ( online ( memento of the original from October 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). 
11. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 211 ( online ( memento of the original from October 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). 
12. ↑ Christoph Dieckmann: Cooperation and Crime: Forms of "Collaboration" in Eastern Europe 1939-1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89244-690-3 , p. 33 ( online ).
13. ^ Ján E. Bor: Vojtech Tuka: úvod do života a diela. Kompas, Martin 1940, p. 67.
14. ^ ^{A b c} Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 210 ( books.google.at ( memento of the original from October 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check Original and archive link according to instructions and then remove this note. ). 
15. ^ Karl Bosl (ed.): The First Czechoslovak Republic as a multinational party state. Oldenbourg, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-486-49181-4 , p. 313 ( online ).
16. ^ Karl Bosl (ed.): The First Czechoslovak Republic as a multinational party state. Oldenbourg, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-486-49181-4 , p. 314 ( online ).
17. ↑ ^{a b} Tatjana Tönsmeyer: The Third Reich and Slovakia 1939–1945. Political everyday life between cooperation and obstinacy. Schöningh, Paderborn 2003, ISBN 3-506-77532-4 , p. 100.
18. ^ ^{A b} Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 186 ( online ( memento of the original from October 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). 
19. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} www.druhasvetova.at, Vojtech Tuka a slovenský národný socializmus, accessed on June 2, 2011 ( online ; Slovak).
20. ^ Igor-Philip Matić: Edmund Veesenmayer: Agent and diplomat of the National Socialist expansion policy. Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-486-56677-6 , p. 66 and 68 ( books.google.de ).
21. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 189 ( online ( memento of the original from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). 
22. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 187 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ).  
23. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 190 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ).  
24. ↑ Milan S. Ďurica: Dejiny Slovenska a Slovákov. Pressko, Košice 1995, ISBN 80-08-01427-X .
25. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 202 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ).  
26. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 191 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ).  
27. ↑ Constitutional Act of July 21, 1939 on the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, § 38, Art. 2
28. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 259 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ).  
29. ^ Peter Sokolovič: Hlinkova Garda 1938–1945. Ústav pamäti národa, Bratislava 2009, ISBN 978-80-89335-10-7 , p. 242 f.
30. ^ Peter Sokolovič: Hlinkova Garda 1938–1945. Ústav pamäti národa, Bratislava 2009, ISBN 978-80-89335-10-7 , pp. 243–245.
31. ↑ Cooperation and Crime: Forms of “Collaboration” in Eastern Europe. Wallstein, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89244-690-3 , p. 35 ( online )
32. ↑ Felicitas Fischer von Weikersthal: The National Socialist Genocide on the Roma of Eastern Europe: History and artistic processing. Böhlau, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20181-4 , p. 50 ( online ).
33. ↑ Alfrun Kliems (ed.): Slovak culture and literature in self-understanding and understanding of others: Ludwig Richter on his 70th birthday. Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-515-08676-5 , p. 38 ( books.google.de ).
34. ^ Johann Gottfried Herder Institute (ed.): Scientific service for East Central Europe. Volume 19 (1969), p. 511 ( excerpt ).
35. ^ ^{A b c} Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 264 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ).  
36. ^ ^{A b} Peter Heumos (ed.): Poland and the Bohemian countries in the 19th and 20th centuries: Politics and society in comparison. Oldenbourg, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-486-56021-2 , p. 229 ( online ).
37. ↑ Milan S. Ďurica: Dejiny Slovenska a Slovákov. Pressko, Košice 1995, ISBN 80-08-01427-X , p. 156.
38. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 236 f. ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).  
39. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 269 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ).  
40. ↑ Tatjana Tönsmeyer: The Third Reich and Slovakia 1939-1945. Political everyday life between cooperation and obstinacy. Schöningh, Paderborn 2003, ISBN 3-506-77532-4 , pp. 102-103.
41. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 244 ( online ( memento of the original from October 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). 
42. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 271 ( online ( memento of the original from October 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). 
43. ↑ Lotte Weiss: My Two Lives: Memories of a Holocaust Survivor. Lit, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-50225-4 , p. 177 ( online ).
44. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 242 f. ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).  
45. ↑ Veridicus Mercurius: Augustín Morávek a Vysoká škola zlodejov, on May 12, 2007, accessed on May 29, 2011 ( online ; Slovak)
46. ↑ Lotte Weiss: My Two Lives: Memories of a Holocaust Survivor. Lit, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-50225-4 , p. 198 ( online ).
47. ↑ Christoph Dieckmann: Cooperation and Crime: Forms of "Collaboration" in Eastern Europe 1939-1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89244-690-3 , p. 50 ( online ).
48. ^ ^{A b} Igor-Philip Matić: Edmund Veesenmayer: Agent and diplomat of the National Socialist expansion policy. Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-486-56677-6 , p. 175 ( online ).
49. ↑ Eleonore Lappin-Eppel: Hungarian-Jewish forced laborers in Austria 1944/45: Labor deployment, death marches, consequences. Lit, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-50195-0 , p. 35 ( online ).
50. ^ ^{A b c} Igor-Philip Matić: Edmund Veesenmayer: Agent and diplomat of the National Socialist expansion policy. Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-486-56677-6 , p. 175 f. ( online ).
51. ↑ ^{a b} Lotte Weiss: My two lives: memories of a Holocaust survivor. Lit, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-50225-4 , p. 199 ( books.google.at ).
52. ↑ Milan S. Ďurica: Dejiny Slovenska a Slovákov. Pressko, Košice 1995, ISBN 80-08-01427-X , p. 393 f.
53. ↑ Milan S. Ďurica: Jozef Tiso (1887-1947). Životopisný profile. Ústav dejín kresťanstva na Slovensku, LÚČ, Bratislava 2006, ISBN 80-7114-572-6 , p. 394.
54. ↑ Christoph Dieckmann: Cooperation and Crime: Forms of "Collaboration" in Eastern Europe 1939-1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89244-690-3 , p. 51 ( online ).
55. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 243 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ).  
56. ↑ Christoph Dieckmann: Cooperation and Crime: Forms of "Collaboration" in Eastern Europe 1939-1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89244-690-3 , p. 51 f. ( online ).
57. ^ Igor-Philip Matić: Edmund Veesenmayer: Agent and diplomat of the National Socialist expansion policy. Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-486-56677-6 , p. 180 f. ( online ).
58. ^ Igor-Philip Matić: Edmund Veesenmayer: Agent and diplomat of the National Socialist expansion policy. Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-486-56677-6 , p. 181 ( online ).
59. ↑ Christoph Dieckmann: Cooperation and Crime: Forms of "Collaboration" in Eastern Europe 1939-1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89244-690-3 , p. 52 ( online ).
60. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 277 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ).  
61. ↑ Peter Heumos (Ed.): Poland and the Bohemian countries in the 19th and 20th centuries: politics and society in comparison. Oldenbourg, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-486-56021-2 , p. 221 ( online ).
62. ^ ^{A b} Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 231 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ).  
63. ^ Jörg Konrad Hoensch: Studia Slovaca: Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , p. 234 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ).  
64. ↑ Walter Kosglich, Marek Nekula, Joachim Rogall (eds.): Germans and Czechs: History, culture, politics. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-45954-4 , p. 312 f. ( online ).
65. ↑ Milan S. Ďurica: Dejiny Slovenska a Slovákov. Pressko, Košice 1995, ISBN 80-08-01427-X , p. 157.
66. ↑ Milan S. Ďurica: Dejiny Slovenska a Slovákov. Pressko, Košice 1995, ISBN 80-08-01427-X , p. 158.
67. ↑ Milan S. Ďurica: Dejiny Slovenska a Slovákov. Pressko, Košice 1995, ISBN 80-08-01427-X , p. 159.
68. ↑ Milan S. Ďurica: Dejiny Slovenska a Slovákov. Pressko, Košice 1995, ISBN 80-08-01427-X , p. 160.
69. ↑ Milan S. Ďurica: Dejiny Slovenska a Slovákov. Pressko, Košice 1995, ISBN 80-08-01427-X , p. 165.
70. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ján Hodúr: The process with Vojtech Tuka. ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. narod.sk, August 6, 2009; Retrieved July 13, 2011 (Slovak). 
71. ↑ Márta Fata, Gyula Kurucz, Anton Schindling (eds.): Peregrinatio Hungarica: Students from Hungary at German and Austrian universities from the 16th to the 20th century. Steiner, Stuttgart 2006, p. 463 ( online ).