From 4 to 7 November 1938, thousands of Jews were deported from Slovakia to the

no-man's land No man's land is waste or unowned land or an uninhabited or desolate area that may be under dispute between parties who leave it unoccupied out of fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dump ...

on the Slovak−Hungarian border. Following Hungarian territorial gains in the

First Vienna Award The First Vienna Award was a treaty signed on 2 November 1938 pursuant to the Vienna Arbitration, which took place at Vienna's Belvedere Palace. The arbitration and award were direct consequences of the previous month's Munich Agreement, which ...

on 2 November, Slovak Jews were accused of favoring Hungary in the dispute. With the help of

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
''

Slovak People's Party Hlinka's Slovak People's Party ( sk, Hlinkova slovenská ľudová strana), also known as the Slovak People's Party (, SĽS) or the Hlinka Party, was a far-right clerico-fascist political party with a strong Catholic fundamentalist and authorit ...

leaders planned the deportation, which was carried out by local police and the

Hlinka Guard Hlinka (feminine Hlinková) is a Czech and Slovak surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Andrej Hlinka, Slovak politician and Catholic priest *Ivan Hlinka, Czech ice hockey player and coach *Jaroslav Hlinka, Czech ice hockey player *J ...

. Conflicting orders were issued to target either Jews who were poor or those who lacked Slovak citizenship, resulting in chaos. Many of the deportees managed to return home within a few days, but more than 800 were left in tent camps near

Miloslavov Miloslavov ( hu, Annamajor) is a village and municipality in western Slovakia in Senec District in the Bratislava Region. History In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1332–1337. Geography The municipality lies at an altitud ...

Veľký Kýr Veľký Kýr ( hu, Nyitranagykér) is a village and municipality in the Nové Zámky District in the Nitra Region of south-west Slovakia. History In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1113. Geography The municipality lies at ...

, and

Šamorín Šamorín (; hu, Somorja, german: Sommerein) is a small town in western Slovakia, southeast of Bratislava. Etymology The name is derived from a patron saint of a local church Sancta Maria, mentioned for the first time as ''villa Sancti Marie'' ...

in the no man's land along the border for months with some groups staying until January or February 1939. Another several hundred Jews were deported from Hungary to the no man's land. In the meantime they endured winter weather with little or no shelter, although they were helped by Jewish organizations in Bratislava. The deportations were a fiasco for the Slovak People's Party leadership, worsening the country's reputation abroad and causing

capital flight Capital flight, in economics, occurs when assets or money rapidly flow out of a country, due to an event of economic consequence or as the result of a political event such as regime change or economic globalization. Such events could be an increas ...

by frightened Jews who intended to emigrate, but they were a preparation for the 1942 deportations to the ghettos and

extermination camps Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

German-occupied Poland German-occupied Poland during World War II consisted of two major parts with different types of administration. The Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany following the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II—nearly a quarter of the ...

Background

Following the

Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, Germany, the United Kingdom, French Third Republic, France, and Fa ...

, in which the Czechoslovak

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...

was annexed by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, the

(HSĽS)—long in favor of Slovak autonomy or independence—unilaterally announced Slovakia's autonomy within the

Second Czechoslovak Republic The Second Czechoslovak Republic ( cs, Druhá československá republika, sk, Druhá česko-slovenská republika) existed for 169 days, between 30 September 1938 and 15 March 1939. It was composed of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and ...

. HSĽS was an

ethnonationalist Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity, with emphasis on an ethnocentric (and in some cases an ethnocratic) approach to various politi ...

party which had a paramilitary wing, the

. The pro-Nazi German Party, for Slovak Germans, also had a paramilitary wing, the

Freiwillige Schutzstaffel ''Freiwillige Schutzstaffel'' ('Voluntary Protection Corps', abbreviated FS) was a paramilitary organization in the World War II Slovak Republic. FS was founded in late 1938. Modelled on the German '' Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and the '' Allgemeine SS' ...

Jozef Tiso Jozef Gašpar Tiso (; hu, Tiszó József; 13 October 1887 – 18 April 1947) was a Slovak politician and Roman Catholic priest who served as president of the Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany during World War II, from 1939 to 194 ...

, a Catholic priest and HSĽS leader, became prime minister of the Slovak autonomous region and under Tiso's leadership, the Slovak government opened negotiations in Komárno with Hungary regarding their border. The dispute was submitted to arbitration in Vienna by Nazi Germany and

Fascist Italy Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...

. Hungary was awarded land in southern Slovakia on 2 November 1938, including 40 percent of Slovakia's arable land and 270,000 people who had declared Czechoslovak ethnicity. On 1 November, several Jews were arrested at a pro-Hungarian demonstration at the Carlton Hotel in Bratislava, agitating for the city to be annexed by Hungary. This exacerbated the previous antisemitic sentiment of the HSĽS and provided a pretext for actions against Slovak Jews.

Planning

On 3 November, SS official

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
''

Jozef Faláth of the HSĽS; leader of the Academic Hlinka Guard, ; Julius Janek, a local Hlinka Guard commander; Konrad Goldbach, a correspondent of the Nazi newspaper ''

Völkischer Beobachter The ''Völkischer Beobachter'' (; "'' Völkisch'' Observer") was the newspaper of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 25 December 1920. It first appeared weekly, then daily from 8 February 1923. For twenty-four years it formed part of the official pub ...

''; and German Party leader

Franz Karmasin Franz Karmasin (2 September 1901 – 25 June 1970) was an ethnic German politician in Czechoslovakia, who helped found the Carpathian German Party. During World War II he was state secretary of German affairs in the Slovak Republic, and rose to the ...

—at the Carlton Hotel. Faláth drafted a plan to deport impoverished and foreign Jews to the ceded territory, which was approved by Tiso on 4 November. The plan probably had the knowledge and approval of

Ferdinand Ďurčanský Ferdinand Ďurčanský (18 December 1906 – 15 March 1974) was a Slovak nationalist leader who for a time served with as a minister in the government of the Axis-aligned Slovak State in 1939 and 1940. He was known for spreading virulent antis ...

and

Alexander Mach Alexander Mach (11 October 1902 – 15 October 1980) was a Slovak nationalist politician. Mach was associated with the far right wing of Slovak nationalism and became noted for his strong support of Nazism and Germany. Early years Mach joined ...

. Around noon that day, Faláth went to the police headquarters in Bratislava and phoned police departments across the country, ordering them to carry out a joint operation with the Hlinka Guard. Before midnight, the police and guardsmen were to physically remove all Jews "without material means" to the territory that would be ceded to Hungary, in order to effect a "quick solution to the Jewish problem in Slovakia". Deportees were to have their property locked up and were provided only 50

Czechoslovak koruna The Czechoslovak koruna (in Czech and Slovak: ''Koruna československá'', at times ''Koruna česko-slovenská''; ''koruna'' means ''crown'') was the currency of Czechoslovakia from 10 April 1919 to 14 March 1939, and from 1 November 1945 to 7 F ...

(Kčs) worth of food. A few hours later, the orders were changed to target foreign Jews instead. Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia or the Czech lands were to be forcibly returned to their place of origin. The contradictory orders increased the chaos and confusion that accompanied the deportation. According to Czech historian

Michal Frankl Michal Frankl (born 1974) is a Czech historian and Head of the Department of Jewish Studies and of the History of Antisemitism at the Jewish Museum in Prague The Jewish Museum in Prague (Czech: Židovské muzeum v Praze) is a museum of Jewish her ...

, the organizers of the deportation were inspired by the recent expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany in late October, of which Eichmann was certainly aware, in which thousands of Polish Jews were deported from Germany and rejected by Poland.

Deportation

From 4 to 7 November, between 4,000 and 7,600 Jews were deported, in a chaotic,

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...

-like operation in which Hlinka Guard, , and the German Party participated. The victims were rounded up, loaded onto buses, and dropped off past the new border. About 260 were foreigners, such as Austrian Jews who had escaped into Czechoslovakia following the ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

''. The bulk of the deportees were Jews with Polish citizenship, who were effectively stateless because they had been stripped of their Polish nationality while living abroad. Young children, the elderly, and pregnant women were among those deported. Deportees faced bullying and intimidation from the Hlinka Guard and were warned that their presence in Slovakia was undesired and that they would face criminal charges if they attempted to return. However, most of the deportees—not just Slovak Jews, but also Polish citizens and stateless people—ignored the warning and made their way back home, which was unauthorized but quietly tolerated. In many places, the Hlinka Guard's zeal was such that they continued the action after the order was rescinded; the Jews of

Vranov nad Topľou Vranov nad Topľou ( Slovak before 1927 and from 1944–1969: ''Vranov''; german: Frö(h)nel / ''Vronau an der Töpl'' (rare); hu, Varannó; rue, Воронів над Топлёв) is a city of approximately 22,500 inhabitants in eastern Sl ...

were expelled on 7 November. Four Jews who tried to return to Banská Bystrica were deported again, but 70% of the 292 Jews deported from

Michalovce Michalovce (; hu, Nagymihály, german: Großmichel, Romani language, Romani: ''Mihalya'', Yiddish language, Yiddish: ''Mikhaylovets'' or ''Mykhaylovyts''; uk, Михайлівці) is a town on the Laborec river in eastern Slovakia. Originally ...

had returned by 19 November. Meanwhile, Jews with a net worth of over 500,000 Kčs were arrested to prevent

. Jews with foreign citizenship, except German, Hungarian and Romanian nationality (who comprised most of the Jews with foreign citizenship in Slovakia at the time) were exempt from deportation. The arrests did not prevent a spike in capital flight, and Hungary refused to admit the deported Jews, so Tiso canceled the operation on 7 November 1938.

Detention

Deportees were confined in makeshift tent camps at

( hu, Annamajor, german: Michsdorf, near Bratislava) and

(Nyitranagykér, near

Nitra Nitra (; also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra. It is located 95 km east of Bratislava. With a population of about 78,353, it is the fifth la ...

) on the new Slovak–Hungarian border during the winter. The camps were located in the neutral zone of between the countries; there was an additional demilitarized zone on the Slovak side. Neither country accepted responsibility for them or guarded them, blaming the other country for the situation. Miloslavov was located on a road near

Štvrtok na Ostrove Štvrtok na Ostrove ( hu, Csallóközcsütörtök, , formerly ) is a village and municipality in the Dunajská Streda District in the Trnava Region of south-west Slovakia. Geography The village is in the Danubian Lowland and is in the western p ...

(Csütörtök), from the new border. At both camps, there were initially no shelters, and especially children and elderly fell ill due to the wet winter weather. At Miloslavov, the temperatures for the first week got as low as before the deportees obtained any shelters. Heinrich Schwartz, a representative of the Orthodox Religious Communities, and Marie Schmolka, director of HICEM Prague, were allowed to visit Miloslavov in late November. With the aid of Jewish organizations, the refugees obtained food, shelter, and more clothing. According to a 29 November letter from the president of Orthodox Religious Communities, the population of Veľký Kýr was 344, consisting of 132 men, 73 women, and 139 children and Miloslavov had more than 300, including 120 men, 77 women, and 105 children. Of the detainees at Miloslavov, 197 were stateless, although many of these had lived in the country for many years. Seven of the deportees had Slovak citizenship, thirty were from Carpathian Ruthenia, 28 originated in the local area, 22 were from Poland, and 38 from Germany. Another camp, at

, had 190 people: 108 men, 40 women and 42 children. In the letter, the community leader begged for the Slovak Jews to be allowed to go home and the other Jews to be released so that they could wind up their affairs and leave the country. He promised that the Jews not from Slovakia would live in centers or with relatives and that all expenses would be borne by the Orthodox community. At the same time, local officials worried that the tent camps would become a haven for infectious diseases, which could spread to neighboring Slovak communities. On 30 November, a quarantine was imposed in Miloslavov, which also prevented aid from Jewish organizations in Bratislava. The poor conditions in the camps were condemned by the United Kingdom and France and worsened Slovakia's image abroad.

Aftermath and effects

Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1984-092-26, Nürnberg, Ausweisung polnischer Juden

By early December, the Hungarian authorities also expelled several hundred Jews with foreign citizenship, although Czechoslovak Jews from southern Slovakia were ''de facto'' treated as Hungarian citizens. On 8 December, Slovak authorities issued another order was issued so that the deportation of Jews would not be done ''en masse'' but on a case-by-case basis and in line with Czechoslovak law. Jews from other countries (such as Poland or the Czech lands) were to be returned home, while stateless Jews were imprisoned in camps along the border. Although these orders did not say so explicitly, they implied that most of the deported Jews with Czechoslovak citizenship would be allowed to return home. After this, the remaining deportees were mostly stateless. At Veľký Kýr this was implemented beginning 12 December. On 19 December, 118 deportees at Miloslavov were moved to Kühmeyer Inn on the outskirts of Bratislava (in the area) and from there to a former ammunition factory in

Patrónka Patrónka is an area in the western part of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, it is also the name of a major transport junction within the area and an important bus stop. Patrónka is located at the boundary of Bratislava I Old Town and Bratis ...

, where they remained (according to Aron Grünhut) until the 1942 deportations. According to Slovak National Archives documents, many of the Jews in Miloslavov were able to emigrate and the rest were deported overnight to Hungary in January 1939, in order to minimize publicity. On 21 February 1939, 158 Jews were released from Veľký Kýr, but it is unclear when the camp was shut down. Along with Germany's expulsion of Polish Jews in October and Hungary's expulsion of Jews from the areas it annexed in 1938, the Slovak deportations were the first in central Europe. There were also expulsions after the ''Anschluss'', the

annexation of the Sudetenland The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...

, and

Kristallnacht () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...

. Frightened, many Slovak Jews tried to transfer their property abroad and attempt emigration. Over the winter, many refugee Jews from Germany and Austria managed to leave the country. Between December 1938 and February 1939, more than 2.25 million Kčs were transferred illegally to the Czech lands, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom; additional amounts were transferred legally. The deportations reduced British investment, increasing dependence on German capital. They also served as a rehearsal for the 1942 deportations, in which two-thirds of Slovak Jews were deported to ghettos and

in occupied Poland.

Interpretations

In Slovak historiography, the deportations are presented as the result of the cynical opportunism of the HSĽS leadership, which sought to scapegoat Jews for its own foreign policy failure. American historian

James Mace Ward ''Priest, Politician, Collaborator: Jozef Tiso and the Making of Fascist Slovakia'' (2013) is a scholarly biography Jozef Tiso Jozef Gašpar Tiso (; hu, Tiszó József; 13 October 1887 – 18 April 1947) was a Slovak politician and Roman C ...

argues that the role of

Hungary–Slovakia relations Hungary and Slovakia are two neighboring countries in Central Europe. There are two major periods of official foreign relations between them in contemporary history. The first period included relations between the Kingdom of Hungary and the first ...

in the deportation have been ignored in the literature. According to Ward, the main cause of the deportation was that Slovak Jews were perceived as a security threat and loyal to the enemy by both the Hungarian and Slovak sides of the dispute. Michal Frankl commented that the deportation of poor Jews and arrest of wealthy ones reflected two streams of antisemitism that portrayed Jews as foreign and poor

Ostjuden The expression 'Eastern European Jewry' has two meanings. Its first meaning refers to the current political spheres of the Eastern European countries and its second meaning refers to the Jewish communities in Russia and Poland. The phrase 'Easte ...

on the one hand and as wealthy economic exploiters of Slovaks on the other.

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Spatial Queries and the First Deportations from Slovakia
European Holocaust Research Infrastructure {{Holocaust Slovakia 1938 in Slovakia Expulsions of Jews November 1938 events The Holocaust in Slovakia