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
An axis (: axes) may refer to:
Mathematics
*A specific line (often a directed line) that plays an important role in some contexts. In particular:
** Coordinate axis of a coordinate system
*** ''x''-axis, ''y''-axis, ''z''-axis, common names ...
-aligned
Slovak State
Slovak may refer to:
* Something from, related to, or belonging to Slovakia (''Slovenská republika'')
* Slovaks, a Western Slavic ethnic group
* Slovak language, an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages
* Slovak, Arkan ...
in 1939 and 1940. He was known for spreading virulent antisemitic propaganda, although he left the government before the
Holocaust in Slovakia
The Holocaust in Slovakia was the systematic dispossession, deportation, and murder of Jews in the Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany, during World War II. Out of 89,000 Jews in the country in 1940, an estimated 69,000 were murde ...
was fully implemented. After the war, he joined the
Gehlen Organization
The Gehlen Organization or Gehlen Org (often referred to as The Org) was an intelligence agency established in June 1946 by U.S. occupation authorities in the United States zone of post-war occupied Germany, and consisted of former members of the ...
.
Nationalism
Born in
Rajec
Rajec (; ) is a town in the Žilina District, Žilina Region in northern Slovakia.
Etymology
Rajec, Rajčianka, Rajčanka are derived from Proto-Slavic appellative ''*rajь'' – a wet, muddy place (modern Slovak ''raj'' – a paradise, "a pl ...
, in the
Trencsén County
Trencsén county (Latin: ''comitatus Trentsiniensis / Trenchiniensis''; Hungarian language, Hungarian: ''Trencsén (vár)megye''; Slovak language, Slovak: ''Trenčiansky komitát / Trenčianska stolica / Trenčianska župa''; ) was an administra ...
of the
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...
(present-day
Slovakia
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
), he was educated at the
Institute des Hautes Études Internationales in Paris, the University of Bratislava and
The Hague Academy of International Law
The Hague Academy of International Law () is a center for high-level education in both public and private international law housed in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. Courses are taught in English and French and, except for External ...
, receiving his law doctorate and working as a professor of law in
Bratislava
Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
.
[ Philip Rees, '']Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890
The ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890'' is a reference book by Philip Rees, on leading people in the various far right movements since 1890.
It contains entries for what the author regards as "the 500 major figures on the ...
'', p. 107
Ďurčanský gained a grounding in nationalism in the universities. With
Rodobrana declining in influence during the mid-1930s, the focus of Slovak extreme nationalist discontent shifted onto the journal ''
Nástup
''Nástup'' (translated as "line up" "forming ranks", "deployment", or "ascent") was a semimonthly Slovak periodical, published between 1933 and 1940, that advocated Slovak autonomy, ethnonationalism, and antisemitism. Founded by Ferdinand ...
'', which had a university student and graduate readership and which was edited by Ďurčanský. Unlike some of his contemporaries, who advocated
autonomy
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be ...
, Ďurčanský was a supporter of a fully independent Slovakia, and when he and
Jozef Tiso
Jozef Gašpar Tiso (, ; 13 October 1887 – 18 April 1947) was a Slovaks, Slovak politician and Catholic priest who served as president of the Slovak Republic (1939–1945), First Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany during World War ...
visited
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
in 1938, it was only Ďurčanský who pressed the
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
leader on the issue. In October 1938, he told
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...
that Slovakia's "Jewish problem will be solved similarly to Germany's".
Under the Nazis
His followers, who came to be known as the 'Young Generation', held a number of posts in the
Slovak People's Party
Andrej Hlinka, Hlinka's Slovak People's Party (), also known as the Slovak People's Party (, SĽS) or the Hlinka Party, was a far-right Clerical fascism, clerico-fascist political party with a strong Catholic fundamentalism, Catholic fundamental ...
administration of
Vojtech Tuka, with Ďurčanský himself serving as Minister for Home and Foreign Affairs. He was dismissed following the
Salzburg Conference
The Salzburg Conference () was a conference between Nazi Germany and the Slovak State, held on 28 July 1940, in Salzburg, Reichsgau Ostmark (present-day Austria). The Germans demanded the expulsion of the ''Nástup'' faction of the Slovak Peopl ...
, because the Germans disapproved of his independent-minded foreign policy (he had attempted to maintain communication with the Western powers and keep friendly relations with the Soviet Union).
Tiso attempted to recall him in 1944, but the Nazis refused. Nonetheless, he remained a strong supporter of Tiso and
collaboration
Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. The ...
, attempting to organise resistance to the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
until early 1945 when he fled to Austria.
Plot exposed
The
United Nations War Crimes Commission
The United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC), initially the United Nations Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes, was a United Nations body that aided the prosecution of war crimes committed by Nazi Germany and other Axis powers duri ...
accepted Czechoslovak charges that he had been paid by the Nazi secret service and had been complicit in the deaths of Jews. Condemned to death ''in absentia'', he nevertheless escaped to the West in 1945 and became a stern critic of the communist government.
According to
Mark Aarons and
John Loftus Ďurčanský was a member of Intermarium, an underground anti-communist network with its headquarters in Paris that played a leading role in helping Nazis escape justice after the war and which was under the control of British intelligence. Having fled to the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Geography
* Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy
* Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City
* Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome
* Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...
, Ďurčanský was said to have linked up with other like-minded members of the group in order to conspire to restore the Slovak regime as well as other rightist totalitarian regimes in the newly communist states of Eastern Europe. To this end Ďurčanský made daily broadcasts to the Slovak areas of Czechoslovakia (according to ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'') whilst also publishing leaflets stating that he would soon return to take over as Prime Minister of an independent Slovakia. He established his own Slovak Liberation Committee as a basis for such plots although his attempts were severely undermined in September 1947 when General Ferjenčík concluded an investigation in which he revealed full details of Ďurčanský's group, as well as the level of infiltration by communist agents. Ferjenčík's report was used as the basis for a full takeover by the
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Com ...
. The speed with which his coup plot collapsed and the completeness of communist knowledge led to speculation amongst British intelligence that Ďurčanský was in fact a double agent but no evidence was forthcoming and before long he had risen to become President of Intermarium.
[Aarons & Loftus, ''Ratlines'', p. 219]
Later activity
Having had his plot exposed Ďurčanský took advantage of the
ratlines in operation to escape to
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
.
He had for some time been under the protection of British agent
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963, he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring that had divulged British secr ...
and when he was appointed Senior Liaison Officer to the United States and Canada in 1949 he attempted to arrange for Ďurčanský to be moved to
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. However at this point the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
had thrown its weight behind a moderate group called the Czech Democrats and rejected the chance to work with a Slovak separatist with a collaborationist background. Philby did however manage to secure entry into Canada on a British visa in December 1950 for Ďurčanský and he made the country his base of operations for the next few years and visited the country regularly on speaking engagements into the 1970s.
Ďurčanský returned to
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
in 1952, settling in
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
and conducting much of his work on behalf of Slovak independence from
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
.
However he spoke to various Slovak groups in the United States in 1959 with the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...
claiming that he was granted a visa as 'membership in or affiliation with the defunct Nazi Party in itself no longer constitutes a ground of ineligibility.'
[Ralph Blumenthal]
'In the War Crimes Archives: Rifts on Prosecutions'
/ref> His work against the Czechoslovak communist government included spells as President of both the Slovak Committee for Action Abroad and the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations
Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN) was an international anti-communist organization founded as a coordinating center for anti-communist and nationalist émigré political organizations from Soviet and other socialist countries.
The organizat ...
. He also wrote extensively for rightist journals such as ''Nation Europa
''Nation Europa'' (also called ''Nation und Europa'') was a far-right monthly magazine, published in Germany. It was founded in 1951 and was based in Coburg until its closure in 2009. It is also the name of the publishing house that developed the ...
'', ''Zeitschrift für Geopolitik'' and ''Politische Studien''.
Ďurčanský died of natural causes in Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
.
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Durcansky, Ferdinand
1906 births
1974 deaths
People from Rajec
Slovak People's Party politicians
The Hague Academy of International Law people
Slovak nobility
Slovak Nazi propagandists
Nazis sentenced to death in absentia
Prisoners sentenced to death by Czechoslovakia