Jozef Tiso
Jozef Gašpar Tiso (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈjɔzef ˈtisɔ], Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈjoʒɛf ˈtiso]; 13 October 1887 – 18 April 1947) was a Slovak politician and Catholic priest who served as president of the First Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany during World War II, from 1939 to 1945. In 1947, after the war, he was executed for treason[1] in Bratislava.
Jozef Tiso
Office created
Office abolished
Position established
Himself
Himself
Office created
Himself
Jan Šrámek
13 October 1887
Nagybiccse, Hungary, Austria-Hungary
18 April 1947 (aged 59)
Bratislava, Czechoslovakia
- Politician
- cleric
- Catholic priest
Born in 1887 to Slovak parents in Nagybiccse (today Bytča), then part of Hungary, Austria-Hungary, Tiso studied several languages during his school career, including Hebrew and German. He was introduced to priesthood from an early age, and helped combat local poverty and alcoholism in what is now Slovakia. He joined the Slovak People's Party (Slovenská ľudová strana) in 1918 and became party leader in 1938 following the death of Andrej Hlinka. On 14 March 1939, the Slovak Assembly in Bratislava unanimously adopted Law 1/1939 transforming the autonomous Slovak Republic (that was until then part of Czechoslovakia) into an independent country. Two days after Nazi Germany seized the remainder of the Czech Lands, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed.
Jozef Tiso, who was already the prime minister of the autonomous Slovakia (under Czechoslovak laws), became the Slovak Republic's prime minister, and, in October 1939, he was elected its president.
Tiso collaborated with Germany in deportations of Jews, deporting many Slovak Jews to extermination and concentration camps in Germany and German-occupied Poland, while some Jews in Slovakia were murdered outright. Deportations were executed from 25 March 1942 until 20 October 1942. An anti-fascist partisan insurgency was waged, culminating in the Slovak National Uprising in summer 1944, which was suppressed by German military authorities, with many of its leaders executed. Consequently, on 30 September 1944, deportations of Jews were renewed, with additional 13,500 deported.
When the Soviet Red Army overran the last parts of western Slovakia in April 1945, Tiso fled to Austria and then Germany, where American troops arrested him and then had him extradited back to the restored Czechoslovakia, where he was convicted of high treason, betrayal of the national uprising and collaboration with the Nazis, and then executed by hanging in 1947 and buried in Bratislava. In 2008, his remains were buried in the canonical crypt of the Cathedral in Nitra, Slovakia.
Early life[edit]
Tiso was born in Bytča (then Hungarian: Nagybiccse) to Slovak parents, in Trencsén County, of the Kingdom of Hungary, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was raised in a religious family and studied at the local elementary school. Then, as a good student with a flair for languages, he studied at a lower grammar school in Žilina. The school had clearly Hungarian spirit, since all Slovak grammar schools were closed at the time of his study. Here, he began to use the Hungarian form of his name Tiszó József.[2] In 1902, he began to study at higher Piarist grammar school in Nitra. The Bishop of Nitra, Imre Bende, offered him a chance to study for the priesthood at the prestigious Pázmáneum in Vienna.[3] Tiso, taught by several elite professors, became familiar with various philosophies and the newest Papal Encyclicals. He also extended his language skills. Along with already known Hungarian, German and Latin, he studied Hebrew, Aramaic dialects and Arabic. The school reports describe him mostly as an "excellent", "exemplary", and "pious" student. Enrolling in the University of Vienna in 1906, he graduated as a Doctor of Theology in 1911.
His early ministry was spent as an assistant priest in three parishes in today's Slovakia. Tiso was interested in public affairs and performed extensive educational and social work. During his fight against poverty and alcoholism, he may also have adopted some stereotypical and simplified views on Slovak-Jewish relations.[4] Such views were not unusual in the contemporary society, including among priests or other people with higher education.[4] He blamed the Jewish tavern owners for the rising alcoholism and he was also a member of self-help association selling food and clothing cheaper than the local Jewish store. Tiso became a member of Nép párt (Catholic People's Party) and contributed to its Slovak journal Kresťan (Christian).[4]
During the World War I, he served as a field curate of the 71st infantry regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army recruited mostly from Slovak soldiers. The regiment suffered heavy losses in Galicia. Tiso got first-hand experience with horrors of war, but also with Germanisation and Russification of the local population. After a few months, his regiment was transferred to Slovenia, where he met Slovenian politician Anton Korošec, who was also a Roman Catholic priest. Tiso was inspired by a better organization of the Slovenian national movement. Tiso's military career was ended by a serious kidney illness and he was released from the military service. He did not return to his parish in Bánovce, but he was appointed as the Spiritual Director of the Nitra seminary by Bende's successor, Vilmos Batthyány.[5] Tiso was also active at this time as a school teacher and journalist. He published his experiences from the war ("The Diary from the Northern Frontline"). In other articles written in a patriotic style, he emphasized the need for good military morale and discipline.
However, this was nothing unusual, and it reflected a common style of the contemporary press, including a limited set of still printed Slovak newspapers. He also covered religious and educational topics, emphasizing a need for religious literature in Slovak.[6]
Tiso did not belong to politicians active in the pre-war national movement and his pre-war national orientation has been frequently questioned. His political opponents tried to draw him as a Magyarone (Magyarized Slovak) while some Slovak nationalists sought for proofs of his early national orientation. Both views are largely simplified. Tiso carefully avoided national self-categorization language, his behaviour might be framed in a "national indifference" approach - a practice largely spread in Central Europe before 1918. His only criticism targeted the Jews. In some of his pre-1918 writings Tiso complained about the state hierarchy or the ruling Liberal party, but he never denounced the Magyarisation or the Magyar nationalism. At the same time, he was more focused on social and religious activities among the Slovaks without revealing his ethnic or national self-identification. Most importantly, Tiso publicly acted as a loyal subject of the Habsburg dynasty. Interestingly that his writings rather reveals that his identity was stronger linked to the entire monarchy of Austria-Hungary, than to the Kingdom of Hungary, whose citizen he formally was.[7]
First Czechoslovak republic[edit]
In December 1918, Tiso became a member of the restored Slovak People's Party (Slovenská ľudová strana, so called "Ľudáks"). The party supported the idea of parliamentary democracy, defended interests of its Slovak Catholic voters and sought Slovak autonomy within the Czecho-Slovakia framework.[9] Tiso, largely unknown before the coup, gradually strengthened his position in the party hierarchy. His elite education, high intelligence, energy, large working experiences with common people and his ability to speak in common terms made him a popular speaker and journalist of the party.[10]
In 1919, he founded a subsidiary of the party in Nitra and he organized a gymnastic organization, Orol (Eagle), the counterweight of a similar Czech/Czechoslovak organization Sokol. Tiso first ran for parliament in the 1920 Czechoslovak parliamentary election. Although the electoral results from his district were bright spots in what was otherwise a disappointing election for the Ľudáks, the party did not reward him with a legislative seat. Tiso, however, easily claimed one in the 1925 election, which also resulted in a breakthrough victory for the party. Until 1938, he was a fixture in the Czecho-Slovakian parliament in Prague.
In 1921 Tiso was appointed Monsignor by the Vatican, although this appointment lapsed with the later death of Pope Benedict XV.[11] From 1921 to 1923, he served as the secretary to the new Slovak bishop of Nitra, Karol Kmeťko. During the same period, nationalist political agitation earned Tiso two convictions by the Czechoslovak courts for incitement, one of which resulted in a short incarceration. Displeased, Kmeťko dropped him as secretary in 1923, but retained him as a Professor of Theology. In 1924, Tiso left Nitra to become dean of Bánovce nad Bebravou.[12] He remained the Dean of Bánovce for the rest of his political career, returning there regularly every weekend also as a Czechoslovak minister, and as later as president.
In the interwar period, Tiso was a moderate politician and his ability to reach compromises made him a respected mediator of the party. He used more radical rhetoric as a journalist, putting aside much of the anti-Jewish rhetoric of his earlier journalistic activities. He attacked his opponents and did not always control his emotions. However, he usually returned to rational arguments in official political negotiations.[13] Tiso sharply criticized policies of the central government regarding Slovaks and Slovakia. While the party still operated within a democratic framework, Tiso's colleague and political rival Vojtech Tuka formed two internal movements to oppose the state or its regime - the first collaborating with Hungarian irredentism and the second led by pro-fascist Rodobrana. Tiso did not participate in these.
In the late 1920s, Tiso became one of the party's leaders. When the president of the party Andrej Hlinka traveled in 1926 to the 28th International Eucharistic Congress in Chicago, he delegated Tiso to represent him in the presidium of the party.[14] In his absence, Tiso led complicated negotiations about an entry of HSĽS into the government. He was successful and thus strengthened his position. In January 1927, he became the Czechoslovak Minister of Health and Physical Education. Since HSĽS previously operated as an opposition party and was not able to fulfill all of its promises, the participation in the government led to the loss of credibility. Tiso again proved his speaker skills and supported the decision to participate in the government. As a minister, Tiso successfully realized several important health service projects in Slovakia.[14] Surprisingly, he refused the government ministry flat, staying in one of Prague monasteries. In October 1929, HSĽS left the government after the Tuka affair. Tiso was more inclined than Hlinka to find compromises with other parties to form alliances, but for a decade after 1929 his initiatives were not successful. In 1930, he became the official vice-president of the party and seemed destined to succeed Hlinka. He spent the 1930s competing for Hlinka's mantle with party radicals, most notably the rightist Karol Sidor – Tuka was in prison for much of this period for treason.
In 1930, Tiso published The Ideology of the Hlinka's Slovak People's Party explaining his views on the Czech-Slovak relationship. Notably, he claimed sovereignty of the Slovak nation over the territory of Slovakia and indirectly suggested the right of Slovaks also to adopt different solutions for things from the Czechoslovak government in Prague.[15] He repeated the same idea in his parliamentary speeches.[16]
By the middle 1930s, Tiso's views shifted toward authoritarian and totalitarian ideas. He repeatedly declared that HSĽS was the only party representing the Slovaks and the only party which spoke for the Slovak nation. These claims played a significant role in the later end of the democratic regime. "One nation, one party, one leader", Tiso declared at the party congress held in 1936.[17] The party should cover all aspects of the life.
In 1938, with increasing pressure from Nazi Germany and Hungary, the representatives of HSĽS questioned neighboring states on their views for the future of Slovakia. In May 1938, Tiso held secret negotiations with the Hungarian Foreign Minister Affairs Kálmán Kánya during a eucharistic congress in Budapest. He declared that Slovakia might be prepared to rejoin Hungary as an autonomous federal state should Czechoslovakia cease to exist.[18] However, the meeting did not go well. Tiso was disappointed by Kánya's attitude and alleged Hungarian historical claims on Slovakia and felt Kánya's behaviour was lofty and arrogant.[19] He concluded that Hungary was not seriously interested in a common agreement and was focused more on the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, as was Germany. Therefore, well aware of the weak economic position of Slovakia, the lack of qualified people and an unstable international situation, he felt he was stuck with Czechoslovakia for the time being. When Hlinka died in August 1938, Tiso quickly consolidated control of the Ľudák party.[20] Tiso was an official speaker from the party at Hlinka's funeral where he urged national unity and loyalty to the Czechoslovak republic.[21] He, however, continued negotiations with the central government in Prague, explained the goals of potential autonomy and refused a military solution of the Czechoslovak-German crisis.
Tiso lost all remnants of power when the Soviet Red Army conquered the last parts of western Slovakia in April 1945. He fled first to Austria, then to a Capuchin monastery in Altötting, Bavaria. In June 1945, he was arrested by the Americans and extradited to the reconstituted Czechoslovakia to stand trial in October 1945.[54] On 15 April 1947, the Czechoslovak National Court (Národný súd) found him guilty of many of the allegations against him, and sentenced him to death for "state treason, betrayal of the antifascist partisan insurrection and collaboration with Nazism".
The court concluded that Tiso's government had been responsible for the break-up of the Czechoslovak Republic; and found Tiso guilty of:
Tiso was sentenced to death, to deprivation of his civil rights, and to confiscation of all of his property.[56] Tiso appealed to the Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš and expected a reprieve; his prosecutor had recommended clemency. However, no reprieve was forthcoming.[57] Wearing his clerical outfit, Tiso was hanged in Bratislava on 18 April 1947. The Czechoslovak government buried him secretly to avoid having his grave become a shrine,[58] but far-right followers of Tiso soon identified the grave in the St Martin cemetery in Bratislava as his. Decades later, after a DNA test in April 2008 that confirmed it, the body of Tiso was exhumed and buried in St Emmeram's Cathedral in Nitra, in accordance with canon law.[59]
Legacy[edit]
Under communism, Tiso was formulaically denounced as a clerical Fascist. With the fall of communism in 1989, and the subsequent independence of Slovakia, heated debate began again on his role. James Mace Ward writes in Tiso's biography Priest, Politician, Collaborator (2013): "At its worst, [the debate] was fuel for an ultranationalist attempt to reconstruct Slovak society, helping to destabilize Czechoslovakia. At its best, the debate inspired a thoughtful reassessment of Tiso and encouraged Slovaks to grapple with the legacy of collaboration."[60]
Members of the far-right in admiration of Tiso created a memorial grave in Martin cemetery in October of 2008 to commemorate Tiso.[61] It has since been used as an occasional gathering place for many far-right groups, including the People's Party Our Slovakia. Ultranationalist propaganda proclaims Tiso as a "martyr" who "sacrificed his life for his belief and nation", and so tries to paint him as an innocent victim of communism and a saint.[62]