Ivan Kamenec | |
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| Born | 27 August 1938 |
| Citizenship | Slovakia |
| Known for | Researching the Holocaust in Slovakia |
| Awards | Rad Ľudovíta Štúra , first class |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Comenius University |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Slovak National Museum Slovak Academy of Sciences |
| Notable works | On the Trail of Tragedy:the Holocaust in Slovakia |
Ivan Kamenec (born 27 August 1938) is a Slovak historian.
Kamenec was born into a Jewish family in Nitra on 27 August 1938 and grew up in Janova Ves . [1] His father,a civil engineer,managed to secure an economic exception to the 1942 deportations,during which most Slovak Jews were sent to the extermination camps. Kamenec avoided the resumption in anti-Jewish persecution during and after the Slovak National Uprising by hiding with his family in a bunker from September 1944 to April 1945,when Slovakia was liberated by the Red Army. He attended secondary school in Topoľčany. [1] He graduated from Faculty of Philosophy of Comenius University in Bratislava in 1961. Then he worked at the State Slovak Central Archive in Bratislava and the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava. At present,he works at the Institute of History of Slovak Academy of Sciences. He is a chairman of Slovak section of common Czech-Slovak Commission of Historians [2] and a member of the board of directors of Holocaust Documentation Center. [3] The main theme of his scientific research is the political and cultural history of Slovakia in the 20th century. He deals especially with the history of the First Slovak Republic from the years 1939–1945,the political system and the political and cultural elites. He is a respected scholar in the area of the Holocaust in Slovakia [4] and his work On the Trail of Tragedy belongs to basic works in this field. [5] [6] The work was written in the 1970s but was not published until 1991 [5] [7] because the topic was taboo in Czechoslovakia during the communistic era.
Some of Kamenec's critics have used his Jewish heritage to dismiss his academic work. [1] Because of the controversial nature of his work,he has received death threats. However,Kamenec told The Slovak Spectator that he did not take it seriously because such individuals are not representative of Slovak society. [8]
Kamenec was awarded the Order of Ľudovít Štúr,1st Class,by the president of Slovakia in January 2017 for his contributions to the academic discipline of history and the promotion of human rights and democracy. [9]
Jozef Gašpar Tiso was a Slovak politician and Catholic priest who served as president of the 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 in Bratislava.
Nitra 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 largest city in Slovakia. Nitra is also one of the oldest cities in Slovakia;it was the political center of the Principality of Nitra. Today,it is a seat of a kraj,and an okres.
Hlinka's Slovak People's Party,also known as the Slovak People's Party or the Hlinka Party,was a far-right clerico-fascist political party with a strong Catholic fundamentalist and authoritarian ideology. Its members were often called ľudáci.
Sabinov is a small town located in the Prešov Region,approximately 20 km from Prešov and 55 km from Košice. The population of Sabinov is 12,700.
The (First) Slovak Republic,otherwise known as the Slovak State,was a partially-recognized client state of Nazi Germany which existed between 14 March 1939 and 4 April 1945 after abandoning Czechoslovakia to be annexed by Germany. The Slovak part of Czechoslovakia declared independence with German support one day before the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. The majority of the territory of present-day Slovakia was under the control of the Slovak-Republic,without its current southern parts,which were ceded by Czechoslovakia to Hungary in 1938. It was the first time in history that Slovakia had been a formally independent state.
Vojtech Lázar "Béla" Tuka was a Slovak politician who served as prime minister and minister of Foreign Affairs of the First Slovak Republic between 1939 and 1945. Tuka was one of the main forces behind the deportation of Slovak Jews to Nazi concentration camps in German occupied Poland. He was the leader of the radical wing of the Slovak People's Party.
Gabriela Dudeková is a Slovak historian.
Count János Eszterházy was a prominent politician of Hungarian ethnicity in inter-war Czechoslovakia and later in the First Slovak Republic. He was a member of the Czechoslovak Parliament and of the Slovak Assembly. After the Second World War,he was illegally deported to the Soviet Union,sentenced on trumped-up charges at a show trial,and imprisoned. In the meantime he was sentenced,in absentia,to death by the National Court in Bratislava on the charges of High Treason to the State,collaboration with enemy,the breaking-up of Czechoslovakia,and his participation in an anti-democratic regime as a deputy of the Slovak Assembly. The sentence was not executed as a consequence of a Presidential pardon,following his return to Czechoslovakia from the Soviet Union. He died in prison in 1957.
Prof. PaedDr. Štefan Šutaj,DrSc. is a Slovak historian and professor at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University,specializing in the history of Hungarian minority in Czechoslovakia and Slovak civic (non-communist) political parties after 1945. He is research worker and head of Department of History of the Institute of Social Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and also Slovak chairman of the Slovak-Hungarian Commission of Historians.
Milan Stanislav Ďurica is a Slovak historian and theologian.
Daniel Rapant was a Slovak historian,archivist and university teacher.
The Holocaust in Slovakia was the systematic dispossession,deportation,and murder of Jews in the Slovak State,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 murdered in the Holocaust.
The Ústredňa Židov was the Judenrat in Bratislava that was imposed on the Jewish community of the Axis-aligned state of Slovakia to implement Nazi orders during the Holocaust. It was formed on the advice of SS (Schutzstaffel) official Dieter Wisliceny;the first leader,Heinrich Schwartz,was removed after refusing to cooperate with Nazi demands and replaced by the ineffectual Arpad Sebestyen. The collaborationist Department of Special Affairs run by Karol Hochberg aided the authorities in confiscating Jewish property and collecting information that was used to arrest and deport Jews. Nevertheless,most of the ÚŽmembers focused on providing opportunities for emigration and improving the social welfare of Jews remaining in Slovakia,although they were hampered by the dwindling resources of the community. In addition,the ÚŽattempted to resist deportation by bribing Slovak officials,retraining Jews who had been expelled from their previous profession,and improving and expanding labor camps for Jews in Slovakia. The underground resistance organization that ran under its auspices,the Working Group,took over the ÚŽleadership in December 1943. Since its formation in early 1942,the Working Group had used the ÚŽas cover for its illegal rescue activities. After the German invasion of Slovakia in August 1944,the ÚŽwas disbanded and many of its members were arrested and deported to concentration camps.
Abraham Armin Frieder was a Slovak Neolog rabbi. After attending several yeshivas,he was ordained in 1932 and became the leader of Slovak Neolog communities before Slovakia declared independence in 1939 and began to oppress its Jewish population. Frieder joined the Working Group,a Jewish resistance organization,and delivered a petition to President Jozef Tiso begging him to halt deportations of Jews to Poland. Frieder was involved in efforts to send relief to deportees and interview escapees to learn about the progress of the Holocaust in Poland. After the German invasion of Slovakia during the Slovak National Uprising,deportations from Slovakia resumed;Frieder was captured but managed to avoid deportation from Sereďconcentration camp. After the war,he was appointed Chief Rabbi of Slovakia and attempted to smooth tensions between Neolog and Orthodox Jews. He died after surgery in 1946.
In August 1942,Jozef Tiso,president of the Slovak State and a Catholic priest,delivered a speech in Holíč,Slovakia,in which he defended the deportation of Jews from Slovakia. Referring to Jews as "parasites" and "the eternal enemy",Tiso claimed that their deportation was both economically necessary and congruent with Christian moral principles. The speech has been recognized as a key part of Tiso's moral legacy,emblematic of his complicity in the Holocaust.
The historiography of the Holocaust in Slovakia has been a much-debated subject,and historians have still not arrived at a consensus position as to the role of the Slovak State in the Holocaust.
Presidential exemptions were granted by President of the Slovak State Jozef Tiso to individual Jews,exempting them from systematic persecution through anti-Jewish legislation introduced by Tiso's Jewish Code,,during the Holocaust. The exemptions were exchanged for arbitrary monetary fees. From an estimated 20,000 requests,600 documented exemptions covering 1,000 people were granted,but only after 1942,when deportations to Auschwitz death camp had already stopped. Following the German invasion of 1944,when deportations resumed,all exemptions were nullified.
Anton Vašek (1905–1946) was the head of Department 14 in the Slovak State's Central Economic Office. He is known for accepting bribes in exchange for reducing deportation of Jews from Slovakia.
From 4 to 7 November 1938,thousands of Jews were deported from Slovakia to the no-man's land on the Slovak−Hungarian border. Following Hungarian territorial gains in the First Vienna Award on 2 November,Slovak Jews were accused of favoring Hungary in the dispute. With the help of Adolf Eichmann,Slovak People's Party leaders planned the deportation,which was carried out by local police and the Hlinka Guard. Conflicting orders were issued to target either Jews who were poor or those who lacked Slovak citizenship,resulting in chaos.
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