Priest, Politician, Collaborator

Mace Ward James

Description

In Priest, Politician, Collaborator, James Mace Ward offers the first comprehensive and scholarly English-language biography of the Catholic priest and Slovak nationalist Jozef Tiso (1887-1947). The first president of an independent Slovakia, established as a satellite of Nazi Germany, Tiso was ultimately hanged for treason and (in effect) crimes against humanity by a postwar reunified Czechoslovakia. Drawing on extensive archival research, Ward portrays Tiso as a devoutly religious man who came to privilege the maintenance of a Slovak state over all other concerns, helping thus to condemn Slovak Jewry to destruction. Ward, however, refuses to reduce Tiso to a mere opportunist, portraying him also as a man of principle and a victim of international circumstances. This potent mix, combined with an almost epic ability to deny the consequences of his own actions, ultimately led to Tiso's undoing.Tiso began his career as a fervent priest seeking to defend the church and pursue social justice within the Kingdom of Hungary. With the breakup of Austria-Hungary in 1918 and the creation of a Czechoslovak Republic, these missions then fused with a parochial Slovak nationalist agenda, a complex process that is the core narrative of the book. Ward presents the strongest case yet for Tiso's heavy responsibility in the Holocaust, crimes that he investigates as an outcome of the interplay between Tiso's lifelong pattern of collaboration and the murderous international politics of Hitler's Europe. To this day memories of Tiso divide opinion within Slovakia, burdening the country's efforts to come to terms with its own history. As portrayed in this masterful biography, Tiso's life not only illuminates the history of a small state but also supplies a missing piece of the larger puzzle that was interwar and wartime Europe.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique
• Catholic Church
• Eastern Europe
• 20th century
• Slovakia
• History of Europe
• Slovaquie

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801468131
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

P r i e s t , P o l i t i c i a n , C o l l a b o r at o r

PRIEST, POLITICIAN, COLLABORATOR

JozefTiso and the Making of Fascist Slovakia

JamesMaceWard

CornellUniversityPress IthacaandLondon

Copyright © 2013 by Cornell University Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,orparts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2013 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Ward, James Mace.  Priest, politician, collaborator : Jozef Tiso and the making of fascist Slovakia / James Mace Ward.  p. cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 9780801449888 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. Tiso, Jozef, 1887–1947. 2. Presidents—Slovakia—Biography. 3. Slovakia— History—1918–1945. I. Title.  DB2821.T57W37 2013  943.73'033092—dc23  [B] 2012038563

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Cloth printing

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ForMartina

ThereisnosuchthingastheState Andnooneexistsalone.... Wemustloveoneanotherordie.

W.H.Auden,“September1,1939”

Contents

MapsandIllustrations Preface

Introduction 1 “For God and Our Homeland,” 1887–1918 2 Turning National and Political, 1918–19 3 “For God and Nation,” 1919–25 4 The Failure of “Activism,” 1925–33 5 The Lure of the World, 1933–38 6 Standing Up for the Truth, 1938–39 7 Sacred Convictions, 1939–44 8 Losing Battles, 1944–2011 Conclusion.TheCrownofThorns

ANoteonSources Abbreviations Notes Index

ix xi

1 12 39 64 89 131 161 202 246 284

291 295 301 353

MapsandIllustrations

Map 1 Map 2 Map 3 Map 4

Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10

Figure 11 Figure 12 Figure 13 Figure 14

Central and eastern Europe in 1910 The First Czechoslovak Republic, 1918–38 The Second CzechoSlovak Republic, 1938–39 The Slovak Republic, 1939–45

Jozef Tiso, circa 1918 Andrej Hlinka at the 1933 Pribina Celebrations Karol Sidor, Tiso’s bête noire of the 1930s, voting in fall 1938 Tiso at the 1938 Jubilee Rally for the Pittsburgh Agreement The same image in its doctored, postwar form Tiso’s reception in Berlin on 13 March 1939 Returning from Hitler’s Field Headquarters in fall 1941 The parish priest of Slovakia Tiso’s cult of personality TisoandTukaduringanundatedgovernment retreat in the Tatras Tiso and Hitler Tiso decorating German soldiers The war criminal—Tiso returned in shackles, 1945 The martyr—a card carried in his memory

4 5 6 7

121 121 122 122 123 123 124 125 126

127 128 129 130 130