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Religious minorities during war time in the Slovak Republic

March 14, 1939: On the basis of the protection agreement with Germany, establishment of the independent Slovak Republic (end of the Czecho-Slovak Republic). Close collaboration of the Slovak Government and Nazi Germany. On 27 June and 6 November 1939, foundation of the German Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia. Activities of the Evangelical Church during war in the Slovak republic were legal, although limited – censorship of Evangelical Press, enforcement of Catholic symbolism in schools and favouring the Catholics in school administration. Church lost the obligation to contribute to popular education, as well as the right to appoint its teachers. All schools went under state control in 1944-45, except for the Faculty of Theology. Some Jews converted to Christianism, above all to Lutheran confession, as a form of protection from deportation to concentration camps. From 1942 the deportation of Jews from Slovakia started. The Jews were nearly exterminated in Slovakia.

August 29, 1944: Slovak National Uprising – armed antifascist revolt that rounded off the gradual disintegration of the wartime Slovak republic.

1945: The Slovak Republic came to an end, its territory becoming part of the renewed Czechoslovak Republic. German Evangelical Church was abolished and its congregations, together with Hungarian Congregations from the territories which were part of Hungary during the war (more than 20), were incorporated into the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia.

D 13 October 2020    AMiroslav Tížik

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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