Priest, Politician, and Collaborator: Joseph Tiso and the Making of Fascist Slovakia

After spending a childhood learning about the Holocaust, I can safely say that nothing in this book can surprise me. However, I can still wonder, and wonder I will. I wonder about the nationalists in Europe who sided with Hitler, and I wonder what they were thinking. Were they afraid of the Soviets? Did they think Hitler would respect their language and religion? Did they see their Jewish minority as a threat? When they betrayed the Jews to Hitler, was it done out of hatred, or did they consider the Jews an expendable pawn?

Joseph Tiso was one such nationalist. He was a Catholic priest in Slovakia who became the country’s president, then sided with Hitler and the final solution. It wasn’t unusual; Lithuania, Latvia, and Ukraine had a strong Nazi following, mainly because they wanted to be free of the Soviets. But the priests in Poland weren’t so quick to follow Hitler, in fact Hitler killed hundreds of them (which the Pope at the time ignored.) So the question is this; was Tiso power-hungry, or was he simply choosing which of the two foes to appease?

Ward devotes a chapter to the issue of national security in Slovakia, under the chapter Standing Up For the Truth. Tiny Slovakia in the 1930’s was weak , of that there is no doubt. There was no way they could’ve beaten Hitler’s modern, mechanized army, and Tiso clearly knew it. But the author doesn’t try to answer the question, he leaves the reader to decide. Now I have to wonder if Tiso mislead his people, because he seems to have buried the fact that the country was weak. He put great effort into centralizing the government, but little effort into any contingency or safety plans. There were no procedures in place for what they’d all do if the Germans (or Soviets) invaded. Furthermore, if the German army crossed his soil, the country would’ve been ruined. Where would the German army have camped, in farmer’s fields? If they did, how would the farmers plow them? If the German army bought food from locals, then the prices would skyrocket. Either way, there would be a food shortage.

No matter how you look at it, Tiso wasn’t terribly smart. Perhaps the point is that the central government shouldn’t be all-powerful, and that dissent is good for you? Hitler was a dictator, obviously, but in some ways Tiso was a dictator too. Maybe the book is about a big dictator and a little one. The little one sold his people out.