Today, 14 March, is a day, which is in Slovakia's history - or Czecho-Slovak if you will - a black stain. On this day, in 1939, Tiso declared an independent Slovak State; independent from Prague yet closely controlled under Hitler's Third Reich. A statehood, that is stained with war, confiscation of property, deportations to gas-chambers, where not all Slovaks were merely 'passive onlookers".
When putting historical events into their proper perspective, a nation would regard this as a lesson and a warning for present and future generations. Unfortunately, collective memory is profoundly weak. Nationalist, even extremist non-democratic thinking and behaviour is (again) a mainstream in Slovak life, where eerie rhetoric in the media is almost a daily occurrence.
In a prominent Slovak quality newspaper SME, an article appeared this morning to highlight the parallels between the earlier mentioned days of 1939 and 1993, when Slovakia became an independent country once again, this time after the democratisation of the post-communist era. A strange feeling befell me. Let's be clear, it is not the mere fact, that a historical analysis appears in the newspaper. To the contrary. It was actually a specific sentence, which caught my attention giving me an uneasy feeling:
The First Slovak Republic had many mistakes [...]
On the other hand, it was able to create its own government, supported culture and offered its citizens a fairly decent standard of living, given the wartime circumstances
Maybe I am mistaken, but it is almost giving an impression, that the cleric-fascist government had therefore a certain justification after all. Personally, if written "Although in the one hand it was able to create its own government [...], the First Slovak Republic had many mistakes [...]", it would give it a slightly different meaning, and a more accurate assessment (although this is perhaps only my subjective perception).
Despite being originally Czech, I do have full understanding for the group of Slovaks having the feeling that cutting off ties with Prague was a good thing (justifiably or not). The value of the First Czechoslovak Republic to Slovakia should not be completely disregarded, but neither be mythologised. For the rest, the newspaper article gives interesting insights as well.
What disturbs me, is that necessary proper formulations - giving the meaning a totally different twist - essential in argumentation, are not the strongest skills of Slovak society. Yesterday, on Facebook, a young lad complained about the publication of the US State Department's Human Rights Report on Slovakia. He provided a link to a documentary produced by the Czech Television on Kosovo, with a dramatic exclamation that it was censored and never aired. When I slightly reminded, that it was not correct because it was televised by the Czechs in 2008, immediately I received spam-messages from an other overly active person, to point out to a Wikipedia entry on the said documentary. Apparently, I stepped on a sore nerve, even if in no way did I give any assessment on the Kosovo film. The web-page containing this film was in my eyes more than dubious. But coming back to the formulation matter; this is exactly a visible deficiency in political discussion programmes, where factual arguments are almost non-existent and the only arguments that make the proper impact are mere insults.
Such rhetoric is pretty common, especially when readers take incomplete information for a full truth - attacking an argument, while hardly understanding what exactly is being said. A prominent Slovak holocaust survivor and human rights activist Fedor Gál mentioned in an interview that within us there is this devil causing us to turn within one day from a friend into a beast. Lacking a proper skill to absorb clear and objective information (to simplify it a bit) is not just an explanation why people in Slovakia still do not have a mature democracy, it is also a warning that the beast is very latent. The mere fact, that even the former archbishop Sokol was paying a tribute to the fascist Tiso, is illustrative enough of the whole situation.
Authors, media but also politicians, especially those who mean well, should be aware of their task to educate the masses in becoming more critical citizens - not to be a bunch of meek sheep following populist or even crypto-fascist messages. As we see what goes on in politics nowadays, I am not without sincere concern. The dangerous legacy is prevalent, and it's a dark legacy.
Today, to commemorate the fatal 1939-1945 Slovak State, nationalists will openly pay tribute to this hideous fact. A thought that makes one sick. Three civic movements will appear as well to express their disgust. The police has labelled it as 'most problematic' and requested the anti-fascist group to chose another time or place. Understandably, the only obvious answer to that should be clear enough...
MS
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