Dubious history books could be behind the elections results

Some children in Slovakia are learning from history textbooks that can be described as manipulated, Pravda daily reports. The distortions mainly concern the period of the Slovak fascist wartime state (1939-45). Authors of some textbooks have attempted to justify the actions of the priest and president of this state, Jozef Tiso. Much depends on which textbooks teachers decide to use. Some teachers have sounded the alarm, warning that children are being taught biased and false history. The question of what the young know about Tiso and his state has emerged strongly following Saturday's general election, in which the far-right Kotleba-People's Party Our Slovakia (LSNS) got into parliament with 8.04 percent of the votes. The party is well-known for glorifying Tiso and denying the Holocaust. Tiso's regime was responsible for the forced deportation of almost 60,000 Slovak Jews, an overwhelming majority of whom were murdered in concentration camps, states the daily. Meanwhile, it appears that the core of Kotleba's party is formed by people aged only between 18-21. "I admit that the election results in this context were an unpleasant surprise for me and possibly say more about the educational results of our schools than the PISA tests," chief schools inspector Viera Kalmarová told the daily. For example, a textbook written by historian Robert Letz includes passages from Tiso's speeches without the addition of any comments. Some of the passages are taken from Tiso's defence before the National Court in 1947, which sentenced him to death. Nowhere does the word 'fascist' appear in relation to the wartime Slovak state. The author of the textbook, Letz, refused to comment when contacted by the daily. School textbooks have to be approved by the Education, Science, Research and Sport Ministry. Letz's book was approved in 2005 by then Education Minister Martin Fronc (a Christian Democrat), who reacted to this, saying that he can't remember everything that passed through his hands at that time.