Slovakia marks 80 years since the first Slovak state

Eighty years ago today, on 14 March 1939, Dr. Jozef Tiso became the head of the newly founded Slovak state - a wartime state that was subject to Nazi Germany, and participated in the forced deportation of minorities such as Jews and Roma. In recent years this history has become controversial, drawing many emotions. Those of the Slovak far-right look back on the period with admiration, characterising it as a time of Slovak independence, in contrast with the country's present-day subjection to the European Union. They also point out that the country enjoyed a period of relative peace and economic prosperity during the war. Most, however, including the country's official representation, view the period as one of the great tragedies of Slovak history, in which a portion of the country's citizens were deprived of their rights and subjected to repression, deportation and death. They point out that the relative peace and prosperity of the period was due solely to an unholy alliance made with Germany's Nazi regime. Thanks to the Slovak national uprising of 1944 against the Fascist regime, Slovaks ended up after the war on the side of the victorious Allies.