Jozef Tiso

Jozef Gašpar Tiso (13 October 1887 – 18 April 1947) was a Slovak politician and Roman Catholic priest who was president of the Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany during World War II, from 1939 to 1945. In 1947, after the war, he was executed for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Bratislava.

Quotes

 * ...We bow to the closest Slav, brother Czech, to apply our sovereignty as a small nation together with him in the common state. We are ready to stand guard over its life and to lay all the sacrifices on its altar. (...) However, we should be aware that our sovereignty is applied within the scope defined by the common agreement, otherwise, we have to apply a principle: a nation is more than a state.
 * Jozef Tiso, Czechoslovak parliament, 3 February 1933


 * People ask whether what is being done with the Jews is Christian. Is it human? Is it not robbery? ...  I ask is it Christian when the nation wants to free itself from its eternal enemy—the Jew? ... Love of self is a command from God, and this love of self commands me to remove ... everything that damages me or that threatens my life.  I don't think I need to convince anyone that the Jewish element threatened the lives of Slovaks. ... It would have looked even worse if we hadn't pulled ourselves together in time, if we hadn't purged them from us. And we did so according to divine command: Slovak, cast off your parasite.
 * Jozef Tiso's speech in Holič, August 1942

Quotes about Jozef Tiso

 * The question [now] is how long will [Tiso’s] political convictions and especially his conscience as a priest let him march hand in hand with the National Socialist masters. Naturally, he does not like to do it, but is only compelled by circumstances. He is convinced, or at least he hopes, that if he stays in power then he can protect what he can and that, in putting into effect National Socialist methods, it will not come to extreme consequences. Only later will it be possible to judge if he calculated correctly.
 * Giuseppe Burzio, 1940


 * Everyone understands that the Holy See cannot stop Hitler. But who can understand that it does not know how to rein in a priest?
 * Domenico Tardini, Vatican undersecretary, in March 1942


 * It is interesting how this little Catholic priest—Tiso—is sending us the Jews!
 * Adolf Hitler, 30 August 1942