The guardsman Ďurčanský will have a bust unveiled in Rajec

The town of Rajec plans to unveil a statue in honour of Ferdinand Ďurčanský, who was the initiator of anti-Jewish policies during the Slovak state and received the death penalty after the war.

The mayor Ján Rybárik defends Ďurčanský. He believes that he was even considered an enemy by the fascist Germany. And he claims to have proof of this. The bust of Ferdinand Ďurčanský has been placed in front of the town museum in Rajec. It is already standing there covered in plastic foil. They plan to unveil the bust in March. A protest against this action has arisen. Last week the Central union of Jewish communities in Slovak Republic addressed a protest letter to the mayor and the town council. Some of the representatives have given up their mandates.

The town representatives passed the decision regarding the bust placement. The mayor Ján Rybárik stated for the local magazine: “Yes, it is truth that Ďurčanský lived and worked in troubled times, but thanks to his attitude, he was considered an enemy by the fascist Germany. They issued a warrant on his person and it is not true that he had anything to do with the deportation of Jews.  ”

According to historians Ďurčanský was not directly responsible for the deportation, but he was a fierce arizator and guardsman. It was he who ordered to take over the Jewish property, put their accounts on hold and as a minister he issued an order to restrict jobs for Jews. In addition it was he who sent law proposals for the partial solution of the Jewish problem to Tiso. His public speech in Topolčany at the beginning of the war is well-known: “Look around you. All these are Jewish shops. Jews are living all around you. All this will be yours.”

The Central union of Jewish communities in Slovak Republic appealed to the mayor Ján Rybárik and the town council to reconsider their decision. “To put it mildly we consider the decision to unveil a bust of Ďurčanský, who clearly was a radical nationalist and anti-Semitist, as very unhappy. Therefore we appeal to you to put through a change and the town council to reconsider the decision and not to glorify the mentioned politician, who is in our legal system still a convicted criminal,” wrote Jaroslav Franek, the spokesman of the Union, in the letter to Mr. Rybárik. It is important to mention that Jozef Tiso has a memorial tablet in Rajec as well.

Ján Hlavinka from the Instituted of History of SAS stated the following for the newspaper SME:

• After the declaration of Slovak autonomy Ferdinand Ďurčanský in the position of minister in the government ranked among the executors of the anti-Jewish policies. He was nominated to be a member of the committee for the solution of the Jewish problem during the Slovak government meeting on the 13^th January 1939.

• It was he who on the 3^rd March 1939 sent law proposals for the partial solution of the Jewish problem to the Prime Minister J. Tiso for the interministerial marking up. He had the greatest influence on the realisation of the anti-Jewish measures in the position of minister of internal affairs from the November 1939. In this time the nationalist regime put into practice several governmental regulations, which deprived Jews of civil and political rights and in the same time they had a serious economical impact on Slovak Jews. These were mainly restrictions to hold a public offices and restrictions to perform certian professions, mostly in bussiness enterprises.

• When in June 1940 Ferdinand Ďurčanský in one of his public speeches summed up the government performance and his own actions regarding the Jewish issue, he stated: “321 Jewish employees have been dismissed from the public offices up to this date and the rest remain in their positions temporarily. Later, these employees will make place for Slovaks too. Some days ago I have signed 248 decrees and by these I have restricted the Jewish physicians to practice in Slovakia. By the order of the government, 443 Jewish lawyers and 7 notaries are restricted to practice. And we are preparing a law that grants us right to expropriate every house owned by Jew...”