Although they were able to get most of the Jews out of Slovakia, they will never be able to get all the anti-semistism out of Slovaks! [Re: "Anti-semitic swastikas appear in Košice" News Briefs Vol. 7 No. 38 October 8 - 14].
During the second world war, the then-70,000 strong Jewish population of Slovakia was rounded up, deported and murdered in foreign concentration and death camps by the Germans, who were aided and abetted in this barbaric and dastardly act by the Slovak government, the only one in Europe to offer and pay Nazi Germany 500 German marks per deported Jew.
Only 282 Slovak Jewish survivors were to return to Slovakia after the war, and today comprise part of the present Slovak Jewish community of 3,000 people, a mere fraction of what it used to be.
The September 30th incident in Košice and others in the past, unfortunately, demonstrate that ignorance, bigotry and racism are alive and well, and still flourish in segments of Slovak society!
