Topoľčany pogrom

The pogrom of Topoľčany were riots on 24 September 1945 in the Slovak town Topoľčany; Slovakia was then part of Czechoslovakia. According to the official report of the chairman of the county police of September 26, 1945 there were 47 injured, 15 of them seriously. The pogrom of Topoľčany has accelerated Jewish emigration from Slovakia.

Prehistory

Before the Second World War lived in Topoľčany about 3200 Jews. 1945 there were about 550 Jews in the city, of which some Holocaust survivors who had returned from the concentration camp Auschwitz. The then First Slovak Republic led by 1942 's deportations of the Jewish population, as well as Jews were murdered by the Wehrmacht from August 1944 en masse directly in Slovakia after the occupation of the country. Especially members of the Hlinka Guard had enriched themselves to the property of Jews. In the fall of 1945, the supply of the population was still insufficient, and also the anti-Semitic propaganda of the defunct First Slovak Republic still looked strong after.

The pogrom

On Sunday September 23, 1945, the rumor was spread that the local convent school would be taken over by Jews soon. The next morning thereupon gathered many protesters ( most of them were women) in the city center and protested loudly against the takeover. It soon spread the next anti-Semitic rumor, namely that a Jewish doctor had poisoned the kids at the local elementary school; actually it was just at this time a vaccination in this school. Then the mob beat the exporting Jewish doctor. The police protected some Jews in their premises and called the army stationed on site to help. Some soldiers fought initially on the side of the violent demonstrators. Many Jews were subsequently attacked by soldiers assaulted the demonstrators sought at the same time in the streets and houses other Jews. In the early afternoon, the local army chief came up with another 150 soldiers, characterized the situation calmed down slowly. In the late afternoon, other police forces from Bratislava arrived.

Nachgeschichte

After the pogrom there was judicial convictions, but all judgments had been removed under an amnesty in 1950. Most Jews from the city migrated to Israel. Today no Jew should live in the city. Sixty years later, the city has regrets the events in a statement.

Workup

The events were in the documentary Miluj blížneho svojho ( German: Love your neighbor; Slovakia / Israel 2004) worked up. This should be sent on 17 May 2004 in the Slovak Television, the broadcast was banned by the director of the television station STV, Richard Rybníček due to racist remarks. After fierce protests from the documentary was shown but a week later, on television and repeated two days later.