Editing Slovakia (section)

=== Fascist regime during World War II (1939–1945) ===
{{Main|Slovak Republic (1939–1945)|Slovakia during World War II|Slovak National Uprising}}
{{See also|Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Czechoslovak government-in-exile|Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia}}

[[File:Jozef Tiso (Berlin).jpg|thumb|[[Adolf Hitler]] greeting [[Jozef Tiso]], president of the (First) [[Slovak Republic (1939–1945)|Slovak Republic]], a client state of Nazi Germany during World War II, 1941]]
After the [[Munich Agreement]] and its [[Vienna Award]], [[Nazi Germany]] threatened to annex part of Slovakia and allow the remaining regions to be partitioned by Hungary or Poland unless independence was declared. Thus, Slovakia seceded from [[Second Czechoslovak Republic|Czecho-Slovakia]] in March 1939 and allied itself, as demanded by Germany, with [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s coalition.<ref>Gerhard L. Weinberg, ''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Starting World War II, 1937–1939'' (Chicago, 1980), pp. 470–481.</ref> Secession had created the first Slovak state in history.<ref name="RadioPrague">{{cite web|author=Dominik Jůn interviewing Professor Jan Rychlík|title=Czechs and Slovaks – more than just neighbours|publisher=Radio Prague|year=2016|url=http://www.radio.cz/en/section/special/czechs-and-slovaks-more-than-just-neighbours|access-date=28 October 2016|archive-date=29 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161029043631/http://www.radio.cz/en/section/special/czechs-and-slovaks-more-than-just-neighbours|url-status=live}}</ref> 

A [[one-party state|one-party]] [[Clerical fascism|clerical fascist]] [[Slovak Republic (1939–1945)|Slovak Republic]] governed by the far-right [[Slovak People's Party|Hlinka's Slovak People's Party]] was led by President [[Jozef Tiso]] and Prime Minister [[Vojtech Tuka]]. The (First) Slovak Republic is primarily known for its [[collaborationism|collaboration]] with Nazi Germany, which included sending troops to the [[Slovak invasion of Poland|invasion of Poland]] in [[September Campaign|September 1939]] and the  [[Operation Barbarossa|Soviet Union]] in 1941. On 24&nbsp;November 1940, Slovakia joined the [[Axis powers|Axis]] when its leaders signed the [[Tripartite Pact]]. The country was strongly influenced by Germany and gradually became a [[puppet state|puppet regime]] in many respects. 

Meanwhile, the [[Czechoslovak government-in-exile]] sought to reverse the [[Munich Agreement]] and the subsequent [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia]] and to return the Republic to its 1937 boundaries. The government operated from [[London]] and it was ultimately considered, by those countries that recognised it, the legitimate government for [[Czechoslovakia]] throughout the Second World War.

The [[History of the Jews in Slovakia|local Jewish population]] was heavily persecuted.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 May 2022 |title=Slovaks condemn WWII deportations of Jews to Nazi death camps |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/slovaks-condemn-wwii-deportations-of-jews-to-nazi-death-camps |access-date=31 December 2023 |website=PBS NewsHour |language=en |archive-date=31 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231231230228/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/slovaks-condemn-wwii-deportations-of-jews-to-nazi-death-camps |url-status=live }}</ref> As part of the [[Holocaust in Slovakia]], 75,000 Jews out of 80,000 who remained on Slovak territory after Hungary had seized southern regions were deported and taken to German [[death camps]].<ref>{{Cite journal|date=20 May 1946|title=Obžaloba pri Národnom súde v Bratislave|journal=Spis Onľud 17/46}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Daxner|first=Igor|date=25 July 1946|title=Rozsudok Národného súdu v Bratislave|journal=Spis Tnľud 17/1946}}</ref> Thousands of Jews, Gypsies and other politically undesirable people remained in Slovak forced labour camps in [[Sereď concentration camp|Sereď]], Vyhne, and Nováky.<ref>Leni Yahil, ''The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932–1945'' (Oxford, 1990), pp. 402–403.</ref> Tiso, through the granting of presidential exceptions, allowed between 1,000 and 4,000 people crucial to the war economy to avoid deportations.<ref>For the higher figure, see Milan S. Ďurica, ''The Slovak Involvement in the Tragedy of the European Jews'' (Abano Terme: Piovan Editore, 1989), p. 12; for the lower figure, see Gila Fatran, "The Struggle for Jewish Survival During the Holocaust" in ''The Tragedy of the Jews of Slovakia'' (Banská Bystrica, 2002), p. 148.</ref>
Under Tiso's government and Hungarian occupation, the vast majority of Slovakia's pre-war Jewish population (between 75,000 and 105,000 individuals including those who perished from the occupied territory) were murdered.<ref>Dawidowicz, Lucy. [[The War Against the Jews]], Bantam, 1986. p. 403</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Rebekah Klein-Pejšová|title=An overview of the history of Jews in Slovakia|work=Slovak Jewish Heritage|publisher=Synagoga Slovaca|year=2006|url=http://www.slovak-jewish-heritage.org/history-of-jews-in-slovakia.html|access-date=28 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140905025639/http://www.slovak-jewish-heritage.org/history-of-jews-in-slovakia.html|archive-date=5 September 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Slovak state paid Germany 500 [[Reichsmark|RM]] per every deported Jew for "retraining and accommodation" (a similar but smaller payment of 30 RM was paid by [[Independent State of Croatia|Croatia]]).<ref>Nižňanský, Eduard (2010). ''Nacizmus, holokaust, slovenský štát'' [Nazism, holocaust, Slovak state] (in Slovak). Bratislava: Kalligram. {{ISBN|978-80-8101-396-6}}.</ref>

After it became clear that the Soviet [[Red Army]] was going to push the Nazis out of eastern and central Europe, an anti-Nazi [[resistance movement]] launched. Internal opposition to the fascist government's policies culminated in the [[Slovak National Uprising]], near the end of summer 1944. A bloody German occupation and a guerilla war followed. Germans and their [[Hlinka Guard|local collaborators]] completely destroyed 93 villages and massacred thousands of civilians, often hundreds at a time.<ref>"[http://travel.spectator.sme.sk/articles/80/slovenske_narodne_povstanie_the_slovak_national_uprising Slovenské Národné Povstanie – the Slovak national uprising] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016032830/http://travel.spectator.sme.sk/articles/80/slovenske_narodne_povstanie_the_slovak_national_uprising |date=16 October 2015 }}". [[SME (newspaper)|SME.sk]].</ref> Although the uprising was eventually suppressed, [[Slovak partisans|partisan resistance]] continued. The territory of Slovakia was liberated by Soviet and Romanian forces by the end of April 1945.