ADSS 8.343 Burzio to Maglione: deportation of the Slovak Jews continues.

In his second report on the deportation of the Slovak Jews, Giuseppe Burzio reports that the manner of the raids on Jews across the country is brutal and carried out by extremist elements in the Hlinka Guards who must be acting on orders from the government.  Jews who could were fleeing Slovakia for the relative safety of Hungary.  Others applied for the government-issued exemption from the anti-Jewish laws that could be granted by Tiso's office.

He goes on to report that the Slovak bishops were preparing a joint statement against the deportations, but would be prevented from publishing it by the government censor.  It would be up to parish priests to read the statement from the pulpit. 

ADSS 8.343
Reference: Report No: 14689 (AES 2731/42 orig)

Location and date: Pressburg (Bratislava), 09.04.1942

Summary statement: The deportation of the Jews continues in a brutal manner; the bishops are preparing a joint statement.

Language: Italian

Text:

This is a continuation of what I reported to Your Eminence in Report no. 848 of 31 March 1942. (1) I am at pains to inform Your Eminence that the measures enacted against the Jews continue to be applied in all their rigour.

Every day we hear news of raids made in this or that provincial town, and all bear the mark of violence and brutality. A plan of deportation so vast and as unjust as this would require at least a certain order in its implementation and some control by the authorities. Instead, the execution is often entrusted to the most extreme elements of the Hlinka Guard, who, confident of impunity, commit all sorts of atrocities. (See Attachment) (2)

To escape persecution, many Jews are seeking refuge in Hungary; there is talk that about several thousand people have left Slovakia and crossed the border illegally.

The only hope that remains for Jews is to obtain from the President of the Republic the “discrimination” (i.e. exemption). Thousands and thousands of appeals are now under consideration by the Secretary of the President. In the first instance these are primarily appeals of Jews who have converted to Christianity. I have been told that a large number have already been granted.

I know that Their Excellencies the bishops are preparing a joint letter on this issue, but they are still unsure on how to publish it. (3) It is anticipated that the censor will not permit the letter to be distributed and it is therefore it is likely that it will be brought to the attention of the faithful from the pulpit. [ …] (4)

References:
(1) ADSS 8.334
(2) Not published
(3) See ADSS 8.360
(4) Remainder of the document is omitted. It contained personal details about two individual cases.