Perceptions of the Holocaust in Slovak historiography and among the general public after the establishment of the Slovak Republic in 1993
The study presents a brief overview of the most important trends in the Slovak historiography of the Holocaust. Prior 1989, the Holocaust was a topic marginalised in the country’s historical research. The most important finding that emerges from the analysis of Slovak literature on the Holocaust is that, besides its obvious historiographic dimension, it was frequently meant to serve political purposes (including in the area of education). The works published after 1989 can be categorised as follows: collections of documents; memoirs; the perspective of the minority; the problem of local aggressors; the social background of the Holocaust; legal analysis of anti-Jewish legislation; oral history; the so-called Slovak revisionism; connection between the historiographic and the political level. In this chapter, we analyse the link between historiography and politics on the example of Vladimír Mečiar’s cabinet and revisionist publications. We also consider the impact of revisionism on the formation of national symbols (the case of a memorial of Ferdinand Ďurčanský) as well as the historiography situated between science and the Catholic Church’s interpretation of history (of the Slovak state and the beatification of bishop Ján Vojtaššák).
