Christian Nationalism, Nation-Building, and the Making of the Holocaust in Slovakia

Buchpräsentation am 7. Mai 2026, 18:30 Uhr, Fachbibliothek Zeitgeschichte

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Zum Buch:
Christian Nationalism, Nation-Building, and the Making of the Holocaust in Slovakia exposes the crucial role of Christian nationalism in cultivating popular complicity and collaboration during the Holocaust. It does this by exploring how communal murder and betrayal intersected with nation-building in the newly independent Slovakia during World War II. The authority of the fascist regime centered in Bratislava hinged on appeasing not only Hitler but also civilian populations of the nation’s heterogenous eastern borderlands, especially local elites, such as priests, doctors, and teachers, as well as the rural masses. Scholarship on fascism has either focused on state actors operating from urban centers to orchestrate coercion or explored local mechanisms of violence at the grassroot level. This book, in contrast, foregrounds the center’s dynamic relationship to the periphery, showing how this relationship was forged, how it was maintained, and how, ultimately, Christian nationalism operated as the lure and political strategy that brought differently positioned actors together to broker deals over resources and power accrued through the co-enactment of genocide by a broad coalition of perpetrators on the ground. Ultimately, this little-known chapter of Holocaust history can help us better understand how collaborations between elite and popular formations of Christian nationalism can pave the way for ethnic cleansing across different territories and, one might argue, times.