ADL WELCOMES SLOVAKIAN GOVERNMENT'S WITHDRAWAL

OF ANTI-SEMITIC TEXTBOOK FROM SCHOOL SYSTEM

New York, NY July 3, 1997...The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today said it was pleased that the Slovakian government finally agreed to withdraw an anti-Semitic textbook from the national school system which denied the persecution of Slovakian Jews during World War II. The Ministry of Education called for the book's withdrawal after the European Union External Relations Commissioner had urged the government to do so. ADL had lodged a protest with the Slovakian Ministry of Education, which published the book with financing from the European Union.

"We are pleased that the Slovakian government has finally agreed to withdraw the anti-Semitic textbook from the national school system," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "The book is purely propagandistic and presents a distorted and false rendering of what was actually a shameful anti-Semitic period in Slovak history," continued Mr. Foxman. "Its continued use would have only served to foster the rise of intolerant nationalism, hatred and anti-Semitism in Slovakia."

In a May 5 letter to the Slovakian Minister of Education, Eva Slavkovska, ADL wrote, "As you surely know, this History of Slovakia and the Slovakians was written by Milan Durica, a well-known defender of Slovakia's clerical-fascist leader Jozef Tisa. [The book] falsely portrays the history of Slovakia between 1939 and 1945, [stating] among other things, that concentration camps for Slovakian Jews were business enterprises commissioned by the government and that the envy of many Slovakians outside the camps, Jews there received special medical care."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.