The so-called final solution of the Jewish question during the Second World War culminating in
the violent deportation of Jewish citizens is a trauma of modern Slovak history. This is not only the case of the victims but of the whole population. The majority of 130 000 Slovak Jews (90.000)remained in the Slovak State and 40.000 other "non aryans" from Southern Slovakia (as a result of Vienna decision from November 1938) came under the jurisdiction of Horthyite Hungary.

Both of these states were Nazi-satelites and both used anti-semitic doctrines as a basis for practical policy-making. In both countries deportations were organized during which the majority of the Jewish population was destroyed.

The holocaust itself however did not begin he deportation carriages, in front of the gas chambers nor over the mass-graves. All these were only a logical conclusion of a long process. We must look for the beginnings of the genocide in both countries, when a group of citizens is chosen to be ostracized-in the case Jews-late declared enemy of the state, of the nation and of the humanity. From this point it is a logical progression to the planned systematic discrimination against these people. To their economic pauperization, to political and civil degradation and finally to denial of basic human rights. This trend necessarily leads to catastrophe whether the initiators and those who carry it out were aware of it or not.

In the slovak history there were two decisive points. In 1942 the Slovak state through its administrative and coercive means violently carried out the deportation of 58.000(that is 2/3)of slovak Jews. Only few hundred of them survived the terror of the Nazi extermination camps. From Autumm 1944, after the direct occupation of Slovakia by Nazi forces, further 13.000 persons were deported. Ten thousand of them perished in concentration camps and during the "march of death".

This tragedy was not caused only by pressure of Nazi Germany. The government of the Slovak state and it's representatives bear a large part of the responsibility. The attempts to stop the deportations were undeceive and as a result of the resistance of local fascist forces.

The deportation of slovak Jews to extermination camps is the main criterion for a evaluating the handling of the Jewish question and is an outstanding sign of the political and moral degradation of the wartime Slovak state.

The "jewish question" and it's solution was put forward by the authorities from the very beginning of the independent Slovak state.

Already by the time of the declaration of the constitution, legal norms were being established, accompanied by special citizenship categories with one category being specifically defined. Classification of citizens as Jewish was carried out for the first time by government order "About the definition of the notion of Jew and limitation of numbers" in some of the free professions published in 1939. The confessional principle became the starting point of the legally established criterion . It referred to both genders and citizenship played no role in classification. The categorization of citizens as Jewish was the first step towards the impending cataclysm, resulting in the abuse of basic civil, social and human rights.

The government order "About the legal status of Jews" was the second important legal norm defining the notion of a nation of the racial and confessional principles. The aforementioned legal norms as some others not only specified the notion of the Jew in relation to a concrete person but also in relation to juridical institutions and associations. This categorization was intended to increasingly eliminate Jewish influence of the economy. One sign of the increased radicalization in the Jewish question was the appearance of the obligatory yellow star and the fact that Jewish business were designated as such by a special inscription.