GRÉCKOKATOLÍCKA CIRKEV A ŽIDIA NA SLOVENSKU V ROKOCH 1939 – 1945

Greek Catholics and Jews in the years 1939 – 1945 involuntarily found themselves in opposition to the wartime Slovak Republic facing unfair anti-Semitic and national politics. Both communities were affected by restrictive measures to different extents but for the Jews they had tragic consequences. Christian faith, disapproval of the anti-Semitic policy of the ruling regime, and especially the publicly declared attitude and concrete actions of the Bishop of Prešov Pavel Peter Gojdič led many Greek Catholics to render assistance to racially persecuted people. Despite the considerable lapse of time and the nature of research problems, combination of the preserved Church and State archival documents with the testimonies of the rescued and their descendants gathered by the oral history method, we succeeded in reconstructing the attitudes and activities of the Greek Catholic Church in favour of the Jews.