Freedom's Road

In the production of the Slovak Nation's Memory Institute, Czech documentary filmmaker Kristina Vlachová made a medium-length film for the documentary series Crimes of Nazism and Communism, describing fates of hundreds of Jews from the Slovak town of Medzilaborce - the home of Jewish communities that came to Slovakia from Halitch in 18th century. Under the influence of the Third Empire, the independent Slovak state acceded to curbing rights and freedom of citizens of Jewish nationality. The perverted theory of blood and race brought about also so-called "arization" - Slovaks taking over the property of Jews. In March 1942, first transports heading for concentration camps started leaving Slovakia... The atmosphere of the Slovak newsreels at that time is the first key to the situation. Besides the external presence of the Third Empire claiming the final solution of the Jewish issue, there is a system of local organisation, despotism of state and church, in which a great number of Slovak population took part. The "arizators" knew that by taking over the property of Jews sent to death camps, they were getting power, which is an ethnic privilege - envy was to be replaced by domination. The Slovak regime which gave way to the nationalist agony imitated the workings of the German power.