Presentations and Reports :

Aryanisation and Liquidation of Jewish enterprises in Slovakia 1941-1942

Description
The Nation's Memory Institute of the Slovak Republic, the Ústav pamäti národahas compiled over 10,000 records documenting the liquidation of Jewish enterprises in Slovakia in the years 1941-1942.  These are published online and are searchable by the name, object and location of the enterprise and its owner, and by the name of the liquidator.

In 1940 about 12,300 Jewish enterprises existed in Slovakia. About 2,300 of these were aryanised, and about 10,000 enterprises were liquidated.  The liquidation of Jewish enterprises, along with their aryanisation, was part of the process of "eliminating the Jews from the economic and social life" of the Slovak Republic (1939-1945).

The liquidation of the enterprise meant the seizure of all mobile property of the former owner, its inventorisation, assessment and conversion to cash during the so-called liquidation deadline. The former owner was deprived of the opportunity to run the enterprise, and of the enterprise itself, without compensation.

The liquidation, in some cases, was carried out by a commissioned liquidator, who received money from the value of the liquidated property.

The regime justified the liquidation of Jewish enterprises on grounds of "public interest."  Augustín Morávek, Chair of the Central Economic Office, stated in July 1940 that: "A professionally performed liquidation of Jewish enterprises, declared for those which are redundant, and those which have an unhealthy economic influence, is in the interest of the public." 

The principle task of the Memory Institute is the disclosure of documents about persecution carried out by the Nazis or by communist security agencies to individual applicants.  

Contact
Ústav pamäti národa
Nám. SNP 28
P.O.Box 239
810 00 Bratislava 1
Slovak Republic
Tel: +421 2 593 00 311
Fax: +421 2 593 00 391
Email: info@upn.gov.sk
Website: http://www.upn.gov.sk/v2/index.php?lang=en

Source
Ústav pamäti národa http://www.upn.gov.sk/v2/index.php?lang=en accessed 25 January 2010