Jozef Tiso

Hlinka's Slovak People's Party Fascists and Nazis Slovakia Slovakia 1887–1947 ✕ Hanged

Catholic priest who led Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party and was president of the Slovak Republic, a Nazi client state

Born to Slovak Catholic parents in Nagybiccse (now Bytča) in the Kingdom of Hungary, he became a priest. Joining the Slovak People’s Party in 1918, he sat in the Czechoslovak parliament from 1925, was minister of health and physical education in 1927 and became party leader on Hlinka’s death in 1938 and premier of autonomous Slovakia. When Germany seized the Czech lands in March 1939, he became prime minister and, in October, president of the independent Slovak Republic. His government deported Slovak Jews to camps in Germany and occupied Poland in 1942 and again in 1944, after German forces crushed the Slovak National Uprising. Extradited to Czechoslovakia, he was hanged for treason in 1947.

Also known as: Jozef Gašpar Tiso

Activities and affiliations