{{Short description|Slovak fascist militia (1938–1945)}} {{Distinguish|Hlinka's Slovak People's Party}} {{Infobox government agency |agency_name = Hlinka Guard |logo = Emblem of the Hlinka Guard.svg |logo_width = |logo_caption = Emblem of the Hlinka Guard |seal = Flag of the Hlinka party (1938–1945) variant 1.svg |seal_width = |seal_caption = Flag of the Hlinka Guard |picture = File:Alexander Mach Wilhelm Frick 1942.jpg |picture_width = 250px |picture_caption = Commander of Hlinka Guard Interior Minister [[Alexander Mach]] and German Interior Minister [[Wilhelm Frick]] visit in [[Nazi Germany]] |image_size = |formed = 1938 |dissolved = 1945 |preceding1 = ''[[Rodobrana]]'' |jurisdiction = {{flagdeco|Slovak Republic|1939}} [[Slovak Republic (1939–1945)|Slovak Republic]] |headquarters = [[Bratislava]] |region_code = |members = |budget = |minister1_name = [[Jozef Tiso]] |minister1_pfo = High Commander (1938–45) |minister2_name = [[Karol Sidor]] |minister2_pfo = Minister of Interior (1938–39) |minister3_name = [[Alexander Mach]] |minister3_pfo = Minister of Interior (1939–44) |minister4_name = [[Otomar Kubala]] |minister4_pfo = Minister of Interior (1944–45) |agency_type = [[Paramilitary]] |parent_agency = {{flagicon image|Flag of the Hlinka party (1938–1945) variant 2.svg|size=23px}} [[Slovak People's Party|Hlinka's Slovak People's Party]] (HSLS-SSNJ) |child1_agency = |child2_agency = |keydocument1 = |website = |footnotes = }} [[File:Den Hlinkovej gardy.jpg|thumb|A Hlinka Guard propaganda poster, "March 14, Hlinka Guard Day", 1939]]
The '''Hlinka Guard''' ({{langx|sk|Hlinkova garda}}; {{langx|de|Hlinka-Garde}}; abbreviated as '''HG''') was the [[militia]] maintained by the [[Slovak People's Party]] in the period from 1938 to 1945; it was named after [[Andrej Hlinka]].<ref name="Niewyk">{{cite book |last1=Niewyk |first1=Donald L. |title=The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust |date=24 July 2012 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=United States |isbn=9780231528788}}</ref>
[[File:Flag of the Hlinka party (1938–1945) variant 2.svg|thumb|Variant flag of the Hlinka Guard]]
The Hlinka Guard was preceded by the [[Rodobrana]] (Home Defense/Nation's Defense) organization, which existed from 1923 to 1927 when the [[Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovak]] authorities ordered its dissolution. During the crisis caused by [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s demand for the [[Sudetenland]] (in the summer of 1938), the Hlinka Guard emerged spontaneously, and on October 8 of that year, a week after Hitler's demand had been accepted at the [[Munich Agreement|Munich conference]], the guard was officially set up, with [[Karol Sidor]] (1901–1953) as its first commander.
The Hlinka Guard was known for its participation in the [[Holocaust in Slovakia]]; its members appropriated Jewish property and rounded up Jews for deportation in 1942. In the post-war, under one of the [[Beneš decrees]], [[Beneš decrees#List of decrees|No. 16/1945 Coll.]], membership in the Hlinka Guard was punishable by 5 to 20 years imprisonment.
==Duties== [[File:Alexander Mach Slovakia1.jpg|thumb|Hlinka Guard]]
The guard was the Hlinka party's military arm for internal security, and it continued in that role under the autonomous government of [[Slovakia]] in federated Czecho-Slovakia. The Hlinka Guard was Slovakia's state police and most willingly helped Hitler with his plans. It operated against [[Jew]]s, [[Czech people|Czech]]s, [[Hungarian people|Hungarian]]s, the [[Left-wing politics|Left]], and the opposition. By a [[decree]] issued on October 29, 1938, the Hlinka Guard was designated as the only body authorized to give its members [[paramilitary]] training, and it was this decree that established its formal status in the country. Hlinka guardsmen wore black uniforms and a cap shaped like a boat, with a woolen pompom on top, and they used the raised-arm salute. The official salute was "[[Na stráž]]!" ("On guard!").
==Membership== Until March 14, 1939, when Slovakia declared its independence, the Hlinka Guard attracted recruits from all walks of life. On the following day, March 15, [[Alexander Mach]] became its commander, retaining the post up to the collapse of the pro-[[Nazism|Nazi]] regime in Slovakia in 1945. Its functions were laid down in a series of government decrees: it was to be a paramilitary organization attached to the party, fostering nationalism, providing paramilitary training, and safeguarding internal security. By assuming these tasks, the guard was meant to counterbalance the army and the police. In 1941, Hlinka Guard [[shock troops]] were trained in [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] camps in Germany, and the SS attached an adviser to the guard. At this point, many of the guardsmen who were of middle-class origin quit, and thenceforth, the organization consisted of [[peasant]]s and unskilled [[laborer]]s, together with various doubtful elements. A social message was integral to the radical [[nationalism]] that it sought to impart.
==Deportation of the Jews== {{main|The Holocaust in Slovakia}} In November 1938, the Hlinka Guard participated in the [[1938 deportations of Jews from Slovakia|deportation of thousands of Jews]].{{sfn|Rajcan|Vadkerty|Hlavinka|2018|p=844}} In 1942, the guard was involved in the [[List of Holocaust transports from Slovakia|deportation of almost 60,000 Slovak Jews to occupied Poland]].{{sfn|Rajcan|Vadkerty|Hlavinka|2018|p=847}} The victims were given only four hours' warning to prevent them from escaping. Beatings and forcible shaving were commonplace, as was subjecting Jews to invasive searches to uncover hidden valuables. Some guards took advantage of their power to rape Jewish women.{{sfn|Sokolovič|2013|pp=346–347}}
==Political competition== A small group called Náš Boj (Our Struggle), which operated under SS auspices, was the most radical element in the guard. Throughout its existence, the Hlinka Guard competed with the Hlinka party for primacy in ruling the country. After the anti-Nazi [[Slovak National Uprising]] was crushed in August 1944, the SS took over and shaped the Hlinka Guard to suit its purposes. Special units of the guard ([[Hlinka Guard Emergency Divisions]] – POHG) were employed against partisans and Jews.
==Legacy== In the 2010s, the Hlinka Guard's uniforms reappeared in Slovakia as the preferred dress of far-right politician [[Marian Kotleba]] and his [[Our Slovakia]] party. Kotleba's group made minor alterations to the uniforms, as wearing the original uniforms remains illegal in Slovakia.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Walker |first1=Shaun |title=How a Slovakian neo-Nazi got elected |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/14/how-a-slovakian-neo-nazi-got-elected |access-date=14 February 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=14 February 2019}}</ref>
== See also== * [[Military ranks of Slovakia (1939–1945)]]
==References== {{Reflist}} *{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Rajcan |first1=Vanda |last2=Vadkerty |first2=Madeline |first3=Ján |last3=Hlavinka |entry=Slovakia|editor1-last=Megargee|editor1-first=Geoffrey P. |editor-link=Geoffrey P. Megargee |editor2-last=White|editor2-first=Joseph R.|editor3-last=Hecker|editor3-first=Mel |series=[[Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos]] |volume=3 |title=Camps and Ghettos under European Regimes Aligned with Nazi Germany|location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0-253-02373-5 |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |date=2018|pages=842–852}} *{{cite book |last=Sokolovič|first=Peter|title=Hlinkova Garda 1938 – 1945|trans-title=Hlinka Guard 1938 – 1945 |date=2013 |publisher=Ústav pamäti národa |location=Bratislava |isbn=978-80-89335-10-7 |url=https://www.upn.gov.sk/publikacie_web/hlinkova-garda.pdf}}
== Further reading == * {{cite journal |last= Jelinek |first= Yeshayahu |year= 1971 |title= Storm-Troopers in Slovakia: The Rodobrana and the Hlinka Guard |journal= [[Journal of Contemporary History]] |volume= 6 |issue= 3 |pages= 97–119 |jstor= 259881 |doi=10.1177/002200947100600307|s2cid= 159713369 }} * {{cite book|last1=Hruboň|first1=Anton|title=5. poľná rota Hlinkovej gardy|trans-title=The Fifth Company of the Hlinka Guard|url=https://www.forumhistoriae.sk/e_kniznica/hrubon.pdf|isbn=978-80-9700-80-2-4|location=Ružomberok|publisher=Historia nostra|language=sk|date=2010|archive-date=2015-09-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924015051/http://www.forumhistoriae.sk/e_kniznica/hrubon.pdf|url-status=dead}}
{{Holocaust Slovakia}} {{Fascism}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:Hlinka Guard| ]] [[Category:Slovak Republic (1939–1945)]] [[Category:Slovak National Uprising]] [[Category:Slovak collaborators with Nazi Germany]] [[Category:Military wings of fascist parties]] [[Category:Military units and formations of World War II]] [[Category:The Holocaust in Slovakia]] [[Category:Military units and formations established in 1938]] [[Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1945]] [[Category:Far-right politics in Europe]] [[Category:Slovak People's Party]] [[Category:1945 disestablishments in Slovakia]] [[Category:1938 establishments in Slovakia]]