Hlinka Guard

The Hlinka Guard were a paramilitary unit of Andrej Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party, established October 8, 1938. Modeled after similar Nazi paramilitary groups, one of its main purposes was addressing the “Jewish Question” in Slovakia. In 1940, a member of Germany’s SS, Viktor Nageler, was sent to advise the Hlinka Guard’s leadership. In-fighting for power significantly weakened the Hlinka Guard’s public support and cohesion between 1940-1943, but despite this instability, the Hlinka were a central force in Slovakia for antisemitism, often working in collaboration with the SS to enforce anti-Jewish policy, loot Jewish property, operate Jewish labor camps, and deport Slovak Jews.