Howard Garfinkel

this film spends its time on the conflicts between Jew and nazi. the role of the Slovak citizenry is ignored. In fact the climax of the film takes place in Ružomberok, which was the home town of Andrej Hlinka. Hlinka was a roman catholic priest. He was the organizer and prime mover of the Slovak National PARty. After he died in 1938 leadership in the party was taken over by Monsignor Jozef Tiso. during the war over 25% of the Slovak Parliament was composed of Roman Catholic Priests. (from the "Jews of Czechoslovakia", Vol III. From the essay: The Jews of Slovakia: 1939-1945" by Ladislav Lipscher. It was footnote 100) This film for me offered absolution to the Slovak audience absolution. The film pretended that all of the evil doers were German nazi's PS: there are family stories that the Hlinka Guards...the Slovak Government's version of the SS, treated Jews worse than the german SS did.