Memorandum on Tuka's statement to Hitler on the movement for Slovakia's independence and Hitler's support for it

[initials] R.M.
Copy for the office of RAM [Reich Foreign Minister] Discussion' between the Fuehrer and Professor Tuca and Secret tary of State Karmasin, in the presence of the Reich Foreign Minister in the new Reich Chancellery in Berlin on Sunday, 12th February 1939 between 1700
and 1815 hours '
After a brief welcome Tuca thanks the Fuehrer for granting this meeting. He addresses the Fuehrer with "My Fuehrer" and he voices the opinion that he, though only a modest man himself, might well claim to speak for the Slovak nation. The Czech courts and prison gave him the right to make such a statement. He states that the Fuehrer had not only opened the Slovak question but that he had been also the first one to acknowledge the dignity of the Slovak nation. The Slovakian people will gladly fight under the leadership of the Fuehrer for the maintenance of European civilization. Obviously future association with the Czechs had become an impossibility for the Slovaks from a moral as well as economic point of view. The fact that they still belonged to the Czech state, was only possible because of the thought that the present government was only transitory, but he and his colleagues were determined to give in to the pressure of the Slovak people and to bring about an independent Slovakia. The destiny of
2790-PS
Slovakia rested with the Fuehrer. Just as he had suffered imprisonment for his convictions, he was equally prepared to sacrifice his life for his ideals. Should there be a rising, the Czechs would immediately try to suppress it with bloodshed, but the mere word of the Fuehrer sufficed to halt these attempts. The same applied to the aspirations of Hungary and Poland, who would be stopped by a single word of the Fuehrer. "I entrust the fate of my people to your care."