Former Roman Catholic priest (1887–1947) who rose through the ranks of Czechoslovak politics to become the first president of the Independent Czechoslovak Republic from 1939 to 1945. Having assumed the presidency through the direct involvement of Adolf Hitler—who pressured him to declare the independence of Slovakia under German “protection”—the strongly nationalist Tiso served as a Nazi puppet and willingly adopted that regime’s hard-line policy of anti-Semitism. Though Slovakia was one of the first nations to cease deportation of Jews to labor camps as a matter of policy and even served for a time as a “safe haven,” nearly 60,000 Jews were shipped from Slovakia to Auschwitz and elsewhere under Tiso’s leadership. Deposed in the wake of a Soviet invasion in April 1945, Tiso was tried and convicted for treason and collaboration with the Nazis, sentenced to death on April 15, 1947, and hanged a few days later. Remarkable pencil manuscript, Tiso’s original handwritten “confession” to the Allies, signed at the conclusion of each page “Dr. Jozef Tiso,” the final page also bearing an handwritten ink certification by Tiso with an additional signature, four pages plus the official typed two-page translation, 8 x 13, August 23, 1945. In part (translated): “I have never done anything against the former Czechoslovakian Republic, although I could have done so on the 6th of October 1938 when we united all the parties of Slovakia in the program of our party.... I never had any dealings with foreign policy, not only because the Slovakian Nation is too small a factor to influence world affairs, but especially because internal affairs took up all of our strength.... The form and contents of the protection treaty with the German Reich were forced upon us; although we needed protection against the Hungarian [?] tendencies. The protective treaty with the German Reich did not mean collaboration with National Socialism.... If the big powers order definitely and the Slovakian people agree that we should live in one State with the Czechs, it will be my political rule, because I am convinced that the big powers, as well as the Slovakian people themselves, want it that way in order that the Slovakian people may continue to develop without interference along the National, Cultural, Economic, and Social line, which it has done during the six years of independence so blessedly.... This statement on four pages was written by me, by my own hand, freely and voluntarily, without force, threats, or compulsion, on this 22d day of August 1945, in Garmisch, Germany....” Faint intersecting folds, a hint of mild wrinkling, and typical light document wear with a few staple holes and tiny chips, otherwise fine condition. A document of extraordinary historical interest! Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
