Martina Fiamová: The role of the Agricultural Property Management Fund in the protection of Jews in 1942–1944

The Agricultural Property Management Fund under the leadership of František Bošňák has a privileged position in the history of the Jewry in Slovakia, as it provided help and protection during World War II, until 1944, against the merciless despotism of the government system for hundreds of racially discriminated persons. Bošňák, who was also a member of parliament of the independent Slovak State, was not actively involved in politics, and he had not only rejected the extreme anti-Jewish measures, but using various protective tools, he saved lives of about two thousand people threatened by deportation. At the Fund headed by him, he issued service passes and created symbolic jobs for the elderly Jews and those considered for „economically dispensable”, and he supported the needy financially, as well. Standing up to the radical propaganda, to the informers and to the Ministry of the Interior, he managed to keep his top economic position, and as far as it was possible, he continued to help the Jews.