Ferdinand Ďurčanský
| Ferdinand Ďurčanský | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Ferdinand Ďurčanský December 18, 1906 Rajec, Trencsén County, Kingdom of Hungary |
| Died | March 15, 1974 (aged 67) Munich |
| Nationality | Slovakian |
| Education | Doctorate in law |
| Alma mater | Institut des Hautes Études Internationales in Paris, University of Bratislava, Hague Academy of International Law |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Known for | Politician |
| Title | Chairman of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations |
| Predecessor | Veli Kajum-Khan |
| Successor | F. Farkas de Kisbarnak |
| Political party | Slovak People's Party |
Dr Ferdinand Ďurčanský (December 18, 1906 – March 15, 1974) was a Slovak nationalist leader who for a time served with the collaborationist government of Jozef Tiso.
Born in Rajec, in the Trencsén County of the Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Slovakia), he was educated at the Institute des Hautes Études Internationales in Paris, the University of Bratislava and Hague Academy of International Law, receiving his law doctorate and working as a professor of law in Bratislava.
Ďurčanský gained a grounding in nationalism in the universities. With Rodobrana declining in influence during the mid-1930s, the focus of Slovak extreme nationalist discontent shifted onto the journal Nástup, which had a university student and graduate readership and which was edited by Ďurčanský. Unlike some of his contemporaries, who advocated autonomy, Ďurčanský was a supporter of a fully independent Slovakia and when he and Jozef Tiso visited Adolf Hitler in 1938 it was only Ďurčanský who pressed the Nazi leader on the issue.
His followers, who came to be known as the 'Young Generation', held a number of posts in the Slovak People's Party administration of Vojtech Tuka, with Ďurčanský himself serving as Minister for Home and Foreign Affairs. This was not to last long, however, as the Germans felt that he had too many Jewish associates and, despite his efforts to save his position by ordering shops to display anti-Jewish signs, he was dismissed. The Germans had also received intelligence that Ďurčanský favoured a position of neutrality in the war for Slovakia and so informed Tuka that his presence was no longer acceptable to them.
Tiso attempted to recall him in 1944 but the Nazis refused. Nonetheless, he remained a strong supporter of Tiso and collaboration, attempting to organise resistance to the Soviet Union until early 1945 when he fled to Austria.
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