Ľudový súd v Bratislave

Printed Finding Aid in the Reasearchers´s Room of the archive. Limited access due to the personal data protection. Limited reproduction. No digital copies. Fonds contains files of People´s Court in Bratislava which existed in 1948 as the retributive court. It contains several very important Holocaust-related case files. It thus contains the file with information on creation and activity of the Central Economic Office (Ústredný hospodársky úrad) responsible for the radical aryanisation of property or file with information on activities of German advisor for Jewish question in Slovakia. Besides that there is a case file of the former head of 14th (anti-Jewish) department of Interior Ministry with important information on deportation of Jews from Slovakia in 1942 and the functioning of the department. Besides that there are several files of high officials of Slovakia (1939-1945), including the file of former Chief of the Propaganda Office, several files of former members of Slovak parliament, or members of State Council. The fonds is thus very important for the overall history of the Hlinka Slovak People´s Party Regime. There are several files with important documents on Hlinka Guard and Hlinka Youth. Some files contain important testimonies of Holocaust survivors or bystanders. There are files that pertain to cases of denunciation of Jews or deportation of Jews, as well as individual cases of aryanisation of property. Following Second World War trials with Nazi criminals and their collaborators were organized on the territory of restored Czechoslovakia just like in many other European countries of those days. Three-tier retributive justice system was established in the Slovak part of post-war Czechoslovakia by the Regulation of the Slovak National Council no. 33/1945 on the Punishment of Fascist Criminals, Occupants, Traitors and Collaborators and on the Establishment of People’s Judiciary. National Court in Bratislava, District People’s Courts (Okresný ľudový súd) and Local People´s Courts represented the system of the retributive judiciary in Slovakia in 1945 - 1947. These courts ceased to function by 31 December 1947. Unfinished cases were subsequently transferred to jurisdiction of special senates of County courts. However after the Communist coup in 1948 a new law was adopted on 25 March 1948 which renewed the decree on retributive justice in whole Czechoslovak republic and new People´s Courts were established.