Antisemitism
in Slovakia

In education, the European Commission referred Slovakia to the Court of Justice of the EU in April 2023 for failing to effectively tackle segregation of Roma children; FRA data show that 65% of Roma pupils aged 6–15 attend schools where all or most peers are Roma—the highest share in the EU. In February 2025, the European Court of Human Rights held in Salay v. Slovakia that the disproportionate placement of Roma children in segregated special education is indirect discrimination, underscoring biased diagnostic tests and weak safeguards. Discriminatory policing and weak access to justice further entrench exclusion: the 2013 police raid in the Roma neighbourhood of Moldava nad Bodvou led to beatings and unlawful entries, with the Strasbourg court later finding violations and the government issuing an apology and compensation in 2021–2022, though renewed investigations in 2023–2025 show ongoing concern. Recent years also saw militarised COVID‑19 quarantines of entire Roma settlements and the construction of a segregation wall in Ostrovany (2009–2013), emblematic of how public‑health and “security” measures can be used to enforce spatial separation and reinforce stigma instead of promoting inclusion.

Control, Exclusion, and Resistance

Wartime persecution (1939–1945)

Under the wartime Slovak State allied with Nazi Germany, Roma faced escalating controls: restrictions on movement and domicile, forced resettlement into segregated “Gypsy settlements,” and exclusion from military service in favour of labour units reserved for Roma and other groups labelled “asocial.” Unlike the mass deportations of Jews, persecution of Roma in Slovakia initially took the form of policing, registration, and forced labour; however, after the suppression of the Slovak National Uprising in late 1944, violence intensified dramatically. In Kremnička and Nemecká, units of the Hlinka Guard Emergency Divisions and Einsatzkommando 14 executed hundreds of civilians, including Roma; historians estimate 747 victims at Kremnička and around 900 at Nemecká, with Roma among those murdered. Research on the wartime period documents additional killings and reprisals against Roma communities across central Slovakia—often on mere suspicion of aiding partisans—and a detention and labour camp for Roma at Dubnica nad Váhom, where at least 26 Roma were executed in February 1945 in one of the best‑documented Roma massacres in Slovakia. These events left deep scars but received limited recognition in post‑war narratives, contributing to decades of public silence about Roma suffering during the conflict.

Post-war exclusion and communist-era assimilation

After 1945, formal antifascist rhetoric did not translate into substantive redress for Roma communities. Survivors received little recognition or compensation, and reconstruction efforts largely bypassed Roma settlements. In 1958, communist authorities adopted the Law on the Permanent Settlement of Itinerant Persons (No. 74/1958), effectively banning nomadism and forcing settlement by confiscating wagons and animals, registering families, and restricting movement; although the law did not name Roma, it primarily targeted them and reshaped everyday life. Assimilationist policies framed Roma as a “social problem,” combining surveillance with social engineering: dispersal into housing estates or peripheral settlements, placement into low‑paid manual work, and efforts to erode distinct cultural identities, while state‑controlled media reinforced antigypsyist stereotypes and justified intrusive interventions. A particularly harmful practice was the forced or coerced sterilisation of Roma women, documented from the late 1960s through the early 2000s; in V.C. v. Slovakia (2011), the European Court of Human Rights found violations related to consent and safeguards, prompting changes to health law but leaving many survivors without comprehensive redress despite a 2021 government apology.

Confronting the Past to Shape the Future

The democratic transition after 1989 brought new freedoms alongside renewed hostility towards Roma communities. Economic restructuring disproportionately affected segregated Roma settlements, and school segregation deepened in many areas, as special schooling and separate classes remained common in practice. Public discourse often framed anti‑Roma mobilisation as “security” or “public order,” while hate speech in media and online spaces normalised prejudice and depicted Roma as inherently problematic.