The Sixth Battalion is a 1998 documentary film that examines the little known history of Jewish soldiers who fought for the Slovak Republic, which was closely aligned with Nazi Germany during World War II. The documentary combines interviews with archival footage and photographs of the Slovak Republic in order to provide a brief history of the state, exploring the rise of antisemitism and how it affected these Jewish soldiers.
“Everywhere there w...
More
The Sixth Battalion is a 1998 documentary film that examines the little known history of Jewish soldiers who fought for the Slovak Republic, which was closely aligned with Nazi Germany during World War II. The documentary combines interviews with archival footage and photographs of the Slovak Republic in order to provide a brief history of the state, exploring the rise of antisemitism and how it affected these Jewish soldiers.
“Everywhere there were fleas and bugs. We slept in barns,” remembers one former soldier, “the work was very hard—I worked with a pick ax and shovel. The foreman threatened that we would be sent away to Poland if we didn't achieve the quota.” Forced to take on grueling construction projects for the army, these Jews were treated as a lower class of soldiers who constantly faced the possibility of being deported to concentration camps.
In 1939, Adolf Hitler suggested that the Slovak Republic split from Czechoslovakia. After a unanimous vote in their parliament, the...
Less