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This study deals with the intersections but also the unrelenting tension between the Catholic Church und politics and efforts to regulate society through eugenics in order to heal it in the context of the establishment of the Slovak state between 1938 and 1941, which was based on a specific conception of traditional family. In the first step, the discourse of the national revolution in the period of Slovak autonomy at the turn of 1938 and 1939 is analyzed, with emphasis on the requirement of "national health" through measures of so-called positive eugenics. Subsequently, the article examines the efforts to institutionalize this discourse in the context of the establishment of a museum of hygiene according to the German model. Finally, it outlines the impact of this context on the preparation and implementation of the anti-interruption law on "fetal protection" of 1941.

Taking the example of the protests against the films All Quiet on the Western Front (1930–1) and Le Golem (1936) in interwar Austria and Slovakia, this study addresses the links between antisemitism, nationalism and cinema in Central Europe that historical research has so far overlooked. Unlike other demonstrations against the talkies, campaigns against so-called 'Jewish' films were not an expression of linguistic nationalism, as they pointed to the 'destructive' impact of capitalism, socialism or modern art, which in the ideology of antisemitism were allegedly personified by 'Jews'. The conservatives and radicals who called for a ban of those 'Jewish' films considered it a first step towards the creation of a national community without 'Jews'. In Austria the moderate and radical opponents of A ll Quiet on the Western Front ultimately reached their goal through a joint effort. In Slovakia they only managed to get the film Le Golem completely banned when the geopolitical conditions changed after the mutilation of Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War. The fact is that in both cases, moderate nationalists placed themselves in the ambivalent position of pioneers of antisemitism and ultimately facilitated fascist and Nazi radicals in the practical implementation of their postulates.

HauptbeschreibungDie Entstehung des Antisemitismus im 19. Jahrhundert stellte die jüdische Bevölkerung in Europa vor eine gänzlich neue Situation. Sie sah sich neuartigen Formen von Angriffen, Ausgrenzungen und Anfeindungen ausgesetzt. In einem breiten europäischen Panorama beschreibt das Jahrbuch die politischen und intellektuellen Reaktionen der Juden auf diese Bedrohung. Die Gegenwehr der Juden wird dabei nicht nur in den nationalen Kontexten vorgestellt, es werden auch die transnationalen Verflechtungen diskutiert. Insbesondere das Bild der Juden als wehrlose Opfer wird kritisch hinterfrag.