Slovak Reflections on the August 1944 Coup in Romania and Its Impact on the Slovak National Uprising

In July and August 1944, the former dominion and stability of the Third Reich began to shake at its foundations. First, a new front opened up in Western Europe and Germany began to fall into the Allies’ encircling pincers. Shortly thereafter, an unsuccessful attempt to change Hitler’s government took place, and a highly successful Soviet offensive was underway, which in a matter of weeks pushed the Red Army hundreds of miles closer to Berlin. The most decisive, however, was still August 1944, when as many as four major uprisings or coups took place in territories controlled or occupied by Germany. After the urban uprisings in Warsaw or Paris, there was a major reversal in Romania and, shortly afterwards, a broader uprising in Slovakia. This paper will address the possible inspiration of the Romanian coup for the decision and the developments in Slovakia at the end of August 1944. It will focus on Romania’s and Slovakia’s position in the German great power system up to that time. It will analyze the dilemmas of pro-German governments facing the prospect of a Soviet invasion of their country and of an overall German defeat. In particular, however, it attempts to answer the central question of the possible effects of the Romanian coup on the development of the situation in Slovakia in the context of the Slovak National Uprising.