Hlinka Guard

Hlinka Guard

Flag of the Hlinka Guard
Emblem of the Hlinka Guard
Commander of Hlinka Guard Interior Minister Alexander Mach and German Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick visit in Nazi Germany
Agency overview
Formed	1938
Preceding agency	Rodobrana
Dissolved	1945
Type	Paramilitary
Jurisdiction	Slovak Republic
Headquarters	Bratislava
Ministers responsible	Jozef Tiso, High Commander (1938–45) Karol Sidor, Minister of Interior (1938–39) Alexander Mach, Minister of Interior (1939–44) Otomar Kubala, Minister of Interior (1944–45)
Parent agency	Hlinka's Slovak People's Party (HSLS-SSNJ)

The Hlinka Guard (Slovak: Hlinkova garda; German: Hlinka-Garde; abbreviated as HG) was the militia maintained by the Slovak People's Party in the period from 1938 to 1945; it was named after Andrej Hlinka.^[1]

The Hlinka Guard was preceded by the Rodobrana (Home Defense/Nation's Defense) organization, which existed from 1923 to 1927, when the Czechoslovak authorities ordered its dissolution. During the crisis caused by Hitler's demand for the Sudetenland (in the summer of 1938), the Hlinka Guard emerged spontaneously, and on October 8 of that year, a week after Hitler's demand had been accepted at the Munich conference, the guard was officially set up, with Karol Sidor (1901–1953) as its first commander.

The Hlinka Guard was known for its participation in the Holocaust in Slovakia; its members appropriated Jewish property and rounded up Jews for deportation in 1942. In the post-war, under one of the Beneš decrees, No. 16/1945 Coll., membership of the Hlinka Guard was punishable by 5 to 20 years imprisonment.