Ústredňa štátnej bezpečnosti

The State Security Headquarters (Ústredňa štátnej bezpečnosti, Slovak abbreviation ÚŠB, English abbreviation SSH) was the highest police authority of Slovak Republic (1939-1945). It was the secret service and political police of Tiso´s regime with the defensive intelligence task. The State Security Headquarters existed officially from January 1, 1940 but the decision to create such body was made much earlier, in Fall 1939. By 1942 the SSH existed within the Police department of the Ministry of Interior. From July 1942 it functioned as the separate body with the competence over the whole territory of Slovakia of those days. The SSH was granted competence to follow all matters of political nature, namely activities of socialists, Communists, Jewish question, activities of ethnic minorities, political parties, matters of Hlinka Guard, Hlinka Youth, Deutsche Partei, Deutsche Jugend etc. Besides that it also monitored border incidents, resistance. It also controlled the censorship of press. The SSH was relatively small. Besides the Central bureau in Bratislava it had two branch bureaus (Odbočka ÚŠB) acting within the Police directorates in Prešov and Zvolen. The Bratislava-based Central bureau included about 120 employees, out of which 1/3 were administrative employees and the rest were operatives. Branch offices employed about 13 operatives in Prešov and about 5 in Zvolen: