Ústredný hospodársky úrad

The Central Economic Office (CEO, Ústredný hospodársky úrad) was one of the offices of the Slovak Republic (1939 – 1945). It played the crucial role in the process of the so-called Aryanization of Jewish property in Slovakia. The CEO was created according to the Ruling No.222/1940 of September 16, 1940. The above-mentioned ruling awarded the CEO the competence to “conduct everything necessary to exclude Jews from the economy and to transfer their property into the hands of Christians,” and the CEO assumed all responsibility for the preparation and execution of the so-called liquidation and Aryanization of the Jewish property, except for farmland. Until the creation of the Central Economic Office, the process of Aryanization of Jewish property mostly affected the business property and it was under control of the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, the County offices and several other state bodies. The creation of the Central Economic Office was the result of the strengthening of radical wing within the ruling Hlinka's Slovak People´s Party and the leader of radicals Slovak Prime Minister Vojtech Tuka. So-called Radicals led by Tuka were strengthened after German-Slovak negotiations in Salzburg. Tuka, who criticized the Ministry of Economy and other offices for the (allegedly) slow pace of “Aryanization” decided to centralize the Aryanization in the CEO and control it. That is why he appointed his protégé Augustín Morávek into the position of CEO´s Chairman, and that is also the reason why the CEO was formally subordinated to the Prime Ministers Office. Within next two years the CEO gained control over all kinds of property of Jews in Slovakia (with exception of farmland and agriculture-related assets) and in case of enterprise property it liquidated more than 10,000 businesses and transferred the ownership of another 2,200 businesses into the hands of Slovaks, Germans, Ruthenians living in Slovakia. Besides that, thousands of houses and apartments of Jewish owners were first “temporarily administered” and later confiscated by the state under the control of CEO. The CEO also controlled all blocked bank accounts of Jews, as well as all their valuables (which had to be deposited in specific banks). There was practically no transfer of property possible without formal permission of the CEO. The office also had the competence to issue work permits to Jews. Jewish Center (Ústredňa Židov), the only legal Jewish organization in Slovakia (besides the Jewish Religious Communities), which was created by the regime in September 1940 and was also subordinated to the Central Economic Office. In early 1942 the Central Economic Office was subject of the investigation of the special committee. It was a result of criticism coming from certain bodies within the ruling regime pointing at the widespread corruption at the CEO. After the investigation, the first chairman of the Central Economic Office, Augustín Morávek, resigned as of July 1, 1942. His successor, Ľudovít Paškovič reorganized the Office and subordinated it to the Ministry of Economy. It has been documented that the absolute majority of assets was Aryanized during the period between September 1940 – July 1942. Due to the reorganization of the office, there were two different periods in the organizational history the office and handling of its agenda. During the first period which lasted from 7 October 1940 until 15 July 1942 the CEO consisted of 10 departments: I. Secretariat II. Legislation III. Aryanizaiton of businesses IV. Jewish Center V. Aryanization of house property VI. Disposal of Jewish property VII. Work permissions VIII. Revisions IX. Statistics and records X. Accounting

During the second period which started on 15 July 1942 there were six departments:

I. Presidential Department II. Aryanizational Department III. Department for the Expulsion of Jews and Disposal of Jewish property IV. Department of Employment of Jews V. Department of Revisions VI. Accounting

Documents of CEO were transferred to the archive from the Commission for the Industry and Commerce (Povereníctvo pre priemysel a obchod). The fonds is not fully preserved. The majority of the agenda of Department VII is not preserved. Part of the documents (the majority of files about the so-called Aryanization of businesses) was incorporated into the agenda of Department VII (Restitutional department) of the Commission for the Industry and Commerce before the transfer to archive.