The Concept of “Nation” and “National Community” in the Thinking of Štefan Polakovič: A Case of the Nazi Idea of Volksgemeinschaft Spread within Slovak Catholic Nationalism

This study explores a range of shifts in the understanding of “nation” by Štefan Polakovič, a Catholic intellectual, in the period of the wartime Slovak Republic, focusing on the root causes of Polakovič’s adoption of Volksgemeinschaft—the racial concept of “nation” that drew upon the ideology of German National Socialism. The current paper examines the genesis of the Slovak adaptation in Polakovič’s interpretation and his coming to terms with the Catholic critique of racism. Polakovič’s conceptualisation of the idea of “nation” is explored within a wider context of its understanding in Slovak political Catholicism.