Name Karol Kmetko | ||
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Died December 22, 1948, Nitra, Slovakia | ||
Karol Kmeťko (December 12, 1875 – December 22, 1948) was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Nitra in Slovakia (1920-1948) and personal archbishop (from 1944).
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Early life and ordination
Born in Veľké Držkovce, in the Trencsén County of the Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Slovakia), his interest in Catholicism led him to the priesthood. At the age of 23, Kmetko was ordained a priest in Nitra on July 2, 1899. Twenty-one years later, on February 13, 1921 he was appointed Bishop of Nitra.
Bishop
On May 11, 1944, Kmetko was appointed Archbishop of Nitra in Slovakia. According to the Catholic Hierarchy, Kmetko was a priest for 49.5 years and a bishop for 27.9 years. He died in December 1948 at the age of seventy-three.
Antisemitic attitude
Archbishop Kmetko was notoriously anti-semitic. In March 1942, prior to the spread of any awareness of Hitler's policy of extermination, Rabbi Michoel Dov Ber Weissmandl of Nitra had convinced his father-in-law Rabbi Samuel David Ungar to speak to the Archbishop about stopping the deportations of Jews out of Slovakia. Kmetko was obviously privy to knowledge that both Weissmandl and Ungar were unaware. Kmetko told Ungar, "This is not merely a deportation of the Jews of Slovakia. You will not merely die of hunger and disease on account of the deportation. No. You will be killed. Young and old alike. Women and children alike. This is your Divine punishment for your having murdered Our Savior."
Kmetko refused Ungar's pleas to assist in any manner.
The Catholic Church has never apologized for Kmetko's lack of assistance to his Slovakian "elder brothers in faith."