Karol Kmeťko

[1] 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.

Twenty-one years later, on February 13, 1921, he was appointed Bishop of Nitra.

Before the 1942 deportations of Jews from Slovakia, Kmeťko confronted the president of the Slovak State, Jozef Tiso, with reliable reports of the murder of Jews in Ukraine.

Kmeťko asked: "How can the government allow [the deportations], when it is said that they carry the [Jews] off to their death?"

For if Slovaks can go to Germany to work, why can’t the [Jews] do the same?’"[2][3] On May 11, 1944, Kmeťko was appointed Archbishop of Nitra in Slovakia.