Presidential exemption (Slovak State)

Presidential exemptions (Slovak: prezidentské výnimky, singular prezidentská výnimka) were granted by President of the Slovak State Jozef Tiso to individual Jews, exempting them from systematic persecution through anti-Jewish legislation introduced by Tiso's Jewish Code, (patterned on the Nazi Nuremberg Laws), during the Holocaust.

From an estimated 20,000 requests, 600 documented exemptions covering 1,000 people were granted, but only after 1942, when deportations to Auschwitz death camp had already stopped.

Their claims have been challenged by Holocaust historians, who note the lack of documented evidence for more than 600 exemptions, or 1% of the Jewish population, pointing to a seeming reliance on exaggerated estimates.

The Jewish Code excluded Jews from public life, forbidding them from traveling at certain times, using radios or phones, shopping at certain hours, or belonging to any clubs or organizations.

[6] Slovak historian Martina Fiamová wrote that Tiso only granted exemptions to “morally and politically reliable” Jews who contributed to Catholic causes.

[5][16] However, although these exemptions spared the holder from the requirements of the Jewish Code, such as having to wear a yellow badge, they did not save anyone's life.

[20] According to Ward, the exemption allowed Tiso to present himself as a savior of Jews without making significant concessions in the antisemitic policies of the regime, therefore maintaining his Christian legitimacy without alienating his Nazi backers.

[21] The presidential exemption is the basis of claims by Milan Stanislav Ďurica and Slovak ultranationalists that Tiso saved as many as 35,000 Jews from his regime's own antisemitic policies.

[24] A controversial textbook written by Ďurica which presented Tiso and his colleagues as "saviours of the Jewish population" was harshly criticized by historians and later retracted.