A 2004 documentary film about the rioting, Miluj blížneho svojho ("Love thy neighbor"), sparked increased discussion of the history of these events.

[8] After 1938, Topoľčany became a "bastion" of the antisemitic, rightwing Slovak People's Party, and the majority of its residents supported the regime's anti-Jewish policies, including deportation.

Czech historians Hana Kubátová and Michal Kubát quote Holocaust survivors who said that their non-Jewish friends turned on them and profited from anti-Jewish persecution.

[11] Many Jews from Topoľčany were deported in 1942 and murdered, but some managed to survive by agreeing to work as forced laborers at Nováky camp in Slovakia, which was liberated during the 1944 uprising.

[10] On Sunday, 23 September 1945, people threw stones at a young Jewish man at a train station and vandalized a house inhabited by Jews in nearby Žabokreky.

[21] This was part of a larger pattern in which women, who had been among the most fervent supporters of the Slovak People's Party, played a central role in fomenting antisemitic demonstrations and violence.

By this time, about 160 people were demonstrating outside of the office and circulating rumors of Jewish teachers replacing the nuns and Jews destroying Christian religious symbols.

[25] The women began to accuse a local Jewish doctor, Karol Berger, who was at the school that day to vaccinate seven- and eight-year-old children, of poisoning them instead.

Cichopek and Kamenec estimate that 200 to 300 people of the 9,000 residents of Topoľčany participated in the riot, physically assaulting local Jews on the street and burglarizing their homes.

[30] According to one report, the commander of the army unit was inexperienced and ineffective, unable to prevent his men from answering the call to "Soldiers come with us to beat the Jews!

At noon, a special auxiliary unit finally managed to put an end to the violence, and the streets were quiet by 13:00[25] although smaller groups still tried to accost Jews.

[32] Along with similar incidents elsewhere in Slovakia and in Poland, the rioting in Topoľčany drew international condemnation that embarrassed the Czechoslovak authorities.

[36] Šmidke's statements represented the official position of the Czechoslovak and Slovak governments, which concluded that the rioting was not spontaneous, but organized by a fascist conspiracy.

Accusations that the Jews had provoked the riots due to their "provocative behavior" and refusal to integrate with Slovak society were added to later reports.

[39] Contrary to the wishes of the rioters, very few Jews left in the immediate aftermath of the 1945 pogrom; most remained behind to rebuild their lives and fight for the restitution of property.

[31][15] Writing about postwar anti-Jewish violence in Poland, Jan T. Gross argued that "Jews were perceived as a threat to the material status quo, security, and peaceful conscience" of their non-Jewish neighbors.

Both Gross and Kamenec, in his analysis of the Topoľčany pogrom, focus more on material aspects while previous writers had emphasized the influence of antisemitic stereotypes.

[40] According to Kamenec, Šišjaková, and Cichopek, the lack of comprehensive legislation and competent administration of property transfer back to Jewish owners also contributed to uncertainty and anti-Jewish sentiment.

[17][13] However, Cichopek also emphasizes the role of antisemitic myths, such as blood libel, in fueling violence; she points out that without the vaccination hysteria, the rioting in Topoľčany would not have occurred or could have happened in a different way.

[13] Cichopek argues that the Tiso regime, by its collaborationism with the Nazis and sending Jewish citizens to death camps, discredited antisemitism in postwar Slovakia.

She also points out that the fascist regime also prevented the violence and chaos which had reigned for years in Poland under Nazi occupation, and that there were no extermination camps on Slovak soil.

[28] According to Büchler, the pogrom illuminates the "miserable situation" for Jews in Slovakia after liberation, as well as the indifference of the authorities to "the existential problems of the Jewish survivors".

[42] A 2004 Slovak documentary film by Dušan Hudec, Miluj blížneho svojho ("Love thy neighbor") commemorates the riots.

[45] The Slovak writer Peter Bielik criticized the film, citing contemporary reports claiming that "the Jews behaved very arrogantly and imperiously, trying to systematically occupy important positions in the economic, public, and political spheres".

[46] In 1998, at the initiative of Walter Fried, who survived the riots at the age of 17,[28] a plaque was erected at the former synagogue, dedicated to "the eternal remembrance of our Jewish fellow citizens, inhabitants of Topoľčany, victims of racial and religious hatred, who were exiled and murdered between 1942 and 1945".

[a] In 2005, Mayor Pavol Seges formally apologized to the Jewish community, reading a letter at a ceremony in front of the descendants of survivors:[47][15] We are aware that all in Topoľčany are guilty.