11 Facts About Alexander Mach

Alexander "Sano" Mach was a Slovak nationalist politician.

Alexander Mach joined the Slovak People's Party at an early age and came to prominence within that movement as an aide to Vojtech Tuka.

Under Tuka's tutelage Alexander Mach served as editor of the party organs Slovak and Slovenska Pravda and was appointed to the party's political committee in 1924.

Alexander Mach belonged to the non-clerical wing of the Slovak People's Party, which has been portrayed as the more pro-Nazi of the party's two factions.

Alexander Mach served as chief executive of the Rodobrana during that group's mid-1920s heyday.

Alexander Mach would succeed Karol Sidor as commander of this group in March 1939 with Karol Murgas serving as his chief of staff.

Alexander Mach came to the fore in 1938 after the Munich Agreement and subsequent upsurge in Slovak nationalism as a close associate of Vojtech Tuka and Ferdinand Durcansky.

Alexander Mach served initially as Propaganda Chief the first Slovak Republic before holding the position of Interior Minister in the government of Tuka from 29 July 1940 until the state's collapse in 1944.

In 1941 Alexander Mach even drew up plans to establish concentration camps in Slovakia for the Germans although the plan was abandoned when they decided to concentrate on Poland and the east as the location for such initiative.

Alexander Mach was ordered to forfeit his civil rights for 15 years and had a quarter of his property confiscated.

Alexander Mach was released from prison in 1968 and settled in Bratislava, living on a state pension until his death in 1980.