Ján Spišiak

Ján Spišiak (12 January 1901 – 14 November 1981) was a Slovak lawyer who specialized in business law, who worked for much of his career as the legal representative of Tatra banka. However, he is best known for his role as the Slovak ambassador to Hungary during the Second World War.

Early life Spišiak was born on 12 January 1901 in České Brezovo. He graduated from the Charles University in Prague faculty of law. From 1 April 1929, he worked as the legal representative of Tatra banka.

Ambassador to Hungary From 1 January 1940 to 1 October 1944, he was the Slovak ambassador to Hungary, for which he received no remuneration. In early 1941 in a meeting with Soviet diplomat Nikolai Sharonov, he predicted the German invasion of the Soviet Union before it occurred, but said that Slovakia preferred friendly relations between Moscow and Budapest.

Following the German invasion of Hungary in March 1944, he issued letters of protection to 3,000 Slovak Jews who had fled to Hungary in 1942, allowing them to legally cross the border and return home. Spišiak also helped Poles in Hungary by providing them with false Slovak papers enabling them to enter Slovakia. A criminal case was opened against him in 1947 but dropped later that year, as a result of his testimony against the Slovak State government and a recommendation by the Slovak resistance movement.