The 2001 Andrew Elias SVU Human Tolerance Award

In the Spring of 2001, the Society - on the initiative of Dr. Andrew Elias as the Sponsor established an annual Andrew Ehas SVU Human Tolerance Award. An ad hoc SVU Award Nominations Committee for the year of 2001 has ben formed to receive and evaluate proposals for candidates for the Award.

The ad hoc Committee for 2001, consisting of Hon. Thomas Luke (Geneva), Dr. Ladislav Macho (Bratislava), Prof. Zdenek Slouka (Prague - Committee Liaison), and Prof. Alexander Tkac (Bratislava), submitted to the SVU President and the Executive Board a unanimous recommendation that The 2001 Andrew Elias SVU Human Tolerance Award be bestowed onto FATHER ANTON SRHOLEC Podunajske Biskupice, Slovakia whose life and work are synonymous with tolerance, compassion, and faith in humanity. SVU Executive Board enthusiastically accepted their recommendation. A brief summary of Father Srholec's life and work follows. .

Father Anton Srholec

Born on June 12, 1929, in Skalica, Anton Srholec went through private Salesian High School in Sastin, was novitiated at the Salesian St. Benedict Cloister, graduated from a public High School in Bratislava in 1951 - and in the same year was amnestied, two months before reaching the age of 22.

He was amnested while attempting, together with other novices, to cross the border on the way to Italy to study theology at the Salesian University in Turin. A Bratislava court sentenced Anton Srholec for "presumed high treason and espionage" to twelve years in prison. From February 1952 on, novice Srholec worked in Jachymov uranium mines, held in cells of concentration camps Dvanáctka, Rovnost, Bytiz, and Tmavy Dül. Under the general amnesty of May, 1960, Anton was released from Jáchymov - and for eight more years served at hard labor in heavy industry, including four last years as a stoker at Ostrava steel works.

All evidence shows that throughout these sixteen years from Jáchymov to Ostrava, Anton Srholec was an untiring source of faith and hope to his mates, regardless of their persuasion, ideology, or personal history. Where lesser men would close themselves to others and to the cruel world, Anton Srholec opened himself to all in need round him. Where others would lose faith in humanity, and some did, Anton Srholec not only retained his, but retained so much faith in the value of every human being that he could, did, and to this day does share it with others.

In the hard years, Anton Srholec secretly studied theology and strengthened his Salesian and ecumenical predispositions and beliefs - learned English and German - in May 1970 was elevated to priesthood by Pope Paul VI. - back in Slovakia in the 1910's and 1980's was again persecuted by the secret police for contributing to "samizdat" literature and for preaching — from 1985 to 1989 once more ended up as a laborer in Bratislava - and yet

And yet in all of this Father Anton Srholec has remained unchanged as a man. Having written five "samizdat" monographs, four books, some filly articles, all carrying the message of tolerance and compassion, after 1989 Father Antonio goes again to men as they are in real life -- so many in dire need of helping hands and kind hearts. After many arduous efforts, in 1992 Father Antonio obtains from the City of Bratislava an abandoned building and converts it into a home for the homeless, the downtrodden, the alcoholics, the lost sons and daughters of society who need to be found again. More than two hundred of them have gone through "Roseta" Home in Podunajské Biskupice, and there is hardly a day when Father Antonio is not with them.

Said Prof. Pavol Traubner, M.D., Dean of Medical Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava, and also the Head of the Jewish Community of Slovakia: ,"Anton Srholec represents the ideal of the lineage of different religious confessions. If only all of us would feel and think as this exceptional, honest man - there would be much less hate, and much more love."

That lineage, as Father Anton Srholec has shown, is the human being.

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