Karol Kmeà ¥ko (December 12, 1875 â December 22, 1948) was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Nitra in Slovakia (1920-1948) and personal archbishop (from 1944).
Born in Veþké Drà ¾kovce, in the Trencsén County of the Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Slovakia), his interest in Catholicism led him to the priesthood. At the age of 23, Kmetko was ordained a priest in Nitra on July 2, 1899. Twenty-one years later, on February 13, 1921, he was appointed Bishop of Nitra.
Before the 1942 deportations of Jews from Slovakia, Kmeà ¥ko confronted the president of the Slovak State, Jozef Tiso, with reliable reports of the murder of Jews in Ukraine. Kmeà ¥ko asked: "How can the government allow [the deportations], when it is said that they carry the [Jews] off to their death?" According to Kmeà ¥ko, Tiso replied "with something that I [Kmeà ¥ko] could not fully accept: âÂÂItâÂÂs enough for me that I have assurances from the Germans that they treat [the Jews] humanely, that they are used there as workers. For if Slovaks can go to Germany to work, why canâÂÂt the [Jews] do the same?âÂÂ"
On May 11, 1944, Kmeà ¥ko was appointed Archbishop of Nitra in Slovakia. According to the Catholic Hierarchy, Kmetko was a priest for 49.5 years and a bishop for 27.9 years. He died in December 1948 at the age of seventy-three.