World War II produced a complicated legacy in Slovakia. The above mural--part of a 1949 interior decoration of Saints Cyril and Methodius church in Lakewood, depicts the story of the Slav nations and their conversion to Christianity. In the lower right hand corner of the mural with a rope around his neck is Monsignor Jozef Tiso, who served as Prime Minister and then President of independent Slovakia from 1939-1945. After World War II ended, Tiso was convicted of war crimes by a communist-dominated Czechoslovak court and was hanged on April 18, 1947, an action very unpopular at the time in Slovakia and among Slovak-Americans. The mural contains Latin words which translate: "Saints Cyril and Methodius, pray for us."
