János Esterházy is a significant figure in Hungarian politics in Slovakia. He began his political career during the first Czechoslovak Republic, serving as a member of parliament and emerging as a prominent figure in the United Hungarian Party. Despite the option to move to Hungary after the first Vienna Award in 1938, he chose to remain in Slovakia under the Tiso-led government to advocate for Hungarian interests, maintaining his position in parliament. While Esterházy harbored anti-Semitic sentiments and supported restrictions on Jewish rights, he distanced himself from far-right ideologies and notably refused to vote for the deportation of Jews. Following World War II, he was captured by the Soviets, taken to Moscow, and sentenced to a labour camp. Meanwhile, Czechoslovakia was re-established, and Esterházy was convicted of war crimes, initially sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. He passed away in a Czechoslovakian prison in 1957. While revered by Hungarians, he is regarded as a war criminal by Slovaks. Hungarians seek to rehabilitate his legacy, viewing his death as martyrdom resulting from fabricated charges, with his beatification process currently underway.