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From the ArchivesA. J. P. Taylor: faith in socialist Czechoslovakia
A. J. P. Taylor (1906-1990) was one of the best-known and most influential
British historians of the 20th century. He is remembered in particular for
his provocative left-wing political views and his conviction that German
history made the country uniquely inclined towards aggression and
expansionism. This made him an ardent opponent of attempts to rebuild
Germany’s economy after the war, and a strong supporter of
Czechoslovakia’s growing alliance with the Soviet Union. In July 1946,
just after elections which saw the Communists emerge as the strongest
single party, Taylor visited Czechoslovakia.
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Current Affairs60 years after his death, what is the legacy of Edvard Beneš?
Wednesday is the 60th anniversary of the death of the second president of
Czechoslovakia, Edvard Beneš. Beneš remains a controversial figure: he
was one of the architects of the modern Czechoslovak state, but he was also
in power during the Munich agreement of 1938 and ten years later he allowed
the Communist Party to take over. Probably his most controversial decision
was issuing decrees that led to the expulsion of 2.5 million ethnic Germans
after the Second World War. What was Edvard Beneš like as a politician,
and what is his legacy today? I discussed those questions with historian
Jan Adamec.
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Current AffairsNamesake of first president barred from making 'Masaryk' wine
The founder of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk is one of the
biggest names in this country’s history. And his name is not to be taken
in vain – at least that’s what the Czech Industrial Property Office
has
told one Slovak winemaker seeking to register his products here. Alojz
Masaryk has been told that his family-produced ‘Masaryk’ wine cannot
be
trademarked in the Czech Republic because of the symbolic value attached
to
the name. In response, the winemaker is considering legal action. More
Talking PointThe False Comfort of the Appeasement Analogy
“Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and
radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been
wrong all along…We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the
false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by
history.” That was US President George W. Bush speaking in front of the
Israeli Knesset on May 15th. The statement was not only controversial
because it was viewed as a political attack on a fellow American –
Senator Barack Obama - while away from American soil, but it also invoked
an oft used analogy – that of the appeasement of Hitler, in which
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain allowed Hitler to carve up
Czechoslovakia. More
From the ArchivesThe nurse who treated the Führer
During the wartime occupation, German-language broadcasts from Prague were
absorbed into the radio network of Nazi Germany, the so-called
“Reichssender”. A number of archive recordings in German survive from
the time. Most vivid and chilling among them are the long lists of names
broadcast each day of Czechs arrested and executed. But there are also some
propaganda curiosities. In June 1941, Prague’s German programme
interviewed a nurse. She was living and working in the city, and remembered
with great nostalgia one particular patient who had come into her care.
This is how the broadcast began:
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From the ArchivesReinhard Heydrich: the Butcher of Prague
At the end of September 1941, Hitler appointed Reinhard Heydrich as acting
Reichsprotektor of occupied Bohemia and Moravia. The radio reported on his
inauguration at Prague Castle, and the sound of the SS military band
hammering out the German national anthem followed by the Horst Wessel song
still sends a shiver down the spine.
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From the ArchivesOccupation and betrayal
Sixty-nine years ago this week, on March 14 1939, the Czechoslovak
President Emil Hácha spoke to the nation. He had just returned from
Berlin, where Hitler had given him a simple ultimatum: face either
occupation or destruction. Hácha chose occupation:
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