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Czech HistoryPost-WWII political leader Prokop Drtina subject of new biography
The 1948 communist takeover of Czechoslovakia remains a trauma for many
Czechs today. Could the country’s fall under Soviet domination have been
prevented? Why did Czechoslovak politicians of the era so severely
underestimate the threat of communism? These are some of the issues
discussed in a new biography of the politician Prokop Drtina, one of the
key figures of the brief period between the end of the war and the start of
the communist regime. More
Czech HistoryEmanuel Moravec – the face of Czech collaboration with the Nazis
Some figures are cast as heroes and others as villains. Emanuel Moravec -
the face, voice and main force behind Czech collaboration with the
occupying Nazis during WWII - unmistakeably belongs to the latter category.
For his actions he became dubbed ‛the Czech Quisling’ – a reference
the more famous Norwegian collaborator. In this week’s Czechs in History,
Chris Johnstone explores Moravec’s complex character and path to
collaboration. More
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. More
Czech HistoryIn the footsteps of their father: The journey of Mary and George Jaksch
In 1939, the chairman of the German Social Democratic Workers Party in the
Czechoslovak Republic, Wenzel Jaksch, saw himself forced to escape his
native land after it was invaded by Germany – staying would have put him,
who opposed the growing influence of the Nazis in Sudeten-German politics,
in grave danger. Wenzel Jaksch successfully escaped to London, via the
Beskydy Mountains and Poland. He later shared his amazing story – and
based on his written account, his children, George and Mary Jaksch, have
set out for a pilgrimage in their father’s footsteps, over 70 years
later. More
From the ArchivesEdvard Beneš: a choice of evils
In sombre tones the second Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš announced
his resignation on Czechoslovak Radio on October 5 1938. Since becoming
president in 1935, he had been haunted by the spectre of Nazi Germany, as
Hitler had fuelled separatist sentiment among the country’s 3.5 million
German speakers. Here is an extract from one of President Beneš’ vain
appeals for reconciliation, in April 1938. More
Czech BooksThe occupation of 1939: could it have been avoided?
Earlier this week we remembered the 72nd anniversary of the German
occupation of Bohemia and Moravia on March 15 1939. Much has been written
about the years that led up to the occupation: the growing tensions with
Czechoslovakia’s German speaking minority, Hitler’s rise to power in
Germany and then the Munich Agreement of September 1938 that ceded a
quarter of Czechoslovakia’s territory to the German Reich. There is a
sense of inevitability about the events, but could things have been
different and could Czechoslovakia’s President Edvard Beneš have played
his cards differently? More
Czech BooksExecuting justice in the retributions after WWII
Czechoslovakia was one of the first victims of the Nazis, with the march
into the Sudetenland in I938 followed by the occupation of the rest of the
country in March 1939 and an increasingly oppressive regime for most of the
population. The backlash at the end of WWII was harsh and violent. And that
backlash against the Nazi occupiers, Sudeten Germans and Czechs believed to
have collaborated in some way is the subject of US historian Benjamin
Frommer’s book “National Cleansing: Retribution against Nazi
Collaborators in Postwar Czechoslovakia.” More
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