Related articles
MailboxMailbox
In this edition of Mailbox: Lower House bill on Edvard Benes, the Czech
Republic's borders, Parliament and parliamentary parties, discontinuation
of the Ice Hockey Ticket Exchange. Listeners quoted: Bradford Cookson,
Paolo Sanchez, Manesh Kubchandani.
More
Talking PointThe "Benes decrees" - a historian's point of view
During the past few years, the two words "Benes decrees" have
been ubiquitous in the Czech media. Most recently the term has been used
in connection with the case of Franz Ulrich Kinsky, a member of an
aristocratic family with long roots in Bohemia, who has filed a total of
157 lawsuits asking the Czech courts to confirm that he is the rightful
owner of large amounts of property which were confiscated from him as a
child after the war. The so-called "Benes decrees" that
politicians, journalists, lawyers and property claimants frequently refer
to, are in simple terms usually described as "post-war legislation
that sanctioned the expulsion of ethnic Germans and Hungarians from
Czechoslovakia and the confiscation of their property". But of
course, matters are much more complex. Historian Jan Kuklik, who is
assistant professor at the law faculty in Prague, specialises in the
history of law. I spoke to him about the origins of the so-called
"Benes decrees".
More
