World War II: NAZI Occupation of Bohemia and Moravia (1939-45)


Figure 1.--At Munich Hitler promissed to make no more territorial claims in Europe. Only months later, he seized the rest of Czechoslovakia. Here Wehrmacht soldiers enter Prague on March 15, 1939. Notice the expressions on the faces of the civilians, especially the youth. Source: Süddeutcher Verlag, Munich

NAZI policies in Bohemia and Moravia were much more begin that later implemented in Poland, but became more severe as the occupation progressed, especially after the appointment of Reinhard Heydrich as Governor. The Germans created the Protecorate of Bohemia and Moravia were declared a protectorate of the Third Reich. Czech officials were maintained as figureheads. All were directed by the NAZI appointed governor or Reich Protector, Baron Konstantin von Neurath. German officials manned all the government departments, cabinet ministries. Local German control offices were established throughout the Protecorate. The Gestapo assumed control of the police. One of the first in a series of NAZI decrees was to dismiss Jews from the civil service and made non-citizens. The NAZIs banned Communists. The Communists and Jews who could fled the country. NAZI authorities mobilized labor for the German war effort. Occupation officials established special offices to supervise the management of industries found to be useful for the war effort. Czechs were drafted to work in keys industies such as coal mines, the iron and steel industry, and armaments production. Some conscripts were sent to Germany for work there. Production of consumer goods was shgarply curtailed and production when possible reoriented toward war poduction. While a small country, Czechoslovakia had heavy industry and played an important role in the German war effort. Authorities instituted very strict rationing. The Czechs as the first occupied country, were the first to be drafted for forced labor in Germany. Czech protests in 1941 angered the NAZIs. Hitler convinced that the Czeches were being treated to lightly, appointed Reinhard Heydrich to replace the first NAZI governor. His assasination by British-trained patriots were the cause of horendous reprisals by the SS.

President Benes

After the siggning of the Munich Agreement, President Benes resigned (October 5, 1938). He flew to exile in London and with other exiles organized a Czechoslovakian Government-in-exile. The British hoping that Hitler had been apeased did not recognize Benes. Even after Hitler violated th Munich Agreement and invaded Czecheslovakia (March 1939), the British still did not recognize him. his only came with Hitler's invasion of Poland and the start of World War II. The British organized Czech military units including a RAF detachment for those Czechs who managed to get to England. Benes was sensitive to the charge that the Cechs ere cooperating in the German war effort. He spported a plan to asasinate Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich with British trained agenrs, knowing that massive reprisals against civilians would occur. The Allies recognized the exiled government in Summer 1941 and repudiated the Munich Agreement in 1942. Benes worked toward resolving the German minority problem and received consent from the Allies for a solution based on a postwar transfer of the Sudeten German population.

Invasion (March 15, 1939)

Hitler threatened the Czechs with military action on several occassions after Munich. Finally he called elderly President Dr. Emil Hacha to Berlin (March 14). There after midnight Hitler haranged him. Then Göring offered a mocked applogy for having his bombers destroy Prague, but said it would be a good lesson to the British and French. Hacha fainted and had to be revived. He telephoned Prague ordering that there should be no resistance. Göring and Ribbentrop bullied him into signing a paper asking for German interbention. [Black, p. 512.] Thus independent, democratic Czechoslovakia became the NAZI Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Hacha told the Czech people on the radio, "I have entrusted our country to the Fuhrer and have been promised his trust." The Wehrmacht crossed the border and occupied Bohenia and Moravia in one day (March 15). This was a total violation of the Munich Agreement. Slovakia had succeeded the day before and became Hiler's most slavish puppet state. Hungary with Hitler's approval seized Ruthenia. All of Czechoslovakia was now in the NAZI orbit. The Czechs would pay a terrible price. They would be Hitler's last bloodless victory. They would not, however, be his last stunning victory. Slovakia had succeeded days earlier anbd organized a compliant pro-NAZI state.

Military Operations

The Luftwffe began settung up forward airbases for the coming assault on Poland.

Occupation Government

The Germans created Bohemia and Moravia which was were declared a protectorate of the Third Reich. Czech officials were maintaine as figure heads. The Czech government and political system, reorganized by Hacha, continued in existence. All were directed by the NAZI appointed governor or Reich Protector, Baron Konstantin von Neurath. He was considered as something of a moderate moderate appointment. [Fest, p. 572.] Perhps reflecting Hitler's understanding of the enormity of the steo he had taken in violating the Munich Agreement and seizing Czechoslovakia. Von Neurath had been the Foreigmn Minidster and argued against military action even before Munich. This also represented a way of getting Von Neurath out of the Foreign Ministry and open the way for a more compliant foreign minister. German officials manned all the government departments, cabinet ministries. Local German control offices were established throughout the Protecorate. The Gestapo assumed control of the police. German official Karl Herman Frank began sending reports to Himmler that von Nurth ws being too soft with the Czechs.

Initial NAZI Policies

German rule was relatively moderate during the first months of the occupation. NAZI policies in Bohemia and Moravia were much more begin that later implemented in Poland. The principal exception to this moderation was actions against Jews. One of the first in a series of NAZI decrees was to dimiss Jews from the civil service and made non-citizens. The NAZIs banned Communists. The Communists and Jews who could fled the country. NAZI authorities quickly integrated the Czech economy in to the German economy which ws already on a war footing. The NAZIs were especially interested in Czech heavy industry, armaments, and mines. The Skoda arms plant was espcially important. Agricultural production ws also important. The NAZI occupation authorities mobilized labor for the German war effort. Occupation officials established special offices to supervise the management of industries found to be useful for the war effort. Czechs were drafted to work in keys industies such as coal mines, the iron and steel industry, and armaments production. Some conscripts were sent to Germany for work there. Production of consumer goods was sharply curtailed and production when possible reoriented toward war poduction. While a small country, Czechoslovakia had heavy industry and played an important role in the German war effort. Authorities instituted very strict rationing. The Czechs as the first occupied country, were the first to be drafted for forced labor in Germany.

Represion

The Gestapo in Czecheslovakia began measures to destroy Czech nationalism. Einsatzgruppen played a role inidentifying and arresting anti-NAZIs and a ange of classes of people. Einsatzgruppwn were organized both for the Sudetenland (October 1938) and when the Germans entered the resty of Czechoslovakia (March 1939). These measures were employed in Poland in a much more draconian form including large scale exections--Aktion AB. Gestapo arrests initially targetted Czech politicians and the intelligentsia. Here we have only limited details. We note that the NAZIs did not initially close the universities. We have no information on other schools. Those arrested were transported to Dachau and some later transferred to Buchenwald. They included Czech officials, scholars, clerics and politicians. Thy were classified as 'protectorate prisoners'. They were temporarily held in a special position. They did not work and did not have their heads shaved. They has some other special privliges. They were allowed to receive parcels until thi was banned (January 1940). Other priliges were gradually withdrawn and totaly eliminated (1942).

Youth Groups

Touth was a priorirt for the NAZIs, but inly for German youth. The Slavic countries they occupied was a different matter. They had no interest in developing youth in these countries. We are not sure yet about the Boy Scouts. NAZI occupation authorities in most countries banned the Boy Scouts. We do not yet have detils on Czechoslovakia. We do know that they brutally supressed Sokol because of its commections with Czech narionlism.

War Economy

German economic policy was to divert production toward armaments. This left little for export and cto earneeded foreign currenhcy. It also limited the production of consumer goods. The German occupation authorities established an grossly inflated exchsnge rate between the Koruna and the Reichsmark. (The same ruse was used in France ahd other occupied countries.). It was an easy way to open up the large scale looting of the occupied countries. This diverted Czech consumer goods to the Reich and created widespred shortages in the occupied Czech lands. Czechoslovakia before the War vwas a major manufacturer of armaments (machine guns, tanks, and artillery). Most of the Czech arms factories were located in Bohemis-Moravia. ,The most important complex was the Škoda works. The production was used to arm the 35 divisions of the zCech Army. After the cGerman occupation, the Czech factories continued to nproduce the Czech designs until they were cinverted t German designs. Czechoslovakia also had other imprtant manufacturing companies useful to the German war economy. These included steel and chemical factories. Many were moved from Czechoslovakia (primarily Bohemi-Moravia) and reassembled in Linz which after the Ansschluss was a part of the Reich. Linz as a result became an important industrial center.

Czech Industry

Austria was a Great power in the 18th and early-19th century was a major power. Many of Napoleon's great battleswere fought with the Austrians which lost most of them. After the Napoleonic Wars, the Industrial Revolution that began in Britain spred to the Continent. Yherecwas some industrial development in Austria abnd Hungary, but the pace abd extebt lagged behind that of the other Great Powers. This was a factior in Prussia's victory over the Austrians in Austro-Prussian War (1866). It is no accident that one of the major industrial centers in the Austro-Hungarian Empire developed in the Czech Lands where financers were more prone to support industrial projects. As aresult one of the Empire';s few centrs of heavy industry develooped in the Czech Lands. Emil Skoda (1839-1900) became the major arms producer in the Habsburg Empire. Czechs like Emil Skoda and Tomas Bata [a shoemaker] became symbols of the emerfing Czech capitalists. While the cSkoda Works is tghe best know arms producer, there were manuy other important steel mills anbd other heavy indudtries in Czechoslovakia. As a result, Czech industry, especially the Skoda Works, was the major source of heavy weapons for Austria-Hungary during World War I. The new Czech Republic inherited this facility after the War. As ax result, the Czech Army was well arnmed anbd porepared to fight the Germans when Hitler demaded the Sudetenland (1938). The failure of Britain and France to support the Czechs at the Munich Conference, meant that the Germans managed to take possession of the undamaged Skoda Works (1939). The Germans quickly absorbed the entire Czech industry, especially the Skoda Works into the German war economy. Czechoslovakia wa poartioned. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia encompasingb the Czech Lands became a NAZI arsenal, largely out of reach of Allied bombers. The Reichswerke Hermann Goering (RWHG) was an industrial conglomerate established to extract and process domestic iron ores from Salzgitter that were deemed uneconomical by the privately held steel mills. It was used by the NAZIs a a structure ton integrate idustrial production in occupied countries into the overall Herman wae economy. It played a najor role in occupied Czech Lahds, acquiring coal and steel mills, as well as the most important iron works and three large Czech armaments concerns, including the Skoda Works. The RWHG acquired shares in the Skoda Works. The Skoda Worls were used as finishing factorie for German rolling mills and steel works. The Skoda Works when seized by the Germans was one of the largest armaments complexes in Europe. One source reports that the production of the Skoda Works at the time Hiutler lunched Wiorld War II was comparable to thecentire out put of all British arsenals (1938-39). Posession of the Skoda Works in tract dramatically increased the industrial potebtial of the German war economy.

Rationing


Protests (October-November 1939)

Czechs staged street demonstrations against the NAZI occupation (October 28, 1939). This was the anniversary of Czechoslovak independence. The NAZI authorities fired on the students, killing many. Many of the student leaders arrested were sumarily executed. Others were sent to German concentration camps. Jan Opletal, a medical student was wounded in the demstrations and died November 15. His death caused extensive student demonstrations. NAZI official retaliated decisively. The Gestapo arrested large numbers of former Czech politicians as well as about 1,800 students and teachers. NAZI officials closed all universities and colleges (November 17). They were not reopened until the end of the War. The students were set to work. I do not have details yet on how this was accomplished.

Collaboration

President Hacha and Prime Minister Alois Elias collaborated with the NAZI authorities. In actuality they had no real choice. They did what they could to protect Czech interests within the limited space allowed by the NAZI occupation. Prime Minister Elias for a time managed to maintain contact with the Czechoslovak London Government in exile. He also worked with the Resistance.

Reinhard Heydrich (September 1941)

NAZI policies became more severe as the occupation progressed, especially after the appointment of Reinhard Heydrich as Reich Protectgor (NAZI Governor). Hitler appointed Heydrich Reichsprotector when NAZI officials in the Protectorate, especially Frank, began reporting that Neurath was being too lenient with the Czechs. [Michaelis and Schraepler, p. 244.] Heydrich initiated a more repressive regime (Fall 1941). Assistd by Frank, the two lost no time in demonstrating to the Czechs that there would be changes. Heydrich ordered the hanging of 200 Czechs. Both Heydrich and Frank hated the Czech people as enemies of Germany. He also ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Alois Elias and a government reorganization. Heydrich had long suspected Prime Minister Elias of contacts with the resistance. NAZI officials announced the execution of Elias for betraying the German Reich (October 2, 1941). Heydrich not only played an important role in establishing the infrastructure for the Holocaust, but he also had plans for the Czech people. He used pseudo-NAZI science to conclude that 45 percent of Czechs were suitable for Germanization. The remainder consisted of 40 percent who were inferior "mongrels" and 15 percent were racially intolerable. The Reichprotector insisted in a speech, "Bohemia and Moravia must become German, Czechs have no business to be here." (October 1941). Heydrich issued orders to prohibit all Czech cultural organizations. The Gestapo stepped up arrests and executions. Measures against the Jews were intensified. The NAZIs began deportations to camps in occupied Poland. An old military facility at Terezin set as a concentration camp for collecting Jews to be sent on to the death camps. Heydrich ws not just one of a series of brutal NAZI givernors in occupied countries, but one of the key players in the planning of the Holocaust. He commanded the SD, the SS Security Police. After receiving orders from Göring, he had meticulous plans drawn up and chaired the Wannsse Convention on January 20, 1942 where the SS coordinated the Holocaust with other Government agencies. Dr. Gobbels crowed in Berlin, "Heydrich has now installed his new Government in the Protectorate. Hacha has made the declaration of solidarity with the Reich that was requested of him. Heydrich's policy in the protectorate is truly a model one. He mastered the crisis there with ease. As a result the Protecorate is now in the best of spirits, quite in contrast to other occupied or annexed areas." [January 21, 1942--Goebbels, p. 35.]

Assasination of Heydrich (May 1942)

The assasination of Reichprotector Heydrich was the most conspicuous action of the Czech resistance and the Czech people would pay a heavy price for it. The mission was code named "Anthropoid". Two Czech soldiers (Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik) trained in Britain and parachute into the Protectorate. The British and Czech Government-in-exile hoped to inspire Czech resistance to the NAZI occupation. I don't think the Czech Government-in-exile fully understood just what Heydrich was planning for the Czech people. British-trained Czech patriots succeeded in wounding Heydrich in Prague (May 27, 1942). Heydrich was on the way to the airport for a flight to Berlin. Reporedly he was to attend a meeting concerning the Germination of Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia). Supremely disdainful of the Czechs he traveled in an open car and did not have a security detail accompany him. One gun jamed, but a bomb thrown by a second agent seriously injured him. Heydrich died from blood poisoning (June 4, 1942). The attack was possible because Herich had such complete contempt for the Czechs that he routinely drove around Prague without a bodyguard. The coffin paraded through Prague. Fearful citizens saluted it. here were also large demonstrations denouncing the assasination. The War in 1942 still hung in the ballance. The NAZIs staged a lavish funeral in Berlin on June 8. The NAZIs were very good at funerals. Two of Heydrich's sons attended. Both Hitler and Himmler spoke orations. Hitler called Hydrich's death a "lost battle".

Reprisals

The assasination was the cause of horendous reprisals by the SS. Heydrich's successor, Colonel-General Kurt Daluege, ordered a hunt for the killers as well as mass arrests and executions. One source reports 5,000 people were killed to avenge Heydrich's death. The destruction of the village of Lidice were part of the reprisals. A SS unit surrounded the village on June 10. The men and boys over 15 were rounded up and shot, 173 in total. The women and children were transported to concentration camps. The Germans filmed the operation. A few blond children were placed with German families as part of the Lebensborn program. The women and mot of the 105 children, 17 found alive, taken in vans and gassed. The buildings in the village were razed and the animals, including the pets killed. Today a moving statue including each of the 88 children murdered. There were more executions in Prague. I believe another villiage was destroyed, but do not have the details. There were several thousands arrests in Prague. Most of whom were sent to concentraion camps. As severe as the reprisals were, Heydrich's death appears to have derailed plans to deport ethnic Czechs from Bohemia and Moravia. With the press of the War and without its most ppwerful advocate, major deportments did not take place. It seems Heydrich's death saved many Czech lives.

Expulsions

The SS immediately after the invasion of Poland began driving Poles off their farms in Western Germany and into the General Government. This did not occur in Czechoslovakia, at least in the NAZI Protectorate of Bohenia and Moravia. In the Sudetenland most Czechs left voluntarily after the Munich Conference which awarded the province to the NAZIs. The primary NAZI concern in the Protectorate was stability so that that Czech armament factories could supply the Wehrmacht. We think that there were some expulsions, but they werw mot yet widespread. We note what seems to be land transfers in a small town near the Austrian border. Here we do not yet have details. We do know that it was something that the NAZIs had not escaped NAZI attention. It was something they were plznning. Onlt the assasination of Heydrich and nilitary reverses in the East prevented the NAZIs from beginning a major action agaunst the Czechs and begin the Germinization of the Protectorate.

Ethnic Germans

Ethnic Germans were a large minority in Czechoslovakkia. They were the majority in the Sedetenland, but also an important minority elsewhere in the country. Before World war I, Bohemia and Moravia had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a result, large numbers of ethnic Germans (Austrians) lived throughout what becae Czechoislovakia after the War. Outside of the Sudentenland, the Germans were largely clistered in the major cities, especially Prague. There were an estimated 0.25 million Germans in Bohemia and Moravia. These Germans were awarded German citizenship under the NAZI Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. This was different than in Slovakia where the ethnic Germans (especially the Carpethian Germans) became Slovak citizens. This mean that the ehnic Germans in the Protectirate had a different legal status that the Czechs. Germans unlike Czechs were drafted for military service. The NAZI admisistration of the Protectorate relied heavily on the ethnic Germans in the Protectorate as well as Sudeten Germans. A factor here was that they to varying degrees spoke Czech and were more reliable than the Czechs who opposed the occupation. The NAZis used them in both the administrative (government agencies) and the NAZI oppressive machinery including the Gestapo and other security forces. The most notable individual here was Karl Hermann Frank who was appointed Secretary of State in the Protectorate. Frank was a SS general and controlled the police. It was Frank who complained about the lenient policies of Reich Protector Neurath, leading to his replacement with Heydrich. We have begun to find relartively limited information on the conduct of ethnic Germans during the NAZI occupation. This is a topic of some interest, in part a good deal has been written about the expulsion of Germans by the Czechs after the War.

Last Years of Occupation

As the War turned against the NAZIs, occupation authotities made increased demands on the Czechs. Karl Hermann Frank, German Minister of State in Bohemia and Moravia, conscripted 30,000 more Czech laborers for war-work in the Reich. Unlike Jews sent to the death camps, many of these workers survived. Frank ordered that all non-war-related production cease.

Ressistance

As far as we know, with the exception of demonstrations in 19?? and the Heydrrich assasination, there was limited ressistance to the NAZIs in Czecheslovakia. The Czech population for the most part complied with NAZI occupation orders, although some Ressistance activities occurred as the Red Army approached.

The Holocaust

Czechoslovakia was the first non-German country occupied by the Germans. First the Sudetenland was occupied under the Munich Accord (October 1938). Jews there were the first Czech Jews to come under NAZI control. Later Hitler ordered the rest of the country occupied in violation of the Munich Agreement (March 1938). Hitler in total violation of the Munich agreement ordered the Wehrmacht to seize the rest of Czechoslovakia--Bohemia and Moravia. German troops marched into Prague on March 15, 1939. Britain and France protested diplomatically, but took no action. The Germans established a "protectorate." The Slovaks succeed from Czechesoslavakia and set up slavishly compliant pro-NAZI state. The Czechs people suffered during the German occupation. Losses during World War II, however, were not as great as in many other countries, especially Poland to the north. The major exception were the Czech Jews. I have little information on actions against the Czech Jews at this time. The Einsatzgruppen which murdered so ruthlessly in Poland and the Soviet Union were to my knowledge not employed in Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was, however, the foreign country occupied by the NAZIs for the longest period. Few Czech and Slovakian Jews survived. A concentration camp was set up at Thereisenstadt to collect Jews. For a time it was used as a model camp to show the Red Cross and Western journalists on fact-finding missions. The Jewish population of Bohemia and Moravia (118,000 according to the 1930 census) was desimated. Many Jews managed to emigrated after the NAZI takeover. Some children were able to escape as part of the Kindertransport. More than 70,000 were killed. When the Red Army reached Terezinstadt they found 8,000 Jews still alive. A few thousand Jews managed to escape arrest during theoccupation. The SS conducted operations against Slovakian Jews and were assisted by the Slovakian puppet government (March-September 1942).

Liberation (May 1945)

Most of Czecheslovakia was liberated by the Soviet Red Army. SS troops in Prague were driven out when the Czechs rose up in the Prague Uprising (May 5, 1945). Moving south the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) First Division came to the support of the Prague Uprising. SS forces moved on the city. The well armed First Division and the lightly armed partisans fought the SS units and were a factor in preventing the destriction of the city. The First Division did not stay in Prague. The Communists played a major part in the Uprising and the Red Army was moving towad Prague. Patton's Third Army reached towns in western Czechoslavakia.

Losses

Estimates vary, but in addition to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust, about 36,000-55,000 Czechs apper to have been killed by the NAZIs. Czech cities were not significantly targeted by the Allied bombing. While very serious indeed, the numbers are very small in comparion to losses in other occupied countries, especially neigboring Poland. It is likely that the assasination of Heydrich helped prevent these numbers from rising higher. Czech historians today debate as to whether President Benes after Munich should have resisted the NAZIs militarily. That is a difficuly issue. It seems likely tht had he done so, manybmore Czechs would have died in the War.

Czech Expulsion of Germans (1945-47)

Ethenic cleaning had bee a major concern of the NAZIs. Murdering Jews was just the beginning. Expelling Poles occurred immediately after the invasion of Poland. The NAZI Generalplan Ost spelled out in chilling detail what there were intentions were. In the protectorate ethnic Germans including Sudetetn Germans played a major role in the brutal NAZI occupation regime. After the War, the large numbers of ethnic Germans living in Eastern German became targets for the people abused by the NAZIs. This was especially the case in Czechoslovakia and Poland. The Beneš decrees were the legal basis for the expulsions in Czechoslovakia. The result was a humanitarian disaster, especially during the the summer months of 1945, after the NAZI surrender and before authorities had established control. Czech soldiers, security forces, and local militias expelled more than 0.7 million Sudeten Germans to Allied occupied Germany and Austria. One report claims that 30,000 Germans died as a result of forced marches, concentration camps (facilities originally built by the NAZIs), summary executions, and massacres. By the end of the year, Czech authorities has regularized the expullsions. The Czechs began organizing train transports (January 1946). The train trasports consisted of forty wagons with 30 passengers per wagon. (NAZI transports were much more crowed.) The trains left Czech stations for the American occupation zone. This was because the American zone was in the south. We are not sure why there were no transports to the Soviet zone. Czech authorities by the end of the year had finished with expullsion of 2 milluon Sudenten and other Czech Germans. Some estimates are as high as 2.6 million. The Potsdam Agreements had endorsed the "organized transfer" of populations. The Czechs generally met this requirement in 1946, but the expulsions in 1945 had certainly not met the Potsdam mandate that they be “orderly and humane". [Glassheim]

Sources

Fest, Joachim. Hitler (Vintage Books: New York, 1974), 844p.

Glassheim, Eagle. "National Mythologies and Ethnic Cleansing: The Expulsion of Czechoslovak Germans in 1945," Central European History (2000), Vol. 33, pp. 463-86. This journal is published by the Cambridge University Press.

Goebbels, Joseph. ed, Louis B. Lochner, The Goebbels Diaries, 1942-1943 (Doubleday: New York, 1948), p. 566.

Michaelis, Herbert and Enst Schraepler. eds. Ursachen und Folgen, Vol. 18. (Berlin Dokumenten-Verlag Dr. Herbert Wendler & Co, undated).






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Created: August 24, 2003
Last updated: 6:23 AM 9/1/2017