World War II: Displaced Czech Children (1938-46)


Figure 1.--Here orphans in Prague are being given new shoes, August 25, 1946. The U.. Holocaust Museum identifies the children as Jewish orphans, but provides no dertails. Few Czech Jews, especially children, survived the German World war II occupation. We do not know how they managed to survive. We are not sure who is taking care of these children, but we assume it is UNRAA. Source: U.S. Holovaust Museum.

We do not know a great deal about displaced children in World War II Czechoslovakia. Czechoslobakialong wih Poland wre two countries created after World war I anwere Slavic countries Hitler hated. An the country was partioned rather complicating the story. Czechoslovakis was the first non-German country occupied by the NAZIs. Austria was the first country, but the great majority of Austrians wanted to be part of the Reich. The Czech Sudetenland was annexed to the Reich. Bohenmia and Moravia became a Reich Protectorate. Slovakia declared independence and became a NAZI puppet. Hungary annexed far eastern Czechoslovakia. The fate of different groups varied depending on their etnicity and where they lived. The Jews fared very badly. The NAZI Holocaust was more effective in Czechoslovakiahan most other countries because the country was occupied for such a long period. The NAZIs had time to round up almost all the Jews and find those who battempted to hide. About 90 percent of the Jewish population of Bohemia and Moravia perished and almost all of the children except for the few who were taken in and hidden. Some fair complexuoned children were collected as part of the SS Lebensborn program. The NAZI ethnic cleansing program aimed at Slavs launched in Poland did not occur in Czechoslovakia, except in the Sudetenland. It was something that NAZI officials were thinking about, especially Reich Protector Heydrich. The Reich Protectorate was, however, an important part of the NAZI war economy. Czech industry, especially the Skoda Works, produced needed armaments for the Germans. Thgus the NAZIs did not wantto launch a disruptive ethnic cleansing effort until after the War. We are not sure to what extent workers were seized for firced labor, but because there were armaments plants in Czechoslavkia. We suspect this was less a factor than in other countries. After the War an ethnic cleansing campaign did occur. The Czechs expelled ethnic Germans (1945-46).

Invasion and Partition

We do not know a great deal about displaced children in World War II Czechoslovakia. Czechoslobakialong wih Poland wre two countries created after World war I and were Slavic countries Hitler hated. An the country was partioned rather complicating the story. Czechoslovakia was the first non-German country occupied by the NAZIs. Austria was the first country, but the great majority of Austrians wanted to be part of the Reich. The Czech Sudetenland was annexed to the Reich. Bohenmia and Moravia became a Reich Protectorate. Slovakia declared independence and became a NAZI puppet. Hungary annexed far eastern Czechoslovakia. The Zaolzie region was annexed by Poland and then annexed to the Reich after Germany binvaded Poland. The fate of different groups varied depending on their etnicity and where they lived.

Holocaust

Czechoslovakia was the first non-German country occupied by the Germans. First the Sudetenland was occupied under the Munich Accord (October 1938). 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. More than 70,000 were killed by the NAZIs. A concentration camp was set up at Thereisenstadt which the NAZIs used as a model camp to show the Red Cross and Western journalists on fact-finding missions. Hitler appointed Heydrich Reichsprotector when he preceived that Neurath was being too lenient. [Michaelis and Schraepler, p. 244.] The SS conducted operations against Slovakian Jews and were assisted by the Slovakian puppet government (March-September 1942).

Lebensborn

Some fair complexuoned children were collected as part of the SS Lebensborn program. Czecheslovakia was seized by the NAZIs in two stages in 1938. First the Sudetenland was handed over to the NAZIs as a result of the Munich Agreement and in March 1939, Hitler ordered the rest of the country seized in direct viloation of Agreement. We have no information on the extent to which the kidnapping of children occurred in Czecheslovakia as was the case in Poland. We do know that after SS Governor Heydrich was killed in 1942, a SS unit exterminated the entire male population of Lidice, a small village. Before doing so, the SS looked over the children and selected 91 as being worthy of "Germanization". The others were sent to special children camps (i.e. Dzierzazna and Litzmannstadti) and later to extermination camps. Few of these children survived.

Ethnic Cleansing

The NAZI ethnic cleansing program aimed at Slavs launched in Poland did not occur in Czechoslovakia, except in the Sudetenland. It was something that NAZI officials were thinking about, especially Reich Protector Heydrich. The Reich Protectorate was, however, an important part of the NAZI war economy. Czech industry, especially the Škoda Works, produced needed armaments for the Germans. Thgus the NAZIs did not wantto launch a disruptive ethnic cleansing effort until after the War. We are not sure to what extent wiorkers were seized for firced labor, but because there were armaments plants in Czechoslavkia. We suspect this was less a factor than in other countries.

UNRAA

Czechoslovakia was one of thge chief beneficuaries of UNRAA relief operatiuons. Relief efforts totaling $261 million (1945-46 U.S. dollars) reached Czecoslovakiafter the War. China was the leasibg single recipient of UNRAA funds. Most of theret went to European countries. Much of UNRAA's work was done in camps located in Germany. Quite a number of DP camps were established in Czechoslovakia. Many weere set up in former German concentration and work camps.

Ethnic 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

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.






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Created: 2:56 AM 3/19/2012
Last updated: 2:56 AM 3/19/2012