‘To Get a Refusal Would Result in an Unfortunate Loss of Prestige’: The Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile and the Holocaust

Abstract

This article examines the response of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile to the persecution of the Jews of Europe during World War II. The first part focuses on the diplomatic negotiations between the Czechoslovak authorities and International Jewish organisations, negotiations which document the Czechoslovaks’ willingness to deal with Jewish issues only when this did not contradict or threaten to contradict other priorities. It also argues that knowledge of the Jewish persecution was on occasion suppressed so as not to overshadow the suffering of the Czechoslovaks. The second part offers a critical analysis of the exiles’ decision-making process with regard to the Jewish plight, suggesting that the Holocaust was in fact used to serve the exiles’ high political objectives.