Protectorate Of Bohemia Research Articles

Situation in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and in Slovakia in summer 1944

Based on various sources of information received by Soviet representatives of the NKID and stored in the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation, as well as published documents, the author attempts to reconstruct the situation that developed in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and also in Slovakia in summer of 1944, and to analyze the ideas of post-war structure of the Central Europe, that were discussed at the last stage of the war. The chronological choice is not accidental – this is the eve of a powerful national uprising on the territory of Slovakia (part of the former Czechoslovakia), the beginning of armed mass Resistance in the country. Based on the study of sources, it can be concluded that, despite different conditions, both in Protectorate and in Slovakia, by the end of summer of 1944, the Resistance Movement intensified and sympathy for the USSR and the Red Army grew. The ideas of the post-war structure of Europe at this time continued to be actively discussed in various political circles in the West and within the country.

Beyond Nazism: the impact of native persecution dynamics on the genocide of the Roma and Sinti

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the persecution of Roma and Sinti in Germany, France, Italy, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during the Second World War to highlight the impact of pre-war attitudes on the transnational persecution of the Romani. This study posits that native involvement in the persecution was, especially significant to the persecution dynamic in each country and the evolution from persecution to genocide. This transnational study, therefore, introduces a greater understanding of the genocide of the Roma and Sinti and the dynamics in society that created it.

Mitigating Persecution: Intermarried Families and the Significance of Social Networks during the Holocaust in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

Abstract This article focuses on the wartime experience of an intermarried family in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It examines the intermarried couple Marie and Jiří Klouda, their daughters, Helena and Mariana, and their closest relatives among the Eisner and Klouda families. Using a microhistorical perspective, this study focuses on the experiences and strategies of particular individuals and their social circles to understand their responses to shifting circumstances. Although I focus on these two families, my questions pertain to the significance of non-Jewish friends and relatives for Jews during the Holocaust. In short, what difference did these social and familial bonds make to Jewish family members? The study shows that familial and social bonds had tangible outcomes in terms of facilitating important, lifesaving contacts and favors within the forced Jewish societies in the Terezín ghetto and Prague. Prewar professional, familial, and cultural networks, and the social capital they embodied, carried over into the lives of Jews forced into Terezín and into the ghettoized society in Prague. Family and friends provided significant material and emotional support for each other. This support was especially important in a family like the Eisners-Kloudas, which experienced multiple forms of victimization during the war. During the Holocaust, non-Jewish relatives and friends could not stop the processes of genocide, but they could mitigate the effects of dispossession, isolation, deprivation, and deportation.

Nazi Policy of Tourism in Central Europe

The primary focus of this paper is on the period of tourism from 1938/39 to 1945. The intention of this paper is to present and explain the reasons and consequences of the implementation of organizational changes, as well as the impacts of the integration of tourism into the staterun economy of Nazi Germany. In this context, we evaluated the specifics of the development of tourism areas of the former Czechoslovak state (the Sudetenland, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Slovakia). It turned out that even during the war, tourism, despite all the restrictions (legislative, territorial, time, transport, etc.) did not disappear, except in areas where war operations were taking place, and its management became an integral part of the war economy. The explanation can be seen based on the studied materials in the multilayered nature of this part of the national economy and its broad social scope. The paper is based on the study of archival unpublished materials from Czech and foreign archives and literature. The basic method used is the historical-critical method supplemented by a comparative, direct and indirect approach with an effort to capture the overall changes in the field of tourism during the war.

Status of satellite countries and protectorate of the Third Reich during the Second World War: historical and legal analysis

Purpose. The purpose of the study is to analyze the legal status of the satellite countries and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and to identify common and distinctive features. Methodology. The methodological basis of the study is a combination of philosophical, general scientific and special methods of cognition. The dialectical method was used to clarify the prerequisites for the emergence, formation and development of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The systemic-structural method made it possible to distinguish the constituent elements of the legal status of the Protectorate and its satellite countries. The comparative legal method was used to compare the forms and methods of interaction between the Third Reich and the satellite countries. Results. Thus, the Nazi theory of the occupation administration in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia aimed to preserve the appearance of a relatively independent Czech state under German administration. In this regard, a dual system of governance, the German-Czech system, was maintained for a long time. The Czech component was represented by the president and the government, which had executive and administrative functions. The general management of the protectorate was entrusted to a protector appointed by the Reich Chancellor. The satellite states retained national power. Restrictions concerned only foreign policy activities, which had to be coordinated with the Third Reich. Common to the Protectorate and the satellite states was the subordination of the economic and military spheres to German needs. Scientific novelty. The study shows that the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia did not correspond to the classical understanding of the concept of "protectorate", as it was not the result of an interstate agreement, but a unilateral decision of the Nazi German authorities. In addition, the author clarifies the organizational and legal framework of the autonomous authorities of the Protectorate and establishes that their activities were regulated by the regulations adopted in the Third Reich. Practical significance. The formulated conclusions can be used in research work – for the formation of a systematic approach to understanding the legal status of satellites and protectorates and in the educational process – in the formation and teaching of the discipline "History of State and Law of Foreign Countries".

The Vienna Gestapo, 1938–1945: Crimes, Perpetrators, Victims

While much has been published on the organization, methods and perpetrators of the Geheime Staatspolizei in Nazi Germany, far less scholarly attention has been paid to the institution’s largest office outside of the central headquarters—numerically larger than Prague or even Berlin—in Vienna. With over 900 staff members, the Gestapo’s Staatspolizeistelle Wien made more arrests than any other regional headquarters in the Reich, amounting to over 50,000 between 1938 and 1945. Its territory of operations included the former federal provinces of Vienna, Niederösterreich, Burgenland and areas of the former Czechoslovakia absorbed into the Reichsgau Niederdonau, comprising over 3.5 million people in total, and its responsibilities expanded to include protecting the Reich’s new borders with the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and with Slovakia and Hungary. That such a history, which both considers the significance of the Viennese Gestapo and contextualizes the organization within the rich corpus on the Nazi police machinery, has hitherto been elusive justifies the present attempt by Elisabeth Boeckl-Klamper, Thomas Mang and Wolfgang Neugebauer to offer a comprehensive analysis which considers not only the victims of persecution and repression but also the structures, organization and individuals actively involved on the Gestapo side.

On “ethnic migrants” and the beginning of their ethnographic study in Central Europe

“Ethnic migrants” can be understood as participants of a specific type of migration, which is characterized by institutional and material facilitation by the host country of the conditions of migration movement based solely on the ethnic origin of migrants. The ethnic origin declared by such migrants, as a rule, coincides with the ethnic origin of the titular nation located in the target country. The aim of this article is to depict the mode of implementation and methodological preconditions of one of the first attempts at ethnographic analysis of so-called ethnic migrants and to convey how the thematic and methodological directions of the aforementioned scientific approach led to theoretical innovations in German-speaking ethnology in the post-war period. As an example, studies of disappearing ethnographic phenomena conducted among Bessarabian migrants of German origin in the territory of the then Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia will be presented.

Ohlas od Nežárky – periodická paměť regionu

The Jindřichův Hradec weekly Ohlas od Nežárky provided information to the citizens of the town and the region in 1871–1942, capturing the every­day life of the town and shaping the social awareness of its community. The editorial office was in the possession of the local printers of the Landfras family, who had owned the printing works from 1797. The establishment of the periodical press in Jindřichův Hradec was initiated by the printer Alois Landfras, who in 1844 bought a cylinder press, suitable for printing periodicals, and who had a number of personal contacts in Prague patriotic circles, where he was in touch mainly with Jan Hýbl, František Bohumil Tomsa, Václav Rodomil Kramerius and Josef Kajetán Tyl. He made two unsuccessful attempts to publish a Czech periodical in Jindřichův Hradec in 1848 and 1863. The Czech weekly Ohlas od Nežárky began to be issued there in 1871 and continued to come out for 72 years. Ohlas od Nežárky captured the everyday life of the town and the surrounding region as well as important social events in 1871–1942, i.e. during the ex­istence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the independent Czechoslovak Republic and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, as well as during the First and partly also the Second World War. In terms of information, the weekly became primarily a chronicle of the life of the town, but also an authentic reflection of contemporary events in the Czech-German environment outside of Prague. It is one of the longest-running Czech regional magazines. Since 2002, its full-text search is possible in its digital copy in the Kramerius digital library of the Museum of the Jindřichův Hradec region.

Rumours in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia: 100 Days from the Life of an Occupied Country

The article discusses rumours recorded by the German Security Service [Sicherheitsdienst, SD] in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia between 1 January and 10 April 1943. The author pursues quantitative and qualitative analysis and discusses rumours shared by Czech and German inhabitants of the country. The analysis results indicate that early 1943 saw a real crisis of confidence in the state and the Nazi regime among Germans living in the Protectorate. The Czech public opinion had likely reached a turning point, still highly afraid of German repressions, but also with a growing hope for the defeat of the Reich and a swift end to the war.

The Polish Club in Prague (1887–2020)

The essay presents a synthesizing glimpse into the relatively long tradition of Polish associational life in Prague (on the example of the Polish Club), which was violently interrupted during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1940) and restored after the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia (1991). Today’s Polish Club in Prague directly succeeds an organisation of the same name that originated under the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1887). It is widely regarded as the representative and speaker of all Poles permanently living in the capitol in the Czech Republic or in its immediate vicinity. It plays this role towards the state and local authorities (in particular the City of Prague Magistrate) as well as the Polish representative office in the Czech Republic, i.e. the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Prague (including its Consular Department). The activities and attitudes of the Polish Club in Prague have thus never been without significance in terms of the development of Czech-Polish relations – in particular with regard to the cultural ocial contacts, mutual recognition of both neighbouring nations or overcoming the negative heterostereotypes.

“We had to run away”: The Lovára’s departure from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to Slovakia in 1939

This article focuses on the departure of the Lovára from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to Slovakia upon Czechoslovakia’s disintegration in 1939. Based on a combination of archival research and oral history methods, it shows the Lovára’s departure in the context of the contemporaneous measures and efforts of the state administration to limit the mobility of “nomadic Gypsies” in the Czech lands, continuous throughout the pre-war period, and to stoke anti-Gypsy sentiments which were politically supported and growing in the society of the time. This description is enriched by the perspectives of participants - narrations of Roms who were perceived as “nomads” and witnessed these events. The study opens epistemic dilemmas of how to determine the category of Lovára in the available archival sources as well as how to speak about the Lovára in a historical context without essentializing this category. The author reconstructs the presence of the Lovára’s stay in the Czech lands during the First Republic from gendarme reports and other state administration documents and submits evidence of mobility of the Lovára in Czechia in the interwar decades. Their presence terminated upon Czechoslovakia’s disintegration in 1939 when the Lovára and other Roms of Slovak home affiliation had to relocate themselves from the protectorate to Slovakia. The author analyses the circumstances and the course of the departure of Lovára and other Romani families from the Czech lands to Slovakia on the eve of the Second World War and presents the narrators’ reflections on the sudden departure and subsequent peripeteia of individual families in Slovakia during the war.

Seznamy vězňů tzv. cikánských koncentračních táborů očima onomastiky

Two concentration camps were established for Roma people in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1942. Roma from Bohemia were deported to Lety and Roma from Moravia to the camp near Hodonín u Kunštátu, before most of them were murdered in the “Gypsy family camp” (Zigeunerlager)in Auschwitz II. Birkenau. The lists of prisoners are valuable not only for histori-ans (they were published previously by the historian Ctibor Nečas), but also for onomastics, as they allow us to analyse the naming practise of Czech and Moravian Roma in the pre-war period. There are 325 unique surnames on these lists, with most of them being Czech or German, and they thus demonstrate the connection with the territory and its language(s). The study discusses the most com-mon Roma surnames in Moravia (e.g. Daniel, Holomek, Burianský) and in Bohemia (e.g. Růžička, Janeček, Vrba) as well as the surnames of Sinti living in the Czech borderland regions (e.g. Winter). It is shown that the surnames of Roma from Bohemia and Moravia were different due to the his-torical and social reasons. They were mostly derived from personal names (e.g. Florián) and place names (e.g. Dubský), they were motivated by the occupation adopted (e.g. Kovář ‘smith’) or the character and appearance of the individual (e.g. Malík ‘small’). After the war, only 583 of the 4,870 Roma who had been imprisoned returned.

European Historical Science of the Late 1930s ‒ Early 1940s: International Connections and Chimeras of Isolation

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, European science plunged into a period of regional isolation and the breakdown of established international ties. As a result, rumour replaced reliable verifiable information. A notable case in point was the attempt to celebrate the 70th anniversary of M.I. Rostovtzeff (1870‒1952), a prominent historian of the first half of the twentieth century, who lived and worked in the United States. In the run-up to the anniversary, rumours of the death of Rostovtzeff began to circulate among immigrant historians in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Unable either to verify reports of his death or to verify that Rostovtzeff was alive, European academic community declined both to commemorate the anniversary and to hold memorial events. Perhaps it was the director of the Kondakov Institute in Prague in 1939‒1945, N.E. Andreev who disseminated rumours about the death of M.I. Rostovtzeff, thus trying to avoid involving the European and North American academic community in the celebration, which would have necessitated publicly soliciting the support of the pro-Nazi authorities of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, on which the Institute depended. Throughout the period of the II World War, colleagues could not get acquainted with each other’s work. In the post-war period, the structure of European science did not return to the point of the beginning of the crisis of the late 1930s. The new transformation was due to the redistribution of spheres of political influence in Central and Eastern Europe and the formation of new barriers to scientific communication.

Konfiskace uměleckých děl fyzických osob v době nesvobody

This paper presents an overview of the legal regulation and practice related to the confiscation of works of art in the so called “time of oppression”, which is a legal term for a historical period from 30.9.1938 to 4.5.1945 in the territory of the recent Czech Republic. Since the aim of the paper is to serve as a handout helping to understand the historical context by applying the restitutional statute No. 212/2000 Sb., it shows no detailed case study, but concentrates on an instructional overview. After a brief introduction, which explains the aim of the paper and defines its scope, the time of oppression is divided into two phases – the so called Second Republic and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. There is a short characterism of the respective phase and an indicative timeline describing the Era of Protectorate. The following parts deal with the legal regulation and confiscation praxis in more detail. The era of the so called Second Republic is by the nature of things shorter; however, the roots of the oppression practice are well illustrated. On the other hand, the description of the protectorate era required it to be subdivided into three parts: i) an introduction of the basic legal framework; ii) institutions dealing with confiscation; and iii) the disposition of confiscated goods, taking into account the museum practice.

Okupační politika v průmyslu protektorátu Čechy a Morava na příkladu Škodových závodů

Occupation Policy in Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia Industry: An Example of Ĺ koda Works The study describes occupation policy and administration, including goals in the Pro-tectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It analyses measures carried out by the occupation administration in the manufacturing, more specifically in the armament industry, and presents selected specific measures and their impacts on the industrial sector and arms production. In this regard, the company Ĺ koda Works, the largest arms manufacturer, serves as an illustrative case study. The measures affected the Protectorate industry, which was completely restructured based on the needs of the German war economy. By analysing selected principles of the administration's operation, specific measures and their real effects on the arms industry, the study shows the potential and real economic significance of the German occupation of the Czech lands.

The Czechoslovak national tragedy of the 1938 year

The article deals with the problem of the internal situation in Czechoslovakia, its political and economic development in the specified period. Particular attention is paid to the efforts of Czechoslovakia aimed at preventing the division of the country. The leadership of Czechoslovakia entered into international treaties, strengthened the state’s defenses, and modernized the army. The article also touches upon the international relations of Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy on the further fate of Czechoslovakia in the second half of the 30s. XX century. The leadership of Czechoslovakia and its president Edvard Beneš felt the threat looming over the country from Germany, so they took certain steps to preserve the integrity of the Czechoslovak republic. The reform of the army began in the country, it was modernized, equipped with new equipment, weapons, aviation. A new line of fortifications was built along the borders. The diplomatic department of Czechoslovakia was also not idle. Consultations were constantly held with the USSR, Great Britain, France and Germany on the issue of preserving the country’s sovereignty, international treaties were concluded on assistance in the event of an attack by a third party. But, despite all these efforts, at the end of September 1938, Czechoslovakia was divided by force, the Sudetenland was torn away from it, fascist troops were brought into the country, and the leaders of the state were leaders of the fascist party. All these changes were enshrined in an international treaty - the Munich Agreement. Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain took part in its signing. Representatives of the Czechoslovak Republic were not even invited to the conference. The Czechoslovak side was familiarized with the terms of the agreement only after their adoption. Czechoslovakia could not in any way influence the decisions of Hitler, Mussolini, Deladier and Chamberlain. As a result, throughout the Second World War, Czechoslovakia existed as two separate parts: the Protecto-rate of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovak Republic.

Re-education as Ethnocide. Beyond the Nazi Concept of “Umvolkung”

The paper deals with re-education as one of the hidden symbols of modernity using the example of National Socialist nationality politics. It analyses a theoretical concept behind the National Socialist ethnic and racial policy in East Central Europe, especially in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It presents the concept of Umvolkung as a theoretical basis on which it was possible to think of a significant part of the Czech population that met the racist criteria of the National Socialists, that it was originally the German population who lost its national identity during the centuries. The concept should also help to develop a strategy to re-educate the people of the Protectorate, and in the long run it should eventually lead to ethnocide, i. e. to disintegrate or directly destroy the Czech collective national identity. One of the key figures in shaping the concept was the young Nazi scholar Hans Joachim Beyer (1908–1971), who came to the Protectorate on the advice of the Deputy Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich and headed the most politically influenced Science Foundation in Czech Lands (Reinhard Heydrich Foundation for Scientific Research in Prague). In order to justify the future National Socialist Germanization policy, Beyer developed a new theory of the origins of the Czech people in collaboration with the anthropologist K. V. Müller.

Wydział dla Wsiedlonych w getcie łódzkim w świetle dokumentów archiwalnych i tekstów autobiograficznych

Jesienią 1941 r. do getta w okupowanej Łodzi deportowano 20 tys. Żydów z Rzeszy i Protektoratu Czech i Moraw. Przeważały wśród nich osoby starsze, wiele z nich było schorowanych. Ich przybycie pogorszyło i tak ciężkie warunki w getcie, natomiast dla nich zmiana miała drastyczny wymiar – stłoczeni w tzw. kolektywach, byli skazani na wegetowanie bez podstawowych wygód i narastający głód. Do zajmowania się tą wielotysięczną grupą ludzi żydowska administracja getta powołała specjalny urząd: Wydział dla Wsiedlonych. Przechodziły przez niego wszystkie sprawy bytowe i organizacyjne deportowanych. W artykule omówione zostały funkcje i działania Wydziału oraz zarysowano sytuację „wsiedleńców” w getcie na podstawie materiałów archiwalnych oraz dokumentów osobistych

Classifying Czech melodrama: Mrs. Morality sweeps through the protectorate

In 1998, the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archive/NFA) classified sixty-seven feature-length fiction films produced between 1930 and 1945 as generic melodramas in their volumes of Czech Feature Film (Český hraný film). This essay considers how this retrospective genre classification offers entry into understanding melodrama’s aesthetic and cultural operations in Czech cinema. The focus is less on how the NFA defined the genre, than how these volumes, in bringing melodrama into critical view, reveal important assumptions about its cultural and historical affiliations with foreign co-productions. Starting by outlining some of the problems presented by the volumes of Czech Feature Film, this essay highlights some key questions that emerge in studying the complicated relationship between Czech and German popular film genres. In particular, it focuses on melodrama’s relationship to films made during the Nazi occupation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, when films were necessarily co-produced with the Nazified film industry. Through a close reading and reception study of Saturday (Sobota, Václav Wasserman, 1945) this essay considers how the perception of melodrama films as light entertainment during the Nazi occupation provided yet another opportunity for these films on Czechoslovak state television during the post-1968 period of normalization.

ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТЬ УКРАИНОФИЛЬСКИХ ЭМИГРАНТОВ ИЗ ПОДКАРПАТСКОЙ РУСИ В ПРОТЕКТОРАТЕ БОГЕМИИ И МОРАВИИ

The article discusses the main activities of Ukrainophiles from Subcarpathian Rus, which after an unsuccessful attempt to proclaim an independent Ukrainian state and occupation of the region by Hungarian troops (March 1939) ended up in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The author draws on the documents of the Archive of the President’s Office (letters and memoranda of former members of A. Voloshin’s autonomous cabinet to the Protectorate President E. Hacha with requests for financial support), the Hungarian National Archives (report of the police department of Uzhhorod to the Eighth Department Hungarian Ministry of Internal Affairs about the correspondence of A. Voloshin with Ukrainophile figures in Subcarpathian Rus). Having analysed various sources, the author concludes about the failure of the most initiatives of Ukrainian emigrants (creation of a developed network of pro-Ukrainian emigrant organizations in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, attempts to obtain financial support from the Protectorate authorities for former officials of the Carpathian Ukraine, interference in public life in Subcarpathian Rus occupied by Hungary, contacts with official Berlin). The authorities of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia rightly suspected Ukrainophile emigrants of anti-state positions (from the point of view of the Czechs); the elite of Nazi Germany did not consider A. Voloshin and his supporters as equal strategic partners. The attempts of Ukrainophiles living in the Protectorate to create a network of their sympathizers in Subcarpathian Rus were suppressed by the Hungarian police.