Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic) during the WW2
In October 1938, the Sudetenland had been appended by Germany. Britain and France approved the German invasion to Sudetenland in the frame of Munich Agreement. After the Sudetenland annexing, Poland appended the Tesin region, and Hungary appended the southern part of Slovakia and Ruthenia.
In March 1939, Slovakia proclaimed independence from Czechoslovakia as a Nazi puppet state, and German army occupied Bohemia and Moravia. The Czech republic had split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovak Republic.
On 18.10.1939, the 21st anniversary of the independent Czechoslovakia, there was a wave of demonstrations against the German occupation of the country. One Czech student was wounded during a demonstration. The Nazis reacted to the demonstrations by closing the universities, by sending more than 1000 students to concentration and labor camps and by executing nine leaders of the student organized political protest.
Edvard Benes (Beneš) and many other Czech political leaders left the country, predominantly to France and Britain, and couldn’t represent Czechoslovakia’s interests. However, in 06/1940 Britain declared Edvard Benes (Beneš) as the leader of Czechoslovak government in exile. Russian communist leadership also supported the temporary Czechoslovak government.
Due to the extremely cruel reaction of Nazis, the resistance movements in the occupied Czechoslovakia were minor, except from sabotage actions. One can learn more about the Czech youth resistance through the brilliant literature work of Jan Otcenasek (Jan Otčenášek) “Limping Orfeus” (1964).
During the WWII, Czech units fought with the Allied forces. In 1942, two Czechoslovak parachutists assassinated Reinhard Heidrich who was one of the initiators of the “Final Solution”. As a result, more than 1,600 members of the resistance movement were executed and more than 5,000 were sent to concentration and labor camps.
Before the World War II, about 20% of Prague’s population (55,000 people) were Jews. More than 60% of them had perished in the Holocaust. About 26,000 Czech Jews emigrated to Palestine, the U.S.A, South America and Western Europe. Of the 92,000 Jews who remained in occupied Czech, 74,000 were imprisoned in Terezin. 80% of them were deported to Auschwitz, Maidanek, Treblinka and Sobibor. More than 30,000 Czech Jews were sent directly to the death camps.
In 1944, the Slovak national uprising began. In April 1944, Soviet forces, American troops and representatives of Czech coalition government headed by Beneš entered Czechoslovakia. In 1945, after the end of the Second World War, Czechoslovakia was reestablished as an independent state.
