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Czechoslovakia THE WAR YEARS, 1939-45
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
For the Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia, German occupation was
a period of brutal oppression, made even more painful by the
memory of independence and democracy. Legally, Bohemia and
Moravia were declared a protectorate of the Third Reich and were
placed under the supervision of the Reich protector, Baron
Konstantin von Neurath. German officials manned departments
analogous to cabinet ministries. Small German control offices
were established locally. The Gestapo assumed police authority.
Jews were dismissed from the civil service and placed in an
extralegal position. Communism was banned, and many Czech
communists fled.
The population of the protectorate was mobilized for labor
that would aid the German war effort, and special offices were
organized to supervise the management of industries important to
that effort. Czechs were drafted to work in coal mines, the iron
and steel industry, and armaments production; some were sent to
Germany. Consumer goods production, much diminished, was largely
directed toward supplying the German armed forces. The
protectorate's population was subjected to strict rationing.
German rule was moderate during the first months of the
occupation. The Czech government and political system,
reorganized by Hacha, continued in existence. Gestapo activities
were directed mainly against Czech politicians and the
intelligentsia. Nevertheless, the Czechs demonstrated against the
occupation on October 28, the anniversary of Czechoslovak
independence. The death on November 15 of a medical student, Jan
Opletal, who had been wounded in the October violence,
precipitated widespread student demonstrations, and the Reich
retaliated. Politicians were arrested en masse, as were an
estimated 1,800 students and teachers. On November 17, all
universities and colleges in the protectorate were closed, and
students were sent to work.
In the fall of 1941, the Reich adopted a more radical policy
in the protectorate. Reinhard Heydrich was appointed Reich
protector of Bohemia and Moravia. Under his authority Prime
Minister Alois Elias was arrested, the Czech government was
reorganized, and all Czech cultural organizations were closed.
The Gestapo indulged in arrests and executions. The deportation
of Jews to concentration camps was organized, and the fortress
town of Terezin was made into a ghetto way station for Jewish
families. On June 4, 1942, Heydrich died after being wounded by
an assassin. Heydrich's successor, Colonel-General Kurt Daluege,
ordered mass arrests and executions and the destruction of the
village of Lidice. In 1943 the German war effort was accelerated.
Under the authority of Karl Hermann Frank, German minister of
state for Bohemia and Moravia, some 30,000 Czech laborers were
dispatched to the Reich. Within the protectorate, all
non-war-related industry was prohibited. The Czech population
obeyed quiescently up until the final months preceding the
liberation.
Czech losses resulting from political persecution and deaths
in concentration camps totaled between 36,000 and 55,000,
relatively minor losses compared with those of other nations. But
the Jewish population of Bohemia and Moravia (118,000 according
to the 1930 census) was virtually annihilated. Many Jews
emigrated after 1939; more than 70,000 were killed; 8,000
survived at Terezin. Several thousand Jews managed to live in
freedom or in hiding throughout the occupation.
Data as of August 1987
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