Many people are aware of certain significant events that took place in Czechoslovakia from 1938 through 1945.
First was the annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938 when the German Reich occupied part of Czechoslovakia without world interference.
Second was the establishment of Theresienstadt in 1941. The Nazis used this “model” camp as propaganda to demonstrate their humane treatment of deported Jews. 140,000 Jews passed through Theresienstadt. Despite the “ideal conditions,” approximately 35,000 died of starvation and disease. Over 80,000 were sent to death camps.
Third was the fate of the village of Lidice. After Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated in 1942, the Nazis destroyed Lidice as retribution. They shot every man and boy over the age of sixteen, sent women and children to death camps and leveled the village.
But if asked about the connection between Kristallnacht and Czechoslovakia, most people will draw a blank. Eighty years ago this November, the Nazis bombed synagogues, smashed businesses and homes, murdered Jews and sent thousands to concentration camps. This violence in Germany and Austria is well known; similar violence in the Sudetenland is barely remembered.
The Sudetenland border territory belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was annexed by Czechoslovakia after World War I. German speakers made up over 80% of the area and considered the Czechs uneducated and less cultured. They kept themselves separate and resented being part of Czechoslovakia. When the Depression hit, the Sudetenland suffered a high unemployment rate. German speakers believed they were victims of discrimination and that Czechs stole their jobs by accepting lower wages. As early as 1933, Adolf Hitler declared the German speaking Czechs were “oppressed” and the Sudetenland should be part of the German Reich.
In early September 1938, pro German riots broke out in the Sudetenland. Municipal buildings, Jewish homes and businesses were vandalized. Hitler claimed the resulting martial law was further evidence of oppression. Later that month, Great Britain, Italy, France and Germany met to sign “The Munich Agreement.” (No representative of the Czech government was present.) This agreement allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland. Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, justified his reasons for not interfering with annexation: “How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing.” He believed The Munich Agreement would guarantee “peace in our time.”
The Reich began the annexation on October 1, 1938. All anti-Jewish laws and decrees dating back to 1933 went into immediate effect, and many Jews fled further into the interior of Czechoslovakia.
Unsurprisingly, non-Jewish, German speakers in the Sudetenland supported this annexation. They also supported the Nazi Party. Seventeen percent of the Sudetenland joined The Nazi party in 1938 compared to just under eight percent of Germans living in Germany. The Sudetenland was, therefore, the most pro-Nazi part of The Reich.
During Kristallnacht, Sudetenland Nazis burned and bombed approximately 35 synagogues, vandalized Jewish stores and homes and transported thousands of Jews to concentration camps. The remaining Jews were forced to sign agreements stating they would leave the area. All this happened five weeks after the Sudetenland was annexed.
Not only do most modern-day Czechs remain unaware of the violence that occurred in that part of Czechoslovakia in November 1938, so does most of the world. Very little was recorded at the time by the press or the public. There was scant official documentation and few eyewitness accounts. Perhaps people were more concerned with events that were escalating on a world scale.
Or perhaps no one cared.
We should not forget the horrors of Kristallnacht affected more than German and Austrian Jews. Those pre-planned days of terror also destroyed the lives of Czech Jews living in the Sudetenland. In 1938, over 350,000 Jews lived in Czechoslovakia. After World War II, only 14,000 remained. Although most Czech Jews died during the war, the beginning of their end came nearly a year earlier when the air filled with smoke and the sound of shattering glass.
This article was published in The Jewish Advocate on November 9, 2018.
