Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)
The military occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany began with the German annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938, continued with the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and by the end of 1944 extended to all parts of Czechoslovakia.
This article is about the World War II occupation. For the 1968 invasion, see Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Following the Anschluss of Austria in March 1938 and the Munich Agreement in September of that same year, Adolf Hitler annexed the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. The loss of the Sudetenland was detrimental to the defense of Czechoslovakia, as the extensive Czechoslovak border fortifications were also located in the same area. As a consequence, the incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany that began on 1 October 1938 left the rest of Czechoslovakia weak. Moreover, a small northeastern part of the borderland region known as Trans-Olza was occupied and annexed to Poland, ostensibly to "protect" the local ethnic Polish community and as a result of previous territorial claims. Furthermore, by the First Vienna Award, Hungary received the southern territories of Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia, which were largely inhabited by Hungarians.
The Slovak State was proclaimed on 14 March 1939, and Hungary would occupy and annex the remainder of Carpathian Ruthenia the following day. On 15 March, during a visit to Berlin, the Czechoslovak president Emil Hácha was bullied into signing away his country's independence. On 16 March, Hitler proclaimed the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from Prague Castle, leaving Hácha as the technical head of state with the title of State President. However, he was rendered all but powerless; real power was vested in the Reichsprotektor, who served as Hitler's personal representative.[1]
In March 1944, Hungary was occupied by Germany as part of Operation Margarethe. Slovakia would share the same fate, following the August 1944 Slovak National Uprising. The occupation ended with the surrender of Germany at the end of World War II. During the German occupation, between 294,000[1] to 320,000[2] citizens were murdered (with Jews making up the majority of the casualties[3]). Reprisals were especially harsh in the aftermath of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (e.g. the infamous and widely published Lidice massacre). Large numbers of people were drafted for slave labour in Germany.
The economic crisis in Germany[edit]
Hitler's interest in Czechoslovakia was largely economic. Germany had the second-largest economy in the world, but German agriculture was not capable of feeding the population, and there was also a lack of many raw materials, which had to be imported. The Four-Year Plan that Hitler had launched in September 1936 to have the German economy ready for a "total war" by 1940 had seriously strained the German economy by 1937 as German government was forced to use up its foreign exchange reserves both to feed its own people and to import various raw materials to achieve the ambitious armament goals of the Four Year Plan.[4] Though the Four Year Plan aimed at autarky, there were certain raw materials such as high-grade iron, oil, chrome, nickel, tungsten, and bauxite that Germany did not have and had to be imported. The need to import food and raw materials made Germany into Europe's second largest importer, being exceeded only by Great Britain.[5] Moreover, hundreds of millions of Reichsmarks were spent on various armament works such as the Reichswerke steel complex, an expensive program to develop synthetic fuel, and various other equally expensive chemical and aluminum programs, all of which strained the German economy.[6] The Great Depression was an era of trade wars and protectionism, which imposed limits on Germany's ability to export and thus earn foreign exchange.[5] Moreover, the Four Year Plan with its aim of autarky led to Germany increasing its tariffs, which led other nations to do likewise in retaliation.[7] The British historian Richard Overy wrote the huge demands of the Four Year Plan "...could not be fully met by a policy of import substitution and industrial rationalization", thus leading Hitler to decide in November 1937 that to stay ahead in the arms race with the other powers that Germany had to seize Czechoslovakia in the near-future.[6]
At the Hossbach conference on 5 November 1937, Hitler announced that seizing Czechoslovakia would increase the supply of food under German control, which in turn would lessen the need to import food, thereby freeing up more foreign exchange to import raw materials necessary for the Four Year Plan's targets.[8] The Hossbach conference was largely taken up with an extended discussion about the necessity of bringing areas adjunct to Germany under German economic control, by force if necessary, as Hitler argued that this was the best way to win the arms race.[8] Hitler stated: "areas producing raw materials can be more usefully sought in Europe, in immediate proximity to the Reich".[8] Overy wrote about Hitler's attitude to the Reich's economic problems that: "He simply saw war instrumentally, as the Japanese had done in Manchuria, as a way to expand the German resource base and to secure it against other powers".[6]
At the time, Czechoslovakia had Europe's 7th largest economy and Czechoslovakia had easily the most modern, developed, and industrialized economy in Eastern Europe.[9] The former Austrian provinces of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia that now comprise the modern Czech Republic had been the industrial heartland of the Austrian empire, where the majority of the arms for the Imperial Austrian Army were manufactured, most notably at the Škoda Works. One consequence of this legacy was that Czechoslovakia was the only nation in Eastern Europe besides the Soviet Union that manufactured its own weapons instead of importing them, and Czechoslovakia was the world's 7th largest manufacturer of arms, making Czechoslovakia an important player in the global arms trade.[9]