Section A: Plan of Investigation
Between March 1939 and May 1945, what was left of the Czech part of Czechoslovakia after the Munich Agreement of 1938 - namely the regions of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia, was a part of the Third Reich as Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia. In 1941, following a series of resistance actions, Reinhard Heydrich replaced Konstantin von Neurath, who held the office of Reichsprotektor from the formation of the Protectorate. He then in a short period of time wiped out most of the resistance groups active in the area. On 4th June 1942, Heydrich was assassinated by two Czechoslovak men - resistance members in exile (in Great Britain).
Was there a significant resistance to the German rule in Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia? To what extent was the assassination of the acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich a spontaneous climax of Czechoslovak resistance movement at home? In order to determine this, the investigation will examine the Czechoslovak resistance organisations, both at home and abroad, together with their relationship to the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.
Furthermore, the investigation will study the meaning of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich and its consequences for the post-war development in the region.
Section B: Summary of Evidence
Establishment of Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia
Emil Hácha, Adolf Hitler’s proclamation on 15th March 1939, “Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia”
Konstantin von Neurath appointed Reichsprotektor
Main resistance organisations “at home”
English translations of the names of the organisations as used by Robert Gerwarth
Obrana národa - Nation’s Defence (ON)
Petiční výbor “Věrni zůstaneme!” - Petitionary Committee ‘We Remai...
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... California Press, 1980)
Kulík, Jan, Jr. The Recognition of Czechoslovak Government in Exile and Its International Status 1939-1942. Prague Papers on the History of International Relations. 1997, roč. 1, s. 173-205.
Luža, Radomír. V Hitlerově objetí: Kapitoly z českého odboje (Torst, Prague, 2006). From The Hitler Kiss: A Memoir of the Czech Resistance (Louisiana State University Press, 2002) translated by Tomáš Vrba
MacDonald, Callum. The Killing of SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich (Macmillan Company, New York, 1989).
Naudé, Horst. Politischer Beamter, 124. (Heydrich’s speech in Černín Palace on 2 October 1941, in National Archives, Prague, 114-6-4, carton 22.)
PRO FO 371, vol. 34 329, Treaty series no. 3 (1942) Exchange of Notes Concerning the Policy of His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom in Regard to Czechoslovakia, London,August 5th,1942.
In Under a Cruel Star, Heda Margolious Kovaly details the attractiveness and terror of Communism brought to Czechoslovakia following WWII. Kovaly’s accounts of how communism impacted Czechoslovakia are fascinating because they are accounts of a woman who was skeptical, but also seemed hopeful for communism’s success. Kovaly was not entirely pro-communism, nor was she entirely anti-communism during the Party’s takeover. By telling her accounts of being trapped in the Lodz Ghetto and the torture she faced in Auschwitz, Kovaly displays her terror experienced with a fascist regime and her need for change. Kovaly said that the people of Czechoslovakia welcomed communism because it provided them with the chance to make up for the passivity they had let occur during the German occupation. Communism’s appeal to
The resistance of the Holocaust has claimed worldwide fame at a certain point in history, but the evidence that the evil-doers themselves left crush everything that verifies the fantasy of the Holocaust. For an example, in Poland, the total Jewish population of over thirty-three hundred thousand suddenly plummeted to three hundred thousand. Ten percent of the population survived the Holocaust in Poland. Almost every country that the Nazis have conquered has the same percent of survival as Poland. In Elie Wiesel Wiesel’s memoir Night, the activities in the concentration camps, the suffering of Jews, and the disbelief of the inhumane actions of the Nazis result in making people resist the truth.
Benz, Wolfgang, A Concise History of the Third Reich (University of California Press, California; 2007)
The Strange Career of Jim Crow, by C. Van Woodward, traces the history of race relations in the United States from the mid and late nineteenth century through the twentieth century. In doing so Woodward brings to light significant aspects of Reconstruction that remain unknown to many today. He argues that the races were not as separate many people believe until the Jim Crow laws. To set up such an argument, Woodward first outlines the relationship between Southern and Northern whites, and African Americans during the nineteenth century. He then breaks down the details of the injustice brought about by the Jim Crow laws, and outlines the transformation in American society from discrimination to Civil Rights. Woodward’s argument is very persuasive because he uses specific evidence to support his opinions and to connect his ideas. Considering the time period in which the book and its editions were written, it should be praised for its insight into and analysis of the most important social issue in American history.
Gilbert, Martin. "Churchill and the Holocaust: The Possible and Impossible." The Churchill Centre. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.
To illustrate the ideas this essay proposes, it will first give a clear and factual overview of the Rosenberg Case. It all began even before the Rosenbergs came into the picture, namely with the arrest and confession of soviet spy Klaus Fuchs in 1950. This namely led to the investigation of his courier, Harry Gold, and then David Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg's brother. Greenglass cooperated and named Julius Rosenberg as a fellow spy, claiming that he provided Julius with documents from the Los Alamos lab where atomic bombs were fab...
Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: a History of Nazi Germany. New York:
The vast literature on Nazism and the Holocaust treats in great depth the first three elements, the focus of this book, is t...
Gordon, Sarah. Hitler, Germans and the "Jewish Question." Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1984.
Rubinstein, William D. The Myth of Bombing Auschwitz. The Myth of Rescue: Why the Democracies Could Not Have Saved More Jews from the Nazis. London: Routledge, 1997. 157-81. Print.
Fischer, klaus P. Nazi Germany: A New History, New York, New York, The Continaum Publishing
"1944." Czech, Danuta. Auschwitz Chronicle 1939-1945: From the Archives of the Auschwitz Memorial and the German Federal Archives. 1989.
Throughout history, negotiation has been a powerful tool used by world leaders to avoid violence and solve conflict. When negotiation succeeds all parties can feel that that have achieved their goals and met their expectations, but when negotiations go awry countries and relationships can be damaged beyond repair. The Munich Agreement of 1938 is a primary example of this type of failure, which was one of the catalysts to the start World War II and Czechoslovakia’s loss of independence. The Czech people were greatly overlooked during this agreement process, which still in some instances affects the country today. The 1930s were a challenging time for Europe and the powers within it due to the aftermath of WWI and the worldwide economic depression. Meanwhile, Fuhrer Hitler and the Nazi party were continuing their domination of Europe and threatening to invade Czechoslovakia, which many felt would most likely incite another World War. To prevent this England, France, Italy and Germany entered into an agreement, which would allow Germany to seize control of Sudetenland and is today known as the ‘Munich Pact’. Sudetenland had a large German population and its borders were in strategically strong areas for the German military. For negotiations to be successful there are many components that one must be aware of such as personalities of all parties, end goals of each person and the history from the country. England led the process with an appeasement policy as an attempt to mollify Hitler and the Nazi party and prevent war, which this pact did not. The Munich Pact is a perfect example of how negotiation can fail when all of the pieces do not fall correctly into place.
Ed. John Merriman and Jay Winter. "Slovakia." Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction. Vol. 4. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 2358-2359. World History in Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.