Home > 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 Germany 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 Emil Hácha, continued in formal 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 15November 15 is the 319th day of the year (320th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 46 days remaining. Events 600-1799 655 Battle of Winwaed: Penda of Mercia defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria. 1777 American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of of a medical student, Jan OpletalJan Opletal (born January 1, 1915, died November 11, 1939) was a student of the Medical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague, who was killed in an anti-Nazi demonstration during the German occupation. On October 28, 1939 (anniversary of the indepen, 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 17November 17 is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece. November 17 is the 321st day of the year (322nd in leap years), with 44 remaining. Events The Leonids are visible each year around this day. 1292 ( Julian calendar) John Balliol becomes King of Sc, all universities and colleges in the protectorate were closed, 9 student leaders were executed, and hundreds were sent to concentration campA concentration camp is a large detention centre created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. The term refers to situations where the internes in Germany.

In the fall of 19411941 is also the title of a Steven Spielberg movie made in 1979 see 1941 (film). Events January January 6 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address. January 10 Lend-Lease is introduced into the United St, the Reich adopted a more radical policy in the protectorate. Reinhard HeydrichReinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (sometimes incorrectly spelled as Reinhardt March 7, 1904 June 4, 1942) was an Obergruppenfuhrer in the Nazi German paramilitary corps the SS led by Heinrich Himmler. He was nicknamed The Butcher of Prague The Blond Beast a 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 TerezínTheresienstadt was the German name of the military fortress and garrison town Terezin Czech Republic. In the late 18th century the Austrian Empire erected the fortress near the confluence of the Labe River and Ohre River, named after the Austrian empress 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. Most of the Czech population obeyed quiescently up until the final months preceding the end of the war, while thousands were involved in the resistance movement.

Czech losses resulting from political persecution and deaths in concentration camps totaled between 36,000 and 55,000. The Jewish population of Bohemia and Moravia, which were largely German-speaking (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 Terezín. Several thousand Jews managed to live in freedom or in hiding throughout the occupation.

See also: Occupation of Czechoslovakia, part of the History of Czechoslovakia series