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ClECHOSWVAKIA
(Continued f rom page 6)
Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia,
and the S iovaks of S lovakia, com–
bined to form t he new state.
Fi fteen years later Adolph Hitler
carne to power in Germany. Within
five years, the Fuehrer had consoli–
dated his position and built the
defeated Germany back into a for-
midable military power.
·
Then he began his quest fo r
Lebensraum-"living space"- for
the Third Reic h.
The lands confiscated from Ger–
many after World War 1,
and othe r areas of the
Contine nt that had siz-
able German populations,
were his fi rst territorial
goals. High on the lis t of
priorities was the "dagger
aimed at the heart of Ger–
many."
puppet state in what was le ft of the
country. Czechoslovakia, after less
than a q uar ter of a century of
nat ionhood, was ripped asunder.
No area of Europe escaped
unscathed from World War
IJ,
but
the confli ct in Eastern Europe was
waged with exceptional savagery.
Armies on both sides fought relent–
lessly-giving and asking no quar–
ter. Soldiers and civilians alike
were victims of atroci ties rarely
paralleled in the history of war. l t
is importa nt to understand this if
we are to comprehend the frame of
mind of Czechoslovaks and other
Eastern Europeans today. That ter-
assassinated Hit ler's personally ap–
pointed Reich protector, Reinhard
Heydricb. The N azis took ruthless
revenge. On one morning in June
1942, the inhabitants of Lidice
woke to f ind th emselves s ur–
rounded by Sto rmtroopers. The
ent ire adult maJe population was
sbot, and the women were sent to
the concentration camp at Ravens–
bruck, where many of them died of
starvation, disease and exhaustion.
The child ren were sent to live with
German families. Aod then, Lidice
was burned and bulldozed to the
ground, and the ruined site was
plowed over.
When the women who
had s urv ived R ave ns–
bruck returned after the
war, they found only a
fi eld of corn where their
little v illage had once
stood. After the war, a
new town was built a few
hundred yards away. The
field that was old Lidice
is now a national monu–
ment.
In 1938, Hitler insisted
that the Sudetenland of
Western Czechoslovakia,
with its th ree million
German-speaking people,
s hould be a ll owed to
become part of the Third
Reich. T he Czech gov–
ernme nt resisted, which
led to confrontation and
retaliation against the Su–
detenlanders. Czechoslo-
Lidice was burned and bulldozed to
the ground, and
A Czechoslovak who
lived in a town near Lid–
ice during the war took
meto the s ite. " 1 remem–
ber that time well ," he
said. " While they were
searchi ng for Heyd rich's
assassi ns, th e Nazis
· thought they had found
sorne incriminati ng evi–
dence in our town. 1
vaks knew that to Jet Hit-
ler have his way meant
the ruined site was plowed
over. . . . The field tha t
the eventual d ismember–
me nt of their na tion.
Ho wev e r , C zechos lo-
was old Lidice is now a national
awoke one morning to
find soldiers in my bcd–
room, and my mother
vakia's Western all ies,
Britain and France, anx-
ious to avoid another war, yielded
to Hitle r's demands in a final ges–
t ure of appeasement. The Czecho–
s lovaks- and the world - soon
found out what giving Hitler his
way would mean . The Munic h
agreement of September 29, 1938,
resulted in the Sudetenland passing
to H itler's Germany. The Czech
government had no say in the mat–
ter, and were co mpe ll ed to
acqu iesce. Less than half ayear lat–
e r , the dismem berment of t he
remainder of Czechoslovakia took
place.
The Nazis occupied Bohemia
and Moravia while S lovak fascist
sympathi zers set up their own
May 1983
monument.
rible time sti ll looms large in their
memory. Losses were measured by
the millions- the Sovie t Union
alone lost more than 20 million of
her people. Poland, Hungary and
Czechoslovakia suffered propor–
tionally devastating casualties.
Most were slain not in batt le, but in
the brutality that accompanied the
Nazi occupatio n . Few families
escaped the loss of relatives and
frie nds. Many names still st rike
fear and anger in Czech hearts,
names like Tre blinka, Au sc h–
witz .. . and Lidice. Lidice is-or
was- a small vi llage 20 ki lometers
west of Prague.
In May 1942, Czech partisans
being held at gun point.
Fortunately the searchers
found nothing, but 1 s till remember
what the officer said
1JO
my mother:
•t
am glad that we don' t have to do
to you what we have done to Lid–
ice.' No, 1' 11 never forget that
time."
Many older generat ion Czechs
and S lovaks cou ld tell simi la r ,
frightening stories.
Czechoslovaki a was li berated
from the Nazis in 1945 by the
Soviet Army, and the Republic
was reestabl ished . The geopol itical
facts of life, consequent to t he
Yalta C o nference, dete rmin ed
that within three years Czecho–
slovakia would become a social isf
s tate within the W arsaw Pact.
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