Commonwealth and Foreign
CZECHO-SLOVAKIA UNDER HITLER
By HUBERT RIPKA
WHEN Hitler, on March 15th, forcibly seized Czecho-Slovakia in defiance of his pledged word, he justified himself by claim-
ing that he was " putting the country in order." But the German soldiers, dispatched for this purpose, searched in vain for the scenes of carnage and violence which, according to the propaganda of Goebbels, had taken place before their arrival. The oppressed Sudeten Germans remained remark- ably unaware of their oppression and bravely unafraid of the " wild Hussite-Bolshevik hordes of Czechs." No order was disturbed except by the systematic provocation of the Nazi agents inside and outside the country. The order which had to be put into Czecho-Slovakia was that which would assure the natural wealth of Bohemia and Moravia for the needs of the Third Reich, the submissiveness of the Czech people in the event of a future crisis for the Reich.
Immediately after the occupation, systematic pillage began. In considerable haste, the Germans transported from the Czech districts everything on which they could lay their hands— not only arms and war material, but corn, food, cattle, tex- tiles, machinery, motor-cars, trains and rolling stock, parquet flooring and musical instruments. At the end of a few weeks, Bohemia and Moravia, which had never before experienced any kind of shortage, were faced with an acute lack of eggs, butter, fat and flour. The magnificent forests which for centuries have been the pride of the Czech lands are being rapidly denuded; felling has increased by over 15o per cent. At the same time, in their avid search for iron the Germans are stripping bridges and the iron props which hold the river banks. The foreign trade of Czech firms is increasingly paralysed. Often raw materials bought abroad by Czech industries for their own needs are simply requisitioned by the Nazis at Hamburg and directed towards the industries of the Reich. The Prague National Bank and Export Institute is being forced to conduct ludicrous operations in order to export goods as " Czech " and thus obtain the foreign exchange essential for the German war industries. It is this weak point in Germany's prodigious rearmament scheme which makes the Nazis so determined to secure the Czech gold which, pre- cisely to avoid this danger, was entrusted to the care of the democratic Powers.
In his speech of April 28th, Hitler himself boasted of the immense war material which he seized in Czecho-Slovakia. He did not exaggerate. Czecho-Slovakia was able to put into the field 40-45 Divisions, fully equipped with modern weapons, with the best artillery, with tanks and with machine guns without equal in the world. Hitler has added 1,5oo aeroplanes to his fighting forces and requisitioned war material estimated at k18o,000,00o. To this figure must be added an- other £1 10,000,000 worth of goods which the Germans are known to have requisitioned. Much has been taken which there is no possibility of evaluating, therefore these figures do not represent the full sum of German gains.
The Germans are at present occupied in the systematic penetration of the economic life of the country. German representatives have already been introduced into the govern- ing bodies and directorships of a great number of Czech banks and businesses. Everything is being done to Germanise the big trusts. The Jews are stripped of their property in the most ruthless manner. They are promised free exit from the country on condition that they hand over their property to the Praguer Escompte Bank or some other German establish- ment. The transfer of property is allowed only with the consent of the German authorities and sales are authorised almost only where the purchaser is German ; in this way the Germans are getting hold at perfectly ridiculous prices of factories, businesses, land and private houses, belonging not only to Jews but also to Czechs. By ruthless pressure they are penetrating purely Czech businesses, and already have a considerable hold in the textile and brewery concerns. The biggest Czech bank, the Zivnostenska Banka, is being forced. everywhere to give way to the Escompte Bank, which is the most important instrument for the economic Germanisation of Bohemia and Moravia. The rich Czecho-Slovak provinces, which were among the richest in Central Europe, have simply become a colony for exploitation by the Third Reich. When the Germans called Czecho-Slovakia " the arsenal of Central Europe," they were thinking not only of the war industries whose capacity was sufficient to provide every country from the Baltic to the Aegean, but of the economic strength of the country which ranged it among the Great Powers. The Third Reich is now simply exploiting this arsenal.
Rat the Nazis know very well that it is not enough simply to occupy military and economic positions in Czecho-Slovakia. They will not be safe till they have broken the moral resistance of the country. This is why economic penetration is accom- panied by political persecution. According to reliable and veritable information some to,000-12,000 people have been arrested. Some of these have been released after severe and brutal examination and under threat of further imprisonment if any detail of their experiences should be recounted. A few days' liberty is very frequently followed by further arrest ; by such methods the Nazis hope to spread perpetual uncertainty and terror among the population. Up till the present time, the German tactics have been to avoid all direct persecution of the best-known political leaders ; by this means they hop_ to demoralise and finally discredit the leaders of the nation in the eyes of the people. Notable exceptions have however been made: Soukup, President of the Senate ; Pik, a member of Parliament and Mayor of Pilsen ; Senator Winter and the Agrarian member of Parliament ; President of the Chamber and former Prime Minister Malypetr—all men of more than 6o years of age—are under arrest. Among those who have suffered the most brutal and prolonged ill-treatment is Hajek, former chief of the Press department of the Foreign Office ; among the numerous Communists is the lawyer Stein and,. above all, the lawyer Sekanina, against' whom a charge of attempted assassination of Goring has been trumped up. Without the most energetic protest from abroad, this man will be one more victim of Nazi " justice."
In his speech of April 28th, Hitler promised to respect the Czech nation and leave it its autonomy. This has no more prevented German penetration than a former undertaking prevented the occupation of Czecho-Slovakia. In the Pro- tectorate, the official language is German not only for the Germans but for the Czechs, whose own language has been reduced to a subordinate position. All the administration is directed by German officials. The Prague Government is a pure facade hiding the complete and ruthless domination of the Nazis. The whole Press is gleichgeschahet ; a German censor sits in every newspaper office. Books have not yet been openly burnt, but those displeasing to the Nazis must be withdrawn from circulation. In order to hasten the Germani- sation of Bohemia and Moravia, Czech workmen are being sent in large numbers to Germany and their place is being filled by workmen from the Third Reich. Thus the number of Germans in the Czech districts is artificially increased.
I have indicated a few brief facts of Hitler's rule over the Czechs. The sufferings of a people so lapidly deprived of their own free country and forced into a subservient position in a dictatorial Empire are immense ; but the vigorous moral lead given to the world by the refusal of the four Great Powers to recognise the permanence or participate in this international crime is, for them, of irmnense psychological importance. The Czechs have the right to demand that the injustice of which they are the victims will never be for- gotten and never condoned. When, last year, Great Britain and France asked Czecho-Slovakia to sacrifice her integrity and independence for the cause of peace, the Czechs did so, though gravely doubting its utility. The decision was taken —among other reasons—because Great Britain and France guaranteed the new frontiers. If this promise could not be kept, it is certainly possible for the two Western peoples to insist that in no circumstances will the annexation be re- cognised or Hitler helped in any way to establish his domi- nation or to break the moral resistance of the Czechs. Europe will yet have need of this resistance with the Third Reich.
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