World War II Database

The successful annexation of Austria fueled Adolf Hitler's ambition, and he looked on to the German-populated regions of Czechoslovakia, collectively named Sudetenland. As early as 1933, Nazi Party members such as Konrad Henlein had already infiltrated the political scene in Czechoslovakia, stirring trouble. On 19 May 1935, Henlein's Sudetendeutsche Partei won three out of every five German Czech's vote, creating the second largest political party in Czechoslovakia. Starting in 1938, the Nazi propaganda machine fabricated false stories of the three million ethnic Germans being oppressed in Czechoslovakia, and demanded to gain control of these lands. Meanwhile, British ambassador to Berlin Sir Nevile Henderson did little to help. In fact, he did the opposite, calling the highly educated Czech president Edvard Beneš "pigheaded" for leading his country to resist Nazi infiltration.

Czechoslovakia, naturally, mobilized its military on 20 May 1938 as a response. "It is my unalterable decision to smash Czechoslovakia by military action in the near future", Hitler said to his military advisors upon hearing the news of the Czech mobilization. The threat, however, come at a great risk that Hitler was well aware of. Unlike Austria who lacked powerful allies, Czechoslovakia befriended both Britain and France. The British and the French had a keen interest in Czechoslovakia, for that she controls a series of strong fortifications that, if fallen, would open the gates wide toward the Balkans. The French fielded 100 divisions, and when Germany moved against Czechoslovakia, there would had been only 12 divisions to defend the Franco-German border. Hitler knew that if a military conflict was to break out between Germany and Czechoslovakia, there would be a real danger of a war on two fronts, with a weak defensive line against the numerically superior French Army. There was also the risk of a Russian intervention, which might complete Russia's transformation into an influential world power. Even within the military, Hitler did not have unilateral support. Erich von Manstein, for one, thought the move to be too daring. "[H]ad Czechoslovakia defended her self, we would have been held up by her fortifications," he said, "for we did not have the means to break through." Hitler took a great gamble to move ahead his plans with Czechoslovakia, but in retrospect, it perhaps was not so risky: Germany had a comforting reassurance from Britain that war was extremely unlikely. Although British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had his reservations, Britain was ill prepared for war; in fact, Chamberlain's policy was much to blame for such unpreparedness. As a result, Britain could do little to counter the German mobilization on the Czech border. France, on the other hand, had a direct mutual protection pact with Czechoslovakia and she boasted the finest army in the world, but Prime Minister Edouard Daladier of France also was uneasy standing up to Germany. As Britain and France idled, more and more German troops gathered on the Czech border under the pretense of military exercise, while Henlein falsely promised the world that all his Sudetendeutsche Partei wished to do was to achieve Sudetenland independence when in fact he was on Berlin's payroll.

Thinking that France would not back out of the mutual protection pact, Beneš mobilized the Czech army. At this time, the Czech army was one of the more powerful among the smaller European states. After fortifying the defense line, the country still had 30 to 40 divisions in reserve. The Czechs were ready for anything but one thing: betrayal of her allies. While Beneš knew Britain was deep in her pacifist fantasy, he was surprised that Daladier, who had no love for Hitler, did nothing to help Czechoslovakia. In Wilhelm Keitel noted in his memoirs that Daladier was the one who finally convinced Chamberlain to give in to Hitler's demands; Keitel quoted Daladier saying "[w]e won't tolerate war over this, the Czechs will just have to give way. We will simply have to force them to the cession." That left the militarily weak Czechoslovakia alone in the struggle. Meanwhile, the Polish and Hungarians were also eyeing pieces of territory they would like to annex from Czechoslovakia when it would fall under German pressure, either politically or militarily.

Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, and Benito Mussolini met in Munich on 29 Sep 1938 for what later came to be known as the Munich Conference; interestingly, Czechoslovakia was unrepresented at this meeting. At 0100 in the morning of 30 Sep 1938, in the Führerhaus at Königsplatz in Munich, the Munich Agreement ceded Sudetenland to Germany, effectively immediately, with Keitel named as the military governor. Czechs were given ten days to evacuate the region, and they were threatened that any Czech military presence found in Sudetenland after the deadline would be shot as if they had violated Germany's sovereignty. Similar to Austria, many people of the Sudetenland region, many were already German refugees who fled from Hitler's governments a handful of years ago, attempted to flee. Many were denied visas and deported back to Sudetenland, and some of them were arrested and tortured after German occupation. Also like Austria, the German propaganda machine publicized the annexation by showing the cheering crowds while suppressing the stories of terror.

The expansion into Czechoslovakia allowed Germany to control the entire western border fortifications, designed by the same engineers who had created the French Maginot Line, taking away all fortifications the Czechs had against German military aggression. At the same time, since Germany no longer needs to worry about guarding against the fortress line at Sudetenland, at least 20 German divisions were freed up for other regions (on the Polish border, for example). Britain and France still had politicians who believed deeply in appeasement. Chamberlain noted the Czechoslovakia had been "the latest and perhaps the most dangerous" of the obstacles to European peace, but "now that we have got past it, I feel that it may be possible to make further progress along the road to sanity." Appeasement, however, began to lose its appeal. In Britain, more aggressive policies slowly began to take shape, and Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Alfred Duff Cooper, and other previously nicknamed "warmongers" began to gain support. Britain and France finally started to mobilize their militaries on a larger scale in Sep 1938.

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Visitor Submitted Comments

1. Anonymous says:
   8 Nov 2006 09:08:44 PM
   
   This is veryu infomational. I wrote a five paragraph speech off this thing!!!
2. Anonymous says:
   21 Mar 2007 03:44:51 AM
   
   This is helpful information - thanks!
3. Martin says:
   24 Nov 2007 11:01:18 AM
   
   Have somebody more photos from sudetenland?Especialy Im loking for landscape pictures or vilage in west Czech region.
4. Trapper Brown says:
   4 Sep 2009 10:28:22 PM
   
   This is very unsettling. The dramatic irony of it leads me to blame specific countries undoubtedly.
5. CorDor says:
   7 Sep 2009 08:40:46 AM
   
   there is a big lesson behind. Once you betray your allies, it can happen that their "confiscated" arms will be turned to you. What exactly happened to France. When czech tanks (now in Germany service) smashed french army in '40. Without of modern and superior czech weapons Hitler was not strong enough to do that.
6. Bavaria says:
   26 Apr 2010 02:17:43 AM
   
   The Sudetenland, the border area of the Czech Republik, was mainly inhabited by Germans for about 800 years. After the Münchner Abkommen 1938 ist became part of the German Reich until the end of World War 2. 3 million Germans were expelled by the biggest "ethnic cleansing" in European history on the basis of the Benes Decrees
7. Bohemia says:
   6 Aug 2010 12:05:54 PM
   
   Ethnic germans had the luck to live in a democratic country (unlike germans in Nazi germany), formed political party as they wished with representation in parliament and lived for years without problem with ethnic czech (not sure about 800 year dominance). Historically there are no "ethnic" borders. Just states. Like anywhere in Europe....
   
   And I think that biggest ethnic cleansing was systematic killing and processing (concentration camp work, live human scientific experiments, money and property confiscation..) of jew and other untermensch human races like slavs.... Calling anything other "biggest ethnic cleansing" is ridicule.

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