World War II Database

Edvard Beneš was born in Kožlany, Bohemia, at the time a province of Austria-Hungary. In 1912, he taught at the Charles University of Prague, and from 1916 to 1918 he was a Secretary of the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris and Minister of the Interior and of Foreign Affairs of the province. His political ideal saw the Czechs and Slovaks working together for a common Czechoslovakia, and with this vision he was a strong organizer of Czechoslovakians abroad. Between 1918 and 1935, he was the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia, and from 1920 to 1925 and again from 1929 to 1935 he was a member of the Parliament. Between 1935 and 1938, he was the President of Czechoslovakia, but resigned from office on 5 Oct 1938 as his personal protest against German aggression and western appeasement. Emigrating to Britain, immediately outside of London, he headed the Czechoslovakian government-in-exile as president. In Britain, he organized various movements against German occupation of his home country, one of which culminated in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. After the war ended, he returned to Czechoslovakia and resumed his role as the president of the nation, with a new policy to eventually deport ethnic Germans to Germany and Austria. On 7 Jun 1948, he resigned once again, this time due to the communist takeover several months before; Prime Minister Klement Gottwald, the head of the communist movement, succeeded him as the next president. Beneš died at his villa in Sezimovo Ústí, Czechoslovakia.

Edvard Beneš Timeline

Photographs

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Visitor Submitted Comments

1. Heiro says:
   28 Apr 2010 11:45:14 AM
   
   "Deport" is a euphemism for the expulsion of 3 million Sudeten Germans after 1945. Benes had wanted to get rid of this large minority (1/3 of the whole population) long before. After about 800 years in German Bohemia mostly old people and children were driven away. It was and is a violation of human and peoples`rights.The Benes Decrees are still valid in the Czech Republic, although the EU had hoped they would be abolished, as they don not fit into the European democratic value system

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