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| 1939, March 10–16 |
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THE ANNIHILATION OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK STATE. The crisis began when the Prague government deposed Mgr. Tiso, premier of Slovakia, for allegedly working for separation, with support of the Fascist Hlinka Guards. Tiso appealed to Hitler and during a visit to Berlin was given assurances of support. Hitler summoned President Hacha and foreign minister Franti ek Chvalkovsky to Berlin and induced them to “place the fate of the Czech people… trustingly in the hands of the Führer.” Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine declared independence. On March 15 Bohemia and Moravia became a German protectorate, which was promptly occupied by German forces, the Czechs offering no resistance. On March 16 Tiso put Slovakia also under German protection. Constantin von Neurath, former German foreign minister, became protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Hacha continuing as “head of the state.” The disappearance of Czechoslovakia was momentous, inasmuch as it demonstrated Hitler's readiness to extend his claims beyond German ethnic areas and base them on German needs for “living area” (Lebensraum). The small states were thrown into a panic, and Britain and France promptly adopted a policy of guarantees to prevent further German expansion. | 1 |
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| 1940, July 21 |
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| Britain recognized the Czechoslovak National Committee in London as the provisional government. | 2 |
| Resistance was difficult in the Czech lands, where German occupation was directed at extinguishing all vestiges of Czech culture. Although human losses among the population as a whole were not on the order of those in countries like Poland, the Jewish community was virtually destroyed. As occupied regions whose task was to produce industrial products for Germany and the war effort, Bohemia and Moravia also suffered heavy economic losses. | 3 |
| In Slovakia the new state set up in 1939 emulated Nazi Germany in its policies and organizations. Extreme nationalism and anti-Semitism led to the persecution of Czechs and the deportation of Slovak Jews to concentration camps. More dramatic resistance occurred in Slovakia, however. Democratic and Communist forces cooperated in an armed uprising in Aug. 1944. The Germans eventually reasserted their control, but it took them four months to do so. | 4 |
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| 1942, June 10 |
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| In retaliation for the assassination of Gestapo leader Reinhard Heydrich by Czech resistance fighters parachuted in from London, the Nazis destroyed the Bohemian village of Lidice, killing the male inhabitants and deporting the women and children. | 5 |
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| 1945, May 9 |
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| The Red Army entered Prague, followed the next day by Eduard Bene's government. The American army had had an opportunity to enter the city three weeks earlier but was ordered to halt. (See Czech Republic and Slovakia (Czechoslovakia)) | 6 |
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