Jews in Czecho slovakia

Czechoslovakia

1918 – solid BOURGEOISIE – moderate, democratic – Political leaders ANTICLERICAL Problem: delineation of borders + minorities Liberal democracy Industrialised Bohemia and Moravia + less developped Slovakia and Ruthenia (Subcarpathian Rus) 3 milion German minority – Sudetenland 1st Czechoslovak Republic

Historical Context: Czech Jews 1867 Jews emancipated – Acculturation, urbanization, bourgeoisie Czech and Moravian Jews reformed or secular, quit Yiddish – fruits of Haskalah Max Brod: „In the Prague of my youth there were only a few families that were completely faithful to the Jewish tradition.“ Jews had to choose Czech or German – language of high culture – Choice of German justified antisemitism of nationalists – Delayed assimilation

Historical Context: Czech Jews 1890´s – 1918 – increasing influence of Czech – 1918 – Czech as mother tongue for majority of Jews – Jewish intteligentsia- German

Zionism in the Czech Lands Between thw nations situation  Zionism 1893 – Prague group Makabee : „The Jews are neither Germans nor Slavs, they are a people in their own right.“ 1899 – Bar Kochba – Prague Zionist group – Search for the Jewish roots – Established a Jewish Party – entered the Parliament during the 1st Republic Poland, Hungary – political parties with antisemitic programs x not in the Czech Lands

Some antisemitism – rather denounced – Small community – W type – Anticlerical intelligentsia – Economic prosperity: very developped middle-class well organized proletariat One of the few states which recognized the Jewish nationality as equal to all other nationalities in the country Tomáš Garrique Masaryk – 1st president – Western-oriented, liberal, and moderate nationalist – „If I accept Christ, I can not be antisemitic.“ 1st Czechoslovak Republic

Czech Lands Hilsner affaire – Masaryk defended with succes the Jewish victim of a false accusation from a superstitious blood libel (Polna in Moravia) Inimaginable in Poland or Romania – openely antisemitic states – Zionism popular here only insofar it meant the mass departure of Jews from Europe – The only country with a succesful campaign against anti-Semitism – Masaryk supported Zionism and the Jewish national rights – Masaryk was as well an unusual statesman in his championing of Jewish national rights in the diaspora

Slovakia Part of Hungarian Jewry: – neolog, status quo or orthodox E: Hasidic influences from Galicia Bratislava (Poszony, Pressburg) – famous center of Ortodox Judaism – Great Yeshiva – Hatam Sofer – one of the most renowned sages of the early 19th century Less acculturation Yiddish – small towns of eastern Slovakia (influence of Galicia) Since 1867 general magyarisation – In many Jewish families the parents conversed in German while the children, who attended Hungarian schools, spoke to each other in Magyar. Slovak nationalists + catholic church Small Slovak bourgeoisie x highly visible Jewish middle class

Ruthenia (Subcarpathi an Rus) Peasant Rusyns (Ruthenians) – like Galicia but less modernization Hungarian landowners East Orthodox Jewish communities Small magyarised Jewish elite + majority yiddish speaking Jews Hasidism was extremely influential here 2 middle-sized cities Munkacs, Uzhgorod (Ungvar)

Czechoslovak State and its Jewish Citizens 1921: Jews by religion (54% Jews by nationality) 1930: Jews – 2,5 % of the population – The highest proportion in Subcarpathian Rus Bohemia – nearly 50% of all Jews lived in Prague (4% of inhabitants of Prague), 31% of inhabitants of Bohemia and Moravia Slovakia – 12% of inhabitants of Bratislava, 4% of inhabitants of Slovakia Subcarpathian Rus – 80% lived in shtetlekh and villages – The largest Jewish peasantry, the poorest and the most involved in physical labor of all European Jewries – Munkacs 43% Jewish – Uzgorod 28% Jewish

Czechoslovak State and its Jewish Citizens WWI CZ nationalists neede Jewish support for the creation of CZ state Czechoslovakia – a multinational state by definition Religious and national Jewish identity legitimate Jews were expected to be loyal to Czechoslovakia – always supportive – Jan Masaryk, 1943, UK: „relations between the Jews and the Czechs were, in fact, excellent. We knew that when time were hard the Jewish minority would always stand by us. It never let us down.“

Czechoslovak State and its Jewish Citizens A wave of anti-Jewish feeling swept over East Central Europe immediately after the WWI – In Czechoslovakia it was felt more seriously in Slovakia and its capital, Bratislava : Jews accused from support of Bela Kun in 1919 – Slovakia – 1930´s: Jews accused from support of CZ government 1930´s growing antisemitism in Sudetenland

Politics & Culture Economic prosperity  low profile of anti-Semitism Bohemia and Moravia – Jewish (Zionist) party – Main languages of young Jews were Czech and Slovak – 1929, 1935 entered Parliament Slovakia – anti-Zionist Orthodox party „League of Israel“ – run independent list in 1925 elections  Jewish Party could not enter the Parliament Hasidic Munkacs (Mukačevo) rebbe in Ruthenia was hostile to Zionism and to secularizing tendencies – Collaborated with the CZ Agrarian Party (antisemitic) However a large Zionist movement like in Poland never developed here – success caused by multinational character of the state – Zionism as AN ANSWER TO IDENTITY PROBLEMS

The Collapse of Czechoslovakia 1930´s – Great Depression  mass strikes 1934 – rise of bolshevism – Gottwald: „Not Masaryk but Lenin“  escaped to Russia 1935 – Konrad Henlein Sudeten German party won elections Slovakia – strong influence of the Horthy´s irredentist propaganda – Anti-Czech and anti-state feeling, separatism – Growing anti-Semitism : Jews werte loyal supporters of CZ state – Radical movements associated with the Catholic church – Extreme R - support from the Nazi Germany

The Collapse of Czechoslovakia 1935 – Masaryk abdicated and recommended Beneš for President 1937 – Germany added Austria („anschluss“) 1938 – Sudeten German Party was preparing a military attack of Czechoslovakia  as a result, the Czechoslovak army partially mobilized and Germany decided to wait  Hitler spoke of protecting Germans living out of the Reich  Henlein : „We must make impossible demands that can not be satisfied“ and provoke Czechoslovak crackdown while avoiding a final agreement

Munich Chamberlain and a the French minister of Foreign Affairs decided that Sudeten will be ceded to Germany and gave an ultimate to the Czechoslovak governement CS refused but finally has been forced to accept 1938 – Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain and Daladier met in Munich and fully accepted German claims  Czechoslovakia was forced to cede Sudeten to Germany, a part of the territory to Poland and a part of Slovakia to Hungary  Jews expelled from Sudetenland – first not admitted by the CZ government  Slovak Jews „returned“ to Hungary

The Collapse of Czechoslovakia March 1939 Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia and a separate Slovak fascist state (in fact a Nazi protectorate)

Slovakia 1938  authoritarian regime FASCIST-LIKE HLINKA GUARD The loss of territory – Jews a a scapegoat 1939 – autonomous Tiso – Prime Minister, a priest JEWISH LAW – Jews systematically ousted from the society + DEPORTATIONS

Bohemia and Moravia Emigration increased No Jewish law March 1939 Nazis – Hungary takes over the rest of Ruthenia