Czechoslovakia 1918-1938

Czechoslovakia

1st Czechoslovak Republic 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

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

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

Zionism in the Czech Lands Between the 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

1st Czechoslovak Republic Tomáš Garrique Masaryk – 1st president Western-oriented, liberal, and moderate nationalist „If I accept Christ, I can not be antisemitic.“

Czech Lands Hilsner affaire Masaryk defended the Jewish victim of a false accusation from a blood libel (Polná in Moravia) The only country with a succesful campaign against anti-Semitism Masaryk supported Zionism and the Jewish national rights

Slovakia Part of Hungarian Jewry: 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 (Subcarpathian Rus) Peasant Rusyns (Ruthenians) – like Galicia but less modernization Hungarian landowners East Orthodox Jewish communities Small magyarised Jewish elite + majority yiddish speaking Jews Hassidism extremely influential

Czechoslovakia 1930: 357 000 Jews – 2,5 % of the population The highest proportion in Subcarpathian Rus Bohemia – nearly 50% of all Jews lived in Prague 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 needed Jewish support for the creation of CZ state - multinational Jews loyal and supportive to Czechoslovakia 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.“

1st Czechoslovak Republic A wave of anti-Jewish feeling swept over East Central Europe immediately after the WWI felt more seriously in Slovakia 1930´s growing antisemitism in Sudetenland Jews accused from support of CZ government by Slovak separatists

Politics 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“ Hasidic Munkacs (Mukačevo) rebbe in Ruthenia was hostile to Zionism and to secularizing tendencies Collaborated with the CZ Agrarian Party (antisemitic)

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´s Sudeten German party won elections Slovakia strong influence of Horthy´s propaganda Radical movements associated with the Catholic church supported from the Nazi Germany Tiso – the Prime Minister of autonomous Slovakia, a priest The neighbours of Czechoslovakia : antidemocratic regimes Beck in Poland Horthy in Hungary Dolfuss in Austria Hitler in 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 Czechoslovak army partially mobilized 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 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

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

Occupation of the Bohemian Lands March 15 1939 – Protektorat Bohemia and Moravia Jews progressively excluded from the society Germanization of Czech factories and goods – broad definition of Jewish belongings