Visiting Prague

Summary: the German occupation was a period of brutal oppression in the Czech society, made even more painful by the memory of independence and democracy of Czechoslovakia.

The occupation was announced over the radio, on March 15th in the year of 1939. The State President and the Minister of Defence declare that the Republic was being occupied by the German Army infantry and aircraft and any resistance would be quieted brutally. All the commanders would have to obey and the Czech Army was being disarmed. Although it is known that the German Nazis had be investing in a strong propaganda against Czechoslovakia which was regarded by Hitler as the part of the German “living space”. As Hitler talks to his army he says: “…The Czechs may squeal, but we will have our hands on their throats before they can shout. And anyway who will come to help them?” By March of the same year Hitler had already persuaded the Slovaks to ask for independence and protection from the Nazis. Hitler also guaranteed that the occupation would be peaceful and that Czech would keep their autonomy and freedom. On the 14th of March the State President Emil Hácha, in an attempted to solve the crises travelled to Germany to speak with Hitler. A day latter Hitler receives him, but the meeting only leads to an unfair agreement between both parts. Hácha, after the threats to his people and to the destruction of Prague by bombs, signs a document declaring that Hitler would take the Czech people under the protection of the Reich. However these documents stand on great ironic principles visible in the following line: “The conviction was unanimously expressed on both sides that the aim of all efforts must be the safeguarding of calm, order and peace in this part of Central Europe…” Hácha claimed that he had scarified the state to save the nation. In the next morning the news were all over Czechoslovakia. Foreign embassies were besieged by terrified people, Czech, Jews, anti-Nazi refugees, who had good reasons to fear the arrival of Hitler’s army. Within hours the first suicides had taken place in Czechoslovakia. Others come out to the Wenceslas Square singing the National Anthem.
The main goal of the Nazis was to occupy certain important spots such as the airfield at Ruzyne, the War Ministry buildings in Prague-Dejvice and the Hradcany Castle night above Prague, the residence of the Czech President. In the same day that the occupation started all these positions were already filed by Nazi solders with guns, they had taken over the whole city. General Blaskowitz was the responsible nominated by Hitler to assume total power. By this point Popular gatherings were forbidden and actions hostile to the German Army would be punished under martial law. The Czech police was forced to cooperate with the new masters, controlling the traffic and giving directions to troops lost in the tangled streets of the Old Town Square. German soldiers could be seen holing guns at the entrance of all hotels and public buildings.
In this days a sudden willing to visit the city was announced by Hitler, he, his personal body guards and elite SS troops reached the Prague Castle. We would meet with Hácha who had to use the servants’ entrance and in the future he would have to ask permission to the Nazi guard to enter or leave the residential office. After Hitler spent the night in the castle his people prepared a document incorporating his pledge of Czech autonomy, a short statement of thirteen articles declaring the “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia”. German citizens of the former Czechoslovakia become citizens of the Reich while Czech became nationals of the Protectorate. Bohemia and Moravia had been restored to the German Reich again. They were allowed to keep their own government, shorn of responsibility for defence, foreign affairs, communications and customs. They were also subjected to their laws unless these conflicted with the German laws. Although Hitler sent a Reichsprotektor Baron Konstantin von Neurath, who represented himself in the Protectorate. This post was created to make sure that the Czech government was acting according to the German interests, therefore he could also veto any Czech legislation and dismiss Czech ministers. However it is known that since the occupation until April the military was the only law and government in Bohemia-Moravia. The cynic attempted from the General Blaskowitz to say that the German Army was occupying the country to create order and conditions for a peaceful collaboration for the peoples in the area could not be taken serious, even at the time.
During this time of occupation the Czech products as food, textiles, crystal, shoes ant etc. had great quality and the Germans enjoyed them very much. Therefore trades were legally opened, but of course the prices were not fair and the Czechs were exploited by the Germans, not only in trades but also in restaurants and shops.
With the arrival of the winter a paradoxical propaganda offered to Bohemia-Moravia mobile kitchens form the Nazi welfare organization: Winterhilfe( winter help), to feed Czechs who had left to starve by their government. Although, the bill was sent to the Czech government in the next July.
The Aryanise started in the first days of occupation as well. Jewish firms were closed or given to non-Jews, Jews were excluded from liberal professions. Later with the arrival of the Gestapo (and the work of the Czech police forced to work to Gestapo) 5000 Jews, anti-Nazi journalists and communists were sent to a camp in Milovice. Many individuals tried to hide in the woods or abandoned house since it was not possible to leave the Bohemia-Moravia Protectorate without a visa given by the Gestapo. This was the time when the second wave of suicides started. From the Milovice camp many Czechs were released but Jews and anti-Nazis were deported to concentration camps in Germany.
General Friderici was the German representative for the demobilization process when the Czech Army was disarmed leaving only 7000 ceremonial guards.
The press was oppressed and its articles censored by the German Embassy. The journal A Zet was closed and many journalists were arrested.
This was the scenario of the Nazi occupation in Prague until 1945 when the Red Army entered Prague.

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