Czech resistance to Nazi occupation

Czech resistance to Nazi occupation during World War II is a scarcely documented subject, by and large a result of little formal resistance and an effective German policy that deterred acts of resistance or annihilated organizations of resistance. In the early days of the war, the Czech population participated in boycotts of public transportation and there were sporadic calls for mass protest demonstrations.

Historical analysis

Historian Radomír V. Luža divides Czech resistance into two distinct phases. During the first phase, which lasted until 1942, the resistance movement focused its attention on creating reliable intelligence services and networks, engaging in small-scale acts and creating an underground press to disseminate information. After the liquidation of this resistance movement, a second phase sprung up in late 1944 as a wave of popular uprisings spread across Central and Eastern Europe. This phase was more widespread in nature, inspired by the advance of the Allied armies from both West and East.

According to Czech historian Vojtěch Mastný, the Germans required few armed forces in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (as the occupied Czech lands were called) because “the people’s behavior never justified any substantial increase in armed personnel.” The central thesis of his analysis in The Czechs Under Nazi Rule: The Failure of National Resistance is that “the Czechs failed to challenge the Nazi authorities with an effective resistance. By 1942, the resistance movement was destroyed, never to play a significant role until the end of the war”.

Consolidation of resistance groups: ÚVOD

The resistance network that existed during the early years of the war was under the leadership of Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš, who together with František Moravec (head of Czechoslovak military intelligence) coordinated resistance activity while in exile in London. In the context of German persecution, the major resistance groups consolidated its ranks under the Central Leadership of Home Resistance, or ÚVOD. It served as the principle clandestine intermediary between Beneš and the Protectorate, which was in existence through 1941. Its long-term purpose was to serve as a shadow government until Czechoslovakia’s liberation from Nazi rule.

The three major resistance groups that consolidated under ÚVOD were the Political Center (Politické ústředí, PÚ), the Committee of the Petition “We Remain Faithful” (PVVZ), and the Nation’s Defense (Obrana národa, ON). These groups were all democratic in nature, as opposed to the fourth official resistance group, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). Most of their members were former officers of disbanded Czechoslovakian army. In 1941, ÚVOD endorsed the political platform designed by the leftist group PVVZ, titled “For Freedom: Into a New Czechoslovak Republic”. In it, ÚVOD professed allegiance to the democratic ideals of past-Czechoslovak president Tomáš Masaryk, called for the establishment of a republic with socialist features, and urged all those in exile to stay in step with the socialist advances at home.

In addition to serving as the means of communication between London and Prague, the ÚVOD was also responsible for the transmission of intelligence and military reports. It did so primarily through the use of a secret radio station, which could reach the Czech population. However, the ÚVOD was known to transmit inaccurate reports, whether false intelligence data or military updates. Sometimes this was intentional. Beneš often urged the ÚVOD to relay falsely optimistic reports of the military situation to improve morale or motivate more widespread resistance.

While the ÚVOD served a principle aid to Beneš, it did sometimes depart from his policies. During the summer of 1941, the ÚVOD rejected Beneš’ proposals for partial expulsion of the Sudeten Germans after the conclusion of the war and instead demanded their complete expulsion. The ÚVOD succeeded in changing Beneš’ official stance on this issue.

ÚVOD and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ)

The ÚVOD’s relationship with the KSČ was an important aspect of its daily functions, as Soviet-Czech relations became a central part of their resistance efforts. The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 marked a turning point in Soviet-Czech relations. Before the invasion, “the main Communist objective was to stop the imperialist war” and was often sympathetic to the German workers of the Reich. After the invasion, the Resistance began to rely on communist support both within Czechoslovakia and from Moscow. In a broadcast from London on 24 June 1941 via the ÚVOD, Beneš informed his country that “the relationship between our two States thus returned to the pre-Munich situation and the old friendship.” While the KSČ was not an official part of the ÚVOD and kept its organizational independence, it called for unity of action with all anti-Fascist groups. Leaders of the KSČ ingratiated themselves with the ÚVOD by helping to maintain Soviet-Czech relations. Beneš often used these KSČ leaders to arrange meetings in Moscow to expand the Soviet-Czech partnership. There is some evidence that the ÚVOD may have warned the Russians to the German invasion in April 1941. In March 1941, Beneš received intelligence regarding a German build-up of troops on the Soviet Union border. According to his memoirs, he immediately passed on that information to the Americans, British, and Soviet Union. The KSČ’s fate was also closely linked with the ÚVOD’s. It too suffered annihilation after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, unable to rebound until 1944.

The Czech resistance and the Heydrich assassination

The famous act of Czech resistance, the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich on 27 May 1942 by the Czechoslovak soldiers Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík, was also the end of Czech resistance and the ÚVOD. In many ways, the ÚVOD’s demise was forecast with Heydrich’s appointment as the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia in the fall of 1941. By the end of September, Heydrich organized the arrest of nearly all members of the ÚVOD and successfully cut off all links between the ÚVOD and London.

The Nazi reaction to the Heydrich assassination is often credited with the annihilation of an effective Czech underground movement after 1942. The Nazis exacted a horrific revenge, razing the two villages of Lidice and Ležáky to the ground. In October 1942, 1,331 people were sentenced to death by Nazi courts in the Protectorate, one thousand Jews were sent directly from Prague to Mauthausen concentration camp, and an additional 252 people were sent to Mauthausen concentration camp for involvement with the assassination plot. Finally, in the wake of the Nazi revenge, the last remaining members of the ÚVOD were arrested.

R.J. Crampton writes that after the Heydrich assassination, “there was no further conspicuous act of resistance and per capita troop deployment in the Protectorate was little different from that in Germany itself” afterwards. Mastný similarly comments that, “the living memory of the Heydrichiáda, as the people dubbed the awesome weeks following the tyrant’s death, was a powerful deterrent to a revival of active opposition. By his death, Heydrich fulfilled his primary ambition—the pacification of the Protectorate”.

See also

• Josef Mašín, member of the early resistance movement.
• Jan Opletal, student shot during anti-Nazi demonstration.
• Alois Eliáš, protectorate prime minister, executed.
• Josef František, flying ace fighting in Poland, France and Britain.
• František Moravec, head of Czechoslovak military intelligence (1937-1945).
• Prague Uprising (1945)
• Slovak National Uprising
• Austrian resistance
• French Resistance
• Polish resistance movement in World War II

Bibliography

• Beneš, Eduard. Memoirs of Dr. Eduard Benes: From Munich to New War and New Victory. Trans. By Godfrey Lias. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1954.
• Crampton, R.J. Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century—and After. London and New York: Routledge, 1997. ISBN 0-415-16423-0
• Luza, Radomír. “SlThe Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Resistance, 1939-1945” Slavic Review, Vol. 28, No. 4, December, 1969.
• Lůza, Radomir. “The Czechs Under Nazi Rule: The Failure of National Resistance, 1939-1942.” Slavic Review, Vol. 34, No. 3, September, 1975.
• Vojtěch Mastný, The Czechs Under Nazi Rule: The Failure of National Resistance, 1939-1942. New York: Columbia University Press, 1971. ISBN 0-231-03303-6
• W.V. Wallace, “The Czechs Under Nazi Rule: The Failure of National Resistance, 1939-1942.” The English Historical Review, Vol. 88, No. 348. , July, 1973.