Extract from report on German crimes against Czechoslovakia, on Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church, Czechoslovak National Church, Protestant churches, the Orthodox Church, and Jews, including arrests, hostage-taking, murders, and confinement in concentration camps, the suppression of services, publications, and organizations, and the destruction and theft of property

GERMAN CRIMES AGAINST CZECHOSLOVAKIA Czechoslovak Official Report for the Prosecution and Trial of the German Major War Criminals by the International Military Tribunal, established according to the Agreement of the Four Great Powers of August 8th, 1945. London, September, 1945. Excerpts from pages 9 to 18.
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The Criminal Plan
(4) The Chief Instrument: The Sudeten-German Henlein Movement
(a) Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei (DNSAP).
Fundamental parts of the national socialist ideology derived from the Czechoslovak Germans Knirsch, Krebs and Jung who, in Bohemia in May 1918, had reconstituted the German National Socialist Workers' Party (Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiter Partei—DNSAP). Hitler's party to come was the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei NSDAP.
In permanent contact with the National Socialists of the Reich, the German National Socialists in Czechoslovakia founded an organization called "Volksport" (People's Sport) for youth over 21, modeled exactly on the Storm Troops (S. A.) of the Reich.
Headstrong youths of the "Volksport" sailed nearest the wind. In 1932, its student ring-leaders were charged with planning armed rebellion on behalf of a foreign power and sentenced for conspiring against the Republic, for having openly endorsed the 21 points of Hitler's programme, the first of which demanded the union of all Germans in a Great German State.
This incident was greatly exploited against the so-called Activists (German parties cooperating with the Czechs), who were accused of complacence to the Czechs and failure to vindicate German rights. It coincided with Hitler's accession to power.
Late in 1933, the National Socialist Party in Czechoslovakia forestalled its dissolution by voluntary liquidation, and several of its chiefs escaped across the frontier. This caused in German press and radio an outburst of violent threats against Czechoslovakia.
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For a year the Nazi activity in Czechoslovakia was continued but underground.
(b) Deutsche Heimatfront.
On October 1st, 1934, Konrad Henlein, the "unpolitical" gymnastic instructor of the German Gymnastic Federation [Turnverband] of the Republic, established the "German Home Front" [Deutsche Heimatfront]. He denied any relation to the late German National Socialist Party in Czechoslovakia and any connection of the "German Home Front" with the Nazi Party in Germany as well. He even refused to organize the German Home Front on party lines, although he built it up on the basis of the Nazi "Fuehrerprinzip" (principle of leadership), and himself became the "Fuehrer" of the "Heimatfront." But he attempted a camouflage: he rejected pan-Germanism, he insisted that Fascism and Nazism alike lost their natural "raison d' etre" at the Czechoslovak frontiers; he declared himself against the revision of the Versailles Treaty, he professed the unconditional respect for individual rights and liberties, he argued with great fervour that loyalty of the "Sudeten Germans" to the German nation and at the same time to the Czechoslovak State were not mutually exclusive.
(c) The "Sudetendeutsche Parted" (SDP).
The Czechoslovak election system is based on Party representation. Henlein, therefore, changed the German Home Front into the "Sudetendeutsche Partei" (Sudeten Germans' Party), for the purpose of participation in the General Elections of May 1935 for the National Assembly.
Economic distress owing to the trade crisis increased the susceptibility of the German population in Czechoslovakia for the new German Messiah and Henlein won a resounding victory over all other German parties.
When the election results were made known—the Henleinists won 44 seats in the Chamber of Deputies to the National Assembly—Henlein sent a loyalty telegram to President Masaryk.
(5) The Policy and Tactics of the "Sudetendeutsche Partei."
(a) 1935-1936: Still "for Democracy."
Henlein continued to present himself as a friend of democracy especially in London where he lectured in 1935 at Chatham House in the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He stated there that he refused the totalitarian principle and that he was in favor of "an honest democracy." "We want a democracy
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such as is recommended by Masaryk," he emphasized. He denied "Nazism" or "Hitlerism" to be a doctrine "suitable for exportation," he rejected anti-Semitism.
(b) 1937: For complete Autonomy of Sudeten Germans but still within the framework of the Czechoslovak Republic.
In 1937 Henlein struck a somewhat shriller note than before demanding, without defining "complete Sudeten autonomy." The "Sudetendeutsche Partei" laid draft proposals before Parliament amounting to little short of creating a state within a state. The whole document, though moderately worded, was already based on totalitarian principles.
(c) 1938: For Nazism and for Incorporation of the Sudeten Areas into the German Reich.
After the occupation of Austria (March 1938) the Henleinists openly jubilated. Nearly all German "Activist parties" were now stampeded into the Henlein camp leaving the fight against the "Sudentendeutsche Partei" only to the German Social Democrats and Communists. The terrorism of the Henleinists increased. They intensified their campaign against "Bolshevism." Open anti-Semitic propaganda started in the Henlein press.
On April 24th, 1938, Henlein came into the open with his "Karlsbad Programme," set forth in his speech made to the Party Congress in Karlovy Vary. In every line of it could be heard not so much Herr Henlein himself as his master's voice. In the Karlsbad Programme among others the right of the Sudeten Germans to profess "German political philosophy" in other words, National Socialism, was claimed.
In May 1938, Henlein visited Hitler in Berlin and after obtaining his master's instructions was back in London at his old game of intriguing against the Czechoslovak Republic.
The Local Government elections in May 1938—well prepared by the Henleinists by vast propaganda, opened terrorism, unscrupulous using of money, bribery of electors, etc.,—showed 80-90% of votes for Henlein. So almost the whole German population stood behind Henlein. .
The Czech Government continued to negotiate with Henlein, but on September 14th,two days before Hitler fulminated in his Nürnberg speech against "this Benes" and accused him of "torturing" and planning the "extermination" of the Sudeten Germans—he threw off his mask, fled to the Reich declaring on the wireless: "We want to go home to the Reich," and denouncing "the Hussite Bolshevik criminals of Prague." -
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K. H. Frank, interrogated by Colonel Dr. B. Ecer on May 30th, 1945, at Wiesbaden, stated that the slogan "Heim ins Reich" (Homewards to the Reich) was backed by 90% of the Sudeten Germans.
Few people knew before that Henlein went on Hitler's pay roll already in 1933.
(d) "Sudetendeutsche Partei" changed into a Nazi Party.
After Munich the "Sudetendeutsche Partei," in the areas ceded
to Germany, entered as a whole into the Reich's Nazi Party. In the not yet occupied parts of the Republic, the "Sudetendeutsche Partei" constituted itself as "Nationalsozialistische deutsche Arbeiter-Partei in der Tschechoslovakei" (German Nazi Party in Czechoslovakia).
After the total occupation (March 15th, 1939) of Bohemia and Moravia this party too became part of the Reich Nazi Party. (About their activity after Munich see Section 7.)
(e) Henlein's Admission.
In a speech made on March 4th, 1941, in Vienna, published in official Nazi papers, Henlein stated: "In order to protect ourselves against Czech interference, we were compelled to lie and to deny our allegiance to the National Socialist cause. We should have preferred advocating National Socialism openly. However, it is doubtful whether in doing so, we would have been able to perform the task of destroying Czechoslovakia."
(6) System and Methods of Nazi Pre-War Infiltration.
(a) Seeds of Discord.
The Nazi Party's study and research groups had long been instructed not only to establish close cooperation with the German minority in the Czechoslovak Republic, but also to win over adherents from the Slovak autonomist opposition. Long before the Austrian Anschluss in March 1938, Nazi circles were not only in close contact with Slovak traitors living in exile (most of whom were directly employed by the Hungarian irredentists), but also tried to establish contacts in the organizational machinery of Hlinka's Slovak Peoples' Party (the Slovak Catholic Peoples' Party of the late Monsignor Andrew Hlinka). When the traitor Bela Tuka (later to become Prime Minister of "independent" Slovakia) was tried for espionage and treason in 1929. the evidence established the Nazi connections with him.
The Nazi Party had paid agents among the higher staff of the Hlinka Party. Their task was to render impossible any under-
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standing between the Slovak autonomists and the Slovak parties in the Government of Prague.
K. H. Frank, interrogated by Col. Dr. B. Ecer on May 30th, 1945, at Wiesbaden, confirmed the close cooperation between the "Sudetendeutsche Partei" (Sudeten German Party, headed by Konrad Henlein; details see Sections 4 and 5) with the Slovakian Peoples' Party.
(b) Espionage. .
Military espionage was conducted by members of the German minority on behalf of Germany. The Republic had to amend in 1936 the "Act for Protection of the Republic" of 1923 to cope with the widespread treason activity of the Henleinists and of the Reich Germans from beyond the frontier.
Plans of Henleinists discovered by the police showed that the Henlein Nazis had, in every district, compiled lists of all German democrats, socialists and communists as well as of Czechs of all parties, and were planning to round up and arrest them on the anticipated arrival of the Reichswehr.
(c) Murder, terrorism, anti-Semitism.
The Nazis from the Reich sent directly to Czechoslovakia their terrorists and murderers; thus the anti-Nazis, Professor Theodor Lessing and Ing. Formis who escaped after 1933 from Germany and were given refuge in Czechoslovakia, were murdered in Czechoslovakia by Nazi agents, Lessing in 1933 and Formis in 1935. The Nazis from the Reich sent their Gestapo into the border districts to drag Czechoslovak citizens across the border to Germany. They also sent money and arms to the Henleinists who time and again provoked incidents in order just to keep permanent unrest. They attacked gendarmes, customs officers and other State officials who time and again suffered casualties. The Henleinists terrorized the non-Henlein population and in several cases murdered political foes.
Anti-semitic propaganda was carried through in the Henlein press and boycott set in against Jewish lawyers, doctors, tradesmen, shops, etc.
(d) Propaganda.
Disruptive propaganda came from Germany especially through the German broadcasts. Dr. Goebbels launched "The-Nest-of-Bolshevism" campaign against Czechoslovakia and the lie of "Russian-troops-and-airplanes-in-Prague," etc. The Nazis from the Reich directed the whispering propaganda of the Henleinists,
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thus maintaing a permanent state of high tension in the war of nerves.
The Henleinists spread more or less openly the Nazi ideology among the German population through their press and publications and smuggled illegal Nazi literature into the border regions from Germany.
(e) Headquarters in Germany.
The Nazis entertained in Stuttgart the "Ausland-Organisation der NSDAP" for German propaganda in other countries in cooperation with the German population of those countries. This organization was headed by Gauleiter Bohle, who had the task of administering the "Gau Ausland" (district: foreign countries) . A comprehensive system with scientific methods of penetration was worked out. In Czechoslovakia the tool of German infiltration through Fifth Columns was the "Sudetendeutsche Partei" (see Sections 4 and 5).
(f) Nazijication of German Institutions in the Czechoslovak Republic.
The Henleinists penetrated systematically step by step into the whole life of the German population of Czechoslovakia.
All institutions underwent gradually "Gleichschaltung," i. e., the prevailing domination of all Associations, social and cultural centres, etc., by the Henleinists. Sport societies, football, light athletics, rowing clubs, etc., were "conquered," just as associations of ex-service men, choral societies or associations for diet reform.
Nearly all theatres in German parts of Czechoslovakia were "conquered" by the Nazis, and all German orchestras as well.
It goes without saying that the Henleinists were greatly interested in penetrating into as many economic institutions as possible and to bring over to their side the directors of banks, the owners or directors of factories, commercial firms, etc. In cases of Jewish owners or directors they tried to secure the cooperation of possibly the whole clerical and technical staff of the respective institutions.
(g) Orders from Berlin.
The Henleinists entertained permanent contact with their German masters.
Attendance of Sudeten Germans at Reich German celebrations, Saengerfeste (Choral Festivals), Gymnastic Shows and Assemblies, the Leipzig Fair, etc., were often the pretext for organized meetings to instruct the native Fifth Columnists and to inspire their activity.
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Whenever Hitler, in his War of Nerves against Czechoslovakia, needed incidents, the Henleinists supplied them promptly.
As one instance of many we quote Sir Nevile Henderson who reports in his book "Failure of a Mission," London, April 1940, the meeting of Chamberlain and Hitler in Berchtesgaden on September 15th, 1938:
* * * there was a constant influx of German Press telegrams about incidents in the Sudeten lands. One, I remember, reported that forty Germans had been killed in a clash somewhere with Czech gendarmes. A British observer, of whom there were already a number in Czechoslovakia, and who was immediately sent to verify the facts of the case, subsequently ascertained that there had, in fact, been one death.
Henderson adds that it was a typical example of the method of exaggeration and actual falsification of news.
(7) Intensified Activity of the Henleirt Nazis after Munich.
After Munich Henlein's deputy Kundt became the leader of the German minority still left inside the mutiliated Republic and created unscrupulously as many artificial "focal points of German culture" as possible. Germans from the districts handed over to Germany were ordered from Berlin to continue their studies at the German University in Prague, and to make it a centre of aggressive Nazism. The post-Munich government had to allow the German minority in Prague and other Czech parts of the country "to develop freely in conformity with the Nazi theories and not to prohibit its political activity."
It goes without saying that that "political activity" pursued only the aim to undermine and to weaken the Czechs' resistance against the commands from Germany.
The Henleinists cooperated with the Gestapo from the Reich infiltrating into the Republic.
The press was, via facti, subjected to censorship exercised by Germans.
German civil servants who, before Munich, had become members of the SDP, attained dominating influence in their positions and assisted the Nazi infiltration into Czechoslovak public and private institutions.
(8) Conclusion.
The separation of "Sudetengebiet" was the death blow for the economic independence of Czechoslovakia. The frontiers imposed on her by the Agreement of Munich and Vienna cut her railway
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lines at many places, thus making impossible any strategic defence of the mutiliated country, which soon fell a victim to the German aggression.
Henlein's Fifth Columns in Czechoslovakia as described above, had their big part in assisting Hitler to achieve his aim.
As Henlein put it (see Section 5, (e) ): "We should have preferred advocating National Socialism openly. However, it is doubtful whether in doing so we would have been able to perform the task of destroying Czechoslovakia."
II. DESTRUCTION OF CZECH CULTURAL LIFE Par. 5. Religious Persecution.
(c) Protestant Churches.
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Reference to Hus, Zizka, and the Hussites and their achievements as well as to Masaryk and his Legions were strictly prohibited, even the religious text books were changed. Church leaders were especially persecuted, scores of ministers were imprisoned in concentration camps, among them the General Secretary of the Students' Christian Movement in Czechoslovakia. One of the vice-Presidents was executed.
Protestant Institutions such as the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. were suppressed throughout the country.
Among the murdered Czech ministers was a pastor of the Czech Brethren Evangelical Church, who was killed with his wife among the hostages executed for the assassination of Heydrich.
The leading Theological School for all Evangelical denominations, Hus Faculty in Prague and all other Protestant training schools for the ministry were closed down in November 1939, with the other Czech universities and colleges.
(d) Czech Orthodox Church.
The hardest blow was directed against the Czech Orthodox Church. The Orthodox churches in Czechoslovakia were ordered by the Berlin Ministry of Church Affairs to leave the Pontificat of Belgrade and Constantinople respectively and to become subordinate to the Berlin Bishop. The Czech Bishop Gorazd was executed together with two other priests of the Orthodox Church. By a special order of the Protector Daluege, issued in September 1942, the Orthodox Church of Serbian Constantinople jurisdiction was completely dissolved in the Czech lands, its religious activity forbidden and its property confiscated.
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All Evangelical education was handed over to the civil authorities and many Evangelical teachers lost their employment; moreover the State grant to salaries of many Evangelical priests was taken away.
(e) Jews.
The racial persecution of the Jews is dealt with separately (Section IV).
In connection with religious persecutions, we may mention the statement of K. H. Frank, made on June 11, 1945 when interrogated by Col. Dr. Ecer at Wiesbaden. Frank stated that in November 1938 the Jewish places of worship in the "Sudeten" province were torn down by express order of the Party, i.e. the Party Chancellery of Munich at the head of which at that time was Rudolf Hess, and in the autumn of 1941 it was Heydrich who ordered all synagogues to be closed, because "they had served as meeting places for aggressive Jewish elements." Many synagogues were demolished, others transformed into marketing halls or into auction halls for the sale of confiscated Jewish furniture and household goods.