Another good one. Let's point out A Czech named Karel Čurda betrayed the location of the Arthropod agents to the Nazis after the attack and received a lot of money. After the war when scores were being settled he was arrested, tried and convicted for this. There is some dispute about his statement on the matter but one thing I read was he did it to stop the Nazi reprisals against ordinary Czechs. Karel Čurda was executed.
Can you do a video on Otto Ernst Remer and his socialist reich party since he was the indirect pawn by the conspirators of operation valkyrie to arrest Joseph goebbels and many ss after the fail attempt to assassinate hitler. If you watch the tom cruise operation valkyrie where he was order to arrest Joseph goebbels but he ended up talking to hitler to realize he was being use and begun going after the conspirators.
You forgot to mention why Munich agreement is perceived as betrayal by the Czechs. It is because Czechoslovakia signed a Defense agreement with France prior to that and was an official UKs ally as well. Great video and pretty accurate. Btw. Hacha is not only a negative figure, accepting such role was not an easy thing to do and he didn’t do it for his own benefit but rather for the nation’s.
@@HistoryHustle Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonour. They chose dishonour. They will have war. - Winston Churchill on the Munich Agreement
What nation? After its founding, six million Czechs, 3.5 million Germans and two million Slovaks lived in this artificial state, plus more than half a million Hungarians and Ukrainians each, and around 200,000 Jews and around 100,000 Poles.
That's the pivotal thing. Chechoslovakia had not some vague guarantees but an official mutual defense treaty with A and F. As well as with the USSR, by the way. And the Soviet Union tried up to the end to defend Chechoslovakia. But it was isolated first and foremost by the British efforts, by Chamberlain and Halifax. The USSR was excluded from the Munich conference, but fascist Italy was invited. And after all this debacle Hitler understood a very simple thing: that for A and F any written accords don't mean anything serious. That if they consider it suitable for them they easily reject them. After that any British guarantees to Poland weren't convincing enough. Hitler simply didn't view them serious. The last chance to thwart WW2 was at the Moscow talks aiming to create a some sort of tripartite alliance against Hitler. But Chamberlain and Halifax were categorically against them from the beginning mainly because pure hatred to Communism and Russia in general. (Hey, Tik, how about your "it's just business"). Both men made everything for torpedoing the talks and they failed after months of protracted negotiations. After that the war became absolutely inevitable. The infamous hapless M-R pact was simply Stalin's attempt of washing his hands of European affairs. To try to establish some modus vivendi with Nazi Germany not leading to an immediate war with it In the end, this attempt also failed but that's another matter.
My dad was in the US 5th Division that crossed into Czechoslovakia in May 1945. He said they could have easily marched on and captured Prague…but Patton ordered them to turn south into Austria. I had a German uncle who was captured by the Czechs in the closing days of the war. It was a very unpleasant experience due to the Czechs seeking out retribution for the German occupation of their country. More than a few of the POWs were executed. They released him and he had to walk back to Germany. Him and the group of guys he traveled with traveled only at night for fear of being executed by irate Czech civilians. Him and his small group made it home.
Yeah I would somehow compare this situation at the end of the WW2 to the Rwanda's one. It may sound lil bit weird but I can see some parallels there and hope I can make you understand somehow. For exampůle Czechs lived more than 4 centuries under the German oppression. They become the citizens of the 2nd category and strangers in their own country. The brutal German occupation of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia was only the small eak of pretty bad relationship and when the war was over they striked back twice as hard. Germans were in the position similar to Tutsi minority with all the privileges colonial Power could give them and the members of Hutu tribe were not okay with that at all. The same situation with Czechs who were the majority back in the 19th century but did not enjoy the same rights as Germans used to have back then (Czech language as an official language, lacking Czech university in Moravia....etc). All the frustration of injustice showed painfully later as we know. As I said many many similarities between Hutu tribe + Czechs and Tutsi tribe + Germans. We only can hope all goverments and rulers can draw a lesson from this tragic incidents and do not prefer one nationality (or tribe for that matter) to other to prevent exactly these massacres
It's sad what the Czechs wanted to do to your uncle, but are you surprised? They were oppressed by Germany all the time, wiped out 2 villages, forced them to produce bombs and weapons with which the Germans then destroyed Europe, the 90 tons of gold that their state was able to produce in a few years of existence was on the move, the Germans improved their economy thanks to this, thanks to which they could for several years to be in the war without any crashes, tanks originally under the Czechoslovak flag now fought as German machines against Poland and France. In short, they didn't have it easy, and at the end of the war, when they had a chance to return it all to the Germans, they took it anyway.
Hitler worked for the Illuminati - first, they wanted to establish EU and Germanize it - then establish Israel for NWO. After the war, most top Nazi professionals were secretly taken to USA and got important positions so Russia grabbed some and built for them a gated special city - and yes American army was ordered to stay in Plzen and wait for Russians to come to Germany and to be celebrated as the victors.
As a Czech, I am very ashamed of this.after 1945, a ready-made slaughterhouse began in the Sudetenland....perhaps 30,000 German people lost their lives.They killed mostly collaborators and future communists.Other normal Czechs were afraid of them.sorry for using the translator, my english is not good...
I have deep respect for czechs my father origin is from there he is a good man hard working and gifted. I always speak in high regard on this nation when the subject is rise in a conversation
With all the crazy stuff going on in the news, there is nothing I like more than going to my little cave, relax and watch some of the best history uploads out there. Love your style and passion. It has that super extra attention to detail and lot of info digging that shows. Bet it helps living in Europe, knowing all the local cultures and must me mystical. 🙏 Thank you!
Nicely put. On factual side just one comment. The Slovak uprising was planned as part of a wider operation, involving the Red army breakthrough via Dukla pass in Carpathian mouintains. Bad communication and coordination resulted in uprising isolation and final defeat, while Dukla pass breakthrough failed as well and became a protracted bloodbath. The sudeten Germans would deserve its own title I believe. They played very controversial role in the WWII opening and sort of paid also quite a high price for it at the end. Ominous twist of fate.
The demarcation line between the U.S. army and the Soviets was actually a bit further east of the line shown at 13.23 It was actually a line linking Karlovy Vary - Plzeň - České Budějovice. Patton actually did go a bit beyond that too.
Nooooo! You forgot the battle of Slivice in late 1945, the last battle of WW2 in Europe. It was a delaying action by the retreating Germans hoping to surrender to the Western Allies. Hope you can make a Forgoten Battles episode about it. Love your videos!
Stalin commented on German troops still fighting in parts of Bohemia, I think even after the formal surrender on May 9, and wondered what they were hoping for.
Nicely done. I'll just add a few notes: The country has been called Czechia for centuries. The name was coined in the 16th century as an alternative to "Bohemia". The Habsburg monarchy, in its final stage known as Austria-Hungary, started as a personal union between Austria, Czechia and Hungary in 1526. The Habsburgs ruled in Czechia as Czech kings. So what happened in 1918 was that the Habsburgs were deposed and Czechia regained its independence/sovereignty. The so-called Sudetenland was never an administrative unit/region with defined borders. The name itself was coined by the German nationalists in the early 20th century to have an umbrella term for German-speaking population and areas in Czechia. Germans in Czechia came from different parts of Germany in the middle ages and spoke different dialects. The "Sudetenland" annexed by Germany in 1938 was also not exclusively German, hundreds of thousands of Czechs lived there. Czechia was bombed by the allies, Skoda Works in Pilsen were the prime target (12 bombings, more than 1200 deaths in total), Prague was bombed twice (more than 1300 deaths). Other cites bombed by the allies were Ústí nad Labem (500 deaths), Mladá Boleslav (450 deaths, by Soviets) or Brno (700 deaths).
Incorrect. They were ethnic Germans who were part of the German empire before the Versailles treaty displaced them, wanting to give Czechoslovakia the naturally defensible border given the mountainous and forest terrain, as well as the Sudetenland economy, which was absolutely essential to the very existence of the artificially created state. The only reason there were Czechs there is because they were sent there by Beneš to replace the ethnic Sudeten Germans in the forestry and administration jobs there and to displace ethnic Germans there in terms of the Sudetenland economy and administrative control. Despite this, plebiscites showed an overwhelmingly vast majority in the Sudetenland favored a reunification with Germany. This is when Beneš decided to place the Sudeten Germans under martial law and sponsored atrocities being committed against them.
@@jaredcarrick3468 Czechia (including her predominantly German-speaking territories) was never part of the German Empire and Czechs have lived in the so-called Sudetenland for centuries.
Hello, there were two representatives of Czechoslovakia in Munich, but they were in second room and they were not invited to be a part of negotiation. Their names were Hubert Masařík and Vojtěch Mastný. This is the reason why it is called "About us without us" (about Czechs). History is my hobby too, especially Czech history (maybe because I am Czech :D )
It’s still so frustrating to hear the story of how Chamberlain and his notorious group sat and discussed how Germany could just take a part of another sovereign country without even having that country at the table. This was surely against International Law? The Czechoslovaks obviously realised at this point there’s trouble coming.
@@mammuchan8923 Yes. It says something about the low esteem in which the Jews were held in 1938, that none of the appeasers balked at handing the Czech Jews over to the Nazis.
This goes back to Versailles peace conference where Czechoslovak delegation under Edvard Beneš aggreed that alies (UK/France/Italy and USA) would have power of arbiter over borders of Czechoslovakia. Bigger betrayal was that UK and France at Munich guarranteed new borders (and that in case o violation by Germany they would declare war on Germany.)
But a bit of luck is also part of it. If the Nazis had won World War II, the Czechs would have suffered a lot more. The “Generalplan Ost” also provided for forced labour, expulsion and murder for them. The Czechs who would have survived would probably live in Siberia today.
The so-called “Generalplan Ost” by the Baltic German doctor Dr. Hans Ehlich was the product of an individual and was never taken seriously within the German leadership. A German policy of planned decimation of East German groups is a legend. It was only after the war that Polish propaganda took up this alleged "plan" and supplemented it with numerous forged documents in order to give the appearance of justification for the expulsion of the Germans from their homeland in East Germany and the theft of German assets. Such a plan never was followd, not in the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, not in the Eastern territories. Withouta constructive occupation policy, it would be unthinkable that millions of Slavs, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Russians and Cossacks, Latvians, Estonians, Caucasians and Western Europeans fought on the German side. But hey did. "", the Czechs would have suffered a lot more. The “Generalplan Ost” " Nonsense, Germans had the means to start right in March 1939. Not to forget: Czechoslowakia , After its founding, six million Czechs, 3.5 million Germans and two million Slovaks lived in this artificial state, plus more than half a million Hungarians and Ukrainians each, and around 200,000 Jews and around 100,000 Poles. The Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, in which the Czechs enjoyed very extensive autonomy rights, similar to the Sorbs and Kashubians, who also have their settlement areas on German national territory. The autonomy even went so far that no Czech had to do military service during the Second World War. The police remained Czech and the Czech koruna continued to be the national currency. The national border also remained unchanged and entry and exit for Germans was still only possible with a passport. The establishment of a protectorate is nothing unusual, since an entire continent itself, India, was also a protectorate of England at the time. For example, while England had no legitimate claim to India, in the case of Czechia there was at least a possible historical justification, since Bohemia was long a part of the Old Kingdom, and Prague was even its capital under the Luxemburgs.
@@dittmannrudolfrohr2149 Soviet propaganda by Stalin and the USSR. By the way, also Czechoslovakia during the communist rule from 1948 to 1989. The legionnaires gave the gold to the Bolsheviks, otherwise they would not have allowed it to be shipped in Vladivostok. Thanks to the Czechoslovak legionnaires, the much-needed captured Hungarian and German units, which were released thanks to the Brest-Lithuania Peace, did not reach the western front in time. I owe the Legionnaires the fight for Czechoslovakia, which was created thanks to them, and especially that the Allies were able to win the First World War thanks to the containment and fight against the Hungarians and Germans.
Czech Republic was very useful in economic and military way for Germans in WW2. Even all people in that country were against Nazzi. Before WW2 it was one of the most developed country in world. Even in Hasbur monarchy Czech was reacher than all Hungary part of empire. In WW2 Czechs factories produced 30%of all German tanks.
as for the "30% of tanks"..... that is a a nonsense. The German army took over large stoockpile of Czech LT-38 tanks, which were also produced for some time after the occupation (they become obsolete quite quickly. Therefore the figure of 30% might be close(bit exaggerated) to true in the beginning of the war- Polish and French campaign. But definitely not after 1940 later;) No other type of tanks than LT-38 have been produced in Czechia during the WW2
I was introduced to the father of my father-in-law's cousin, who by then was quite old, in Bonn (this was early in this century). I was told he was an administrator of Prague for the Germans. He had also retired as a judge in Germany after the war. They had traced their family background back to 1700. The were originally from the Dresden area. It was all very strange and interesting. In the apartment on the Rhine, I was shown the family photo album. In it the cousin's uncle, I think, who was a captain in the German Army appeared. He was a model German officer with an Iron Cross. He died on the Eastern Front. When the cousin visited us in the US a few years later I was showing him some of my hunting rifles. We are both hunters. I had a Mosin-Nagant rifle made in 1942. That I did not show him, since it might have been the type of gun that killed his uncle. The cousin, by the way, was a high official in the German military, on the political side. Most of the family were lawyers, except for the cousin's oldest son, who had an MBA. I guess he was the black sheep of the family.
Im here in north Czech right now visiting from Australia with my wife to research her German speaking ancestors hiistory in Czech. I have received so much help from people here and its been fascinating to discover what happened. Loved your video as always Stefan.
@@dittmannrudolfrohr2149 Exactly true. Who in the end of the war were expelled or killed by the "freedom loving democrats" . Ie allied criminals Churchill,Roosevelt and the fanatic criminal benes.
@@dittmannrudolfrohr2149 - in the South Moravia /in the Moravian capital Brno (Brun) the german speakers considered themselves firstly Austrians :) also they spoke with Austrian / southern Bavarian accent, furthermore the censuses during Austrian - Hungarian times (until 1918 ) recorded only the first language used for communication (not a nationality as such ) at home , this changed after the first CZ republic census when they asked for a nationality - for example in my grandfather village the last A H census (1910) counted 70 % German speakers and 30 % of Czech speakers - the numbers were repeated during the first CZ census in 1920s - however the CZ authorities did not liked it -(ie the result) the first census results were cancelled and the census was repeated again and this time the result was 50% Germans and 50 % Czechs ... as many families were intermarried , in this village all residents were fluent in both Czech / German language without any accent - however after 1938 this village become a part of the German Reich ..based on the results from 1910
I did not watch this video last saturday, but now I rushed into it. Praha seems to me one of the most beautiful capital cities of EU. Good to know it was preserved from total destruction back in the dark days of WW2 Obrigado, Stefan! ヽ(͡◕ ͜ʖ ͡◕)ﾉ 🍀 🇧🇷
@@HistoryHustle mainly around Europe, started out in your country the beautiful Netherlands where I have some relatives in Haarlem And also visited some WW2 memorials and places of importance in Netherlands France and Belgium in relation to WW2 history and battle fields. Was very nice I had an excellent time! Glad to be back on your channel and am currently catching up on your past videos! Cheers!
Regarding 4:45 - while its true there were forced labourers, you missed an opportunity to explain a critical component of life in the protectorate. The exchange rate between Reichsmarks and Koruna was intentionally skewed very favourably towards Germany by Nazi officials. This meant that you could purchase much more Czech goods with German marks than you could otherwise with Korunas. This was also a contributing factor to a mass shortage in goods across the protectorate. When Czechs were offered labour in Germany proper, some were happy to go work so as they would come back far wealthier. Fun fact: some streets after the war in some villages in Czechia were renamed 'At Hitlers' etc. to make fun of folks who had benefited and built houses with labour money from Germany.
Not very sure about them volunteering to go to work to factories in Germany. My great-grandmother told me, that there has been chosen years, which had to go to work to the factories. She was one of them, as she was born in 1924. My great-grandfather offered her to marry her, so she did not have to go in the end - they married within 2 weeks, even when they did not know each other, just that she does not have to go there. In the factories were working many people - mainly women - from different nations, kidnapped woman's from occupied countries etc. Her friend was not lucky and had to go to work there. She was saying terrifying stories. When americans came to the Germany, the first thing they did was bombarding these factories. Her friend was save, as that time she went back home for holidays. They hid her in a hole in the forest, so she did not have to go back. Many czechs and slavs died in these factories. If you disagreed with anything, they did not have any issue to torture you or kill you. Not very fun staff and definitely the people were not getting wealthy from that. Would worth it to check the facts before spreading this disinformation, how good was to go to work to gun factories in Germany next time.
The assassination of Heidrich is a bit controversial these days, as it didn't bring the war any closer to the end and cost a lot of innocent people their lives. It is seen by some people (including me) as a gesture to make it look like our exiled government still cared about what happened here. Also letting the Soviets "liberate" us after giving up our territories to the Germans in Munich is a double whammy from the Western allies.
@@Ian8008 Tell that to the murder families, killed with kids included. I visited the memorial of Lidice and I can tell, I would trade a whole village for one living Nazi general in a blink of an eye. He would have died all the same but the innocents would live on.
Lukas Kubik - exactly sharing your thoughts, I also think killing Heidrich was a crazy move instigated by the bored out czech government in London, not that Heidrich didn't deserve it, he certainly did, but all of those innocent people, whole families etc that have payed with their lives for that, and the exile czech government knew what is going to follow as this was a normal german vendetta procedure what ever country they occupied, like the germans would substitute Heidrich with some angel!!! Nothing at all won, just lost !!!
Before the Nazi propaganda that Dittmann Rudolf Röhr spreads here (as in almost all of his comments) is taken for the truth: Emil Hácha asked Germany for protection because he was forced to do so. Göring threatens to bomb Prague. This is evidenced by several sources.
Jaroslav Emminger you mention at 9:57, who was a commander in chief of the Troops of the Goverment (or Czech Goverment Army), was hardly a collaborator. He secretly worked with the resistance and actively covered desertions of his soldiers to partisans. There was a very strong anti-german sentiment prevalent in the whole "Army". That is why the Germans distrusted the Army and intentionaly kept the whole force low on weapons, ammo and training and finally in 1944 had sent almost all of the soldiers to Italy (where desertions to the partisans started pretty much on day 1 of the deployment) . Even the post-war trial found Jaroslav Emminger not guilty of collaboration a recognized his resistance efforts. However there were pro-nazi collaborators, every story has heroes and villains - the most infamous one is Emmanuel Moravec, Protectorate minister of eduacation, who was very active in the media promoting the Nazi cause. Commited suicide during the Prague uprising in 1945
Famous quote of Gen. Eminger - When one of his officers asked, what they should do if they discover an Allied parachutist agent, he replied:"If they are a few, you will leave them be. If they are many, you will join them. "
@@HistoryHustle Allow me to give you one tip: So that your channel does not lose its seriousness, you should pay more attention to the fact that Nazi propaganda is not simply reproduced and historical falsification is carried out. Which has already happened in some comments here.
Czechoslowakia , After its founding, six million Czechs, 3.5 million Germans and two million Slovaks lived in this artificial state, plus more than half a million Hungarians and Ukrainians each, and around 200,000 Jews and around 100,000 Poles. The Sudetenland was annexed to the German Reich (Autumn 1938) after Munich agreement. Hungary occupied border areas partly Hungarian ethnic group as well the Ruthenian-speaking Carpathian Ukraine (autumn 1938). Poland occupied areas in Teschen (autumn 1938). Slovak independence March 1939 On March 14, 1939, there was a meeting between Hitler and the then Czech President Emil Hacha in Berlin, at which Hacha asked for protection. As a result, the rest of Czechia was annexed by Germany and became the so-called Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
@@HistoryHustle This comment by Dittmann Rudolf Röhr is what I mean: Emil Hácha did not ask for protection but was blackmailed. If you leave such misrepresentations uncommented or not deleted, the seriousness of your channel suffers.
In Prague in the spring of 1945, Tatiana Metternich wrote in her memoirs, "And yet in the restaurants, on the trams, in the streets, everybody was reading Russian primers. An ominous sign, for in the West they were reading English ones. But there was no sign of hostility, although Paul [her husband who had been discharged from the army because he was a prince] still wore his cavalry officer's uniform. They would look up and then look away again: their road to salvation was not ours, but that was all. One dreaded to think of their rude awakening."
No matter how unfashionable it might be, how horrifying to Russophobes of today, we mustn’t forget that the Czechoslovak government was completely willing to accept Soviet offers to provide troops in the face of Nazi drives to carve up the country. Poland refused to allow Red Army passage its territory, and then, went on to join the Nazis in seizing a slice of Czechoslovak territory for itself.
This again? Poland took only a very tiny slice and absolutely nothing above it. Does it bother you that the Czechs weren's as anti-german as the soviet sympathizers would want you to believe? Maybe the Czechs were willing to accept the soviet offer, but unwilling to respect the sovereignty of Poland who would be pacified by the soviet troops. To quote Stalin: "Wherever the red army's soldier puts his foot, there's already the Soviet Union".
@@aleksanderwielopolski8205 ‘ Only a tiny slice ‘ ? I’m quite certain that that is certainly not how the Czechoslovak state viewed matters, seeing Polish nationalists like Beck ( when they weren’t too busy doing there utmost to encourage right - wing Zionist fanatics like Betar ‘ to rid ‘ Poland of as many of its Jews as possible…) slithering in a wholly unscrupulous, disgraceful manner alongside Hitler in the evisceration of a neighbour. Pro-German sentiment in Prague ? Barely existent. The government had its hands full with treasonous collusion, led by Konrad Henlein, to tear off a vast chunk of precious territory, a conspiracy rooted in Berlin. What pro-Germanism are you on about ? Czech politicians were in far closer contact, for obvious reasons, with Moscow than they ever could be with Berlin. Is it coincidental that a Czech stateswoman suffered a cardiac arrest in the company of Nazis, and not the CPSU ? Why, too, have I yet to have read of anything remotely resembling the unbelievably revolting, almost innumerable outbreaks of anti - Semitic pogroms in post-war Poland occurring in Czechoslovakia ?
Russia knew that the liberation of Czechoslovakia would be unrealistic. There was no way to reach them and it just washed its hands populistically like Pontius Pilate. In 1939, it recognized the Slovak Fascist State and the Munich Agreement. So they are traitors like France and Britain. The Russians then helped the Nazis divide Poland and the sphere of influence.
Good point Matthew. As regards Poland it’s Important to note that the Soviets only did a deal with Germany to partition Poland after their offer of a common front against Germany was rejected. In 1938 (despite France and Britain backing down at Munich) the Soviets continued to offer military assistance to Czechoslovakia including 700 fighter aircraft and parachute regiments (if requested). This they hoped would force Germany to back down. Germany was weaker in 1938 than a year later. (Partly because they took all the Czechoslovakian military equipment) Despite interest from the Czechoslovakian military the civilian government refused the Soviet offer, and simultaneously Poland attacked Czechoslovakia along with Germany. (Poland took 3 regions, and also colluded with Germany in continuing to occupy the southern third of Lithuania) Realising they couldn’t trust Poland or the West the Soviets did a deal with Germany. PS As pointed out elsewhere a Czech legion fought alongside the Red Army in liberating Kiev.
@@rjames3981 the civil government of Czechoslovakia did not refuse anything, but the USSR, on the contrary, claimed that if France and Great Britain helped Czechoslovakia against Germany, it would also help. But France and Britain signed the Munich Agreement and the USSR later signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and immediately recognized the Munich Agreement
We were ready to fight for freedom and relied on our allies..It was a blow we will not forget. They sacrificed us for the sake of peace.. A year later Czechoslovak tanks occupied France.. Learn from history so it doesn't repeat itself. Thank you for this video👍I am proud that we were determined to fight
Soviets continued to offer Czechs military assistance after Munich, despite British and French betrayal. Probably unfortunate for Europe the Czechoslovakian government turned them down.
@@rjames3981 Unfortunate? Mate, Soviets made no secrets about their wishes to invade and expand to this region of Europe. They already invaded Poland in 1920, do you really think Poles would allow soviet armies to march through the entire Poland to reach Bohemia? Naaah mate, keep dreaming. It would have been the same story as in 1945, only this time they wouldnt probably do much since the US was not supporting them yet.
VH - In 1938 (despite France and Britain backing down at Munich) the Soviets continued to offer military assistance to Czechoslovakia including 700 fighter aircraft and parachute regiments (if requested). This they hoped would force Germany to back down. Germany was weaker in 1938 than a year later. (Partly because they took all the Czechoslovakian military equipment) Despite interest from the Czechoslovakian military the civilian government refused the Soviet offer, and simultaneously Poland attacked Czechoslovakia along with Germany. (Poland took 3 regions, and also colluded with Germany in continuing to occupy the southern third of Lithuania) Realising they couldn’t trust Poland or the West the Soviets did a deal with Germany.
@@rjames3981 i think Poland took a bordering City but they were hardly marching arm and arm with landsers into Prague. Most certainly they didn't crush the Czechs
9:52 almost half of the czech gouverment army that was send to italy deserted and joined italian partisans. 7:59 you did not mention the 1st czechoslovak independent army corp in the USSR which took part (or its predecessor 1st czechoslovak independent brigade in USSR) in liberation of Kyiv in november 1943 they were first unit that reached center of the city and fulfilled its task
@Dittmann Rudolf Röhr Not of the German Empire!!! You are confusing it withe multinational Holy Roman Empire, called Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, dissolved in 1806. The bond with Germany was artificially created in some individual locations, it was very limited. It was promoted successfully after 1933 which made it impossible for the Germans to stay in the Republic after the war. Yes, they were chased out brutally. Just as the Czechs chased out of the Sudetenland previously.
Another informative and attractive introduction of that political event by an excellent, favorite history teacher (Sir Stefan) ...video clearly explained all factors & historical background of invasion of Czechoslovaka by Nazism army
Czechoslowakia , After its founding, six million Czechs, 3.5 million Germans and two million Slovaks lived in this artificial state, plus more than half a million Hungarians and Ukrainians each, and around 200,000 Jews and around 100,000 Poles. The Sudetenland was annexed to the German Reich (Autumn 1938) after Munich agreement. Hungary occupied border areas partly Hungarian ethnic group as well the Ruthenian-speaking Carpathian Ukraine (autumn 1938). Poland occupied areas in Teschen (autumn 1938). Slovak independence March 1939 On March 14, 1939, there was a meeting between Hitler and the then Czech President Emil Hacha in Berlin, at which Hacha asked for protection. As a result, the rest of Czechia was annexed by Germany and became the so-called Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
Before the Nazi propaganda that Dittmann Rudolf Röhr spreads here (as in almost all of his comments) is taken for the truth: Emil Hácha asked Germany for protection because he was forced to do so. Göring threatens to bomb Prague. This is evidenced by several sources.
I guess it was necessary to check a pronunciation of the Protectorat's Staatspräsident's name: he was [ˈɛmɪl ˈɦaːxa] (wiki: In Czech, the letter ch is a digraph... however it is a single phoneme (pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative [x])), not [ˈɛmɪl ˈɦaːtʃa] as you told. And once more: historically more correct is to say that pro-Axis Russians took part in Prague uprising wasn't ROA, because it hadn't been exist at that moment (and, to be honest, de facto never existet), it was a part of Armed forces of the Peoples' of Russia Liberation comittee (ВС КОНР, Вооруженные силы Комитета освобождения народов России), which consisted of not only former ROA units and members but also a lot of former and still existing Russian collaborationist units (f.e. XV SS cavalry corps). But only one Comittee Armed Forces unit took part in the uprising - it's 1st Infantry (or in German designation 600. Infanterie-division (Rus.)) leading by it's commander Maj.Gen. S. Bunjachenko.
Another excellent piece of work Stefan. Josef Tiso was an interesting character. A priest who fully supported the Germans and was hanged after the war for treason.(Not to be confused with Josef Tito of Yugoslavia)
The Soviets made a habit of hanging priests on false charges before, during and after the war. Ditto for the Nazis. Communists and Nazis alike made Church leaders among their first targets when crushing resistance to their rule.
Father Tiso solved an administrative problem for the Nazis. Who was to pay German Rail to deport the Jews to the death camps in Poland? Father Tiso's solution : German Rail should be paid from the looted assets of the deported Jews.
I originate from Upper Silesia/Hultschiner Land near Ostrava/Czech Republic, when the Germans came in 1938 and the Hultschiner Land became part of Deutsches Reich, my Grandpa needed to join the German Wehrmacht, he fought in Eastern Front, in Stalingrad, he survived, my dad was born in 1944 as Deutsches Reich citizen, in 1945 the land has been returned back to Czechoslovakia and my Grandpa and dad became the Czech citizens again. I was born in Czechoslovakia in 70ies and when I was 18 years old, I 've got a German Passport (Bundes Republik Deutschland) base on my family origin. The Germany still acknowledge the Citizenship Law from the Third Reich and German Reich! People born on the lost German land in Eastern Europe are still treated as Germans despite of the present territory situation!
In the end surrendering Chechoslovakia ti Hitler was very detrimental. First, Hitler got first class war industry. Second, he got lots of first class weaponry, first of all heavy guns. Which guns were present at the siege of Sevastopol, Leningrad and so on.
I had a friend, Herbert Pink, who was a cook in the American Army. They moved into Pilsen (Plzeň) in April of 1945, and were there until the end of the war. Each day Sgt. Pink would collect the leftover bread and take it into town, and hand it out to the townspeople. When the war ended, some men came to Sgt. Pink with a keg of beer. They explained that they were the local Czech resistance, and had been saving the keg to celebrate the end of the war. But, since he had fed them and others who were starving, they decided to give him the keg. Sgt. Pink was gracious, and took the keg, but, since he didn´t drink alcohol, he took it back to his company and explained that he didn´t know what to do with it. The men in the company said, "Don´t worry about it, sarge, we´ll take care of it for you."
Interesting video, though it should be reminded that a Czech legion fought alongside the Red Army in the liberation of Kiev (Kyiv) in WW2. Perhaps also it should be remembered that the Soviets offered military support in 1938 to the Czechoslovakians. This was eventually turned down by the Czechoslovakian government.
Dittmann Rudolf Röhr operates history misrepresentation and reproduces the Nazi propaganda of that time. His entire statements should be distrusted and checked with the help of reliable sources.
Dobry - ‘A new cabinet, under General Jan Syrový, was installed, and on 23 September 1938, a decree of general mobilization was issued. The Czechoslovak Army was modern, had an excellent system of frontier fortifications and was prepared to fight. The Soviet Union announced its willingness to come to Czechoslovakia's assistance. Beneš, however, refused to go to war without the support of the Western powers‘
Will you ever make a video on the Austrian rule of Poland (Galicia)? My family comes from there (half was Polish and half was Austrian/German - “Galiziendeutsche/Gluchoniemcy”) and all of the videos on UA-cam mostly focus on the Prussian and Russian occupation zones :(
Great video, thank you very much, but... The Czech resistance weren´t only assassination of Reinhard Heydrich and Prague uprising. For example: On the 28. of October 1939 took place in Prague big demonstration against nazi occupation (approximately 100 000 people were in the streets). Central Leadership of Home Resistance during 1940-1941 had best intelligence and military reports for London from all occupied countries (from Prague were sent to the London more than 20 000 wire messages). The three kings of Czech resistance (Josef Balabán, Josef, Mašín and Václav Moravek) was responsible for bomb attacks in Leipzig, Munich, and Berlin. For example: They placed on the 15. of September 1939 in Berlin one suitcase of explosives in police headquarters and another at the Ministry of Air Travel. Both buildings were damaged. On the 30. of December 1940 they tried to assassinate military commander and leading member of the Nazi Party Heinrich Himmler in the railway station. Unfortunately, Himmler’s train was diverted to another station due to technical problems, but bomb blew up and station was very damaged. In summer and autumn 1941 make resistance sabotage and strikes, work slowed down and so on.
Prime Minister Alois Eliáš was hardly "murdered". He was working with Allied forces at home and London. So when arrested he was convicted and executed.
I'm interested in what was going on there because my parents bought china marked Czechoslovakia when they married in 1938. During WWII they got some more place settings and the marking was then Bohemia.
Czechoslowakia , After its founding, six million Czechs, 3.5 million Germans and two million Slovaks lived in this artificial state, plus more than half a million Hungarians and Ukrainians each, and around 200,000 Jews and around 100,000 Poles.
@@Americanpatriot-zo2tk The Sudetenland was annexed to the German Reich (Autumn 1938) after Munich agreement. Hungary occupied border areas partly Hungarian ethnic group as well the Ruthenian-speaking Carpathian Ukraine (autumn 1938). Poland occupied areas in Teschen (autumn 1938). Slovak independence March 1939 On March 14, 1939, there was a meeting between Hitler and the then Czech President Emil Hacha in Berlin, at which Hacha asked for protection. As a result, the rest of Czechia was annexed by Germany and became the so-called Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
@@Americanpatriot-zo2tk Before the Nazi propaganda that Dittmann Rudolf Röhr spreads here is taken for the truth: Emil Hácha asked Germany for protection because he was forced to do so. Göring threatens to bomb Prague. This is evidenced by several sources.
Why then did the British hit back and guarantee Poland, ready now to fight a war? This was Chamberlains idea, and in 1957 he was described in a memoir as follows No one had ever been a more devoted and passionate lover of freedom. He even said we will never surrender - our freedom - speaking in March 1939, and declared in April that British freedom concerned such European countries as were threatened. School children are already confused, they don't need more theory, Czechoslovakia had no right to determine when the UK would declare war, if anyone had the empire had, and the empire said no to war in 1938.
@@robertewing3114 Britain declared war on 3rd September 1939 to prevent further German expansion. If Britain was concerned about Polish freedom Britain would also have declared war on the Soviet Union when they invaded Poland on 17th September. If WW2 was all about freedom Churchill would not have conspired with Stalin in October 1944 to ensure the Soviets would control Poland after WW2. At no point did Czechoslovakia try to dictate to anyone when others went to war. But those who are actually protagonists for freedom are not selective about which countries they want to be free and then betray their supposed ally Poland well before WW2 ended. The Nazis were monsters that needed to be defeated but WW2 just wasn't the great crusade for freedom that some people pretend it was.
@@MrBagpipes I think your word crusade is irrelevant to what Chamberlain was attempting to do, he was concerned to safeguard freedom from the threat to it, actually telling a Brum audience in peacetime that the breath of their British freedom was at stake. He wouldn't accept Stalin occupying the Baltic States, but Churchill couldn't refuse Stalin Poland. However, Churchill at US invitation declared cold war on Stalin, so no betrayals other than the historical attacks on Chamberlain that continue to this day. And remember, if freedom was to become a crusade, it would confront most people in this world, and that isn't a political option or possibility. Pretence of heroic endeavour is useful to obtain votes, but at least with Chamberlain we know there was no pretence.
@@robertewing3114 Chamberlain went crawling to Hitler three times for ",Peace in our time," not for anyone's freedom. If it was about freedom Chamberlain wouldn't have been so forthright about being okay with letting the Nazis march into Czechoslovakia unopposed. You don't get to pretend Chamberlain was all about freedom when he was highly selective about whose freedom he actually supported. If it had been about freedom Britain wouldn't have done zilch regarding the Soviet Union invading Poland. And they definitely wouldn't have done nothing when the Soviets invaded Finland. Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany because of strategic interest. Charles de Gaulle declined to do exactly what Churchill done, betray Poland to Stalin. Polish soldiers were still wearing British uniforms when Churchill agreed to the occupation of Poland by the Soviets after WW2. Churchill literally threw a tantrum when the Polish Government in Exile would not recognise Stalin's handpicked Polish Communist cronies on the Lublin Committee. Churchill even met Stalin's petty request that no Polish soldiers participate in the London VE Parade. Ask any Polish person what their entire country calls 'The Great Betrayal' and they will tell you very quickly. The term Cold War was first used by an American, it wasn't declared by Churchill. And it started in 1947 with The Truman Doctrine, Clement Attlee was the British Prime Minister at the time not Churchill.
Great summary. The reason the Western Allies did not liberate Czechia and march into Prague is because of the Yalta agreement between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. They decided who would liberate which country. Czechie was to be liberated by Russia along with all of the countries which later became part of the Warsaw Pact alliance.
not true. What you wrote about Yalta is just an urban legend perpetuated by some lazy journalists;) Nothing like that was discussed or agreed in Yalta. Not advance of troops. Not imposition of dominance of one side or the other on liberated or conquerred territories. Basically only post war occupation zones in Germany&Austria were agreed plus Issue of what is the legitimate polish government (on paper result was a 'compromise'). In all cases, free elections etc -something Stalin never intended to allow in reality of course, but that is the different story. The advance of troops towards the end of WW2 was based on 'who gets where first' based on operational situation- no pre agreed demarcation. Need proof? check advance of US&British troops deep into agreed soviet occupation zone of Germany. Or advace of US army into Czechoslovakia. Or indeed soviet landings on some Danish islands. But yes, regarding Liberation of Prague- its true that Soviets did ask the US to stop the advance towards Prague when they already liberated city of Plzen: soviets lied they were 'within 1 day from Prague'. So the US agreed to stop. But there was no pre-agreed demarcation line on Yalta. And there was no 'carving up Europe' on Yalta.
Years back I talked with a U.S. vet who was there. He told me that when they were giving the order to withdraw, instead of bringing equipment back with them, they dug massive trenches and buried everything. He said it was less to carry and the Russians wouldn't get it. He also added that it would have made any U.S. taxpayer cry.
The Czechoslovaks massacred the German civilian population. In addition, even after the surrender of Germany, they first disarmed German soldiers of the Wehrmacht and the SS, then rounded them up and killed them. Certainly a crime, but one that was never prosecuted. My great-grandfather was beaten to death with clubs by the militia near Prague on 10 May 1945, one day after the end of the war. With this story, I expressly do not want to relativise the crimes of the Germans against the Czechs, but war is never black and white and both sides brutalise in a spiral of violence. This should also drive us to find peace for Ukraine and for Russia these days!
And the germans treated the people of the territories which they invaded with kid gloves. The german invasion, which was followed by their genocidal occupation in pretty much all of Eastern Europe elicited strong emotions among the persecuted. Just imagine how the germans would have treated had they been on the receiving end of the treatment which they mete out, in reality, to those people. Oh yeah, deep down within I am certain that you believe that the germans were just following in the footsteps of their anglo cousins, 'civilising the subhuman' populations they were colonising.
There is also much truth in what you say and if the Minsk agreement had been allowed to have been implemented and had been strictly adhered to Ukraine would not be the hell hole it is to day and tens of thousands of young Ukrainian and Russian young men would still be alive in the bosom of their families and not cannon fodder for a bunch of billionaire, neo con, globalist warmongers.
Well, what do you expect after 6 years of occupation and most germans living in Czechia collaborating with the Nazis. They started the war. They deserved it.
Yes, the Czechs also committed atrocities after the war. Evil begets only evil, and the Germans must not be surprised. If someone murdered your family, you would also take revenge.
@@Prometheus101 ...and that is why this spiral of violence must be interrupted! Also now in Ukraine. Russians are not worse people than Ukrainians, Germans or anyone else...!
You forgot about Czech cooporation with Soviet Russia The Empire of Evil. Soviets were in the process of building military airport in Czech what was going to be threat to Germany.
@@HistoryHustleit’s all documented in National Socialist archives by people who gained access to them and reported on them. Those National Socialists were meticulous record keepers. Not only was Czechoslovakia preparing a springboard for a potential (inevitable….. ie: Operation Groza or “Thunder” in Russian) Soviet Invasion of Germany, they also had an alarming amount of tanks and armaments for such a small, artificially created state which the Germans were able to expropriate. In the meantime, Stalin knew war between Germany and the west was also inevitable at that time and wanted to wait until they had gone at it to the point where Western Europe would be weakened enough to walk right in and take over….. AKA Operation Groza. When Operation Barbarossa was being finalized in the Spring of 1941, Hitler made sure that all the trade shipments were still being completely fulfilled to the Soviets in compliance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact so as not to send up any red flags, but decided to order high altitude reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union. They discovered massive preparations for an offensive military operation the size and scope of which the world had never seen, which corroborated their earlier reports of troop mobilization in the Soviet Union. Countless airfields were being constructed, railways designed to run east and west for transport as opposed to north and south, armaments buildups, factories, shipments to and supplies at the border, etc. All the evidence was right there that the Soviets were just waiting for the right moment. And this isn’t even to mention the fact that immediately after France and the Low Countries fell to Germany, the Soviets immediately annexed the Baltic states. They were fortifying their position in Europe in preparation for the final battle. They were expecting the war in the west to drag on longer and cause more instability. Once they saw this wasn’t the case, they felt like they had to act fast in the Baltic (France fell to Germany in May 1940, Soviets annex Baltic states in June 1940). Hitler beat the Soviets to the punch with Barbarossa with literally just weeks to spare.
@@jaredcarrick3468 Reason for that "alarming amount of tanks and arnaments" was Germany being the neighbour... Czechoslovak government knew that Germany would be back and they were preparing for it for 20 years, yet it still wasn´t enough, so maybe don´t act like there wasn´t any reason for all those tanks and arnaments. We know that Soviets expected to have war with Germany atleast in 1943 or probably later, but they were preparing to possibility that it might happen sooner and as history showed it was right decision. Both Germany and Soviets knew that their pact was just a temporary cease fire, don´t act like Soviets were planning to attack peaceful Germany.
Jablonkow Incident: 1939 August 25 - 26 Slovak / Polish Border. A German commando unit, unaware that Herr H had postponed the war, invaded Poland as per plan. Captured the Mosty Railway Station. Failed ? Aborted ? Were under heavy Polish gun fire and retreated to Slovakia about noon with 2 wounded.
I believe I mentioned the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps, else I do that in a future video. Didn't forget it. I choose not to, since it's an overview video.
it was simple realpolitik. the British and French were still reeling from the Depression, the last world war was less than 20 years before,. noone wanted another world war , which the Germans seemed hellbent on. opinions divided ; what could the Anglo-French forces have done if Hitler simply invaded.. ??? the Munich Agreement gave the Allies an extra year to prepare for the inevitable conflict. Czechoslovakia was an artificial country. the Slovaks were declaring independence and the Sudentenland was going to be taken by Germany .. it would have been complete collapse, with a lot of casualties , even before the western Allies could do anything.... USSR was an ally of Czechs, but in the event did nothing.
@@coling3957 Do you genuinely think that the extra year which France and the UK gained by giving up the Sudetenland, and thus all of Czechoslovakia with it, benefited them more than it did the Germans? It's not like the western allies were the only ones arming themselves, all while the Germans were busy making sand castles on the beaches of Sylt, is it? Germany's arms industry was ramping up at a much faster pace than that of the UK and France, and on top of that they gained the formidable Czech industry and armaments. The allies came out relatively weakened compared to the Germans, not the other way around.
@@coling3957 Which they didnt have to do, since the wehrmacht of 1940 was completely different from the pitiful army of 750 000 green conscripts germans could field in 1938. With the forts there is no doubt in my mind the germans wouldnt get past the border.
As I watch the slow death of journalism , book bans and the construction of reproductive health in my nation . It is reassuring to know that well sourcec history survives on this channel
A additional point to be made is the partial invasion by Poles and Hungarians, taking regions of the Kocise region and Poles areas in the north. The great what "if" of WW2 would have been if Checoslovaks had engaged the Wermach. The Slavic army was well organized, well trained, and in some cases had better equipment than the Wermach soldiers. I had a Checoslovak vz24 rifle and found it smoother than the K98, my opinion.
Dobrá praca. Prečo Česi povstali 5 dní po smrti Hitlera ? + 30. IV. 1945 Hitler sa zastrelil. * 5. V. 1945 povstali Česi proti mrtvemu Hitlerovi . Čakali či vstane z mŕtvych ?
Hitler accurately predicted the artificial state would simply cease to exist if they lost the Sudetenland. The Sudetenland economy was essential for the existence of the state, plus, once Sudetan Germans were allowed to reunify with the Reich, it would cause a domino effect with the Ukrainians, Poles, Hungarians etc. all wanting to reunify with their home countries. Germany didn’t have much of an interest in the maintenance of the artificial state at the time other than the mines in Upper Silesia and occupying Czechoslovakian/Polish border territory to use in trade negotiations with Poland in regards to Danzig and East Prussia. They also didn’t want the chaos of the failed state to make them ripe for a communist takeover. Contrary to communist lies and propaganda about him being a “murderer”, Reinhard Heydrich did a great job as the Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy Reich Protector) in Bohemia-Moravia during the German occupation there. He introduced a carrot and stick approach for the Czechs by incentivizing good behavior and the Czechs really took to it. They were actually doing better economically under Heydrich than they were under Beneš and the occupation was subsequently a relatively liberal one which granted plenty of autonomy to the Czechs. It was a huge propaganda win against the communists, which is why the communists had Heydrich murdered. Edvard Beneš was a communist who was openly collaborating with the Soviets, and Hitler knew this. Beneš and Czechoslovakia were also part of the coup against Chamberlain in Great Britain. There was a shadowy group in “The City” of London called The Focus. The group was a “think tank” (what would today be called an NGO or non-governmental organization). The group consisted of top industrialists, international bankers and investors, former ministers/politicians, etc. The majority of the members of The Focus were Jews. Those who weren’t Jewish had Jewish wives and strong ties to Jews and had Jewish backgrounds. The group was led by Sir Henry Strakosch. Strakosch was an Austrian born Jewish banker who made his fortune in the gold mines in South Africa. Winston Churchill had been living in shame for years since the First World War, where his Gallipoli adventure ended in over 300,000 British, French, Australian and New Zealand casualties. During the interwar period, he fell into crippling debt. He sold forged copies of paintings by dead French artists and other similar activities to get by, until one day, Sir Henry Strakosch paid off Churchill’s debts and began paying him massive sums of money to become a literal paid shill to push for war with Germany. Other members of the British and commonwealth cabinets at the time were being paid by Strakosch. Even the Czechoslovakian government was sending money to Strakosch to pay off these British ministers to overthrow Chamberlain and get Churchill installed so he could cause a war with Germany. In July 1938, a single payment alone was roughly 2 million British pounds via the Czech embassy. Hitler himself caught wind of the plan by Hermann Göring‘s wiretap agency and sent all the evidence to the British ambassador to show to Chamberlain. Early in 1939, then ousted and former Czechoslovakian President Edvard Beneš traveled to the US for a secret meeting with FDR at his residence in Hyde Park. Here, FDR assured Beneš the US would “actively intervene once the war had started”.
As a Czech person myself... The more I learn about the late 1930s geopolitical situation, the less I'm angry at UK and France. Yes, Daladier and Chamberlain were naive. And the fact that Munich agreement was done without the Czechoslovakia is outrageous. But the "Western treason" is not accurate, since there were other countries, that had a military alliance with us and they also didn't helped. And when it comes to compensation... Well, France gave us to Hitler and subsequently was rolled over by Czechoslovak tanks painted in German colors - that was just karma doing it's thing. And the Great Britain? Chamberlain's "piece in our time" killed over 800 000 British soldiers and civilians and London was bombed and heavily damaged. Yes, UK betrayed us. But they've paid for it in blood, sweat and tears. If you're going to tell me it's not enough, I won't believe you...
@@uweberlin117 yap, Hitler just made few remarks that he will bomb Prague to ground. Czech president physically collapsed twice having to be administered injections by Hitler's (not Czech) doctor. (Goebbel's diary, plus number of accounts from Czech president's entourage) And then Czech president finally got time to get to the point of asking Hitler for 'protection':) I just wonder from whom Czech president was asking Hitler for protection- Britain,Poland or France perhaps?:)
Learn about countries during WW2:
ua-cam.com/play/PL_bcNuRxKtpHTLN9AwkENvRE4am3VNcK4.html
Another good one. Let's point out A Czech named Karel Čurda betrayed the location of the Arthropod agents to the Nazis after the attack and received a lot of money. After the war when scores were being settled he was arrested, tried and convicted for this. There is some dispute about his statement on the matter but one thing I read was he did it to stop the Nazi reprisals against ordinary Czechs. Karel Čurda was executed.
@@nowthenzen thanks for sharing.
@@nowthenzen 👍 🇧🇷
Can you do a video on Otto Ernst Remer and his socialist reich party since he was the indirect pawn by the conspirators of operation valkyrie to arrest Joseph goebbels and many ss after the fail attempt to assassinate hitler. If you watch the tom cruise operation valkyrie where he was order to arrest Joseph goebbels but he ended up talking to hitler to realize he was being use and begun going after the conspirators.
You forgot to mention why Munich agreement is perceived as betrayal by the Czechs. It is because Czechoslovakia signed a Defense agreement with France prior to that and was an official UKs ally as well. Great video and pretty accurate. Btw. Hacha is not only a negative figure, accepting such role was not an easy thing to do and he didn’t do it for his own benefit but rather for the nation’s.
Thanks for sharing.
@@HistoryHustle Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonour. They chose dishonour. They will have war.
- Winston Churchill on the Munich Agreement
What nation? After its founding, six million Czechs, 3.5 million Germans and two million Slovaks lived in this artificial state, plus more than half a million Hungarians and Ukrainians each, and around 200,000 Jews and around 100,000 Poles.
Beware of Nazi propagandists in the comments!
That's the pivotal thing. Chechoslovakia had not some vague guarantees but an official mutual defense treaty with A and F. As well as with the USSR, by the way. And the Soviet Union tried up to the end to defend Chechoslovakia. But it was isolated first and foremost by the British efforts, by Chamberlain and Halifax. The USSR was excluded from the Munich conference, but fascist Italy was invited. And after all this debacle Hitler understood a very simple thing: that for A and F any written accords don't mean anything serious. That if they consider it suitable for them they easily reject them. After that any British guarantees to Poland weren't convincing enough. Hitler simply didn't view them serious. The last chance to thwart WW2 was at the Moscow talks aiming to create a some sort of tripartite alliance against Hitler. But Chamberlain and Halifax were categorically against them from the beginning mainly because pure hatred to Communism and Russia in general. (Hey, Tik, how about your "it's just business"). Both men made everything for torpedoing the talks and they failed after months of protracted negotiations. After that the war became absolutely inevitable. The infamous hapless M-R pact was simply Stalin's attempt of washing his hands of European affairs. To try to establish some modus vivendi with Nazi Germany not leading to an immediate war with it In the end, this attempt also failed but that's another matter.
My dad was in the US 5th Division that crossed into Czechoslovakia in May 1945. He said they could have easily marched on and captured Prague…but Patton ordered them to turn south into Austria.
I had a German uncle who was captured by the Czechs in the closing days of the war. It was a very unpleasant experience due to the Czechs seeking out retribution for the German occupation of their country. More than a few of the POWs were executed. They released him and he had to walk back to Germany. Him and the group of guys he traveled with traveled only at night for fear of being executed by irate Czech civilians. Him and his small group made it home.
Yeah I would somehow compare this situation at the end of the WW2 to the Rwanda's one. It may sound lil bit weird but I can see some parallels there and hope I can make you understand somehow. For exampůle Czechs lived more than 4 centuries under the German oppression. They become the citizens of the 2nd category and strangers in their own country. The brutal German occupation of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia was only the small eak of pretty bad relationship and when the war was over they striked back twice as hard. Germans were in the position similar to Tutsi minority with all the privileges colonial Power could give them and the members of Hutu tribe were not okay with that at all. The same situation with Czechs who were the majority back in the 19th century but did not enjoy the same rights as Germans used to have back then (Czech language as an official language, lacking Czech university in Moravia....etc). All the frustration of injustice showed painfully later as we know. As I said many many similarities between Hutu tribe + Czechs and Tutsi tribe + Germans. We only can hope all goverments and rulers can draw a lesson from this tragic incidents and do not prefer one nationality (or tribe for that matter) to other to prevent exactly these massacres
It's sad what the Czechs wanted to do to your uncle, but are you surprised? They were oppressed by Germany all the time, wiped out 2 villages, forced them to produce bombs and weapons with which the Germans then destroyed Europe, the 90 tons of gold that their state was able to produce in a few years of existence was on the move, the Germans improved their economy thanks to this, thanks to which they could for several years to be in the war without any crashes, tanks originally under the Czechoslovak flag now fought as German machines against Poland and France. In short, they didn't have it easy, and at the end of the war, when they had a chance to return it all to the Germans, they took it anyway.
Yeah, czechia was a nazi puppet state for 6 years....
Hitler worked for the Illuminati - first, they wanted to establish EU and Germanize it - then establish Israel for NWO. After the war, most top Nazi professionals were secretly taken to USA and got important positions so Russia grabbed some and built for them a gated special city - and yes American army was ordered to stay in Plzen and wait for Russians to come to Germany and to be celebrated as the victors.
As a Czech, I am very ashamed of this.after 1945, a ready-made slaughterhouse began in the Sudetenland....perhaps 30,000 German people lost their lives.They killed mostly collaborators and future communists.Other normal Czechs were afraid of them.sorry for using the translator, my english is not good...
Thanks!
Hi Jesse, I am extremely grateful for your generosity!
I always dreamt of being a history teacher. I would like to think if I had made it I would’ve been every bit as cool as you. Keep up the good work.
Many thanks for your reply!
Excellent content and delivery. Thank you for sharing with us.
Thanks Garry!
I have deep respect for czechs my father origin is from there he is a good man hard working and gifted. I always speak in high regard on this nation when the subject is rise in a conversation
Thanks for sharing.
With all the crazy stuff going on in the news, there is nothing I like more than going to my little cave, relax and watch some of the best history uploads out there.
Love your style and passion. It has that super extra attention to detail and lot of info digging that shows. Bet it helps living in Europe, knowing all the local cultures and must me mystical.
🙏 Thank you!
That was a very good video. You went deeper into details than you usually do, and I liked that. Take care.
Many thanks! I also thinking of remaking older countries in WW2 episodes. Serbia for example as I will travel there this summer.
I agree. His 8+ min videos are way too short. He underestimates his audience.
Nicely put. On factual side just one comment. The Slovak uprising was planned as part of a wider operation, involving the Red army breakthrough via Dukla pass in Carpathian mouintains. Bad communication and coordination resulted in uprising isolation and final defeat, while Dukla pass breakthrough failed as well and became a protracted bloodbath. The sudeten Germans would deserve its own title I believe. They played very controversial role in the WWII opening and sort of paid also quite a high price for it at the end. Ominous twist of fate.
Thanks for sharing.
The demarcation line between the U.S. army and the Soviets was actually a bit further east of the line shown at 13.23 It was actually a line linking Karlovy Vary - Plzeň - České Budějovice. Patton actually did go a bit beyond that too.
Thanks for sharing this.
Thank you so much for this video. It explained the occupation and its events very well.
Thanks for your reply.
Thanks! I respect you for traveling so much to make videos on location (just like the Flying Hollander😀). It's incredible to visit such places👍🏻
Nooooo! You forgot the battle of Slivice in late 1945, the last battle of WW2 in Europe. It was a delaying action by the retreating Germans hoping to surrender to the Western Allies. Hope you can make a Forgoten Battles episode about it. Love your videos!
Stalin commented on German troops still fighting in parts of Bohemia, I think even after the formal surrender on May 9, and wondered what they were hoping for.
These people are hired and paid to rewrite history.
Great video. I’ve been waiting for it.
Great😁
Nicely done. I'll just add a few notes: The country has been called Czechia for centuries. The name was coined in the 16th century as an alternative to "Bohemia". The Habsburg monarchy, in its final stage known as Austria-Hungary, started as a personal union between Austria, Czechia and Hungary in 1526. The Habsburgs ruled in Czechia as Czech kings. So what happened in 1918 was that the Habsburgs were deposed and Czechia regained its independence/sovereignty.
The so-called Sudetenland was never an administrative unit/region with defined borders. The name itself was coined by the German nationalists in the early 20th century to have an umbrella term for German-speaking population and areas in Czechia. Germans in Czechia came from different parts of Germany in the middle ages and spoke different dialects. The "Sudetenland" annexed by Germany in 1938 was also not exclusively German, hundreds of thousands of Czechs lived there.
Czechia was bombed by the allies, Skoda Works in Pilsen were the prime target (12 bombings, more than 1200 deaths in total), Prague was bombed twice (more than 1300 deaths). Other cites bombed by the allies were Ústí nad Labem (500 deaths), Mladá Boleslav (450 deaths, by Soviets) or Brno (700 deaths).
Thanks for taking the time to write this down.
Incorrect. They were ethnic Germans who were part of the German empire before the Versailles treaty displaced them, wanting to give Czechoslovakia the naturally defensible border given the mountainous and forest terrain, as well as the Sudetenland economy, which was absolutely essential to the very existence of the artificially created state. The only reason there were Czechs there is because they were sent there by Beneš to replace the ethnic Sudeten Germans in the forestry and administration jobs there and to displace ethnic Germans there in terms of the Sudetenland economy and administrative control. Despite this, plebiscites showed an overwhelmingly vast majority in the Sudetenland favored a reunification with Germany. This is when Beneš decided to place the Sudeten Germans under martial law and sponsored atrocities being committed against them.
@@jaredcarrick3468 Czechia (including her predominantly German-speaking territories) was never part of the German Empire and Czechs have lived in the so-called Sudetenland for centuries.
@@jaredcarrick3468 me when I graduate in propaganda 101
Hello, there were two representatives of Czechoslovakia in Munich, but they were in second room and they were not invited to be a part of negotiation. Their names were Hubert Masařík and Vojtěch Mastný. This is the reason why it is called "About us without us" (about Czechs). History is my hobby too, especially Czech history (maybe because I am Czech :D )
Thanks for sharing.
Good job writing down the sources, I appreciate it as a basestone of quality.
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Great Stefan! Congratulations on the work!! Strong hug.!!
Thanks!
It’s still so frustrating to hear the story of how Chamberlain and his notorious group sat and discussed how Germany could just take a part of another sovereign country without even having that country at the table. This was surely against International Law? The Czechoslovaks obviously realised at this point there’s trouble coming.
1938:
Evian Conference in July
Munich Conference in September
Kristalnacht in November.
@@jonlenihan4798 and the Anschluss in March
@@mammuchan8923 Yes. It says something about the low esteem in which the Jews were held in 1938, that none of the appeasers balked at handing the Czech Jews over to the Nazis.
@@jonlenihan4798 shocking really💔
This goes back to Versailles peace conference where Czechoslovak delegation under Edvard Beneš aggreed that alies (UK/France/Italy and USA) would have power of arbiter over borders of Czechoslovakia. Bigger betrayal was that UK and France at Munich guarranteed new borders (and that in case o violation by Germany they would declare war on Germany.)
Czechs were very smart to survive some very difficult conditions.
Indeed, as a small landlocked country, they've done well in retaining their country.
But a bit of luck is also part of it. If the Nazis had won World War II, the Czechs would have suffered a lot more. The “Generalplan Ost” also provided for forced labour, expulsion and murder for them. The Czechs who would have survived would probably live in Siberia today.
"Czechs were very smart " Cunning.
"Cunning" means unsympathetically clever...
Here a Nazi tries to mock the Czechs' struggle for survival.
The so-called “Generalplan Ost” by the Baltic German doctor Dr. Hans Ehlich was the product of an individual and was never taken seriously within the German leadership. A German policy of planned decimation of East German groups is a legend. It was only after the war that Polish propaganda took up this alleged "plan" and supplemented it with numerous forged documents in order to give the appearance of justification for the expulsion of the Germans from their homeland in East Germany and the theft of German assets.
Such a plan never was followd, not in the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, not in the Eastern territories.
Withouta constructive occupation policy, it would be unthinkable that millions of Slavs, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Russians and Cossacks, Latvians, Estonians, Caucasians and Western Europeans fought on the German side.
But hey did.
"", the Czechs would have suffered a lot more. The “Generalplan Ost” "
Nonsense, Germans had the means to start right in March 1939.
Not to forget: Czechoslowakia , After its founding, six million Czechs, 3.5 million Germans and two million Slovaks lived in this artificial state, plus more than half a million Hungarians and Ukrainians each, and around 200,000 Jews and around 100,000 Poles.
The Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, in which the Czechs enjoyed very extensive autonomy rights, similar to the Sorbs and Kashubians, who also have their settlement areas on German national territory. The autonomy even went so far that no Czech had to do military service during the Second World War. The police remained Czech and the Czech koruna continued to be the national currency. The national border also remained unchanged and entry and exit for Germans was still only possible with a passport.
The establishment of a protectorate is nothing unusual, since an entire continent itself, India, was also a protectorate of England at the time. For example, while England had no legitimate claim to India, in the case of Czechia there was at least a possible historical justification, since Bohemia was long a part of the Old Kingdom, and Prague was even its capital under the Luxemburgs.
awesome video mate keep it up cant wait for the video about the Czech legions that pave the road for their independence country of czechoslovakia
Thanks for your reply!
Czech legions brought some gold.
Czars Czech legions that paved the road for their Czech ruled state with the Czars gold, bulldozing Slovaks, Germans and minorities.
Beware of Nazi propaganda in the comments!
@@dittmannrudolfrohr2149 Soviet propaganda by Stalin and the USSR. By the way, also Czechoslovakia during the communist rule from 1948 to 1989. The legionnaires gave the gold to the Bolsheviks, otherwise they would not have allowed it to be shipped in Vladivostok. Thanks to the Czechoslovak legionnaires, the much-needed captured Hungarian and German units, which were released thanks to the Brest-Lithuania Peace, did not reach the western front in time. I owe the Legionnaires the fight for Czechoslovakia, which was created thanks to them, and especially that the Allies were able to win the First World War thanks to the containment and fight against the Hungarians and Germans.
Interesting and informative.
Thanks Carl!
Czech Republic was very useful in economic and military way for Germans in WW2. Even all people in that country were against Nazzi. Before WW2 it was one of the most developed country in world. Even in Hasbur monarchy Czech was reacher than all Hungary part of empire. In WW2 Czechs factories produced 30%of all German tanks.
Thanks for sharing
And there probably lies the real reason for the German invasion, not the Germans living in Czech but it’s munitions factories.
@@graham6496 that was independent factories ?
@@graham6496 What you think about role of Soviet Union in the de-occupation Czech?
as for the "30% of tanks"..... that is a a nonsense. The German army took over large stoockpile of Czech LT-38 tanks, which were also produced for some time after the occupation (they become obsolete quite quickly. Therefore the figure of 30% might be close(bit exaggerated) to true in the beginning of the war- Polish and French campaign. But definitely not after 1940 later;) No other type of tanks than LT-38 have been produced in Czechia during the WW2
Well done a nice presentation.
Thanks for watching.
Good job on this. Very informative.
Thanks for sharing.
I was introduced to the father of my father-in-law's cousin, who by then was quite old, in Bonn (this was early in this century). I was told he was an administrator of Prague for the Germans. He had also retired as a judge in Germany after the war. They had traced their family background back to 1700. The were originally from the Dresden area. It was all very strange and interesting. In the apartment on the Rhine, I was shown the family photo album. In it the cousin's uncle, I think, who was a captain in the German Army appeared. He was a model German officer with an Iron Cross. He died on the Eastern Front. When the cousin visited us in the US a few years later I was showing him some of my hunting rifles. We are both hunters. I had a Mosin-Nagant rifle made in 1942. That I did not show him, since it might have been the type of gun that killed his uncle. The cousin, by the way, was a high official in the German military, on the political side. Most of the family were lawyers, except for the cousin's oldest son, who had an MBA. I guess he was the black sheep of the family.
Thanks for sharing.
How do i like this video? Excellent! Many thanks for this docu. I'd say your students are lucky with you as their "prof". keep up the good work.
Thanks for your reply.
Awesome video
👍
Im here in north Czech right now visiting from Australia with my wife to research her German speaking ancestors hiistory in Czech. I have received so much help from people here and its been fascinating to discover what happened. Loved your video as always Stefan.
Thanks for your reply. Enjoy your stay!
"German speaking ancestors "
Face it, they were German!
Beware of Nazi propagandists in the comments!
@@dittmannrudolfrohr2149 Exactly true. Who in the end of the war were expelled or killed by the "freedom loving democrats" . Ie allied criminals Churchill,Roosevelt and the fanatic criminal benes.
@@dittmannrudolfrohr2149 - in the South Moravia /in the Moravian capital Brno (Brun) the german speakers considered themselves firstly Austrians :) also they spoke with Austrian / southern Bavarian accent, furthermore the censuses during Austrian - Hungarian times (until 1918 ) recorded only the first language used for communication (not a nationality as such ) at home , this changed after the first CZ republic census when they asked for a nationality - for example in my grandfather village the last A H census (1910) counted 70 % German speakers and 30 % of Czech speakers - the numbers were repeated during the first CZ census in 1920s - however the CZ authorities did not liked it -(ie the result) the first census results were cancelled and the census was repeated again and this time the result was 50% Germans and 50 % Czechs ... as many families were intermarried , in this village all residents were fluent in both Czech / German language without any accent - however after 1938 this village become a part of the German Reich ..based on the results from 1910
I did not watch this video last saturday, but now I rushed into it. Praha seems to me one of the most beautiful capital cities of EU. Good to know it was preserved from total destruction back in the dark days of WW2
Obrigado, Stefan! ヽ(͡◕ ͜ʖ ͡◕)ﾉ 🍀 🇧🇷
Thanks for you response.
Hey professor stefan! I am a patreon again! Glad to be back been traveling for a few months
Yes, I sad it! Many thanks Nick!! Where did you travel to?
@@HistoryHustle mainly around Europe, started out in your country the beautiful Netherlands where I have some relatives in Haarlem And also visited some WW2 memorials and places of importance in Netherlands France and Belgium in relation to WW2 history and battle fields. Was very nice I had an excellent time! Glad to be back on your channel and am currently catching up on your past videos! Cheers!
Regarding 4:45 - while its true there were forced labourers, you missed an opportunity to explain a critical component of life in the protectorate.
The exchange rate between Reichsmarks and Koruna was intentionally skewed very favourably towards Germany by Nazi officials. This meant that you could purchase much more Czech goods with German marks than you could otherwise with Korunas. This was also a contributing factor to a mass shortage in goods across the protectorate.
When Czechs were offered labour in Germany proper, some were happy to go work so as they would come back far wealthier. Fun fact: some streets after the war in some villages in Czechia were renamed 'At Hitlers' etc. to make fun of folks who had benefited and built houses with labour money from Germany.
Thanks for sharing this.
That's "fun?"
Not very sure about them volunteering to go to work to factories in Germany. My great-grandmother told me, that there has been chosen years, which had to go to work to the factories. She was one of them, as she was born in 1924. My great-grandfather offered her to marry her, so she did not have to go in the end - they married within 2 weeks, even when they did not know each other, just that she does not have to go there.
In the factories were working many people - mainly women - from different nations, kidnapped woman's from occupied countries etc. Her friend was not lucky and had to go to work there. She was saying terrifying stories. When americans came to the Germany, the first thing they did was bombarding these factories. Her friend was save, as that time she went back home for holidays. They hid her in a hole in the forest, so she did not have to go back.
Many czechs and slavs died in these factories. If you disagreed with anything, they did not have any issue to torture you or kill you. Not very fun staff and definitely the people were not getting wealthy from that.
Would worth it to check the facts before spreading this disinformation, how good was to go to work to gun factories in Germany next time.
The assassination of Heidrich is a bit controversial these days, as it didn't bring the war any closer to the end and cost a lot of innocent people their lives. It is seen by some people (including me) as a gesture to make it look like our exiled government still cared about what happened here.
Also letting the Soviets "liberate" us after giving up our territories to the Germans in Munich is a double whammy from the Western allies.
Your integrity and honour are more important than your own immediate life.
@@Ian8008 Tell that to the murder families, killed with kids included. I visited the memorial of Lidice and I can tell, I would trade a whole village for one living Nazi general in a blink of an eye. He would have died all the same but the innocents would live on.
@@Ian8008 Thats really easy to say...
Lukas Kubik - exactly sharing your thoughts, I also think killing Heidrich was a crazy move instigated by the bored out czech government in London, not that Heidrich didn't deserve it, he certainly did, but all of those innocent people, whole families etc that have payed with their lives for that, and the exile czech government knew what is going to follow as this was a normal german vendetta procedure what ever country they occupied, like the germans would substitute Heidrich with some angel!!! Nothing at all won, just lost !!!
Jak víš, že to bylo k ničemu? To si myslíš jen ty. Myslím, že to vyvolalo v nacistech strach, že by také mohli zemřít.
Hell yeah! As a Czech I love this video! Thankyou 🎉🎉🎉
🇨🇿👍
Hacha went to Berlin and asked for protection, after Slovakia declared independence and Hungary annexed borderlands.
Before the Nazi propaganda that Dittmann Rudolf Röhr spreads here (as in almost all of his comments) is taken for the truth: Emil Hácha asked Germany for protection because he was forced to do so. Göring threatens to bomb Prague. This is evidenced by several sources.
i think there were 5 movies made about heydrich. the heavy hitters are OPERATION DAY BREAK, ANTHOPOID and THE MAN WITH THE IRON FIST
Have seen the 2nd and 3rd you mentioned.
Jaroslav Emminger you mention at 9:57, who was a commander in chief of the Troops of the Goverment (or Czech Goverment Army), was hardly a collaborator. He secretly worked with the resistance and actively covered desertions of his soldiers to partisans. There was a very strong anti-german sentiment prevalent in the whole "Army". That is why the Germans distrusted the Army and intentionaly kept the whole force low on weapons, ammo and training and finally in 1944 had sent almost all of the soldiers to Italy (where desertions to the partisans started pretty much on day 1 of the deployment) . Even the post-war trial found Jaroslav Emminger not guilty of collaboration a recognized his resistance efforts.
However there were pro-nazi collaborators, every story has heroes and villains - the most infamous one is Emmanuel Moravec, Protectorate minister of eduacation, who was very active in the media promoting the Nazi cause. Commited suicide during the Prague uprising in 1945
Famous quote of Gen. Eminger - When one of his officers asked, what they should do if they discover an Allied parachutist agent, he replied:"If they are a few, you will leave them be. If they are many, you will join them. "
Thanks for sharing this.
Excellent summary of the events; thank you...
Many thanks!
Short but good. 👍
I haven't heard anything that contradicts what I've learned about the Occupation of Czechoslovakia.
Okay, soon more on specific aspects like the Prague Uprising.
@@HistoryHustle Allow me to give you one tip:
So that your channel does not lose its seriousness, you should pay more attention to the fact that Nazi propaganda is not simply reproduced and historical falsification is carried out. Which has already happened in some comments here.
@@marcusaurelius724 This is true. Especially the user "Dittmann Rudolf Röhr"
spreads historical misrepresentations.
Czechoslowakia , After its founding, six million Czechs, 3.5 million Germans and two million Slovaks lived in this artificial state, plus more than half a million Hungarians and Ukrainians each, and around 200,000 Jews and around 100,000 Poles.
The Sudetenland was annexed to the German Reich (Autumn 1938) after Munich agreement.
Hungary occupied border areas partly Hungarian ethnic group as well the Ruthenian-speaking Carpathian Ukraine (autumn 1938).
Poland occupied areas in Teschen (autumn 1938).
Slovak independence March 1939
On March 14, 1939, there was a meeting between Hitler and the then Czech President Emil Hacha in Berlin, at which Hacha asked for protection. As a result, the rest of Czechia was annexed by Germany and became the so-called Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
@@HistoryHustle This comment by Dittmann Rudolf Röhr is what I mean:
Emil Hácha did not ask for protection but was blackmailed.
If you leave such misrepresentations uncommented or not deleted, the seriousness of your channel suffers.
Thanks
Many thanks Noel!
thanks bro
👍
hello from Czech, you done it perfect. Keep up the good work
Thanks for you response.
In Prague in the spring of 1945, Tatiana Metternich wrote in her memoirs, "And yet in the restaurants, on the trams, in the streets, everybody was reading Russian primers. An ominous sign, for in the West they were reading English ones. But there was no sign of hostility, although Paul [her husband who had been discharged from the army because he was a prince] still wore his cavalry officer's uniform. They would look up and then look away again: their road to salvation was not ours, but that was all. One dreaded to think of their rude awakening."
No matter how unfashionable it might be, how horrifying to Russophobes of today, we mustn’t forget that the Czechoslovak government was completely willing to accept Soviet offers to provide troops in the face of Nazi drives to carve up the country. Poland refused to allow Red Army passage its territory, and then, went on to join the Nazis in seizing a slice of Czechoslovak territory for itself.
This again? Poland took only a very tiny slice and absolutely nothing above it. Does it bother you that the Czechs weren's as anti-german as the soviet sympathizers would want you to believe? Maybe the Czechs were willing to accept the soviet offer, but unwilling to respect the sovereignty of Poland who would be pacified by the soviet troops. To quote Stalin: "Wherever the red army's soldier puts his foot, there's already the Soviet Union".
@@aleksanderwielopolski8205 ‘ Only a tiny slice ‘ ? I’m quite certain that that is certainly not how the Czechoslovak state viewed matters, seeing Polish nationalists like Beck ( when they weren’t too busy doing there utmost to encourage right - wing Zionist fanatics like Betar ‘ to rid ‘ Poland of as many of its Jews as possible…) slithering in a wholly unscrupulous, disgraceful manner alongside Hitler in the evisceration of a neighbour. Pro-German sentiment in Prague ? Barely existent. The government had its hands full with treasonous collusion, led by Konrad Henlein, to tear off a vast chunk of precious territory, a conspiracy rooted in Berlin. What pro-Germanism are you on about ? Czech politicians were in far closer contact, for obvious reasons, with Moscow than they ever could be with Berlin. Is it coincidental that a Czech stateswoman suffered a cardiac arrest in the company of Nazis, and not the CPSU ? Why, too, have I yet to have read of anything remotely resembling the unbelievably revolting, almost innumerable outbreaks of anti - Semitic pogroms in post-war Poland occurring in Czechoslovakia ?
Russia knew that the liberation of Czechoslovakia would be unrealistic. There was no way to reach them and it just washed its hands populistically like Pontius Pilate. In 1939, it recognized the Slovak Fascist State and the Munich Agreement. So they are traitors like France and Britain. The Russians then helped the Nazis divide Poland and the sphere of influence.
Good point Matthew. As regards Poland it’s Important to note that the Soviets only did a deal with Germany to partition Poland after their offer of a common front against Germany was rejected.
In 1938 (despite France and Britain backing down at Munich) the Soviets continued to offer military assistance to Czechoslovakia including 700 fighter aircraft and parachute regiments (if requested).
This they hoped would force Germany to back down. Germany was weaker in 1938 than a year later. (Partly because they took all the Czechoslovakian military equipment)
Despite interest from the Czechoslovakian military the civilian government refused the Soviet offer, and simultaneously Poland attacked Czechoslovakia along with Germany. (Poland took 3 regions, and also colluded with Germany in continuing to occupy the southern third of Lithuania)
Realising they couldn’t trust Poland or the West the Soviets did a deal with Germany.
PS As pointed out elsewhere a Czech legion fought alongside the Red Army in liberating Kiev.
@@rjames3981 the civil government of Czechoslovakia did not refuse anything, but the USSR, on the contrary, claimed that if France and Great Britain helped Czechoslovakia against Germany, it would also help. But France and Britain signed the Munich Agreement and the USSR later signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and immediately recognized the Munich Agreement
Maybe I missed you saying it, but who was the ex-army officer who wanted to raise a unit? Emanuel Moravec?
I think but I'm not sure!
Hello, very nice video about our country. Please focus more on the pronunciation of the names. Thank you.
I do my best.
History, especially military history and war studies are the best subjects to learn and be interested in.
👍
We were ready to fight for freedom and relied on our allies..It was a blow we will not forget.
They sacrificed us for the sake of peace.. A year later Czechoslovak tanks occupied France..
Learn from history so it doesn't repeat itself.
Thank you for this video👍I am proud that we were determined to fight
Who? Czechs? They were Hitler's allies. Czechs are probably the most cowardly nation on the world.
Soviets continued to offer Czechs military assistance after Munich, despite British and French betrayal.
Probably unfortunate for Europe the Czechoslovakian government turned them down.
@@rjames3981 Unfortunate? Mate, Soviets made no secrets about their wishes to invade and expand to this region of Europe. They already invaded Poland in 1920, do you really think Poles would allow soviet armies to march through the entire Poland to reach Bohemia? Naaah mate, keep dreaming. It would have been the same story as in 1945, only this time they wouldnt probably do much since the US was not supporting them yet.
VH - In 1938 (despite France and Britain backing down at Munich) the Soviets continued to offer military assistance to Czechoslovakia including 700 fighter aircraft and parachute regiments (if requested).
This they hoped would force Germany to back down. Germany was weaker in 1938 than a year later. (Partly because they took all the Czechoslovakian military equipment)
Despite interest from the Czechoslovakian military the civilian government refused the Soviet offer, and simultaneously Poland attacked Czechoslovakia along with Germany. (Poland took 3 regions, and also colluded with Germany in continuing to occupy the southern third of Lithuania)
Realising they couldn’t trust Poland or the West the Soviets did a deal with Germany.
@@rjames3981 i think Poland took a bordering City but they were hardly marching arm and arm with landsers into Prague. Most certainly they didn't crush the Czechs
9:52 almost half of the czech gouverment army that was send to italy deserted and joined italian partisans.
7:59 you did not mention the 1st czechoslovak independent army corp in the USSR which took part (or its predecessor 1st czechoslovak independent brigade in USSR) in liberation of Kyiv in november 1943 they were first unit that reached center of the city and fulfilled its task
Thanks for sharing this.
@Dittmann Rudolf Röhr Not of the German Empire!!! You are confusing it withe multinational Holy Roman Empire, called Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, dissolved in 1806. The bond with Germany was artificially created in some individual locations, it was very limited. It was promoted successfully after 1933 which made it impossible for the Germans to stay in the Republic after the war. Yes, they were chased out brutally. Just as the Czechs chased out of the Sudetenland previously.
Great job!!
👍
Another informative and attractive introduction of that political event by an excellent, favorite history teacher (Sir Stefan) ...video clearly explained all factors & historical background of invasion of Czechoslovaka by Nazism army
Many thanks for your comment.
Czechoslowakia , After its founding, six million Czechs, 3.5 million Germans and two million Slovaks lived in this artificial state, plus more than half a million Hungarians and Ukrainians each, and around 200,000 Jews and around 100,000 Poles.
The Sudetenland was annexed to the German Reich (Autumn 1938) after Munich agreement.
Hungary occupied border areas partly Hungarian ethnic group as well the Ruthenian-speaking Carpathian Ukraine (autumn 1938).
Poland occupied areas in Teschen (autumn 1938).
Slovak independence March 1939
On March 14, 1939, there was a meeting between Hitler and the then Czech President Emil Hacha in Berlin, at which Hacha asked for protection. As a result, the rest of Czechia was annexed by Germany and became the so-called Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
Before the Nazi propaganda that Dittmann Rudolf Röhr spreads here (as in almost all of his comments) is taken for the truth: Emil Hácha asked Germany for protection because he was forced to do so. Göring threatens to bomb Prague. This is evidenced by several sources.
I guess it was necessary to check a pronunciation of the Protectorat's Staatspräsident's name: he was [ˈɛmɪl ˈɦaːxa] (wiki: In Czech, the letter ch is a digraph... however it is a single phoneme (pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative [x])), not [ˈɛmɪl ˈɦaːtʃa] as you told.
And once more: historically more correct is to say that pro-Axis Russians took part in Prague uprising wasn't ROA, because it hadn't been exist at that moment (and, to be honest, de facto never existet), it was a part of Armed forces of the Peoples' of Russia Liberation comittee (ВС КОНР, Вооруженные силы Комитета освобождения народов России), which consisted of not only former ROA units and members but also a lot of former and still existing Russian collaborationist units (f.e. XV SS cavalry corps). But only one Comittee Armed Forces unit took part in the uprising - it's 1st Infantry (or in German designation 600. Infanterie-division (Rus.)) leading by it's commander Maj.Gen. S. Bunjachenko.
The short-lived name ROA continued to be used.
Another excellent piece of work Stefan. Josef Tiso was an interesting character. A priest who fully supported the Germans and was hanged after the war for treason.(Not to be confused with Josef Tito of Yugoslavia)
The Soviets made a habit of hanging priests on false charges before, during and after the war. Ditto for the Nazis. Communists and Nazis alike made Church leaders among their first targets when crushing resistance to their rule.
There are some in Slovakia today who view Tiso as a patriot and a martyr
Tiso sure was an interesting man. Indeed do not confuse him with Tito.
Father Tiso solved an administrative problem for the Nazis. Who was to pay German Rail to deport the Jews to the death camps in Poland? Father Tiso's solution : German Rail should be paid from the looted assets of the deported Jews.
@@alswann2702 Hitler was quite pleased with Tiso.
Stefan, fascinating bit of history !!! Thank you Amigo ✌️🩵
Thanks for your response.
That was my great grand father. General Tad Malinowski of Poland who walked into that Czech town.
Thanks for sharing.
I originate from Upper Silesia/Hultschiner Land near Ostrava/Czech Republic, when the Germans came in 1938 and the Hultschiner Land became part of Deutsches Reich, my Grandpa needed to join the German Wehrmacht, he fought in Eastern Front, in Stalingrad, he survived, my dad was born in 1944 as Deutsches Reich citizen, in 1945 the land has been returned back to Czechoslovakia and my Grandpa and dad became the Czech citizens again. I was born in Czechoslovakia in 70ies and when I was 18 years old, I 've got a German Passport (Bundes Republik Deutschland) base on my family origin. The Germany still acknowledge the Citizenship Law from the Third Reich and German Reich! People born on the lost German land in Eastern Europe are still treated as Germans despite of the present territory situation!
In the end surrendering Chechoslovakia ti Hitler was very detrimental. First, Hitler got first class war industry. Second, he got lots of first class weaponry, first of all heavy guns. Which guns were present at the siege of Sevastopol, Leningrad and so on.
Thanks for sharing this.
What do your students think of your videos Stefan? Are they highschoolers?
Highschoolers, they sometimes watch them.
I had a friend, Herbert Pink, who was a cook in the American Army. They moved into Pilsen (Plzeň) in April of 1945, and were there until the end of the war. Each day Sgt. Pink would collect the leftover bread and take it into town, and hand it out to the townspeople. When the war ended, some men came to Sgt. Pink with a keg of beer. They explained that they were the local Czech resistance, and had been saving the keg to celebrate the end of the war. But, since he had fed them and others who were starving, they decided to give him the keg. Sgt. Pink was gracious, and took the keg, but, since he didn´t drink alcohol, he took it back to his company and explained that he didn´t know what to do with it. The men in the company said, "Don´t worry about it, sarge, we´ll take care of it for you."
Thanks for sharing.
I'm like, "Which Czech and where did he land?" Then I got it.
🤣👍
Who would use the real name. Typical stupidity and audacity of these people.
Interesting video, though it should be reminded that a Czech legion fought alongside the Red Army in the liberation of Kiev (Kyiv) in WW2.
Perhaps also it should be remembered that the Soviets offered military support in 1938 to the Czechoslovakians.
This was eventually turned down by the Czechoslovakian government.
👍
Soviets later supplied military support to Czechoslovakia against The West.
Dittmann Rudolf Röhr operates history misrepresentation and reproduces the Nazi propaganda of that time. His entire statements should be distrusted and checked with the help of reliable sources.
It wasn't declined.
Dobry - ‘A new cabinet, under General Jan Syrový, was installed, and on 23 September 1938, a decree of general mobilization was issued. The Czechoslovak Army was modern, had an excellent system of frontier fortifications and was prepared to fight. The Soviet Union announced its willingness to come to Czechoslovakia's assistance. Beneš, however, refused to go to war without the support of the Western powers‘
Will you ever make a video on the Austrian rule of Poland (Galicia)? My family comes from there (half was Polish and half was Austrian/German - “Galiziendeutsche/Gluchoniemcy”) and all of the videos on UA-cam mostly focus on the Prussian and Russian occupation zones :(
Perhaps one day when I am in the area, but not anytime soon I'm afraid.
As czech person Thank You for makeing this video ♥️ just be carefull, most of the czech names you wrote incorrect
Thanks for watching.
Great video, thank you very much, but... The Czech resistance weren´t only assassination of Reinhard Heydrich and Prague uprising. For example: On the 28. of October 1939 took place in Prague big demonstration against nazi occupation (approximately 100 000 people were in the streets). Central Leadership of Home Resistance during 1940-1941 had best intelligence and military reports for London from all occupied countries (from Prague were sent to the London more than 20 000 wire messages). The three kings of Czech resistance (Josef Balabán, Josef, Mašín and Václav Moravek) was responsible for bomb attacks in Leipzig, Munich, and Berlin. For example: They placed on the 15. of September 1939 in Berlin one suitcase of explosives in police headquarters and another at the Ministry of Air Travel. Both buildings were damaged. On the 30. of December 1940 they tried to assassinate military commander and leading member of the Nazi Party Heinrich Himmler in the railway station. Unfortunately, Himmler’s train was diverted to another station due to technical problems, but bomb blew up and station was very damaged. In summer and autumn 1941 make resistance sabotage and strikes, work slowed down and so on.
Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for the upload, you could `ve visit me, I am living in Prague :D
Great city 👍
Komt deze ook op het NL kanaal? Niet dat ik geen Engels begrijp, maar ben gewoon benieuwd 😂
Jawel.
1:48 : mixed population led to problems. That is still the case.
Please explain.
Not to be forgotten history!
Never forget.
Prime Minister Alois Eliáš was hardly "murdered". He was working with Allied forces at home and London. So when arrested he was convicted and executed.
It is still a murder one way or another. Tell his family it was not a murder and we ll see
Was general Toussaint originally French?
As far as I know he wasn't.
I'm interested in what was going on there because my parents bought china marked Czechoslovakia when they married in 1938. During WWII they got some more place settings and the marking was then Bohemia.
Come on Stefan , there was no liberation, Czechs became Soviet puppets until the 80s.
deoccupation by occupation
Initially the Czechs cheered the Soviets.
@@HistoryHustle yes because they didnt know what will became after few years nobody normal cheered
@@HistoryHustle the cheering didn’t last long.
In simpler terms for nations, told them they had to give up certain lands that were within their country. The Czechoslovakians should have resisted.
Czechoslowakia , After its founding, six million Czechs, 3.5 million Germans and two million Slovaks lived in this artificial state, plus more than half a million Hungarians and Ukrainians each, and around 200,000 Jews and around 100,000 Poles.
@@dittmannrudolfrohr2149 ty
@@Americanpatriot-zo2tk The Sudetenland was annexed to the German Reich (Autumn 1938) after Munich agreement.
Hungary occupied border areas partly Hungarian ethnic group as well the Ruthenian-speaking Carpathian Ukraine (autumn 1938).
Poland occupied areas in Teschen (autumn 1938).
Slovak independence March 1939
On March 14, 1939, there was a meeting between Hitler and the then Czech President Emil Hacha in Berlin, at which Hacha asked for protection. As a result, the rest of Czechia was annexed by Germany and became the so-called Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
@@Americanpatriot-zo2tk Before the Nazi propaganda that Dittmann Rudolf Röhr spreads here is taken for the truth: Emil Hácha asked Germany for protection because he was forced to do so. Göring threatens to bomb Prague. This is evidenced by several sources.
@@dittmannrudolfrohr2149 ty for info
Where have you been ?
Right here.
Every British school child should watch this to ensure there will be no further indoctrination that Britain was ever some protagonist for freedom.
I don't think surrendering a small strip of land mostly inhabited by Germans to avoid another world war was so disgraceful.
Why then did the British hit back and guarantee Poland, ready now to fight a war? This was Chamberlains idea, and in 1957 he was described in a memoir as follows
No one had ever been a more devoted and passionate lover of freedom.
He even said we will never surrender - our freedom - speaking in March 1939, and declared in April that British freedom concerned such European countries as were threatened. School children are already confused, they don't need more theory, Czechoslovakia had no right to determine when the UK would declare war, if anyone had the empire had, and the empire said no to war in 1938.
@@robertewing3114 Britain declared war on 3rd September 1939 to prevent further German expansion. If Britain was concerned about Polish freedom Britain would also have declared war on the Soviet Union when they invaded Poland on 17th September. If WW2 was all about freedom Churchill would not have conspired with Stalin in October 1944 to ensure the Soviets would control Poland after WW2.
At no point did Czechoslovakia try to dictate to anyone when others went to war. But those who are actually protagonists for freedom are not selective about which countries they want to be free and then betray their supposed ally Poland well before WW2 ended.
The Nazis were monsters that needed to be defeated but WW2 just wasn't the great crusade for freedom that some people pretend it was.
@@MrBagpipes I think your word crusade is irrelevant to what Chamberlain was attempting to do, he was concerned to safeguard freedom from the threat to it, actually telling a Brum audience in peacetime that the breath of their British freedom was at stake. He wouldn't accept Stalin occupying the Baltic States, but Churchill couldn't refuse Stalin Poland. However, Churchill at US invitation declared cold war on Stalin, so no betrayals other than the historical attacks on Chamberlain that continue to this day. And remember, if freedom was to become a crusade, it would confront most people in this world, and that isn't a political option or possibility. Pretence of heroic endeavour is useful to obtain votes, but at least with Chamberlain we know there was no pretence.
@@robertewing3114 Chamberlain went crawling to Hitler three times for ",Peace in our time," not for anyone's freedom. If it was about freedom Chamberlain wouldn't have been so forthright about being okay with letting the Nazis march into Czechoslovakia unopposed. You don't get to pretend Chamberlain was all about freedom when he was highly selective about whose freedom he actually supported. If it had been about freedom Britain wouldn't have done zilch regarding the Soviet Union invading Poland. And they definitely wouldn't have done nothing when the Soviets invaded Finland. Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany because of strategic interest.
Charles de Gaulle declined to do exactly what Churchill done, betray Poland to Stalin. Polish soldiers were still wearing British uniforms when Churchill agreed to the occupation of Poland by the Soviets after WW2. Churchill literally threw a tantrum when the Polish Government in Exile would not recognise Stalin's handpicked Polish Communist cronies on the Lublin Committee. Churchill even met Stalin's petty request that no Polish soldiers participate in the London VE Parade. Ask any Polish person what their entire country calls 'The Great Betrayal' and they will tell you very quickly.
The term Cold War was first used by an American, it wasn't declared by Churchill. And it started in 1947 with The Truman Doctrine, Clement Attlee was the British Prime Minister at the time not Churchill.
Great summary.
The reason the Western Allies did not liberate Czechia and march into Prague is because of the Yalta agreement between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. They decided who would liberate which country. Czechie was to be liberated by Russia along with all of the countries which later became part of the Warsaw Pact alliance.
Thanks for your reply.
not true. What you wrote about Yalta is just an urban legend perpetuated by some lazy journalists;) Nothing like that was discussed or agreed in Yalta. Not advance of troops. Not imposition of dominance of one side or the other on liberated or conquerred territories.
Basically only post war occupation zones in Germany&Austria were agreed plus Issue of what is the legitimate polish government (on paper result was a 'compromise').
In all cases, free elections etc -something Stalin never intended to allow in reality of course, but that is the different story.
The advance of troops towards the end of WW2 was based on 'who gets where first' based on operational situation- no pre agreed demarcation.
Need proof? check advance of US&British troops deep into agreed soviet occupation zone of Germany. Or advace of US army into Czechoslovakia. Or indeed soviet landings on some Danish islands.
But yes, regarding Liberation of Prague- its true that Soviets did ask the US to stop the advance towards Prague when they already liberated city of Plzen: soviets lied they were 'within 1 day from Prague'. So the US agreed to stop.
But there was no pre-agreed demarcation line on Yalta. And there was no 'carving up Europe' on Yalta.
Years back I talked with a U.S. vet who was there. He told me that when they were giving the order to withdraw, instead of bringing equipment back with them, they dug massive trenches and buried everything. He said it was less to carry and the Russians wouldn't get it. He also added that it would have made any U.S. taxpayer cry.
The Czechoslovaks massacred the German civilian population. In addition, even after the surrender of Germany, they first disarmed German soldiers of the Wehrmacht and the SS, then rounded them up and killed them. Certainly a crime, but one that was never prosecuted. My great-grandfather was beaten to death with clubs by the militia near Prague on 10 May 1945, one day after the end of the war. With this story, I expressly do not want to relativise the crimes of the Germans against the Czechs, but war is never black and white and both sides brutalise in a spiral of violence. This should also drive us to find peace for Ukraine and for Russia these days!
And the germans treated the people of the territories which they invaded with kid gloves. The german invasion, which was followed by their genocidal occupation in pretty much all of Eastern Europe elicited strong emotions among the persecuted. Just imagine how the germans would have treated had they been on the receiving end of the treatment which they mete out, in reality, to those people.
Oh yeah, deep down within I am certain that you believe that the germans were just following in the footsteps of their anglo cousins, 'civilising the subhuman' populations they were colonising.
There is also much truth in what you say and if the Minsk agreement had been allowed to have been implemented and had been strictly adhered to Ukraine would not be the hell hole it is to day and tens of thousands of young Ukrainian and Russian young men would still be alive in the bosom of their families and not cannon fodder for a bunch of billionaire, neo con, globalist warmongers.
Well, what do you expect after 6 years of occupation and most germans living in Czechia collaborating with the Nazis. They started the war. They deserved it.
Yes, the Czechs also committed atrocities after the war. Evil begets only evil, and the Germans must not be surprised. If someone murdered your family, you would also take revenge.
@@Prometheus101 ...and that is why this spiral of violence must be interrupted! Also now in Ukraine. Russians are not worse people than Ukrainians, Germans or anyone else...!
I'm Ukrainian, but I watch your videos and I really like them❤
Thanks for your response.
You forgot about Czech cooporation with Soviet Russia The Empire of Evil. Soviets were in the process of building military airport in Czech what was going to be threat to Germany.
Source?
@@HistoryHustleit’s all documented in National Socialist archives by people who gained access to them and reported on them. Those National Socialists were meticulous record keepers. Not only was Czechoslovakia preparing a springboard for a potential (inevitable….. ie: Operation Groza or “Thunder” in Russian) Soviet Invasion of Germany, they also had an alarming amount of tanks and armaments for such a small, artificially created state which the Germans were able to expropriate.
In the meantime, Stalin knew war between Germany and the west was also inevitable at that time and wanted to wait until they had gone at it to the point where Western Europe would be weakened enough to walk right in and take over….. AKA Operation Groza.
When Operation Barbarossa was being finalized in the Spring of 1941, Hitler made sure that all the trade shipments were still being completely fulfilled to the Soviets in compliance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact so as not to send up any red flags, but decided to order high altitude reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union. They discovered massive preparations for an offensive military operation the size and scope of which the world had never seen, which corroborated their earlier reports of troop mobilization in the Soviet Union. Countless airfields were being constructed, railways designed to run east and west for transport as opposed to north and south, armaments buildups, factories, shipments to and supplies at the border, etc. All the evidence was right there that the Soviets were just waiting for the right moment. And this isn’t even to mention the fact that immediately after France and the Low Countries fell to Germany, the Soviets immediately annexed the Baltic states. They were fortifying their position in Europe in preparation for the final battle. They were expecting the war in the west to drag on longer and cause more instability. Once they saw this wasn’t the case, they felt like they had to act fast in the Baltic (France fell to Germany in May 1940, Soviets annex Baltic states in June 1940). Hitler beat the Soviets to the punch with Barbarossa with literally just weeks to spare.
@@jaredcarrick3468 Reason for that "alarming amount of tanks and arnaments" was Germany being the neighbour... Czechoslovak government knew that Germany would be back and they were preparing for it for 20 years, yet it still wasn´t enough, so maybe don´t act like there wasn´t any reason for all those tanks and arnaments.
We know that Soviets expected to have war with Germany atleast in 1943 or probably later, but they were preparing to possibility that it might happen sooner and as history showed it was right decision. Both Germany and Soviets knew that their pact was just a temporary cease fire, don´t act like Soviets were planning to attack peaceful Germany.
12:24 - Black-bordered notice in Czech with picture of Hitler - "The Leader has fallen".
Thanks for sharing.
No mention of the massacres carried out by Czechs against ethnic German civilians after the surrender. Its estimated 30k were killed
Evil begets only evil.
30k vs 350k
Jablonkow Incident:
1939 August 25 - 26 Slovak / Polish Border. A German commando unit, unaware that Herr H had postponed the war, invaded Poland as per plan. Captured the Mosty Railway Station. Failed ? Aborted ? Were under heavy Polish gun fire and retreated to Slovakia about noon with 2 wounded.
Yess he finally made it
😁👍🇨🇿
Is it me or is the video like it's filmed on VHS in 1998....ah I listen more than I watch anyway....:)
Haha, those were the days.
My favorite history teacher
😁
You forgot the czechoslovaks that faught on the easten front.
I believe I mentioned the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps, else I do that in a future video. Didn't forget it. I choose not to, since it's an overview video.
Had the Czech ever forgive the West for beytradeding them
"The West" 🤔
(That's a lot of individuals.)
it was simple realpolitik. the British and French were still reeling from the Depression, the last world war was less than 20 years before,. noone wanted another world war , which the Germans seemed hellbent on. opinions divided ; what could the Anglo-French forces have done if Hitler simply invaded.. ??? the Munich Agreement gave the Allies an extra year to prepare for the inevitable conflict. Czechoslovakia was an artificial country. the Slovaks were declaring independence and the Sudentenland was going to be taken by Germany .. it would have been complete collapse, with a lot of casualties , even before the western Allies could do anything.... USSR was an ally of Czechs, but in the event did nothing.
That's were it came down to.
@@coling3957 Do you genuinely think that the extra year which France and the UK gained by giving up the Sudetenland, and thus all of Czechoslovakia with it, benefited them more than it did the Germans?
It's not like the western allies were the only ones arming themselves, all while the Germans were busy making sand castles on the beaches of Sylt, is it?
Germany's arms industry was ramping up at a much faster pace than that of the UK and France, and on top of that they gained the formidable Czech industry and armaments.
The allies came out relatively weakened compared to the Germans, not the other way around.
@@coling3957 Which they didnt have to do, since the wehrmacht of 1940 was completely different from the pitiful army of 750 000 green conscripts germans could field in 1938. With the forts there is no doubt in my mind the germans wouldnt get past the border.
looks lovely there
😎
The Czech republic is a beautiful country.
As I watch the slow death of journalism , book bans and the construction of reproductive health in my nation . It is reassuring to know that well sourcec history survives on this channel
A additional point to be made is the partial invasion by Poles and Hungarians, taking regions of the Kocise region and Poles areas in the north. The great what "if" of WW2 would have been if Checoslovaks had engaged the Wermach. The Slavic army was well organized, well trained, and in some cases had better equipment than the Wermach soldiers. I had a Checoslovak vz24 rifle and found it smoother than the K98, my opinion.
Thanks for sharing.
well done hus
👍
Czech subtitle prosím!!
Sorry.
Dobrá praca.
Prečo Česi povstali 5 dní po smrti Hitlera ?
+ 30. IV. 1945 Hitler sa zastrelil.
* 5. V. 1945 povstali Česi proti mrtvemu Hitlerovi .
Čakali či vstane z mŕtvych ?
Soon more on your question.
možná proto, že se zprávy nešířili tak rychle jako dnes?
Prague was still in Nazi's hands.
@@KevinNish10 Přesně tak, ale to pan Josef asi neví.
what? no umbrella toting man wit his "peace in our time" paper ? one of the most shamefull act in history! never negotiate with bullies!
I understand.
Hitler accurately predicted the artificial state would simply cease to exist if they lost the Sudetenland. The Sudetenland economy was essential for the existence of the state, plus, once Sudetan Germans were allowed to reunify with the Reich, it would cause a domino effect with the Ukrainians, Poles, Hungarians etc. all wanting to reunify with their home countries. Germany didn’t have much of an interest in the maintenance of the artificial state at the time other than the mines in Upper Silesia and occupying Czechoslovakian/Polish border territory to use in trade negotiations with Poland in regards to Danzig and East Prussia. They also didn’t want the chaos of the failed state to make them ripe for a communist takeover. Contrary to communist lies and propaganda about him being a “murderer”, Reinhard Heydrich did a great job as the Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy Reich Protector) in Bohemia-Moravia during the German occupation there. He introduced a carrot and stick approach for the Czechs by incentivizing good behavior and the Czechs really took to it. They were actually doing better economically under Heydrich than they were under Beneš and the occupation was subsequently a relatively liberal one which granted plenty of autonomy to the Czechs. It was a huge propaganda win against the communists, which is why the communists had Heydrich murdered.
Edvard Beneš was a communist who was openly collaborating with the Soviets, and Hitler knew this. Beneš and Czechoslovakia were also part of the coup against Chamberlain in Great Britain.
There was a shadowy group in “The City” of London called The Focus. The group was a “think tank” (what would today be called an NGO or non-governmental organization). The group consisted of top industrialists, international bankers and investors, former ministers/politicians, etc. The majority of the members of The Focus were Jews. Those who weren’t Jewish had Jewish wives and strong ties to Jews and had Jewish backgrounds. The group was led by Sir Henry Strakosch. Strakosch was an Austrian born Jewish banker who made his fortune in the gold mines in South Africa.
Winston Churchill had been living in shame for years since the First World War, where his Gallipoli adventure ended in over 300,000 British, French, Australian and New Zealand casualties. During the interwar period, he fell into crippling debt. He sold forged copies of paintings by dead French artists and other similar activities to get by, until one day, Sir Henry Strakosch paid off Churchill’s debts and began paying him massive sums of money to become a literal paid shill to push for war with Germany.
Other members of the British and commonwealth cabinets at the time were being paid by Strakosch. Even the Czechoslovakian government was sending money to Strakosch to pay off these British ministers to overthrow Chamberlain and get Churchill installed so he could cause a war with Germany. In July 1938, a single payment alone was roughly 2 million British pounds via the Czech embassy. Hitler himself caught wind of the plan by Hermann Göring‘s wiretap agency and sent all the evidence to the British ambassador to show to Chamberlain.
Early in 1939, then ousted and former Czechoslovakian President Edvard Beneš traveled to the US for a secret meeting with FDR at his residence in Hyde Park. Here, FDR assured Beneš the US would “actively intervene once the war had started”.
This is just twisting historical facts to fit your narrative. Germany wasn´t kind savior who did his best to protect his poor neighbours.
Excellent work again 👍. Hope you enjoyed Praag (Prague) to.
Greets from Grun', 🇳🇱 T.
Had a great stay. Thanks!
As a Czech person myself... The more I learn about the late 1930s geopolitical situation, the less I'm angry at UK and France. Yes, Daladier and Chamberlain were naive. And the fact that Munich agreement was done without the Czechoslovakia is outrageous. But the "Western treason" is not accurate, since there were other countries, that had a military alliance with us and they also didn't helped.
And when it comes to compensation... Well, France gave us to Hitler and subsequently was rolled over by Czechoslovak tanks painted in German colors - that was just karma doing it's thing.
And the Great Britain? Chamberlain's "piece in our time" killed over 800 000 British soldiers and civilians and London was bombed and heavily damaged. Yes, UK betrayed us. But they've paid for it in blood, sweat and tears. If you're going to tell me it's not enough, I won't believe you...
Thanks for sharing.
didnt the Chez prime minister request to come under the protection from Germany ? Yes or No ???
He was forced.
@@HistoryHustle by who and how he was forced by????
@@uweberlin117 In Berlin by Hitler.
@@HistoryHustle for sure ....;-) sounds more like a conspiracy theory ;-)
@@uweberlin117 yap, Hitler just made few remarks that he will bomb Prague to ground. Czech president physically collapsed twice having to be administered injections by Hitler's (not Czech) doctor. (Goebbel's diary, plus number of accounts from Czech president's entourage)
And then Czech president finally got time to get to the point of asking Hitler for 'protection':) I just wonder from whom Czech president was asking Hitler for protection- Britain,Poland or France perhaps?:)