I know I don’t really need to say it, but Taking over a country is and was a pretty
big deal. The blood of thousands of men, women and children were spilled in the defense of
their homelands and invading forces, were, for the most part, treated with a prolonged
and veiled hostility. So how was it then that in early 1939 at the advent of WW2, a proud
country like Czechoslovakia simply surrendered their whole country in only 3 hours?
First things first, it’s worth keeping in mind that Czechs were no Nazi lovers and their
resistance cell famously assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, who in 1942 at the time of his death,
was head of the SS and gestapo as well as the architect of the final solution. A pretty
important dude to the Nazi’s who then sought their revenge on countless innocent Czech’s
who they massacred indiscriminately.
With this point out of the way and willingness of the Czech people to fight the Germans being
undoubted, the question still remains why were there absolutely no attempts of initial
resistance? Well that answer lies in one of the most extraordinary brown beatings in the
history of diplomacy.
When 66 year old former chief justice of Czechoslovakia, Emil Hacha, was thrust into the turbulent
political sphere of 1938, he simply wasn’t ready for it. Nearing retirement, Hacha suffered
from a heart condition and was relatively frail, however this didn’t stop the Czech
national assembly from naming him as replacement president. This change meant that Hacha would
be the one to stand up to Hitler on behalf of his nation, and as the title of the video
suggests, that didn’t go too well at all.
In 1939 trying to proactively engage in discussions with Hitler, Hacha requested an audience with
him in Berlin, where he and his foreign minister were greeted with military honours. Although
things seemingly started out great, Hitler obviously had a plan and sensed the fragility
of his Czech opponents. The visitors were then called at a snug 1.15am to attend a “conference”
in the Führer’s study at his newly built Chancellery.
This supposed conference between the two countries quickly turned out to be more of a pseudo
Gestapo interrogation than anything else. Hitler, his own foreign minister, Joachim
von Ribbentrop, Herman Goering and General Wilhelm Keitel were all present for this seemingly
school-boy bully type of a conference. The 2 Czech’s were told that they were to be
introduced into the Third Reich after signing the papers for surrender or they would see
their beloved capital of Prague be pulverised by bombs by daybreak.
Hacha pleaded with Hitler that his people have a right to live a national life, but
the pleas were met with deaf ears and the diplomatic hounding continued. The 4 Germans
all standing around a table were constantly thrusting the documents to the Czechs as well
as pushing pens into their hands, all while continuing to threaten them. At one point,
Hitler warned him that for every Czech battalion attempting to stem an invasion, there would
be an entire German Division ready to overcome it.
This all proved too much for the old Czech president and he fainted twice during the
“conference”, only to be revived both times by Hitler’s personal doctor. The pressure
was obviously unbearable for the man, and at 4am Hacha finally signed the surrender
documents that were hastily translated into Czech, agreeing that for the sake of Calm,
order and peace in central Europe, he would not resist a German invasion.
This was Hitler’s first conquest of a non-German country. Although he appeared intimidating
and unwavering during the talks, he was anything but, and truthfully if England or France had
reacted right away the course of the war would have changed in the Allies favour early on.
Nonetheless, as a commenter on one of our videos said, History doesn’t care about
the What if’s, and Hitler was exalted and his confidence grew dramatically at his first
annex of a foreign power.
It was only later that evening when Hitler and his Wehrmacht forces occupied Czechoslovakia,
and Hitler obviously still beaming from his diplomatic conquest, publicly announced that
Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist. The unfortunate Hacha essentially was forced to act as a Nazi
puppet until the country was overrun by the Red Army and he was thrown into a Prague jail
where he would die on June 27th of 1945.