Second Republic (October 1938 to March 1939) The greatly weakened Czechoslovak Republic was forced to grant major concessions to the non-Czechs. The executive committee of the Slovak People's Party met at Žilina on 5 October 1938, and with the acquiescence of all Slovak parties except the Social Democrats formed an autonomous Slovak government under
Jozef Tiso. Similarly, the two major factions in
Subcarpathian Ruthenia, the
Russophiles and Ukrainophiles, agreed on the establishment of an autonomous government, which was constituted on 8 October. Reflecting the spread of modern
Ukrainian national consciousness, the pro-Ukrainian faction, led by
Avhustyn Voloshyn, gained control of the local government and Subcarpathian Ruthenia was renamed
Carpatho-Ukraine. In 1939, during the occupation, the Nazis banned
Russian ballet. A last-ditch attempt to save Czechoslovakia from total ruin was made by the British and French governments, who on 27 January 1939, concluded an agreement of financial assistance with the Czechoslovak government. In this agreement, the British and French governments undertook to lend the Czechoslovak government £8 million and make a gift of £4 million. Part of the funds were allocated to help resettle Czechs and Slovaks who had fled from territories lost to Germany, Hungary, and Poland in the Munich Agreement or the Vienna Arbitration Award. meeting in Berlin, 14/15 March 1939 . Headquarters, Prague, 15 March 1939. Commander, 3rd Army,
Blaskowitz, General of infantry." The Czech translation includes numerous grammatical errors. In November 1938,
Emil Hácha, who succeeded Beneš, was elected president of the federated
Second Republic, renamed Czecho-Slovakia and consisting of three parts: Bohemia and Moravia, Slovakia, and Carpatho-Ukraine. Lacking its natural frontier and having lost its costly system of border fortification, the new state was militarily indefensible. Without the natural defensive barrier of the mountains of the Sudetenland, Hácha carried out a foreign policy that was slavishly pro-German as he felt this was the best way to preserve his nation's independence. In late 1938 – early 1939, the continuing economic crisis caused by problems of rearmament, especially the shortage of foreign hard currencies needed to pay for raw materials Germany lacked together with reports from Hermann Göring that the Four Year Plan was hopelessly behind schedule forced Hitler in January 1939 to reluctantly order major defense cuts with the Wehrmacht having its steel allocations cut by 30%, aluminum 47%, cement 25%, rubber 14% and copper 20%. On 30 January 1939, Hitler made his "Export or die!" speech calling for a German economic offensive or "export battle" to use Hitler's term to increase German foreign exchange holdings to pay for raw materials for the Four Year Plan without cutting back on food imports. Hitler's wish to occupy Czechoslovakia was primarily caused by the foreign exchange crisis as Germany had run down its foreign exchange reserves by early 1939, and Germany urgently needed to seize the gold of the Czechoslovak central bank to continue the Four Year Plan. In addition, this allowed Germany to gain control of Czech armament (particularly, the
Škoda Works), and get rid of the threat of the Czech army and airfields, which were easily in range of Germany. On 8 March 1939, Hitler met with
Wilhelm Keppler, the NSDAP's economic expert, where he spoke about his wish to occupy Czecho-Slovakia for economic reasons, saying that Germany needed its raw materials and industries. Hitler totally ignored the agreements of the Munich Agreement and scheduled a German invasion of Bohemia and Moravia for the morning of 15 March. In the interim, he negotiated with the
Slovak People's Party and with Hungary to prepare the dismemberment of the republic before the invasion. On 13 March, he invited Tiso to Berlin and on 14 March, the Slovak Diet convened and unanimously declared Slovak independence. Carpatho-Ukraine also declared independence but Hungarian troops occupied and annexed it on 15 March and a small part of eastern Slovakia as well on 23 March.
14 March Following the secession of Slovakia and Ruthenia, British Ambassador to Czechoslovakia
Basil Newton advised President Hácha to meet with Hitler. When Hácha arrived in Berlin on 14 March, he met with the German Foreign Minister,
Joachim von Ribbentrop prior to meeting with Hitler. Von Ribbentrop testified at the
Nuremberg trials that during this meeting, Hácha had told him that "he wanted to place the fate of the Czech State in the Führer's hands." Hácha later met with Hitler, where Hitler gave the Czech President two options: cooperate with Germany, in which case the "entry of German troops would take place in a tolerable manner" and "permit Czechoslovakia a generous life of her own, autonomy and a degree of national freedom..." or face a scenario in which "resistance would be broken by force of arms, using all means." Minutes of the conversation noted that for Hácha this was the most difficult decision of his life but believed that in only a few years this decision would be comprehensible and in 50 years would probably be regarded as a blessing. After the negotiations had finished, Hitler told his secretaries, "It is the greatest triumph of my life! I shall enter history as the greatest German of them all." According to
Joachim Fest, Hácha suffered a
heart attack induced by
Hermann Göring's threat to bomb the capital and by four o'clock he contacted Prague, effectively "signing Czechoslovakia away" to Germany. Göring, however, does not mention that Hácha had a heart attack because of his threat. French Ambassador
Robert Coulondre reported that according to an unnamed, considered a reliable source by Coulondre, by half past four, Hácha was "in a state of total collapse, and kept going only by means of injections."
15–16 March On the morning of 15 March, German troops entered the remaining Czech parts of Czechoslovakia (referenced as '''' by Nazi Germany), meeting practically no resistance (the
only instance of organized resistance took place in
Místek where an infantry company commanded by
Karel Pavlík fought invading German troops). The
Hungarian invasion of Carpatho-Ukraine encountered resistance but the Hungarian army quickly crushed it. On 16 March, Hitler went to the Czech lands and from
Prague Castle proclaimed the German
protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The British historian Victor Rothwell wrote that the Czechoslovak reserves of gold and hard currency seized in March 1939 were "invaluable in staving off Germany's foreign exchange crisis". In addition, the Germans seized all of the factories for making weapons, mines that provided crucial raw materials for the armament program of the Four Year Plan and a "huge weapons haul, including nearly 500 tanks and nearly 1600 aircraft". Besides violating his promises at Munich, the annexation of the rest of Czechoslovakia was, unlike Hitler's previous actions, not described in
Mein Kampf. After having repeatedly stated that he was interested only in
pan-Germanism, the unification of ethnic Germans into one
Reich, Germany had now conquered seven million Czechs. Hitler's proclamation creating the protectorate on 16 March claimed that "Bohemia and Moravia have for thousands of years belonged to the
Lebensraum of the German people". British public opinion changed drastically after the invasion. Chamberlain realised that the Munich Agreement had meant nothing to Hitler. Chamberlain told the British public on 17 March during a speech in
Birmingham that Hitler was attempting "to dominate the world by force".
Second World War The Arsenal of the Reich Shortly before World War II, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Its territory was divided into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the newly declared
Slovak State and the short-lived
Republic of Carpathian Ukraine. While much of former Czechoslovakia came under the control of Nazi Germany, Hungarian forces swiftly overran the Carpathian Ukraine. Hungary annexed some areas (e.g., Southern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia) in the autumn of 1938. Poland reclaimed Zaolzie previously annexed by the Czechs during the Polish-Soviet war in 1920. The Zaolzie region became part of Nazi Germany after the
German invasion of Poland in September 1939. The German economy—burdened by heavy militarisation—urgently needed foreign currency. Setting up an artificially high exchange rate between the
Czechoslovak koruna and the
Reichsmark brought consumer goods to Germans (and soon created shortages in the Czech lands). Czechoslovakia had fielded a modern army of 35 divisions and was a major manufacturer of machine guns, tanks, and artillery, most of them assembled in the
Škoda factory in
Plzeň. Many Czech factories continued to produce Czech designs until converted to German designs. Czechoslovakia also had other major manufacturing companies. Entire steel and chemical factories were moved from Czechoslovakia and reassembled in
Linz (which incidentally remains a heavily industrialized area of Austria). In a speech delivered in the
Reichstag, Hitler stressed the military importance of occupation, noting that by occupying Czechoslovakia, Germany gained 2,175 field cannons, 469 tanks, 500 anti-aircraft artillery pieces, 43,000 machine guns, 1,090,000 military rifles, 114,000 pistols, about a billion rounds of ammunition and three million anti-aircraft shells. This amount of weaponry would be sufficient to arm about half of the then Wehrmacht. Czechoslovak weaponry later played a major part in the German conquests of Poland (1939) and
France (1940). Heydrich during his time as
Reichsprotektor brought about increases in rations for workers in the armaments industry, improved welfare services, free shoes and for a short time, a five-day work week as Saturday was made a holiday. The National Union of Employees was remolded in the style of the Nazi pseudo-union, the
German Labour Front, to provide free sports events, films, concerts and plays for the workers. Heydrich sought to portray himself as the friend of the Czech working class, even meeting a group of selected Czech workers on 24 October 1941 in a photo-op to show his supposed concern for the Czech workers. Heydrich cynically called his policy "optical effects" as he believed that mere gestures such as free showings of films at the local cinemas and free sports matches could win the support of the working class and increase productivity in the war industries. However, inflation was rampant and wage increases failed to keep up with the cost of living, causing the workers to frequently grumble about their conditions.
Czechoslovak resistance and
Josef Valčík and their fellows, in total 254 people, were executed en masse on 24 October 1942 in
Mauthausen concentration camp. Beneš—the leader of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile—and
František Moravec—head of Czechoslovak military intelligence—organized and coordinated a resistance network. Hácha, Prime Minister
Alois Eliáš, and the Czechoslovak resistance acknowledged Beneš's leadership. Active collaboration between London and the Czechoslovak home front was maintained throughout the war years. The most important event of the resistance was
Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of
Reinhard Heydrich,
SS leader
Heinrich Himmler's deputy and the then Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. Infuriated, Hitler ordered the arrest and execution of 10,000 randomly selected Czechs. Over 10,000 were arrested, and at least 1,300 were executed. According to one estimate, 5,000 were killed in reprisals. The assassination resulted in one of the most well-known reprisals of the war. The Nazis completely destroyed the villages of
Lidice and
Ležáky; all men over 16 years from the village were murdered, and the rest of the population was sent to
Nazi concentration camps where many women and nearly all the children were killed. The Czechoslovak resistance comprised four main groups: • The army command coordinated with a multitude of spontaneous groupings to form the Defense of the Nation (
Obrana národa, ON) with branches in Britain and France. Czechoslovak units and formations with Czechs (c. 65–70%), and Slovaks (c. 30%) served with the
Polish Army (
Czechoslovak Legion), the
French Army, the
Royal Air Force, the
British Army (the
1st Czechoslovak Armoured Brigade), and the
Red Army (
I Czechoslovak Corps). Two thousand eighty-eight Czechs and 401 Slovaks fought in 11th Infantry Battalion-East alongside the British during the war in areas such as North Africa and Palestine. Among others, Czech fighter pilot, Sergeant
Josef František was one of the most successful fighter pilots in the
Battle of Britain. • Beneš's collaborators, led by , created the Political Center (
Politické ústředí, PÚ). The PÚ was nearly destroyed by arrests in November 1939, after which younger politicians took control. • Social democrats and leftist intellectuals, in association with such groups as
trade unions and educational institutions, constituted the Committee of the Petition that We Remain Faithful (
Petiční výbor Věrni zůstaneme, PVVZ). • The
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) was the fourth major resistance group. The KSČ had been one of over 20 political parties in the democratic First Republic, but it had never gained sufficient votes to unsettle the democratic government. After the Munich Agreement, the leadership of the KSČ moved to Moscow and the party went underground. Until 1943, however, KSČ resistance was weak. The 1939
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, had left the KSČ in disarray. But ever faithful to the Soviet line, the KSČ began a more active struggle against the Germans after
Operation Barbarossa, Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941. The democratic groups—ON, PÚ, and PVVZ—united in early 1940 and formed the Central Committee of the Home Resistance (
Ústřední výbor odboje domácího, ÚVOD). Involved primarily in intelligence gathering, the ÚVOD cooperated with a Soviet intelligence organization in Prague. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the democratic groups attempted to create a united front that would include the KSČ. Heydrich's appointment in the fall thwarted these efforts. By mid-1942, the Germans had succeeded in exterminating the most experienced elements of the Czechoslovak resistance forces. Czechoslovak forces regrouped in 1942–1943. The Council of the Three (R3)—in which the communist underground was also represented—emerged as the focal point of the resistance. The R3 prepared to assist the liberating armies of the U.S. and the Soviet Union. In cooperation with Red Army partisan units, the R3 developed a
guerrilla structure. Guerrilla activity intensified with a rising number of parachuted units in 1944, leading to the establishment of partisan groups such as
1st Czechoslovak Partisan Brigade of Jan Žižka, Jan Kozina Brigade or Master Jan Hus Brigade, and especially after the formation of a provisional Czechoslovak government in
Košice on 4 April 1945. "National committees" took over the administration of towns as the Germans were expelled. More than 4,850 such committees were formed between 1944 and the end of the war under the supervision of the
Red Army. On 5 May, a
national uprising began spontaneously in Prague, and the newly formed Czech National Council (
cs) almost immediately assumed leadership of the revolt. Over 1,600 barricades were erected throughout the city, and some 30,000 Czech men and women battled for three days against 40,000 German troops backed by tanks, aircraft and artillery. On 8 May, the German
Wehrmacht capitulated; Soviet troops arrived on 9 May.
German policy There are sources that highlighted the more favorable treatment of the Czechs during the German occupation in comparison to the treatment of the Poles and the Ukrainians. This is attributed to the view within the Nazi hierarchy that a large swath of the populace was "capable of
Aryanization," hence, the Czechs were not subjected to a similar degree of random and organized acts of brutality that their Polish counterparts experienced. Such capacity for Aryanization was supported by the position that part of the Czech population had German ancestry. On the other hand, the Czechs/
Slavs were not considered by the Germans as a racial equal due to its classification as a mixture of races with Jewish and
Asiatic influences. This was illustrated in a series of discussion, which denigrated it as less valuable and, specifically, the Czechs as "dangerous and must be handled differently from Aryan peoples." at the celebration of the fifth anniversary of the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia held at Klessheim Castle. 15 March 1944 A paradox of German policy was that the collaborators such as Hácha were held in contempt by the Nazis as "riff raff" while those who clung most defiantly to their sense of Czech identity were considered to be the better subjects of Germanizaton. Heydrich in a report to Berlin stated that Hácha was "incapable of Germanization" as "he is always sick, arrives with a trembling voice and attempts to evoke pity that demands our mercy". By contrast, Heydrich had a grudging respect for Elias, noting that he was youthful, healthy, and a determined defender of Czech interests, which led Heydrich to conclude that he must have some German blood. Aside from the inconsistency of animosity towards Slavs, there is also the fact that the forceful but restrained policy in Czechoslovakia was partly driven by the need to keep the population nourished and complacent so that it can carry out the vital work of arms production in the factories.
Slovak National Uprising The Slovak National Uprising ("1944 Uprising") was an armed struggle between German Wehrmacht forces and rebel Slovak troops August–October 1944. It was centered at
Banská Bystrica. The rebel Slovak Army, formed to fight the Germans, had an estimated 18,000 soldiers in August, a total which first increased to 47,000 after mobilisation on 9 September 1944, and later to 60,000, plus 20,000 partisans. However, in late August, German troops were able to disarm the Eastern Slovak Army, which was the best equipped, and thus significantly decreased the power of the Slovak Army. Many members of this force were sent to
Nazi concentration camps; others escaped and joined partisan units. The Slovaks were aided in the Uprising by soldiers and partisans from the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, US, France, the Czech Republic, and Poland. In total, 32 nations were involved in the Uprising.
Czechoslovak government-in-exile , one of the assassins of Reinhard Heydrich
Edvard Beneš resigned as president of the First Czechoslovak Republic on 5 October 1938 after the Nazi coup. In London, he and other Czechoslovak exiles organized a Czechoslovak
government-in-exile and negotiated to obtain international recognition for the government and a renunciation of the
Munich Agreement and its consequences. After World War II broke out, a Czechoslovak national committee was constituted in France, and under Beneš's presidency sought international recognition as the exiled government of Czechoslovakia. This attempt led to some minor successes, such as the French-Czechoslovak treaty of 2 October 1939, which allowed for the reconstitution of the Czechoslovak army on French territory, yet full recognition was not reached. The Czechoslovak army in France was established on 24 January 1940, and units of its 1st Infantry Division took part in the last stages of the
Battle of France, as did some Czechoslovak fighter pilots in various French fighter squadrons. Beneš hoped for a restoration of the Czechoslovak state in its pre-Munich form after the anticipated Allied victory, a false hope. The government in exile—with Beneš as president of republic—was set up in June 1940 in exile in London, with the President living at
Aston Abbotts. On 18 July 1940, it was recognised by the British government. Belatedly, the
Soviet Union (in the summer of 1941) and the U.S. (in the winter) recognised the exiled government. In 1942, Allied repudiation of the Munich Agreement established the political and legal continuity of the First Republic and
de jure recognition of Beneš's
de facto presidency. The success of Operation Anthropoid—which resulted in the British-backed assassination of one of Hitler's top henchmen, Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia Reinhard Heydrich, by
Jozef Gabčík and
Jan Kubiš on 27 May—influenced the Allies in this repudiation. The Munich Agreement had been precipitated by the subversive activities of the Sudeten Germans. During the latter years of the war, Beneš worked toward resolving the German minority problem and received consent from the Allies for a solution based on a postwar transfer of the Sudeten German population. The First Republic had been committed to a Western policy in foreign affairs. The Munich Agreement was the outcome. Beneš determined to strengthen Czechoslovak security against future German aggression through alliances with Poland and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, however, objected to a tripartite Czechoslovak-Polish-Soviet commitment. In December 1943, Beneš's government concluded a treaty just with the Soviets. Beneš's interest in maintaining friendly relations with the Soviet Union was motivated also by his desire to avoid Soviet encouragement of a post-war communist coup in Czechoslovakia. Beneš worked to bring Czechoslovak communist exiles in Britain into cooperation with his government, offering far-reaching concessions, including the nationalization of heavy industry and the creation of local people's committees at the war's end. In March 1945, he gave key cabinet positions to Czechoslovak communist exiles in Moscow. Especially after the German
reprisals for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, most of the
Czech resistance groups demanded, with eerie irony and based on Nazi terror during the occupation,
ethnic cleansing or the "final solution of the German question" () which would have to be "solved" by deportation of the ethnic Germans from their homeland. These reprisals included massacres in villages
Lidice and
Ležáky, although these villages were not connected with Czech resistance. These demands were adopted by the government-in-exile, which sought the support of the Allies for this proposal, beginning in 1943. During the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Government-in-Exile promulgated a series of laws that are now referred to as the "
Beneš decrees". One part of these decrees dealt with the status of ethnic Germans and
Hungarians in postwar Czechoslovakia, and laid the ground for the
deportation of some 3,000,000 Germans and Hungarians from the land that had been their home for centuries (see
expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, and
Hungarians in Slovakia). The Beneš decrees declared that German property was to be confiscated without compensation. However, the final agreement authorizing the forced population transfer of the Germans was not reached until 2 August 1945 at the end of the
Potsdam Conference.
End of the war Ivan Konev.
Liberation of Czechoslovakia On 8 May 1944, Beneš signed an agreement with Soviet leaders stipulating that "Czechoslovak territory liberated by Soviet armies" would be placed under Czechoslovak civilian control. On 21 September, Czechoslovak troops formed in the Soviet-liberated village,
Kalinov, which was the first liberated settlement of
Slovakia, located near the
Dukla Pass in northeastern part of the country. Slovakia and the
Czech lands were occupied mostly by Soviet troops (the Red Army), supported by Czech and Slovak resistance, from the east to the west; only southwestern Bohemia was liberated by other Allied troops from the west. Even at the end of the war, German troops massacred Czech civilians; the
Massacre in Trhová Kamenice and the Massacre at
Javoříčko are examples of this. A provisional Czechoslovak government was established by the Soviets in the eastern Slovak city of Košice on 4 April 1945. "National committees" (supervised by the Red Army) took over the administration of towns as the Germans were expelled.
Bratislava was taken by the Soviets on 4 April. On April 18th, 1945, elements of the U.S.
90th Infantry Division of General
George S. Patton’s
U.S. 3rd Army crossed the western border of the former Czechoslovakia border near the town of
Cheb, effectively cutting Germany in half. Elements of the 3rd Army would prob the Czech border for the rest of April, moving parallel down the border in an advance towards
Linz, Austria. However beginning in the last days of April, into May 1945, elements would begin offensive operations westward into the country towards the city of Prague. Resistance would be fierce in some locations however much the German resistance in the American advance crumbled, the
11th Panzer Division surrendered its complete strength to elements of the U.S.
2nd Infantry Division in the last days of the war near
Pilsen. The most notable action of the American liberation of Czechoslovakia was the liberation of the city of Pilsen on May 6th, 1945 where the
16th Armored Division with elements of the
2nd Infantry Division and
97th Infantry Division secured the city with minimal casualties, it was the last city taken by the U.S. Army in the European Theater in WWII. On 5 May 1945, in the last moments of the war in Europe,
the Prague uprising (Czech: Pražské povstání) began. It was an attempt by the Czech resistance to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation during World War II. The uprising went on until 8 May 1945, ending in a ceasefire the day before the arrival of the Red Army and one day after
Victory in Europe Day.
Prague was taken on 9 May by Soviet troops during the
Prague Offensive which had begun on 6 May and ended by 11 May. When the Soviets arrived, Prague was already in a general state of confusion due to the Prague Uprising. Soviet and other Allied troops were withdrawn from Czechoslovakia in the same year. It is estimated that about 345,000
World War II casualties were from Czechoslovakia, 277,000 of them Jews. As many as 144,000 Soviet troops died during the liberation of Czechoslovakia.
Annexation of Subcarpathian Ruthenia by the Soviet Union In October 1944,
Subcarpathian Ruthenia was taken by the Soviets. A Czechoslovak delegation under František Němec was dispatched to the area. The delegation was to mobilize the liberated local population to form a Czechoslovak army and to prepare for elections in cooperation with recently established national committees. Loyalty to a Czechoslovak state was tenuous in Carpathian Ruthenia. Beneš's proclamation of April 1944 excluded former collaborationist Hungarians, Germans and the Rusynophile Ruthenian followers of Andrej Bródy and the
Fencik Party (who had collaborated with the Hungarians) from political participation. This amounted to approximately of the population. Another was communist, leaving of the population presumably sympathetic to the Czechoslovak Republic. Upon arrival in Subcarpathian Ruthenia, the Czechoslovak delegation set up headquarters in
Khust, and on 30 October issued a mobilization proclamation. Soviet military forces prevented both the printing and the posting of the Czechoslovak proclamation and proceeded instead to organize the local population. Protests from Beneš's government were ignored. Soviet activities led much of the local population to believe that Soviet annexation was imminent. The Czechoslovak delegation was also prevented from establishing a cooperative relationship with the local national committees promoted by the Soviets. On 19 November, the communists—meeting in
Mukachevo—issued a resolution requesting separation of Subcarpathian Ruthenia from Czechoslovakia and incorporation into the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. On 26 November, the Congress of National Committees unanimously accepted the resolution of the communists. The congress elected the National Council and instructed that a delegation be sent to Moscow to discuss union. The Czechoslovak delegation was asked to leave Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Negotiations between the Czechoslovak government and Moscow ensued. Both Czech and Slovak communists encouraged Beneš to cede Subcarpathian Ruthenia. The Soviet Union agreed to postpone annexation until the postwar period to avoid compromising Beneš's policy based on the pre-Munich frontiers. The treaty ceding
Carpathian Ruthenia to the Soviet Union was signed in June 1945. Czechs and Slovaks living in Subcarpathian Ruthenia and Ruthenians (
Rusyns) living in Czechoslovakia were given the choice of Czechoslovak or Soviet citizenship.
Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia In May 1945, Czechoslovak troops took possession of the borderland. A Czechoslovak administrative commission composed exclusively of Czechs was established. Sudeten Germans were subjected to restrictive measures and conscripted for compulsory labor. On 15 June, however, Beneš called Czechoslovak authorities to order. In July, Czechoslovak representatives addressed the
Potsdam Conference (the U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union) and presented plans for a "humane and orderly transfer" of the Sudeten German population. There were substantial exceptions from expulsions that applied to about 244,000 ethnic Germans who were allowed to remain in Czechoslovakia. The following groups of ethnic Germans were not deported: • anti-fascists • persons crucial for industries • those married to ethnic Czechs It is estimated that between 700,000 and 800,000 Germans were affected by "wild" expulsions between May and August 1945. However, in some cases it was initiated or pursued by assistance of the regular army. Several thousand died violently during the expulsion and many more died from hunger and illness as a consequence. These casualties include violent deaths and suicides, deaths in
internment camps and natural causes. The joint Czech-German commission of historians stated in 1996 the following numbers: The deaths caused by violence and abnormal living conditions amount to approximately 10,000 persons killed. Another 5,000–6,000 people died of unspecified reasons related to expulsion making the total number of victims of the expulsion 15,000–16,000 (this excludes suicides, which make another approximately 3,400 cases). Approximately 225,000 Germans remained in Czechoslovakia, of whom 50,000 emigrated or were expelled soon after. ==See also==