CZECHIAN GERMANS: THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL SELF-DESTRUCTION

Objective of the study: to classify and identify the main causes of the process of political selfdestruction of the German ethnic minority in the territory of Czechoslovakia; to propose, substantiate and introduce into scientific circulation the concept of political self-destruction of the German community in the territory of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which existed under the suzerainty of the Third Reich from March 15, 1939 to May 13, 1945. Methodology: Therefore, the journalistic and literary works of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were analyzed, as well as legal documents and diplomatic protocols adopted following the Yalta Conference (february 4 — february 11, 1945), the Potsdam Conference (July 17 — August 2, 1945). With the help of the traditional complex of historical and legal methods (text study, comparative analysis, legal analogy), were analyzed the content and external forms of legal succession of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in relation to the first Czechoslovak Republic (October 28, 1918 — September 30, 1938) and the Second Czechoslovak Republic (September 30, 1938 — March 15, 1939). Structural and functional method allowed to isolate the main reasons for the successful cultural and socio-economic coexistence of Germans and Czechs in the territory of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under the auspices of the Third Reich in 1939–1945. The socio-psychological approach, in turn, determined the political-political characterization of the rise of interethnic hostility of the Czechs to the Germans. The article argues that the cause of the massacres of Germans by Czech fighters (actions with clear signs of genocide) during 1945–1950 was the transfer of the so-called «guilt for Soviet occupation» by the Czech collective consciousness to the Germans. With the help of English and Soviet propaganda, a negative image of the Germans in the mass media was simultaneously formed. Results and conclusions: The history of the Czechoslovak Republic of 1918–1939 is a prime example of the confrontation between spatial and ethno-linguistic political ideologues. On the one hand, there were Sudeten and Bohemian Germans, supported by the strong movement of the Nazis. On the other hand, the concept of Central European Slavic integration, known as «Czechoslovakism». The struggle between these two ideologues often falls out of sight of contemporary political scientists (political scientists) and historians. This article does not fill the gap, but aims to demonstrate the Czech-German ethno-political conflict of the mid-twentieth century in the form of a logical sequence of events that led to the collapse of both Pan-Germanism and Czechoslovakism. The bloody war between the Slavs and the Germans in the center of Europe ended with the victory of «third power» — ideology of communism.


Introduction
Czechoslovakia, first of all, became the victim of its own domestic political project of united Republican identity creation, which, according to the first president of Czechoslovakia, T. Masaryk would completely replace the existing national identity, and subsequently would reintegrate separate ethnic groups into the single Czech nationality. Czechoslovakia during 1938-1939 showed complete failure to preserve its statehood through the mechanisms of political mobilization of the people. The rapid growth of Czechization in 1930 was directly proportional to the growth of ratings of centrifugal political forces in Slovakia, Carpathian Ukraine and Sudetenland. Prague always declared federalistic nature of the Czechoslovak state that was completely borrowed from the organizational system of state power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire of model . However, the attitude of Czech public servants and average Czechs to Slovaks and Ukrainians, in fact, as to third-class people (Germans were considered to be the second) became a solid basis for the March tragedy in 1939 when any Slovak or Ukrainian did not even think to go out in defense of the republic. Thus, the occupation of Bohemia, Silesia and Moravia by German Wehrmacht on March 15, 1939, proclamation of independence of the Republic of Slovakia and Carpathian Ukraine, Hungarian aggression against them was already a complex of consequences of domestic political suicide of Prague.
Interrelations between Czechs and Germans during the years 1939-1944 on the territory of the «Protectorate» was fairly neutral, in many cases friendly [1, s. 657]. Germans did not touch Czech religious, cultural and educational organizations. German administration in 1939-1940 held constant propaganda campaigns «unity of Germans and Czechs». In many respects, the appointment of Baron Constantin von Neurath to the post of first Reich protector of Bohemia and Moravia as of March 21, 1939 contributed to that policy (during 1932-1938 Neurath was the Minister of foreign Aiffairs of Germany).
Germans made a rather serious step: formal preservation of Czech statehood in the period of 1939-1945 [2, p. 41]. That statehood differed from the Czechoslovak state that it was exactly Czech. Germans continued to establish a serious population percentage of the protectorate (15 to 25%), but the bodies of Bohemian-Moravian self-government, local executive bodies and the government were completed mostly by the Czech intellectuals [1; 2; 14]. Thus, the post of «state president» of the protectorate, with the permission of A. Hitler was held by the President of post-Munich Czechoslovakia (from 1938), lawyer Emil Hácha . Already on March 16, 1939 the post of «Head of government» of the protectorate was introduced, which was taken over last month by the Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia Rudolf Beran (1887-1954) and in April he transferred his duties to manage the government to General Alois Eliáš   [7, p. 178].
Research methods With the help of the traditional complex of historical and legal methods (text study, comparative analysis, legal analogy), were analyzed the content and external forms of legal succession of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in relation to the first Czechoslovak Republic (October 28, 1918 -September 30, 1938) and the Second Czechoslovak Republic (September 30, 1938-March 15, 1939. Structural and functional method allowed to isolate the main reasons for the successful cultural and socio-economic coexistence of Germans and Czechs in the territory of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under the auspices of the Third Reich in 1939-1945. The main reason for the successful pseudo-state formation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was recognized by the economic component -the elimination of unemployment and screaming social inequality (by the German occupation administration), which systematically covered all structural elements of Czechoslovak society during the existence of an independent Czechoslovak Republic . The socio-psychological approach, in turn, determined the political-political characterization of the rise of interethnic hostility of the Czechs to the Germans. The article argues that the cause of the massacres of Germans by Czech fighters (actions with clear signs of genocide) during 1945-1950 was the transfer of the so-called «guilt for Soviet occupation» by the Czech collective consciousness to the Germans.

Results and discussion
The first major event of the German military administration in Prague was free-of-charge distribution of products to all the unemployed. After that, von Neurath started a widespread «employment policy», the purpose of which was to eliminate unemployment crisis that captured Czechoslovakia after the economic collapse in late 1938 (the number of unemployed in February 1939 reached 100 thousand people only in the Czech Republic). This economic collapse was connected with the transfer of Reich to Sudetenland. The latter concentrated about 40% of all industry of the country [2].
The elimination of unemployment by Germans in Bohemia and Moravia was done in two ways: first -reindustrialization of the entire territory of former Czech provinces, development of the most powerful tank factories on the basis of Czech military-industrial complex, and various armed industries. The second way is departure of Czech unemployed people and large number of volunteers to work in Germany. 200 000 Czechs left the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to work in Germany by the end of 1941. The use of Czech industry and human resources for the needs of Reich was well-studied by German historian D. Brandes. He noted the growth of Czech industry by 1941 and its rapid decline by 1944 [2, s. 42]. The decline in industrial production volume and capacity of the Czech militaryindustrial complex during 1942-1943, in his opinion, was the result of liquidation of prewar labor law by Reich protector, emigration of most skilled Czech workers to Germany (in 1943 there were already 350 000 such persons) and total export of industrial and food products from Bohemia-Moravia to Germany. As a result there was price increase and equivalent increase of social discontent in the protectorate [13, p. 130].
However, the resistance movement before 1945 did not seriously spread outside some circles of Czech intellectuals, students and political elite detached from the leadership of the protectorate. Important, to our mind, fact is that immediately after an attempt to liquidatie R. Heydrich, 65 thousandth public demonstration of Czech-German solidarity gathered in Prague on June 2. Certainly, that public demonstration was organized by the German protector administration. However, the volume of people, the mood that covered Old Town Square in Prague on June 2, 1942, certified that the Czechs sincerely did not want to deploy violence in the country [2, s. 43].
At the beginning of 1942 (January 19), after the arrest of his predecessor, accused of collaboration with the Anglo-American secret services, the Protectorate government was headed by well-known Prague lawyer Jaroslav Krejčí. The government formed by him worked until January 19,1945 and did a lot in order to avoid the deployment of anti-German resistance movement in the country organization «Labour School» especially intensified its activity, which was engaged in establishing evening secondary and part-time higher education among workers. Similar work among the peasants was done by government «Association of agriculture and forestry», the members of which, as of December 1, 1942 were 300 thousand people! Association was engaged in scientific, educational, ideological work, focused mainly on medium landowners, but also provided all agricultural workers with everything necessary for their work. At least 15% of the adult population of the occupied Czech Republic was also members in the range of allowed by the Germans political organizations: «National Brotherhood» (established on April 6, 1939 based on the «fascist national community»), «Czech National Socialist Camp», block «Aryan Guard -Czech fascists» [8]. The example of military assistance to the German Reich was given by the son of the Minister of Education and national enlightenment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Emanuel Moravec -Igor Moravec, who fought as a volunteer in the 3rd division of SS «Totenkopf» and for bravery shown at the Eastern front, he received the Iron Cross Police Regiment «Brisken» in february 1945 was included in the composition of the 31st Volunteer Grenadier Division of SS, which was before called «Bohemia and Moravia». This was due to a large number of Czech volunteers and Czech volksdeutsche in its composition. In february-March 1945 on the Slovak-Hungarian border, as part of the 6th SS tank army, 37th SS Volunteer Cavalry Division «Lyuttsov» was formed, much of its officers was recruited from former officers of the Czechoslovak army. This division was also completed mainly by Czech and Hungarian volunteers [8].
Thus, during March 1939 -May 1945 the Czech population, including younger generation, especially Czech youth was under constant educational-ideological influence of National Socialism. On the territory of the protectorate it was officially allowed to promote and develop the concept of «Czech fascism». This trend in its ideological genesis presented something average between German National Socialism and Italian fascism. Due to received unlimited access to youth and working audiences, Czech fascist propaganda received strong social support. Czech propaganda relied on real cases of German Reich protector administration, which during 1939-1941 was able to completely solve the problem of unemployment on the territory of Bohemia and Moravia [2].
Czech fascism was very well developed in 1939-1945 and successfully evolved ideologically [14]. The idea of Czech exclusivity, even under the conditions of its incorporation into the «great Germanic culture», did not differ from the existing idea of the German exclusivity. German official propaganda called Czechs as separate Germanic people which underwent slavonization. Czech fascists considered themselves to be Slavic ethnic group, which underwent cultural germanization. The last argument can be logically explained by centuries-ling stay of Bohemia and Moravia as a part of the Holy Roman Empire and then as a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire [7]. Czech culture during the historical process underwent unimaginable in its scope and ethnopsychological consequences Germanic influences in all spheres. Czech intellectuals, following the traditions of «postaustrian countries» of Europe, were proud of this during the first Czechoslovak Republic [3]. Czech fascism within protectorate era spread this idea already on a massive scale [2]. However, the main accent in education of young people was made not on the Germanic nature or heritage of the Czechs as on the Czech exclusivity in Europe, due to the presence of German culture. In our view, in particular this fact became a prerequisite of the attitude that Czechs showed with regard to indigenous German population in 1945-1950.
Already on April 4, 1945 in Kosice, Slovakia, under the control of Soviet troops, the government of «National front» was formed, which consisted of the Czech and Slovak communists, Slovak Socialists, Czech Social Democrats and representatives of all major exile (in exile) Czechoslovak organizations that sought state power (Melnyk, 2015). Thus, after long negotiations in Moscow, new Kosice government was headed by former President of Czechoslovakia (1935-1938) -Edward Benes . Prior to that, Benes headed in London the so-called «Czechoslovak government in exile», the Prime Minister of which from July 21 to April 5, 1945 was his close associate, the Catholic priest John Shramek. During 1941-1942, the emigration government of Benes-Shramek managed to achieve full recognition of its organization by the single legitimate government in Czechoslovakia. A major Політологічний вісник, 83 (2019) diplomatic success of «Londoners» was the cancellation of all the terms and conditions of Munich agreement by Britain, the USA, France (Immigration government) and the USSR. All countries of anti-Hitler coalition officially declared the recognition of rights of former Czechoslovakia to restore its state body within the borders of 1937. Thus, the Allies believed Sudetenland area to be a part of future Czechoslovakia already since 1942. Benes managed to establish good cooperation between all volunteer Czechoslovak which fought against the Germans in the British and Soviet troops. However, the greatest success, which strengthened the status of Benes as Head of all anti-German Czech organizations, was the signing of «Agreement of friendship and alliance» between the emigration government and the USSR [21]. This agreement was preceded by a long debate over the so-called «German question». for the first time, on a serious level the Czech political refugees talked about the need to evict the Germans already in 1941. C. Sumlyennyi on this occasion said: «It was in London when the Czech government in exile, for the first time formulated plans for mass deportation of ethnic Germans after the war. Hubert Ripka, the closest advisor to President Edvard Benes, dreamed about the mass expulsion of Germans already in 1941, reflecting in the newspaper Cechoslovak -an official body of the Czech government in exile -«organized application of the principle of ethnic migration» [13, p. 131]. He wrote there: «Without any certainty that it would be possible to convince the British of the need to implement plans for the deportation of three millionth German population, the Czech government in exile just in case began similar negotiations with the Soviet leadership» [13].
Only in March 1943, Benes had a meeting with Oleg Bogomolov (Soviet ambassador), at which he presented a detailed plan of the London government [21]. According to that plan, it was offered to emigrate 3.5 million of «pure» Germans and volksdeutsche proposed to Bavaria and Saxony for a year or two after the liberation of Czechoslovakia by the allies. The Soviet leaders hesitated to give a response by June 1943, when during Benes's trip to the United States, the American, British and Soviet Ministries of foreign Affairs agreed «plan of Benes» [13, p. 132].
In November 1944 Benes memorandum was prepared for representatives of the allied states, which represented a detailed picture of future ethnic cleansing against the German population of Czechoslovakia. According to that memorandum, a large-scale deportation had to start immediately after the liberation of Czechoslovakia on all lands where the overall percentage of ethnic Czechs made up less than 67%. «Intensive» eviction with the infliction of maximum property, moral and physical damage whould end when the Germans percentage was reduced to 10-15%. Then there should be the organized expulsion phase of the rest of the German population. During the year, the territory of Bohemia and Moravia whould be free from Germans at all, while on the territory of Sudetenland complete expulsion of all Germans was offered to carry out within two years. Implementation of ethnic cleansing relied primarily upon the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps of General Ludwig Svoboda, military personnel of which was characterized by anti-German sentiments [11, p. 320].
Government subordination to the Army Corps of L. Svoboda made L. Benes's hands free in case of anti-german ethnic cleansing. In fact, the actions of the Army Corps did not stop by the Soviet command. A number of serious punitive operations against Carpathian and Bratislava Germans expanded in mid-April 1945. SS-actions on resettlement of Czechs from the border areas were good propaganda material for Benes's government «National front» in Kosice. The corresponding ideological work was conducted among soldiers of 60thousandth Army Corps of General Svoboda. Thus, in his speech in Pilsen, President Benes said: «Our government, realizing what the betrayal of Germans and Hungarians meant for us in 1938, decided to clean the Republic from treacherous elements. This is a big problem. We can not solve it entirely on our own, we have to agree it with the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States. However, I have no doubt that the relevant agreement will be reached between us» [13, p. 130; 21].
On May 17, 1945, the Czechoslovak troops occupied the town of Landskron (in modern Czech Republic -Lanshkroun), where «people's tribunal» worked for three days, according to the sentences of which 121 people were shot. Already on May 19, 1945 in Prague the so-called «Benes decrees» began to be published, which created a legal framework for the resettlement of the German population from Czechoslovakia to the American and Soviet zones of occupation. Here is the chronicle of these decrees: May 19 -decree on invalidity of property transferred to the Germans, Hungarians, Czech and Slovak collaborators during the occupation; May 21 -decree on the confiscation of agricultural property in the given category of population and their distribution among Czechs; June 19 -decree on the implementation of national justice with regard to Nazi criminals and Czechoslovak collaborators by extraordinary People's Courts; July 20 -decree on the settlement of confiscated lands from the German population by Slavic farmers; August 2 -decree on deprivation of Czechoslovak citizenship for all persons of German and Hungarian nationality; October 25 -decree on the confiscation of all property owned by the German and Hungarian nationality, as enemy property [16, p. 231].
Legalization of eviction and robbery of Germans already happened according to the footsteps of mass actions committed by Czechs against the German population. So, at night from May 30 to May 31, 1945 all indigenous German population in the town of Brno (German name -Brune) and in ten nearby settlements was expelled from their homes and under escort (mostly walking) was sent towards the Austrian border. In total, from 27 to 30 thousand Germans took part in the «Brune march of death». Czechs deported the entire German population from the town of Brno. Characteristically, that at first the Soviet administration of Moravian-Austrian border refused to pass huge columns of deported population. As a result, former residents of Brno were placed in a concentration camp near Porlice (now -Pohořelice). Within three weeks the Czechoslovak army and paramilitary formations mocked at Brune Germans until the Soviet administration did not save them and transported to Austria. In total, during this action 5200 people were tortured by Czechs [20].
Beginning from May 10, 1945, a number of discriminatory measures had been introduced regarding Germans, such as those organized with regard to Jews. Thus, Germans had to wear a bandage on their hands depicting swastika or sew the letter «G» -«German»; all bikes, cars, motorcycles and any means of transport, which belonged to persons of German nationality, were subject to confiscation; it was forbidden for Germans to visit public places and restaurants; Germans were regularly subjects to mandatory registration at district bodies of internal affairs and were deprived of the right to move within the country; for the use of radio and telephone Germans were subject to death; Germans were given some hours to visit shops; talks in German in the streets were punishable by a death sentence; Germans were deprived of the right to walk in the streets on the sidewalks [16, p. 231].
from June 3 to June 7, 1945 Czechs held a meeting of «people's tribunals» in the town of Postelberg (Postoloprty). for 4 days, about 1 thousand of Germans were shot and tortured there [18, s. 67]. June-August 1945, on the territories of former Protectorate and Sudetenland were bloody summer months. Czechoslovak internal affairs bodies in their reports called anti-German terror as «spontaneous actions of retaliation». Thus, according to the Czech calculations 24 people were tortured in Doupov, 32 in Totsov and 68 in Podborany. During the deportation of Germans from Khomutov at least 150 people were killed. German researchers multiplied these official figures at least by ten [18, s. 67]. During May 31 -June 15, 1945 in Saaz (Zatec) nearly 2.000 Germans were tortured, shot, in many cases burned alive. Soldiers of the 1st Czechoslovak Division of General Spaniel were involved in killing of Germans as well as in the tribunal in Postelberg. Furthermore, a large number of local Czechs was among the killers, including recent members of fascist organizations (Stoldt, 2009, p. 67) [18, s. 67]. At least thousands Germans died during the expulsion of the entire German population from Jägerndorf (now -Krnov) on the territory of Saxony. On June 30, 1945, 23 civilians were shot in Vekelsdorf, while in Taus (modern Domažlice) Czechoslovak military men, with the participation of local Czechs, tortured from 200 to 500 Germans [20].
Especially for the German population of Ostrava ther was a concentration camp (so called «Hanke camp»), in which its Czech administration destroyed up to 500 people. Czech official data on killings in Ostrava, mention 231 tortured Germans [20, p. 217]. former Postelberg also had a concentration camp.
In late August 1945, Czechs managed to forcibly evict more than 900.000 Germans to Austria and Bavaria. This caused quite a negative reaction, both on the part of the USA and the Soviet occupation administration. The process of deportation of many people without provision of meals with growing epidemics led to the emergence of humanitarian disaster on the border of Austria and the Czech Republic. Soviet and American commands expressed its strong protest to the Czech side, demanding to conduct deportation «in a humane way» [9]. Official Prague, in its turn, produced a note of protest to the Allies. The Czech side emphasized that «righteous anger» of the Czech population would not end until the last German left the territory of the Czechoslovak Republic. It was offered to continue resettlement of 2.6 million Germans [20, p. 217]. Since September 1945, the deportation was carried out according to the following calculation: 1.75 million people had to be moved under the American occupation control, and nearly 800.000 Germans -under Soviet. In autumn 1945, the Germans began to leave the territory of their everlasting residence and at their free accord. It was impossible to live on the territory of the Czech Republic under the conditions of total discrimination, regular explosions of violence and terror by the Czechoslovak paramilitary formations.
On August 2, 1945, in Article ХІІІ by the decision agreed at the Potsdam Conference was determined the requirement for new Eastern European states to carry out necessary deportation of the German population by «humane, organized, ordered methods» [13, p. 132].
The structure of the second stage of Germans deportation from the Czech Republic -organized, was determined according to the following scheme: registration of all Germans by district detectives of the Ministry of Interior, movement of the registered Germans to a special concentration camp near the respective district center, filtration testing of Germans for presence of Nazis and workers student or protective local authorities of the executive branch. Procedure of filtering of the German population was carrying out for a long time, with multiple testing of the same persons at district and regional levels. The population which was recognized as «civil» was transferred to the points of departure [4, s. 88].
first supply train with Germans, who managed to pass all filtration procedures arrived on January 25, 1946 to the territory occupied by American troops. So, a group of 5 thousand people arrived to furth form the territory of Bohemia. 4500-5000 Germans at least per day were brought to Bavarian railway station by supply trains since January 25, 1946. Thus, at least 140 thousand people came to Bavaria per month. According to calculations of the Scientific Commission of Germany: «During the first three months of expulsion in 1946 about half a million of Sudeten Germans was transferred to the west -as much as live in such big city as Essen or Dortmund. Trains with exiles went to the west throughout spring, summer and autumn. At first four trains (1200 people in each) a day, then six trains daily, then again four trains -the entire nation in supply trains. In 1946, at the railway station in the American occupation area, from Czechoslovakia 1111 trains arrived with 1 183 370 Germans. In the same year, the Soviet occupation area of Czechoslovakia sent 750 000 Germans. Tens of thousands of them after a short stay went to the territories occupied by Western states» [13, p. 131].
Conclusions So, considering the process of deportation of the German population from Czechoslovakia, we can definitely state the expulsion of at least 3 million indigenous Germans and murder during this event of not less than 150 thousand of people. Here is the confirmation of our thesis expressed at the beginning of the study, about the necessity to interpret this page of the German-Czech history as a full-scale genocide, organized at the intiative of new Czechoslovak government, especially against indigenous German population. This genocide also has clear signs of ethnocide and is characterized by using all personnel Czechoslovak armed forces and former Czech protectorate era fascist organizations.
Germans by themselves created political and psychological conditions for this action. Their policy was always directed at supporting Czech fascism. And now, at the decisive moment in spring of 1945, fascist movements and ideas that were imposed on the Czech society for six years, became a catalyst for radicalization of anti-Kraut public sentiments. Paradoxically, six-year fascization of Bohemia and Moravia led to incredible success of Czechoslovak Benes government in structures of which the greatest impact belonged to Communists. Czech fascism and Czech social democracy at the time of final defeat of Third Reich were united ideologically. They identified a common enemy and this saved Czechoslovakia from imminent civil war, signs of which at least a decade smoldered in Western Ukraine, Western Byelorussia, Baltic countries, Poland and Yugoslavia. In fact, the Czech fascism got amnesty, it was forgotten, its outreach potential was immediately used to unite Czechs and Slovaks, nationalists and communists, pro-Western and pro-Soviet leaders around a new national idea -expulsion of Germans.
Preservation of social unity in Czechoslovakia during 1945-1950 years is due, in our opinion, only to Benes ideologeme: «The Germans are guilty». It is undoubtedly fair globally. However, it is not always fair contextually, especially when it comes to such matters as occupation of Czechoslovakia (1939), peaceful coexistence of administration of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia with the Czech society, uninterrupted and qualitive work of the Czech economy for military needs of Germany throughout the war. So, many Germans lived in the protectorate. However, most of them remained always on the side of Czechs. In our view, this should not be forgotten. Guilt of the Germans is not only in spread of ideas of Czech exclusivity through popularizing of fascism. Provocative in nature plans of Himmler and Heydrich for «final solution of the Czech matter» played a significant role. To call them irrelevant in terms of running war on two fronts by the Germans means to say nothing. The same thesis «irrelevance», describes, in our view, the whole plan «Ost». Heydrich's speech delivered in the territory of the Protectorate, discussed plans by him regarding expulsion of the Czechs, special Himmler's views regarding Bohemia and Moravia were competently «replicated» by agitators of government «National front». Czechs believed that the war would not come to their territory, Czechs helped Germans much, especially economically, Czechs did not oppose Germans either in 1939 (in case of availability of such possibility) or during all six years of the Protectorate.