The Final Solution of the Czech Question (German: Endlösung der tschechischen Frage; Czech: Konečné řešení české otázky) was the Nazi German plan for the complete Germanization of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Nazi German sociologist and anthropologist Karl Valentin Müller asserted that at least half (50%) of the Czech nation was "racially Aryan" and could be Germanized. This was in stark contrast to Germany's Final Solution to the Jewish question, which called for the total extermination of the Jews save for a select "honorary Aryans". Müller asserted that Germanization of the Czechs could be first attempted without coercion; instead, he suggested a system of social incentives.[1]
On 27 September 1941, Reinhard Heydrich was appointed Deputy Reich Protector[2] and assumed control of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia – the part of Czechoslovakia incorporated into the German Reich on 15 March 1939. This part of the Czech lands did not include the Sudetenland, which mostly consisted of ethnic Germans and were directly annexed into the Reich. The Reich Protector, Konstantin von Neurath, remained titular head but was sent on "leave" because Hitler, Himmler, and Heydrich felt his "soft approach" to the Czechs had promoted anti-German sentiment and encouraged resistance via strikes and sabotage.[3] On his appointment, Heydrich told his aides: "We will Germanize the Czech vermin."[4]
Heydrich came to Prague and enforced such policies, fight resistance to the Nazi regime, and keep up production quotas of Czech motors and arms that were "extremely important to the German war effort".[3] He viewed the area as a bulwark of Germandom and condemned the Czech resistance's "stabs in the back". In the furtherance of his goals, Heydrich decreed racial classification of those who could and could not be Germanized. He explained: "Making this Czech garbage into Germans must yield to methods based on racist thought."[5] He was eventually assassinated by the Czech resistance[6] as part of Operation Anthropoid, which led to a wave of reprisals by Schutzstaffel (SS) troops, including the destruction of villages and mass killings of civilians, notably the Lidice massacre.[7]
In 1940, Hitler agreed that around half of the Czech population were suitable for Germanization, including the kidnapping of thousands of Czech children to be brought up as Germans, while the others deemed not "racially valuable" (i.e. "Untermensch") and the Czech intelligentsia were not to be Germanized and were instead to be “deprived of [their] power, eliminated, and shipped out of the country by all sorts of methods.”[8][9][10] Under Generalplan Ost, the Nazis had intended to displace the un-Germanizable population to Siberia. However, due to the war effort's need for labor, this plan was never implemented.[11]
See also
editSources
edit- Mikš, Ing. Josef (February 2006). "Německo a řešení české otázky" [Germany and the Czech Question] (in Czech). Křesťanskosociální hnutí. Archived from the original on 2007-08-11.
References
edit- ^ Kubů, Eduard: „Die Bedeutung des deutschen Blutes im Tschechentum“. Der ‚wissenschaftspädagogische‘ Beitrag des Soziologen Karl Valentin Müller zur Lösung des Problems der Germanisierung Mitteleuropas. In: Bohemia. Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur der böhmischen Länder 45 (2004), pages 93–114.
- ^ "CZECH STATE GETS GESTAPO MASTER". The New York Times. AP. 28 September 1941. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
- ^ a b Williams 2003, p. 82.
- ^ Horvitz; Catherwood (2006). Encyclopedia of war crimes and genocide. Catherwood, Christopher. New York: Facts on File. p. 200. ISBN 9781438110295. OCLC 242986220.
- ^ Bryant 2007, p. 140.
- ^ Daniel T. Brigham (5 June 1942). "HEYDRICH IS DEAD". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
- ^ Mastný, The Czechs under Nazi Rule, p. 131.
- ^ Wendt, Anton Weiss. Eradicating Differences: The Treatment of Minorities in Nazi-Dominated Europe. p. 71.
- ^ Weikart, Richard. Hitler's Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress. p. 67.
- ^ Bryant, Chad Carl (2007). Prague in Black: Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism. p. 126.
- ^ Gumkowski, Janusz; Leszczynski, Kazimierz (1961). Hitler's Plans for Eastern Europe. Translated by Robert, Edward (First ed.). Polonia Pub. House. ASIN B0006BXJZ6. Archived from the original (Paperback) on 9 April 2011.
Works cited
edit- Williams, Max (2003). Reinhard Heydrich: The Biography, Volume 2—Enigma. Church Stretton: Ulric Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9537577-6-3.
