Nazi Occupation 1939-1945
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Cartoons
Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933. Single-mindedly he pushed the agenda of the Nazi party, a united German state for all German people. He invaded Austria first and then set his sights on the German speaking Sudeten border regions of Czechoslovakia. Fearing war, Western Europe abandoned the Sudetenland to the Nazis in the fall of 1938. In the spring of 1939, Hitler invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia. The Czechs did nothing to defend themselves, but political cartoons reflect the Czech attitude toward Hitler and his collegue, Mussolini.
President Beneš, Masaryk's successor, campaigned to have Czechoslovakia restored to its democratic independent state. A copy of one of his speeches, Truth Will Prevail, is included in the collection.
memorial
The Czech lands became a Protectorate of the Reich and Slovakia became a Nazi puppet state. Czechs and Slovaks were considered inferior by the Reich and were forced to surrender the liberties gained during the interwar period to the Nazi occupiers. One town, Lidice, in Northern Bohemia, suffered the harsh repercussions of Hitler's determination to dominate at any cost. When a young man from Lidice assassinated one of Hitler's commanders, Hitler ordered the town demolished. Je Opet Jasno, Again it is Serene (1946) was published in honor of the town.
Czechs and Slovaks were also subjected to Nazi propaganda in many varieties. Two specific examples: Cesta do "raje", and Proc valka se Stalinem, deal with the way Hitler tried to shape public opinion about the Soviet Union.
Finally, in 1945, the Czechs and Slovaks emerged from the under the control of Nazi Germany with the end of World War II. The Allies supported the Soviet Union in their advance and overthrow of Hitler's Central European power structure.
propaganda
propaganda
