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N0KFQ > TODAY 15.03.08 13:00l 51 Lines 2378 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 15
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To : TODAY@ALLUS
March 15, 1939
Nazis take Czechoslovakia
On this day, Hitler's forces invade and occupy Czechoslovakia--a
nation sacrificed on the altar of the Munich Pact, which was a
vain attempt to prevent Germany's imperial aims.
On September 30, 1938, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, French
Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact, which sealed the fate of
Czechoslovakia, virtually handing it over to Germany in the name
of peace. Although the agreement was to give into Hitler's hands
only the Sudentenland, that part of Czechoslovakia where 3
million ethnic Germans lived, it also handed over to the Nazi war
machine 66 percent of Czechoslovakia's coal, 70 percent of its
iron and steel, and 70 percent of its electrical power. Without
those resources, the Czech nation was left vulnerable to complete
German domination.
No matter what concessions the Czech government attempted to make
to appease Hitler, whether dissolving the Communist Party or
suspending all Jewish teachers in ethnic-German majority schools,
rumors continued to circulate about "the incorporation of
Czechoslovakia into the Reich." In fact, as early as October
1938, Hitler made it clear that he intended to force the central
Czechoslovakian government to give Slovakia its independence,
which would make the "rump" Czech state "even more completely at
our mercy," remarked Hermann Goering. Slovakia indeed declared
its "independence" (in fact, complete dependence on Germany) on
March 14, 1939, with the threat of invasion squelching all debate
within the Czech province.
Then, on March 15, 1939, during a meeting with Czech President
Emil Hacha--a man considered weak, and possibly even
senile--Hitler threatened a bombing raid against Prague, the
Czech capital, unless he obtained from Hacha free passage for
German troops into Czech borders. He got it. That same day,
German troops poured into Bohemia and Moravia. The two provinces
offered no resistance, and they were quickly made a protectorate
of Germany. By evening, Hitler made a triumphant entry into
Prague.
The Munich Pact, which according to British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain had purchased "peace in our time," was
actually a mere negotiating ploy by the Hitler, only temporarily
delaying the Fuhrer's blood and land lust.
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