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Sudetenland:
Putin’s playbook for Crimea
By Tom Morrow
History can be strangely haunting the way it repeats. As I recently
pointed out concerning the current Crimean controversy, Russia ’s Vladimir Putin probably studied Adolf
Hitler’s 1938 takeover of Czechoslovakia ’s
“Sudetenland ” without firing a shot.
Hitler
made himself the advocate of some 800,000 ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia ,
triggering the "Sudeten Crisis.” On April 24, 1938, a group of Sudeten
Germans demanded in an eight-point manifesto for the equality between them and
the Czech people.
Two months later, the Czech government accepted those claims.
But that didn’t satisfy Hitler. He used Sudeten-German demands
as an excuse for taking Czech territory. A Sudetenland area, with a portion
known as Bohemia ,
was predominately peopled with residents of German heritage. As you’re aware of
today’s news; that argument is being used by Putin for claiming Ukraine ’s Crimea
being mostly Russian heritage.
The 1938 controversy
turned into a crisis threatening war, so on Sept. 15, British Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler
at Berchtesgaden , his southern Germany mountain retreat. They agreed
to the cession of the Sudetenland ;
three days later, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier also agreed. No Czechoslovak representative
was invited to those discussions.
The next
week, on Sept. 22, Chamberlain met Hitler in Godesberg, Germany to confirm the agreement. Hitler however, aiming to
use the crisis as a pretext for war, now demanded not only the annexation of
the Sudetenland but the immediate military occupation of the territories,
giving the Czechoslovak army no time to adapt their defense measures to the new
borders.
To achieve a
solution, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini suggested a conference of the major European powers in Munich . On Sept. 29,
Hitler, Daladier and Chamberlain met and agreed to Mussolini's proposal. The
infamous agreement actually was prepared by Reichmarshal Hermann Goering. It has infamously gone down in history as the “Munich Agreement.” By accepting the pact, Hitler
gained immediate occupation of the Sudetenland .
On Sept. 30, the Czechoslovak government, though not party to the talks, promised
to abide by the decision they had no say.
The Sudetenland was relegated
to Germany
between Oct. 1 and Oct. 10, 1938. The next year on March 1939, the Czech part
of Czechoslovakia was invaded by Germany, with a portion
being annexed and the remainder turned into the Protectorate of
Bohemia and Moravia. The
Slovak part declared its independence from Czechoslovakia ,
becoming the Slovak Republic, a satellite state and ally of Nazi Germany.
Down through the years, we’ve all heard the phrase, “It’s
another ‘Munich .’”
It refers to that shameful pact signed in Munich
resulting in Britain and France ’s
appeasement to Hitler, which allowed him take over a large portion of Czech
territory. Six months later World War II began.
Upon his return to London ,
British Prime Minister Chamberlain proclaimed the agreement meant “Peace in our
time.” Far from it. The agreement showed the timidity of the Allies, making it
a prelude to World War II. The appeasement made Hitler all the more aggressive
for still more European territory. It was Hitler’s way of testing the resolve
of the Allies war. Their weak stance emboldened the dictator.
Shortly after the Sudetenland
annexation, the Jews living in the region were widely persecuted. As elsewhere
in Germany ,
many synagogues were set on fire and numerous leading Jewish citizens were sent to concentration camps. In later years, the Nazis transported up
to 300,000 Czech and Slovak Jews.
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