1940: Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia, a former republic in Central Europe, was partitioned in the fall of 1938 and in the spring of 1939. The so-called Sudetenland was annexed by Germany, whereas Eastern Slovakia became a part of Hungary. The remaining rump republic was further divided half a year later, when the parts inhabited by the Czechs, under the official name of 'Bohemia and Moravia,' became incorporated into the German Reich under a statute which granted them some outward remnants of internal autonomy; Slovakia became a state of its own, under a German protectorate; and the Carpatho-Ukraine, the most eastern part of the former republic, was annexed by Hungary. During the year 1940 the Czech people in Bohemia and Moravia continued to resent bitterly the German occupation of their country. The Germans curtailed the rest of the Czech autonomy, and for all practical purposes the country was directly controlled by the German administration.

Hand in hand with the economic spoliation of the country by the occupying army and the authorities went the closing down of all higher institutions of Czech learning and Czech culture. The Jews in Bohemia and Moravia who in the first months of occupation had escaped the full scope of Germany's anti-Jewish laws were reduced to the same state of impoverished helplessness as in Germany, and all Jewish shops and business enterprises were either closed or taken over by the Germans. On Sept. 15 the customs border between Germany and the Bohemian-Moravian protectorate was abolished, and the Czech territory was completely incorporated economically into the German Reich. That brought about a transfer of most salable products to Germany on account of its superior purchasing power and of the lower prices prevailing in Bohemia. At the same time, all exchange restrictions between Germany and the Czech territory were removed and the official parity of one Reichsmark to ten Czech crowns was established. As the Czech fascist party, called Vlajka, did not make any headway in spite of German official support, most of the leading members of the Czech National Solidarity party were arrested in September by the Gestapo, the German Secret Police, and a new committee was appointed to lead this party, to which over 90 per cent of all Czech men had voluntarily adhered. The new committee appointed under pressure of the National Socialist government received from National Socialist sources the task of 're-educating the Czech people to the new order.'

Slovakia.

Like Bohemia and Moravia, Slovakia came more and more under direct German control during 1940. The last vestiges of the democratic past were removed. The president of Slovakia, Monsignor Josef Tiso, combined the offices of the head of the state, of the Slovak People's party and of the supreme commander of the Hlinka Guard, which corresponded to the German Nazi S.A. The Slovak Parliament was destroyed, and instead of that a State Council with purely advisory functions was created. During the year 1940 George Durcansky, Minister of Foreign Affairs and of the Interior, was removed from office. Prime Minister Bela Tuka took over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sano Mach, the most devoted supporter of National Socialist ideology, became Minister of the Interior and Karol Murgas became Chief of Propaganda. As a result of these new appointments Slovakia followed, from the beginning of August on, an even more intensified course of cooperation with National Socialist Germany and of persecution of the Jews in Slovakia.

Slovakia's foreign relations with Hungary were strained throughout the period. The Hungarians complained of Slovak oppression of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, and Slovak authorities countered with similar reproaches of an even more violent oppression of the large Slovakian minority in Hungary. On the other hand, Slovakia, in spite of its Catholic fascist régime, entered into friendly relations with the Soviet Union. On Nov. 24 Slovakia was invited to join officially the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis, after Hungary and Rumania had signed the pact.

Carpatho-Ukraine.

Carpatho-Ukraine, which had become part of Hungary in March, 1939, in the spring of 1940 lost the last traces of its autonomous life. The members of the Hungarian Parliament who represented Carpatho-Ukraine under the name of the United Upland Party decided at a meeting in Kaschau to dissolve the party and to unite unreservedly with the party of Hungarian Life, the government party in Hungary. The special Ministry created for Carpatho-Ukraine was dissolved. A new emphasis was placed upon the Magyarization of the whole province.

Provisional Government in London.

Czechs and Slovaks outside of their homeland formed a provisional Czechoslovak government, which was officially recognized by the British government on July 21. The new Cabinet under Monsignor Jan Sramek, a Catholic priest, as Prime Minister, and Jan Masaryk as Minister of Foreign Affairs, comprised eleven members of whom six were Czechs and five were Slovaks. The former president of Czechoslovakia, Dr. Eduard Benes, who had resigned after the Pact of Munich in October 1938, was again recognized as president of the Czechoslovak republic. The status of this government was similar to that of the Norwegian, the Dutch and the Polish governments in exile in Great Britain. Czechoslovak military formations under their own officers and general staff had fought in France during the first days of the war, and this army had been successfully evacuated without any major losses after the defeat of France. It was reconstituted in Great Britain, and on Oct. 25 a military agreement was signed between the British and the Czechoslovak governments, according to which the Czechoslovak troops were organized under the command of their own generals for cooperation with the British and allied armed forces.

This Czechoslovak government concluded an agreement with the government of Poland regarding close cooperation in the political and economic reconstruction of Europe after the war. In a joint declaration published on Nov. 11, 1940, the two governments declared that, closing once and for all the period of past recrimination and dispute, they were determined to enter into a political and economic association which would become the basis of a new order in Central Europe and a guarantee of its stability. On Dec. 10, the Czechoslovak government completed its administrative machinery by the formation of a State Council of forty members, consisting largely of former deputies and senators of the Czechoslovak Parliament, under the presidency of Rudolf Bechyne, a former leader of the Czech Social Democrats. The full resources of Czechoslovakia held in London prior to the country's destruction were placed at the disposal of this State Council. See also WORLD PEACE.