Mr. Roger Thurow
The Wall Street Journal 212.416.2658
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
 

RE: Can nations find peace without justice?
 

Dear Mr. Thurow:

A friend has recently alerted me to the beginning of your current series on this subject, and you have probably seen my enclosed letter. Since I can't know which "wounded nations" you are planning to include, I offer the following for your consideration. If you tackle this topic, you will break a "conspiracy of silence" that has removed the Sudeten Germans from historic discussion.

The Sudeten Germans are rarely considered a nation by historians, but they should be. Indeed, they were (despite their physical closeness) just as distinct from "Reich Germans" as the Austrians or even the Swiss. Like the latter, they have lived in a state with another nation, the Czechs. For nearly a thousand years!

That state comprised the lands of the Bohemian crown, including Bohemia, Moravia, and Upper Silesia. Before nation states existed, inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nationality, moved freely wherever local rulers let them go. Thus the Empire was a precursor of the re-evolving European Union.

Bohemian kings, ruling the very center of the Empire, invited Germans to cultivate the forests surrounding Bohemia, and build new towns to expand professions and commerce. Some Bohemian kings would later become "Roman Emperors", but not until 1526, when the Habsburgs acquired Bohemia did these Germans (now known as Sudeten Geemans), share their polity with other Germans.

Even in the 19th century, an Austrian Emperor would still greet "the Bohemian nation of both languages". Why then would these people eventually be accused of "starting World War II"?

Blame the awakening of nationalism in the late 19th century. In 1898, Czech nationalist Klofacz founded the "Narodni socialni strana v Czechach, the world's first National-Socialist party. Six years later, the German-Bohemians (as they were then known) set up a German equivalent. In the 1920s Hitler named his new party similarly -- while denying any link to the prototype!

Hitler and his party sprang from Germany's anguish after World War I. Germany and its general staff had agreed to an armistice only after the Allies promised a peace settlement based on the concept of self-determination (known as "Wilson's 14 points").

Under this promise, the German-Bohemians chose to join the new German-Austria, but were excluded. When they peacefully rallied in several Bohemian towns in March 1919, Czech soldiers opened fire and killed 54 civilians, over half women and children. Thus an occupation began that defied German attempts at cooperation.

Being highly industrialized, the Sudeten region sent to the Prague parliament in 1921 43% Socialists, 25% Christian-Socials (right center) and only 25% nationalists of several shades.

This ratio remained, even after then Foreign Minister Benes embarked on a policy of a strong currency "to cut in half trade with (pre-Hitler) Germany" -- the Sudetenland's largest customer. When the Great Depression hit Europe, the 3.5 million Germans were struck so badly that by 1935 they comprised an absolute majority of the unemployed among Czechoslovakia's 14 million inhabitants. Yet, Prague provided assistance only to Czechs.

No wonder that in the 1935 election German nationilists accrued 66% of the vote. The closed-minded Prague government responded by suppression, and resisted all efforts to create the "second Switzerland" promised at the Paris peace talks. Meanwhile the Sudeten Germans' welfare eroded further, while in surrounding Germany the living standard surged. Still, their leaders sought help not in Berlin, but in London. But as a bigwig in the League of Nations, Benes blocked all attempts of "his Germans" being heard.

By 1937 Hitler took an active interest in the Sudeten problem. Not out of compassion -- Hitler had none. But his rearmament had progressed to a point where he could tackle his promise to expand German "Lebensraum". But as long as a hostile Czechoslovakia with defense links to France and Russia protruded halfway across the Reich he could not possibly attack Poland.

So, on 5 November 1937 Hitler ordered the "Hossbach Conference" with the General Staff to discuss "Preparations for war against Austria and the CSR". The plan "Green" was simple -- annex Austria, thus encircling Czechoslovakia. Then cut the country in half from Silesia and eastern Austria.

Meanwhile Great Britain tried to defuse the immediate threat of war by brokering peace inside Czechoslovakia. In August 1938 a delegation was sent there under Lord Runciman to investigate and report back to Parliament. The findings confirmed wide-spread discrimination in education and jobs, and the confrontational attitude of the Czechoslovak government.

Benes, by then the country's president, was forced to negotiate with the German leader Henlein. Who, by then, had become Hitler's puppet, instructed to ratchet up his demands after every Czech concession. The Munich deal came about on 29 September 1938, aborting Hitler's plan to demonstrate his new Wehrmacht. Once more his threats had sufficed to get him what he wanted, and another bloodless victory enhanced his standing not only with his own people, but in the whole world.

Benes abdicated on 5 October, realizing that any attempt to prevent the complete dismemberment of Czechoslovakia had now become suicidal. In his book "The Transfer of the Sudeten Germans", the son of a Czech general (and a partisan commander during World War II) Radomir Luza, states "The Sudeten Germans were not the cause for Czechoslovakia's destruction, but merely the pretext".

Of course, freed from their occupiers, the Germans greeted Hitler enthusiastically as their liberator from two decades of misery. But they bore no more responsibility for the cataclysm of World War II then, say, the Czechs. Benes, of course, used his exile in England to prepare for his revenge: The Final Solution for the German Problem - expulsion of 3 million people in Europe's heart!
 
 

By 1944 the whole world was so disgusted with everything German that Benes found quick support for his plan from Churchill and the French resistance. Roosevelt remained ambiguous throughout the Yalta conference, but by giving in to Stalin's demand for all Slavic states to fall into his "sphere of influence" FDR de facto sealed the fate of the Sudeten Germans.

However, Stalin was not keen on occupying a country whose industries were shut down by an ugly exodus. To rebuild Russia, every factory was essential. Benes could only win him over by promising to "socialize" the confiscated enterprises, plus some major Czech ones, to outlaw all "bourgeois" parties, and to staff vital ministries with Communists. A formal takeover was merely a matter of time. But Benes was willing to sell his nation into slavery, to exact his revenge. By radio he urged Czechs to prepare the ground.

Once the Wehrmacht collapsed, and Patton (resentfully) withdrew from western Bohemia, the Czech mob took out its hate on any German within reach. In Prague German Red-Cross nurses were stripped, and with their Achilles tendons cut, whipped through the city. German soldiers drenched in gasoline, were strung head-down on candelabra, and set afire to welcome the returning "liberator" Edvard Benes. He responded by signing a general pardon for "all actions in violation of the legal code, related to the liberation of Czechoslovakia".

This decree, and one stripping Germans and Hungarians of all rights and properties, remain on the books of the Czech Republic, despite their flagrant violation of human rights. Strangely, European politicians continue to reassure the `government of the Czech Republic that these laws will not stand in the way of that state's acceptance into the European Union.

So it would seem that, indeed, nations CAN find peace (and prosperity) without justice. But the victims' progeny will not forget. Even God cannot forgive an unrepentant sinner. Last year one Czech politician expressed his nation's dilemma with the words "We should have killed more Germans". He was acquitted by the highest court.

If the above subject matter interests you, I will be happy to flesh out my sketchy account and provide documentation regarding any part of the Sudeten Saga. I've researched it for 10 years.
 

Sincerely

Dr. Max J. Schindler
4 S. Rockaway Drive
Boonton Twp, NJ 07005