In our time of the US-ledworldwide fight against international terrorism, another unsolvedproblem brings danger in Europe: the German-Czech relations.The question is how toovercome the cruelties, which people on both sides had to suffer inthe past decades. Inthe Nazi times as well as in Czechoslovakia under communist anddemocratic rules, the common people of both nations became victims ofwrong political decisions made both in the East and the West.Great problems arestill presented by the laws ("Benesovy Dekrety") which were madeunder the Czech President EduardBenes AFTER the end ofWorld War II. These laws, which have been criticized for nearly 60years, are the foundation on whichabout 3 million Germanswere expelled from their ancestral lands in Bohemia andMoravia--where many of them had lived for hundreds ofyears. All theirproperties were confiscated.
The present German Chancellor GerhardSchröder and his Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer try to playdown the problem. But the Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber andthe Member of the German Parliament Hartmut Koschyk want to discussthe matter in the public. They demand to clarify all these relatedissues and positions. The politicans of the opposition parties say,"It is an international law, that attacks on human rights should notbe forgiven under the statute of limitations."
It is a historical fact that all the Allies inWorld War II against Hitler's Germany agreed to the expulsion of theGermans, that is, also the United States. Most of the German refugeesfrom Sudetenland settled down in Austria and Bavaria. A number ofthem emigrated to the United States, South America and Australia. InWest Germany, the first Chancellor Konrad Adenauer supported theintegration of the Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia. Many of thembecame leading politicians, and now also their children are inleading political positions. All these Germans have helped build updemocracy in Germany. The organizations of refugees have proclaimedalready in the early years that not war, but friendship andcooperation are their goals for the future.
In 1945, Eduard Benes returnedfrom exile in London to Prague. With the support of the Allies andRussia, he set up a government.The rule of Benes wasbased on executiveorders, which hehimself declared as the new law of theland. This decision seemed necessary tohim, since in those times a parliament was not yet established. In1948, Benes was in turn driven out of office by the Czech communistKlement Gottwald. But theinhuman laws continued more than ever under the communistregime.
More than 10 of these so-called"Laws" were aimed against the Germans with theseresults:
1. Germans have no rights atall
2. All their property is to beconfiscated
3. The Germans have to beexpelled from the country
4. Whenever possible, theGermans have to be put in prison, work camps, or do slave labor forthe Czechs
The files in historicalarchives report unbelievable cruelties against the German men, womenand children.
In the country's main radiostation "Radio Praha" they broadcasted appeals such as this to theCzech public:
Every German is ourenemy!
Have no mercy with women,children, and old people!
Kill every German--throw themout!"
This was the political programof the "Benes Decrees".
Ever since the Czech president Vaclav Havel cameto power in 1989 and started to establish--in cooperation with theWestern world and the United States--a new, democratic system,Germany has been hoping for better relations.
It is expected that the democratic government ofthe Czech Republic will declare the "Benes Decrees" to be "invalidfrom the beginning."
These laws are not in agreement with the laws ofthe European Union (EU). The Czech Republic has high aspirations tobe admitted as a full member into this association of a Free Europe.A united Europe includes the right for every citizen to work, tosettle down or to buy land and property in any and all of thecountries of the community.
For example, in the United States of America, aman or woman from Texas can work in New York, a person from Floridacan stay in California and buy there whatever he or she is able toafford.
It is the same in the present European Union.Germans can work and buy property in Italy, Spain, England, France,Portugal and so on. And the people of these countries can do the samein Germany.
BUT, the governments of Poland and the CzechRepublic vehemently refuse that any German should be allowed to buyland or houses in their countries. Many Germans would like to buy thehouses of their parents and grandparents that were stolen after WorldWar II.
People want lasting peace andfreedom
No doubt: the ordinary man and woman in the CzechRepublic and in Germany want to have lasting peace andfreedom.
They know that the people killed by Nazis and theCommunists, both Czechs and Germans--cannot be brought back fromdeath to life.
For the future cooperation it is not helpful totry to find out who is more guilty for the cruelties and abuse ofhuman rights in the past. The bloodshed on both sides should neveragain happen in a peaceful Europe.
But for this cooperation it is necessary to admitthe wrongs and the crimes commited against the German expellees. Thecancellation of the "Benes Decrees" is a fundamental prerequisite.Again and again, these decrees are used by radical politicians inboth Germany and in the Czech Republic as an instrument of stirringup strife and incitement.
The majority of people wouldlike to see the Czechs and Germans living together in peace.In this connection,people can think back to the times of the "good old Austrian Empire".As this empire ofAustria and Hungary was broken up after World War I, a new Czechstate was set up.Tensions arose amongthe different peoples who formerly used to live together peacefully:Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, Moravians, and the Hungarian minorities.
The escalation of political problems led in 1938to the occupation of Sudetenland and parts of Czechoslovakia byHitler's army. This was followed in 1945 by the expulsion, murder andtorture of the German population.
The Germans had to wear white armbands in thewhole country. One would thus recognize them at once as belonging toa criminal people. For a long time, they were not allowed to walk onthe sidewalk, but could walk only on the road. In shops they wereonly then served, when all others have finished their shopping. Thewhite armbands were like the yellow Jewish star in NaziGermany.
To illustrate to the youngAmericans of our time what can happen, we should hear the report of a70 years old German farmer from the Sudetenland.
He said: "It was in May, 1945. First came thesoldiers of the Red Army into our village. They hunted down our wivesand raped them. They took along three young, 16-year old boys fromthe Hitler Youth and somewhere shot them.
The Soviet soldiers robbed us first of all thecattle, to satisfy their hunger. Then they took mainly watches,jewelry and bicycles. A week later, even worse were the armedcommunist Czechs. After the passing through of the Red Army, theyroamed the country in stolen cars and horse waggons, wildly shootingin the air.
I was sitting at supper together with my family,the farm-hands and two Russian women workers. And a Czech hordestormed the locked gates. We had to get up from the table, and werechased out into the farm yard. My wounded son in wheelchair waspulled out by his hair, and beaten him to death.
Then we lived two days in the stable, until wewere deported into a camp. The two Russian women wanted to go with usinto the camp, and said that they were of German ancestry. Actually,they did not want to return back to the Soviet Union with theirSoviet liberators. But the Russians took the women forcibly withthem. They raped their own countrywomen still in the yard, in theopen. The others drank vodka, sang and clapped their hands in orderto drown down the pleading cries for help of the twowomen."
Copyright 2004 West-Art, Prometheus 91/2004