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Hitler's Sudetenland Takeover:
Putin’s playbook for The 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 German Reichmarshal Hermann Goering. It has 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 in.
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 have 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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