The implications of the Munich Agreement

In the end, the Czechoslovak Republic was significantly reduced along all borders, particularly along the highly-German Sudeten mountain range. These losses concerned the Czechs in terms of future German incursions, and with good reason. Within six months the Nazis had invaded Bohemia and Moravia and German occupation had begun. The Slovaks were also implicated, as they had seceded from the Czechoslovak Republic just a day before the invasion to form a separate state allied with the Nazis. By March of 1939, the Czechs had lost their autonomy, their government heads had fled to Britain and France to create a government in exile, and Hitler was making himself comfortable on the throne in Prague Castle. It was a new regime, and one of the first items on the checklist was to clear out all the Jews in the Czech lands.

The German occupation begins in Prague

From 1939 to 1941, the new position as citizens of the German Protectorate became increasingly difficult for the Czechs and particularly the Czech Jews. Limitations were placed on everything, from shopping hours to available merchandise, and bans were placed on most public entertainment, transportation, telephone use and interaction with Aryans. In September of 1941 all Jews were required to wear the yellow Star of David as public statements of their ancestry, and in the Nazis’ eyes, lowered status. Under the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, only slight distinction was made between half-Jews, full-blooded Jews, and non-practicing Jews—in effect, all variants were destined for eventual liquidation in the Hitler’s gameplan for the Final Solution.

To facilitate further isolation of the Jews, Deputy Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich supported efforts to gather Jews from widespread regions into large groups that could then be transported to the death camps of the East. A place like Terezin could be no better for the purpose of storing gathered Jews, for a garrison town can keep people in as effectively as it can keep people out. And so Terezin, or Theresienstadt as the Germans preferred to call it, was selected as a major player in this darkest chapter of 20^th century history.