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Czech Refugee Trust Fund a československá emigrace. Část 1. Geneze a finanční zabezpečení

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Kuklik J., Cechurova J.

Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

2007

vol. 14

issue 1

9-43

This is the first part of a two-part article on the creation and financing of the Czech Refugee Trust Fund. The article considers the state of affairs that emerged after the Munich Agreement of September 1938: the break-up of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, the accession of parts of Czechoslovakia to Hitler's Germany, the creation of the short lived Czecho-Slovakia (or Second Republic), and the great number of refugees fleeing the country. The most important prerequisite for the creation of the Czech Refugee Trust Fund, which was active in Great Britain throughout the Second World War and, in fact, all the way into the 1970s, was the provision of Anglo-French loans for the reconstruction of post-Munich-Agreement Czecho-Slovakia in January 1939, and, in particular, the L4 million British grant in support of refugees. The primary recipients of British support were, as intended, ethnic Germans (particularly Social Democrats and other opponents of Nazism) and Jews, who sought to escape the Second Republic and whose emigration to British dominions and Palestine was supported by Great Britain. By the time the rump Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany (15 March 1939), however, only part of the loan had been used. Moreover, a problem arose with the support of Czech (and also Slovak) émigrés on British territory. These difficulties were surmounted by the creation of the Czech Refugee Trust Fund, to which the remaining funds from the British grant were finally transferred in January 1940, and then used to support refugees. The means of support and the actual work of the Fund are analyzed in greater detail by the authors in Part Two of their article, which will be published in a future issue of Soudobé dějiny.

Úvahy nad biografiemi Emila Háchy

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Gebhart J., Kuklik J.

Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

2007

vol. 14

issue 4

806-818

The authors consider the historical role of Emil Hacha (1872-1945), the President of the Second Republic of Czechoslovakia (which lasted for the six months from the Munich Agreement of late September 1938 to the German Occupation of mid-March 1939) and in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (from mid-March 1939 to early May 1945). They compare and assess the four biographies of Hacha published since the collapse of Communism: Dusan Tomasek and Robert Kvacek's 'Causa Emil Hacha' (Prague, 1995), Tomas Pasak's 'JUDr. Emil Hacha' (Prague, 1997), Vit Machalek's 'Prezident v zajeti: Zivot, ciny a kriz Emila Hachy' (Prague, 1998), and a new, expanded edition of Pasak's work, with the title 'Emil Hacha (1938-1945)'. Gebhart and Kuklik note that all four authors use similar basic sources and, logically, concentrate mainly on Hacha as President. They differ, however, in their emphasis on various events and in their interpretations. They argue that the most critical are Kvacek and Tomasek, whereas Pasak is positivist and neutral. Machalek, on the other hand, is, according to them, almost an apologist, having selected his sources to suit the image of Hacha he wishes to portray; compared to the other three writers, he devotes the most attention to Hacha's childhood and youth and also to the posthumous dispute often called the 'Hacha case' (causa Emil Hacha). A weakness shared by all these works, according to Gebhart and Kuklik, is their failure to use records related to the development of the attitude of the resistance at home and abroad towards Hacha. Gebhart and Kuklik discuss important points in Hacha's career - from his becoming president (elected by the parliament in 1938) to his death in prison after the war, and they consider the trial that was being prepared for him. Without doubting the sincerity of his patriotism, they argue that Hacha's career was as a downward development from a state representative endeavouring to preserve his country's legal continuity with the pre-war period to a passive object of manipulation by the German occupying forces and the people around him. In conclusion they state that this tragic political fate will surely continue to attract the attention of historians, as was demonstrated, for instance, by 'The Case of Emil Hacha,' a seminar held by the Institute of Contemporary History and the Masaryk Institute, Prague, in June 2005.

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2 Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

2 2007

2 Kuklik J.

1 Cechurova J.

1 Gebhart J.

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Czech Refugee Trust Fund a československá emigrace. Část 1. Geneze a finanční zabezpečení

Úvahy nad biografiemi Emila Háchy