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Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic Never Again Munich! The Czech memory of the Munich Agreement of 1938 is traumatic, as it forced Czechoslovakia to cede its mainly German-language border areas to the German Reich. The agreement sealed once and for all the enmity between the occupiers and the occupied - and the Germans and Czechs in general. The Czechs see themselves as a people who were forced to stand by helplessly while the Wehrmacht invaded their country due to the failure of the Western democracies. The time of the occupation is perceived as a time of resistance, at the cost of many victims. The memory of Lidice was cultivated under Communist rule in order to illustrate the brutality of National Socialism. Since the government in exile under Bene¹ was responsible for the assassination of Heydrich, the Communists could not give the Resistance credit for the deed. So they laid the blame for its terrible consequences, the massacre of Lidice, on the government in exile. |
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The Munich Agreement of 1938 is a focal point of Czech remembrance. In 1948 the trauma of Munich was used in the poster "Ji¾ nikdy Mnichov" - Never Again Munich - to underscore the necessity of the alliance with the Soviet Union. The word "nikdy", standing out in shining white, is very conspicuous. The swastika dissolving behind it almost disappears. "Mnichov" is set in Gothic print, a lettering associated with the occupying forces. The famous T 34 tank of the Red Army bearing the Czechoslovakian flag rolls over it. This combination of T 34 and national flag is meant to indicate that Czechoslovakia can depend on the Soviet Union as opposed to the Western Allies at the time of the Munich Agreement. |
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On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Munich Agreement the postal authorities issued a series of stamps with reproductions of drawings made by children at the concentration camp in Theresienstadt. Like many other children, ten-year-old Jiøí Beutler had depicted his dreadful experiences and the stigmatization of the Star of David. The text on the stamp, by contrast, refers to the Munich Agreement. It infers that the betrayal at Munich had led directly to the genocide. |
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The postage stamp from 1972 shows an abstract image of Lidice. The narrative memory of the victims prevails here, too. There is no reference to those who carried out the assassination. |
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