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SPIRITUAL REVIVAL OF CZECHS

Inspired Nationalism

Since the grey-clad forces of the Reichswehr occupied Prague a year ago last month they have presided over the gradual but deadly application of the Nazi system to a community of free men, says a special correspondent of The Times, London. Yet the history of these 12 months, though written in terror and anguish, is that of Nazi Germany’s failure and of the Czech people’s triumph. It must be peculiarly bitter for the Nazis to know that their failure has been caused by that deep-rooted and healthy nationalism which they had dismissed as the invention of a handful of theorizing professors and ambitious politicians. With characteristic blindness, the Sudeten Germans, who advise Berlin on policy in Bohemia-Moravia, have failed to recognize that Czech nationalism of today, founded on a democratic educational system inspired by the humanism of T. G. Masaryk, is a more powerful force than in Hapsburg times, when too much depended on the quality of political leadership. The persistent campaign to vilify Dr Benes, to discredit the Constitution of the First Republic, and to destroy the reputation of national heroes has failed in its purpose to weaken the nation, because Czech nationalism no longer depends on any inordinate respect for leaders or political forms.

VALUABLE RESPITE The paralysing of the central authority, whose every action is shadowed and frustrated by the Nazi State Secretary’s department, has not led to the breakdown of national life. Local authorities, backed by the National Unity Party, have assumed the responsibilities that the process of decentralization thrust into their hands. This dispersal of forces in the face of the German onslaught gave the Czechs a valuable respite, preventing the Nazis from establishing complete control during the early months of the occupation. The future of the Czech people lies in the hands of the individual man—with the Novaks, the Prochazkas, the Veselys, Smiths, Joneses, and Robinsons, ironworkers in dark, throbbing Kladno, cautious peasants of the bleak Morayian highlands, fishermen on the shores of southern Bohemia’s lonely lakes, sly, humorous Prazaks of the capital. Against the most insidious of the invaders’ weapons, the dark tide of moral corruption, these have stood firm, knowing that, unless they resist, their leaders abroad can do but little to restore their independent national life. Prague is a city where, in spite of its size, news and opinions spread by word of mouth with an almost Athenian rapidity, and where it is as difficult to suppress facts as it would be to put out a fire sweeping through its narrow courts.

UNDERMINING During the first few months German propaganda, backed by all the technical methods in Nazi control, was constantly undermined by the whispers and sly smiles of “the street.” Within two or three days there were few who did not know the latest instance oi Gestapo brutality or the most recently invented gibe at the Germans. Thus on March 17 it was common knowledge that S.S. men were waiting for Czech school children and, by offering them apples and forcing them to their knees, obtaining propaganda photographs of “starving” Czechs liberated by the Germans; and photographs of Hacha’s permit, signed by a mere lieutenant, giving him the right to trave throughout the State of which he was President, were widely cir-

culated a day or two after the permit had been issued. The veiled allusions which began to appear in the controlled Press, concealed in crossword puzzles, weather forecasts, and innocent-looking articles, were readily understood by a people who have a peculiar talent for divining such things. STRENGTH OF CHURCHES As Nazi methods, known until the Occupation only in general terms, were brought home to the individual Czech by a series of pinpricks—the ill-clad reservist gorging in one’s favourite cafe, the swastika banner cutting into a cherished view of the city, Hitler’s stealthy visit to the Castle of the Bohemian Kings—the individual found his own methods of resistance. It was because this resistance often consisted in beating back the insidious doctrine of the Nazis within one’s own personality that the period of occupation has been marked by a powerful spiritual revival. It is many decades since churches have been so full or pilgrimages so well attended. Librarians and publishers report a great increase in serious reading. It is evident that it is in search of spiritual as well as moral strength that many Czechs are now changing their way of life. During the greater part of the 12 months the Nazis have been able to carry out their work unseen. Land and industries have been transferred _ to German ownership by simple manipulations during the process of “Aryanisation,” which has been arranged to cover the main bulk of the national wealth. Workers have been transferred to the Reich, under the guise of seasonal labour. The German commissioners who quietly took office in many of the cities under cover of the military occupation were retained there by decrees issued by the Protector. Every effort has been made to preserve an aspect of normality in daily life. GALLERY OF MARTYRS Yet from time to time there have been occasions when a searching light has been thrown on to the real conditions. The incident at Kladno was the first of these, when the State Secretary, Frank, tried to intimidate the workers by imprisoning their political representatives and by instituting a reign of terror in this small industrial town, on the flimsy excuse of the death of a German sentry. It was Frank again who figured principally in the provocation on October 28 which led to the massacre of the students and the termination of all higher education in the Protectorate.

From these and similar incidents the Czech people have drawn their gallery of martyrs, known throughout the country. There is a series of pictures in the minds of all, which foster the formation of a true judgment of Nazi methods. They show machine-guns trained on prim working-class houses in which the police are systematically smashing the furniture; the swollen face of the young Czech police recruit Mueller, shot while sleeping by drunken Nazis at Nachod; students being mowed down as they are picked out by searchlight in their escape from raided hostels.

But, in his private gallery, every Czech has also examples of the modest, undemonstrative actions of the ordinary man—maintaining his good spirits, working within the confines of his everyday life for the preservation of true values, ingeniously expressing his contempt for his temporary overlord. This man, the unknown volunteer, is a unit, without regimental number or apparent arms, in the shadow army against which the Nazis are vainly fighting.

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19400420.2.27

Bibliographic details

Southland Times, Issue 24106, 20 April 1940, Page 4

Word Count
1,104

SPIRITUAL REVIVAL OF CZECHS Southland Times, Issue 24106, 20 April 1940, Page 4

SPIRITUAL REVIVAL OF CZECHS Southland Times, Issue 24106, 20 April 1940, Page 4

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