In February 1938 Reichschancellor Adolf Hitler demanded self determination for all Germans in Austria and Czechoslovakia.
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Shortly afterwards Austrian Nazis rioted and invited Hitler to invade, which he did in March, declaring Anchluss. It was clear at this time that Hitler had his eyes set on Czechoslovakia and as a result, being emboldened, the Sudenten Nazi Party was causing strikes and riots which was a direct threat to Czechoslovakia which would lose its industrial areas and defendable frontiers.
Tensions ran so high that in May 1938 the Czech government mobilised its army, thinking that the Germans were about to invade.
In June 1938 the German Sudenten Party did well in the national elections.
The Sudenten Germans demanded union with Germany and caused so much trouble that the Czech government was forced to impose martial law.
German newsreels of the time showed “evidence” of Czech “atrocities”. Hitler threatened military intervention.
Britain’s Prime Minister Chamberlain met Hitler for talks and although Hitler promised war, he also stated that this was the “last problem to be resolved”.
Chamberlain decided that Hitler was “a man who could be relied on”. He and the French held talks and together persuaded the Czechs to hand over the Sudentenland.
When Chamberlain again met Hitler (on September 22), Hitler demanded that Czech lands be given to Poland and Hungary and that the Sudentenland be occupied by Germany before October 1, 1938. Chamberlain refused.
War loomed but Chamberlain was not sure that Czechoslovakia was not one of the great issues that justified war. He decided that it was “a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we owe nothing”.
At Munich on September 29 Great Britain and France ceded the Sudenten to Germany. The Czech government was not invited to the talks. Chamberlain returned to England with a piece of paper declaring “I believe it is peace in our time”.
We all know how that finished up.
Is history repeating itself? Is Putin (an avowed communist, ex-KGB operative and a devotee of the USSR) the next Hitler? Will, once again, the storm clouds of war hang over Europe?
Those who do not learn from history are bound to commit the same mistakes.
Jim Green
Tamworth