The Beneš decrees were a series of laws drafted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II . They were issued by President Edvard Beneš from 21 July 1940 to 27 October 1945 and retroactively ratified by the Interim National Assembly of Czechoslovakia on 6 March 1946.
127-531: The decrees dealt with various aspects of the restoration of Czechoslovakia and its legal system, denazification , and reconstruction of the country. In journalism and political history, the term "Beneš decrees" refers to the decrees of the president and the ordinances of the Slovak National Council (SNR) concerning the status of ethnic Germans , Hungarians and others in postwar Czechoslovakia and represented Czechoslovakia's legal framework for
254-461: A Declaration of April 14, 1627, concerning the sovereignty of his kingdom, prohibits ministers of foreign countries from any jurisdiction in France, citing, as precedent, his Lettres de Declaration of April 17, 1623, forbidding religious officials from treating with foreign countries. He describes his Declaration as ordonné qu'en Assemblées Provinciales & Nationales des nosdites sujets . This
381-777: A Nationalversammlung was elected following the revolutions of 1848–1849 and 1918–1919 , to be replaced by a permanent parliament ( Reichstag ) later. The legislature of the Estado Novo regime in Portugal was known as the National Assembly. The national assembly was also defined in the Republic of China constitution. This is different from the Legislative Yuan by the ROC constitution. In 2005, Taiwan revised
508-492: A Decree 100 nationalization decision was made by someone other than the minister the nationalization was invalid and subject to legal challenge. While hearing appeals of court decisions dealing with Decree 12 confiscations, the Constitutional Court held that courts must decide whether a confiscation decision was motivated by persecution and a decree used as a pretext. This applied to cases of those who remained in
635-446: A Nazi and Militarist Nature". All confiscated literature was reduced to pulp instead of burning. It was also directed by Directive No. 30, "Liquidation of German Military and Nazi Memorials and Museums". An exception was made for tombstones "erected at the places where members of regular formations died on the field of battle". Artworks were under the same censorship as other media: "all collections of works of art related or dedicated to
762-879: A broader meaning. In late 1945 and early 1946, the emergence of the Cold War and the economic importance of Germany caused the United States in particular to lose interest in the program, somewhat mirroring the Reverse Course in American-occupied Japan . The British handed over denazification panels to the Germans in January 1946, while the Americans did likewise in March 1946. The French ran
889-582: A crime. Even before denazification was officially abandoned in West Germany , East German propaganda frequently portrayed itself as the only true anti-fascist state, and argued that the West German state was simply a continuation of the Nazi regime, employing the same officials that had administered the government during the Nazi dictatorship. From the 1950s, reasoning for these accusations focused on
1016-548: A delegated minister. The decrees' validity was subject to later ratification by the National Assembly. Beginning on September 1, 1944 (after the Slovak National Uprising ) the Slovak National Council (SNR) held legislative and executive power in Slovakia, later differentiating between statewide acts and other regulations; presidential decrees were valid in Slovakia only if they explicitly mentioned agreement by
1143-570: A failure; in 1951 the provisional West German government granted amnesties to lesser offenders and ended the program. While judicial efforts were handed over to German authorities, the US Army continued its efforts to denazify Germany through control of German media. The Information Control Division of the US Army had by July 1946 taken control of 37 German newspapers, six radio stations, 314 theaters, 642 cinemas, 101 magazines, 237 book publishers, and 7,384 book dealers and printers. Its main mission
1270-645: A national assembly to solve its financial problems. National Assembly is also found in some Commonwealth countries. Its use there is not a translation of Assemblée nationale , as the phrase is equally embedded in the English language. For example, at the end of the First English Civil War , an Act of Parliament, 1648, "Concerning the Members of the Classical and Congregational Presbyteries, in
1397-463: A new publisher, but Der Skorpion was blocked and not widely distributed. Unable to publish his works, Richter founded Group 47 . The Allied costs for occupation were charged to the German people. A newspaper which revealed the charges (including, among other things, thirty thousand bras ) was banned by the occupation authorities for revealing this information. From the beginning, denazification in
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#17327662439101524-528: A number of reasons, than the other Western powers, not even using the term "denazification", instead calling it "épuration" (purification). At the same time, some French occupational commanders had served in the collaborationist Vichy regime during the war where they had formed friendly relationships with Germans. As a result, in the French zone mere membership in the Nazi Party was much less important than in
1651-693: A political party set up by East German authorities upon the encouragement of Stalin explicitly to appeal to former Nazi members and sympathisers, and which functioned as a loyal satellite of the Socialist Unity Party . The British prepared a plan from 1942 onwards, assigning a number of quite junior civil servants to head the administration of liberated territory in the rear of the Armies, with draconian powers to remove from their post, in both public and private domains, anyone suspected, usually on behavioral grounds, of harboring Nazi sympathies. For
1778-707: A psychological propaganda campaign for the purpose of developing a German sense of collective responsibility. In 1945, the Public Relations and Information Services Control Group of the British Element (CCG/BE) of the Allied Control Commission for Germany began in to issue directives to officers in charge of producing newspapers and radio broadcasts for the German population to emphasize "the moral responsibility of all Germans for Nazi crimes". Similarly, among US authorities, such
1905-672: A result of these various pressures, and following a January 15, 1946, report of the Military Government decrying the efficiency of denazification, saying, "The present procedure fails in practice to reach a substantial number of persons who supported or assisted the Nazis", it was decided to involve Germans in the process. In March 1946 the Law for Liberation from National Socialism and Militarism (German: Befreiungsgesetz ) came into effect, turning over responsibility for denazification to
2032-466: A review would lack legal purpose and cast doubt on the principle of legal certainty (an essential principle of democracies adhering to the rule of law ). Although under Decrees 12 and 108 confiscations were automatic on the basis of the decrees themselves, Decree 100 (nationalization of large enterprises) required a formal decision by the Minister of Industry. According to the Constitutional Court, if
2159-405: A sense of collective guilt was "considered a prerequisite to any long-term education of the German people". National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature , the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the representatives of
2286-555: A single day to await processing. By December 1945, even though a full 500,000 forms had been processed, there remained a backlog of 4,000,000 forms from POWs and a potential case load of 7,000,000. The Fragebögen were, of course, filled out in German. The number of Americans working on denazification was inadequate to handle the workload, partly as a result of the demand in the US by families to have soldiers returned home. Replacements were mostly unskilled and poorly trained. In addition, there
2413-471: A small town". Artists were also restricted in which new art they were allowed to create; " OMGUS was setting explicit political limits on art and representation". The publication Der Ruf ( The Call ) was a popular literary magazine first published in 1945 by Alfred Andersch and edited by Hans Werner Richter . Der Ruf , also called Independent Pages of the New Generation , claimed to have
2540-489: Is brown ) was published in the GDR. The ideas of collective guilt and collective punishment originated not with the US and British people, but on higher policy levels. Not until late in the war did the US public assign collective responsibility to the German people. The most notable policy document containing elements of collective guilt and collective punishment is JCS 1067 from early 1945. Eventually horrific footage from
2667-483: The Age of Revolution in western Europe. Nations that formed republics in this age subsequently formed empires. Extensive cross-cultural influences brought much of their language and institutions to the provinces. When these empires collapsed finally, the emancipated countries formed states and other institutions on the model of the former imperial nations. Some examples of international influences are as follows: In Germany ,
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#17327662439102794-651: The Foreign Office and of embassies and consulates in leading position, 297 high police officers and officers of the Verfassungsschutz . The first brown book was seized in West Germany – on Frankfurt Book Fair – by judicial resolution. The contents of this book received substantial attention in West Germany and other countries. The West German government stated, at that time, that it was "all falsification". Later on, however, it became clear that
2921-693: The German Labor Front (25 million), the National Socialist People's Welfare organization (17 million), the League of German Women , and others. It was through the Party and these organizations that the Nazi state was run, involving as many as 45 million Germans in total. In addition, Nazism found significant support among industrialists, who produced weapons or used slave labor, and large landowners, especially
3048-613: The German occupation of Czechoslovakia lost their Czechoslovakian citizenship and property and were expelled from their homes , among others. Some of them died during the expulsion process which took place during the late 1940s. The Beneš decrees were enforced differently in different parts of the country with some decrees being valid only in Bohemia and Moravia , while the ordinances of SNR were enforced in Slovakia . From April 5, 1945,
3175-605: The Junkers in Prussia. Denazification after the surrender of Germany was thus an enormous undertaking, fraught with many difficulties. The first difficulty was the enormous number of Germans who might have to be first investigated, then penalized if found to have supported the Nazi state to an unacceptable degree. In the early months of denazification there was a great desire to be utterly thorough, to investigate every suspect and hold every supporter of Nazism accountable; however, it
3302-664: The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany , three from the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , and three from political mass organizations (who were typically also supportive of the Socialist Unity Party). Former Nazi officials quickly realized that they would face fewer obstacles and investigations in the zones controlled by the Western Allies. Many of them saw a chance to defect to the West on
3429-642: The United Nations Human Rights Committee , under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights , reviewed a communication submitted by Josef Bergauer et al. The committee held that the covenant became effective in 1975 and its protocol in 1991. Since the covenant could not be applied retroactively, the committee held that the communication was inadmissible. After
3556-487: The expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia . It was based on the international Potsdam Agreement. The decrees treated German and Hungarian citizens as collective criminals, enforcing racial segregation and disenfranchisement. As a result, almost all ethnic Germans and Hungarians, some of whom had ancestors who had lived in Czechoslovakia for centuries prior to World War II , or those who had settled there during
3683-603: The 1920 constitution, they were considered necessary by the Czechoslovak wartime and postwar authorities. On ratification by the Interim National Assembly, they became binding laws with retroactive validity and attempted to preserve Czechoslovak legal order during the occupation. Most of the decrees were abolished by later legislation (see the list below) or became obsolete by having served their purpose. Note: This list includes only decrees published in
3810-550: The Americans had dismissed and reclassified 60% of senior Nazis. The denazification process lost a great deal of credibility, and there was often local hostility against Germans who helped administer the tribunals. By early 1947, the Allies held 90,000 Nazis in detention ; another 1,900,000 were forbidden to work as anything but manual laborers. From 1945 to 1950, the Allied powers detained over 400,000 Germans in internment camps in
3937-467: The Americans relinquishing responsibility for denazification and handing it over to the Germans arose from the fact that many of the American denazifiers were German Jews, former refugees returning to administer justice against the tormentors and killers of their relatives. It was felt, both among Germans and top American officials, that their objectivity might be contaminated by a desire for revenge. As
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4064-671: The Beneš Decrees? ... They belong to the past and should stay in the past. Many current members of the E.U. had similar laws." In 2009 eurosceptic Czech president Václav Klaus demanded an opt-out of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union , feeling that the charter would render the Beneš decrees illegal. In 2010, when Masaryk University erected a statue to Edvard Beneš, local journalist Michael Kašparek criticized
4191-578: The Beneš decrees be repealed as a precondition for both countries' entrance to the European Union. Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy eventually decided not to press the issue. In 2003 Liechtenstein , supported by Norway and Iceland , blocked an agreement about extending the European Economic Area because of the Beneš decrees and property disputes with the Czech Republic and (to a lesser extent) Slovakia. However, since
4318-649: The Bohemian king Otokar II during the 13th century or the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin at the turn of the ninth and tenth centuries. Loss of Czechoslovak citizenship was addressed in Decree 33 (see description above). Under article three of the decree, those who lost their citizenship could request its restoration within six months of the decree's promulgation and requests would be assessed by
4445-592: The British and US governments, both before and immediately after Germany's surrender , indicate that the German nation as a whole was to be held responsible for the actions of the Nazi regime, often using the terms "collective guilt" and " collective responsibility ". To that end, as the Allies began their post-war denazification efforts, the Psychological Warfare Division (PWD) of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force undertook
4572-422: The British government, the rebuilding of German economic power was more important than the imprisonment of Nazi criminals. Economically hard pressed at home after the war, they did not want the burden of feeding and otherwise administering Germany. In October 1945, in order to constitute a working legal system, and given that 90% of German lawyers had been members of the Nazi Party, the British decided that 50% of
4699-534: The British, French, and Soviets, interpreted this to apply to every German over the age of eighteen in their zone. Eisenhower initially estimated that the denazification process would take 50 years. When the nearly complete list of Nazi Party memberships was turned over to the Allies (by a German anti-Nazi who had rescued it from destruction in April 1945 as American troops advanced on Munich), it became possible to verify claims about participation or non-participation in
4826-611: The Czech Republic during the postwar era. In Slovakia, some measures incorrectly called "Beneš decrees" were not presidential decrees but ordinances by the Slovak National Council (SNR). The confiscation of the agricultural property of Germans, Hungarians, traitors and enemies of the Slovak nation was not enforced by the Beneš decrees, but by the Ordinance of the SNR 104/1945; punishment of fascist criminals, occupiers, traitors and collaborators
4953-568: The Czech Republic. According to the applicants, "after the Second World War, they were expelled from their homeland in genocidal circumstances", their property was confiscated by Czechoslovak authorities, the Czech Republic failed to suspend the Beneš Decrees and had not compensated them. The court held that the expropriation took place long before the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights with respect to
5080-492: The Czech Republic. Since Article 1 of Protocol 1 does not guarantee the right to acquire property, although the Beneš Decrees remained part of Czech law the applicants had no claim under the convention against the Czech Republic to recover the confiscated property. According to the court, "it should be further noted that the case-law of the Czech courts made the restitution of property available even to persons expropriated contrary to
5207-779: The Czechoslovak Republic, they had not committed an offense against the Czech and Slovak nation, and that they had either actively participated in the liberation of Czechoslovakia or were subjected to Nazi or fascist terror. At the same time, Art 1(3) covered any persons notwithstanding ethnicity, including Czechs and Slovaks. Some 250,000 Germans, some anti-fascists exempted under the Decrees and others considered crucial to industry , remained in Czechoslovakia. Many ethnic German anti-fascists emigrated under an agreement drawn up by Alois Ullmann . Some of those affected held land settled by their ancestors since their invitation by
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5334-520: The Federal Republic: State, Economy, Administration, Army, Justice, Science ) is a book written by Albert Norden in 1965. In this book Norden detailed 1,800 Nazis who maintained high-ranking positions in postwar West Germany . Altogether 1,800 West German persons and their past were covered: especially 15 Ministers and state secretaries, 100 admirals and generals, 828 judges or state lawyers and high law officers, 245 officials of
5461-617: The Fund for National Restoration. The Beneš decrees are associated with the 1945–47 deportation of about 3 million ethnic Germans and Hungarians from Czechoslovakia. The deportation, based on Article 12 of the Potsdam Agreement , was the outcome of negotiations between the Allied Control Council and the Czechoslovak government. The expulsion is considered ethnic cleansing (a term in widespread use since
5588-581: The German Legal Civil Service could be staffed by "nominal" Nazis. Similar pressures caused them to relax the restriction even further in April 1946. In industry, especially in the economically crucial Ruhr area, the British began by being lenient about who owned or operated businesses, turning stricter by autumn of 1945. To reduce the power of industrialists, the British expanded the role of trade unions, giving them some decision-making powers. They were, however, especially zealous during
5715-569: The Germans to a fundamental revision of their recent political philosophy." The United States military pursued denazification in a zealous and bureaucratic fashion, especially during the first months of the occupation. It had been agreed among the Allies that denazification would begin by requiring Germans to fill in a questionnaire (German: Fragebogen ) about their activities and memberships during Nazi rule. Five categories were established: Major Offenders , Offenders , Lesser Offenders , Followers , and Exonerated Persons . The Americans, unlike
5842-423: The Germans. Each zone had a Minister of Denazification. On April 1, 1946, a special law established 545 civilian tribunals under German administration (German: Spruchkammern ), with a staff of 22,000 of mostly lay judges, enough, perhaps, to start to work but too many for all the staff themselves to be thoroughly investigated and cleared. They had a case load of 900,000. Several new regulations came into effect in
5969-606: The Interior Ministry. On 13 April 1948 the Czechoslovak government issued Regulation 76/1948 Coll., lengthening the window for requesting reinstatement of Czechoslovak citizenship under Decree 33 to three years. Under this regulation, the Interior Ministry was bound to restore an applicant's citizenship unless it could determine that they had breached the "duties of a Czechoslovak citizen"; the applicant may have been requested also to prove "adequate" knowledge of Czech or Slovak language. On 25 October 1948 Act 245/1948 Coll.
6096-583: The Nazi Party. Notable ex-Nazis who eventually became prominent East German politicians included Kurt Nier , a deputy minister for foreign affairs, and Arno Von Lenski , a parliamentarian and major-general in the East German army who had worked in Roland Freisler 's notorious Volksgerichthof trying opponents of the Nazi government as an effective "kangaroo court". Von Lenski was a member of the NPPD ,
6223-533: The Nazis through the Sudeten German Party (led by Konrad Henlein ) and the 1938 German annexation of the Sudetenland . Most ethnic Germans of the Sudetenland , many of whom had wished their region to stay as part of Austria in 1919, failed to follow the mobilization order when Czechoslovakia was threatened with war by Hitler in 1938, crippling the army's defensive capabilities . In general,
6350-405: The Party. The 1.5 million Germans who had joined before Hitler came to power were deemed to be hard-core Nazis. Progress was slowed by the overwhelming numbers of Germans to be processed, but also by difficulties such as incompatible power systems and power outages, as with the Hollerith IBM data machine that held the American vetting list in Paris. As many as 40,000 forms could arrive in
6477-428: The Presidential Decrees, thus providing for the reparation of acts which contravened the law then in force. The Czech judiciary thus provides protection extending beyond the standards of the Convention." The validity of the Beneš decrees was first reviewed at the plenary session of the Czech Constitutional Court in its decisions of 8 March 1995, published as Decisions No. 5/1995 Coll. and 14/1995 Coll. The court addressed
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#17327662439106604-479: The SNR. On 4 April 1945 a new government was created in Košice , Slovakia (recently liberated by the Red Army ), consisting of parties united in the National Front and strongly influenced by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . The president's power to enact decrees (as proposed by the government) remained in force until 27 October 1945, when the Interim National Assembly convened. The decrees may be divided as follows: Although decrees were not covered by
6731-520: The Second World War. Some were transferred into the Intelligence Corps and sent back to Germany and Austria in British uniform. However, German-speakers were small in number in the British zone, which was hampered by the language deficit. Due to its large German-American population, the US authorities were able to bring a larger number of German-speakers to the task of working in the Allied Military Government , although many were poorly trained. They were assigned to all aspects of military administration,
6858-421: The Slovak parliament Pavol Hrušovský said that Slovakia was ready to apologize for postwar injustices if Hungary would do likewise. Although Hungarian National Assembly Speaker Katalin Szili approved his initiative, further steps were not taken. In 2005 Mikloško apologized for injustices on his own, and similar unofficial apologies were made by representatives of both sides. According to Radio Prague , since
6985-549: The Soviet zone was considered a critical element of the transformation into a socialist society and was quickly and effectively put into practice. Members of the Nazi Party and its organizations were arrested and interned. The NKVD was directly in charge of this process, and oversaw the camps. In 1948, the camps were placed under the same administration as the gulag in the Soviet government. According to official records, 122,600 people were interned. 34,700 of those interned in this process were considered to be Soviet citizens, with
7112-416: The State Council. Because his presidential term should have ended in 1942, the government adopted a resolution that Beneš would remain president until new elections could be held. Although Beneš alone issued Decree No. 1/1940 (on the establishment of the government), all later decrees were proposed by the government in exile according to the 1920 Czechoslovak constitution and co-signed by the prime minister or
7239-542: The Sudetenland after the Munich Agreement (gaining German citizenship while remaining loyal to Czechoslovakia) and those convicted as traitors whose convictions were later overturned (with their property confiscated in the meantime). Slovakia, as a legal successor of Czechoslovakia, adopted its legal order by Article 152 of the Slovak constitution. This includes the Beneš decrees and Czechoslovak Constitutional Act 23/1991 (the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms). This act made all acts or regulations not compliant with
7366-469: The Velvet Revolution Czechoslovakia also adopted Act 87/1991 Coll., providing restitution or compensation to victims of confiscation for political reasons during the Communist regime (25 February 1948 – 1 January 1990). The law also provided for restitution or compensation to victims of racial persecution during World War II who are entitled by Decree 5/1945. In 2002 the UN Human Rights Committee stated its views in Brokova v. The Czech Republic , in which
7493-461: The aim of educating the German people about democracy. In 1947 its publication was blocked by the American forces for being overly critical of occupational government. Richter attempted to print many of the controversial pieces in a volume entitled Der Skorpion ( The Scorpion ). The occupational government blocked publication of Der Skorpion before it began, saying that the volume was too "nihilistic". Publication of Der Ruf resumed in 1948 under
7620-420: The applicant was refused restitution of property nationalized under Decree 100 (nationalization of large enterprises). Brokova was excluded from restitution, although the Czech nationalization in 1946–47 could be implemented only because the author's property had been confiscated during the German occupation. In the committee's view, this was discriminatory treatment of the plaintiff compared to those whose property
7747-511: The business of denazification in the French zone was considered a "golden mean between an excessive degree of severity and an inadequate standard of leniency", laying the groundwork for an enduring reconciliation between France and Germany. In the French zone only thirteen Germans were categorized as "major offenders". Braunbuch – Kriegs- und Naziverbrecher in der Bundesrepublik: Staat – Wirtschaft – Verwaltung – Armee – Justiz – Wissenschaft (English title: Brown Book – War and Nazi Criminals in
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#17327662439107874-404: The charter inoperable. Although the Beneš decrees are a valid historical part of Slovak law, they can no longer create legal relationships and have been ineffective since 31 December 1991. On 20 September 2007, the Slovak parliament adopted a resolution concerning the untouchability of postwar documents relating to conditions in Slovakia after World War II. The resolution was originally proposed by
8001-426: The concentration camps would serve to harden public opinion and bring it more in line with that of policymakers. As early as 1944, prominent US opinion makers had initiated a domestic propaganda campaign (which was to continue until 1948) arguing for a harsh peace for Germany, with a particular aim to end the apparent habit in the US of viewing the Nazis and the German people as separate entities. Statements made by
8128-438: The constitution and the national assembly was abolished. Examples have multiplied greatly under the policy of self-determination adopted by the western nations. Many more are to be found in the articles listed below. Perhaps the best known National Assembly was that established during the French Revolution in 1789, known as the Assemblée nationale . Consequently, the name is particularly common in Francophone countries. It
8255-525: The court decides that the execution shall be carried out publicly. The decree does not concern Germans and Hungarians who This was reviewed by the Ministry of Interior; or in cases of German/Hungarian soldiers serving in the Czechoslovak army abroad, by Ministry of Defense, with presumption of fulfillment of the conditions. Czechs and Slovaks who elected German/Hungarian nationality under duress may request exemption by Ministry of Interior. Married women and children to be assessed individually. Establishment of
8382-426: The data of the book were largely correct. Hanns Martin Schleyer , for example, really had been a member of the SS . The book was translated into 10 languages. Amongst the reactions to it was also a similar West German book of the same name, covering the topic of Nazis re-emerging in high-level positions in the GDR. In addition to the Braunbuch the educational booklet Das ganze System ist braun ( The whole system
8509-433: The day of the act's promulgation automatically regained their citizenship. This also applied to spouses and children living in Czechoslovakia with no other citizenship. For comparison, any person may currently be granted Czech citizenship if they: After the Velvet Revolution Act 243/1992 Coll. was adopted, arranging restitution of real estate taken by the decrees or lost during the occupation. The act applied to: In 2010
8636-612: The decrees dealt with loss of citizenship and confiscation of the property of: The defining character in definition of the entities affected was their hostility to the Czechoslovak Republic and to the Czech and Slovak nations. The hostility presumption was irrebuttable in case of entities in the Art.1(1), while it is rebuttable under Art.1(2) in case of physical persons of German or Hungarian ethnicity, i.e. that they were exempted under Decrees 33 (loss of citizenship), 100 (nationalization of large enterprises without remuneration) and 108 (expropriation) where they proved that they remained loyal to
8763-401: The decrees which dealt with the status and property of Germans, Hungarians and traitors have not been repealed they still affect political relations between the Czech Republic and Slovakia and Austria, Germany and Hungary. Expellees in the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft (part of the Federation of Expellees ) and associated political groups call for the abolition of the Beneš decrees based on
8890-420: The denazification effort in the West was the concern to keep enough good will of the German population to prevent the growth of communism. The denazification process was often completely disregarded by both the Soviets and the Western powers for German rocket scientists and other technical experts, who were taken out of Germany to work on projects in the victors' own countries or simply seized in order to prevent
9017-574: The detention of persons deemed "untrustworthy" by the authorities. The decrees also allowed Hungarian civil servants to be dismissed, health care to be withdrawn, the use of the Hungarian language in public offices and church services to be banned , Hungarian students to be excluded from universities , Hungarian cultural and social associations to be dissolved, the publication of books and newspapers in Hungarian to be banned, and ethnic Hungarians were not even to be allowed to start civil procedures . Anyone who had documents proving their Slavic nationality
9144-711: The early 1990s) by a number of historians and legal scholars. The relevant decrees omit any reference to the deportation. Of the allies , the Soviet Union urged the United Kingdom and the U.S. to agree to the transfer of ethnic Germans and German-speaking Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Yugoslavs and Romanians into their zones of occupation. France, which was not a party to the Potsdam Agreement, did not accept exiles in its zone of occupation after July 1945. Most ethnic-German Czechoslovak citizens had supported
9271-467: The early months of occupation in bringing to justice anyone, soldiers or civilians, who had committed war crimes against POWs or captured Allied aircrew. In June 1945 an interrogation center at Bad Nenndorf was opened, where detainees were allegedly tortured via buckets of cold water, beatings, being burnt with lit cigarettes, etc. A public scandal ensued, with the center eventually being closed down. The British to some extent avoided being overwhelmed by
9398-567: The fact that many former functionaries of Nazi regime were employed in positions in the West German government. However, East German propaganda also attempted to denounce as Nazis even politicians such as Kurt Schumacher , who had been imprisoned by the Nazi regime himself. Such allegations appeared frequently in the official Socialist Unity Party of Germany newspaper, the Neues Deutschland . The East German uprising of 1953 in Berlin
9525-642: The first federal politicians to be denounced in the GDR. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by the GDR in April 1960, and in July 1963. The president of West Germany Heinrich Lübke , in particular, was denounced during the official commemorations of the liberation of the concentration camps of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen held at the GDR's National Memorials. However, in reality substantial numbers of former Nazis rose to senior levels in East Germany. For example, those who had collaborated after
9652-458: The following issues concerning the decrees' validity: The conformity of the decree process with the Czechoslovak law and the 1920 Constitution; Beneš' right to issue the decrees, despite the existence of a formal protectorate government and German occupation decrees appropriate for the time of their issuance, in accordance with international consensus; decrees using the principle of responsibility, rather than guilt; decrees targeting those hostile to
9779-443: The government. The name also must be distinguished from the concept. Conceptually such an institution may appear under variety of names, especially if "national assembly" is being used to translate foreign names of the same concept into English. Also, the degree to which the National Assembly speaks for the nation is a variable. To achieve a quorum, the ancient Athenian Assembly employed Scythian police to arrest citizens at random from
9906-625: The grounds that their ancestors should have lost their property. Beneš, who was elected president of Czechoslovakia in 1935, resigned after the Munich Agreement in 1938. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia Beneš and other Czechoslovak politicians and officials emigrated to France, establishing the Czechoslovak National Committee , in November 1939, to restore Czechoslovakia. The committee's primary task
10033-676: The interrogation of prisoners of war , collecting evidence for the War Crimes Investigation Unit, and the search for war criminals . The Joint Chiefs of Staff Directive 1067 directed US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower 's policy of denazification. A report of the Institute on Re-education of the Axis Countries in June 1945 recommended: "Only an inflexible long-term occupation authority will be able to lead
10160-573: The laundry and whitening detergent Persil . There was corruption in the system, with Nazis buying and selling denazification certificates on the black market. Nazis who were found guilty were often punished with fines assessed in Reichsmarks , which had become nearly worthless. In Bavaria, the Denazification Minister, Anton Pfeiffer, bridled under the "victor's justice", and presided over a system that reinstated 75% of officials
10287-434: The mildest denazification effort. Denazification was carried out in an increasingly lenient and lukewarm way until being officially abolished in 1951. Additionally, the program was hugely unpopular in West Germany , where many Nazis maintained positions of power. Denazification was opposed by the new West German government of Konrad Adenauer , who declared that ending the process was necessary for West German rearmament . On
10414-713: The millions of copies of these books were to be confiscated and destroyed; the possession of a book on the list was made a punishable offense. The representative of the Military Directorate admitted that the order was in principle no different from the Nazi book burnings . The censorship in the US zone was regulated by the occupation directive JCS 1067 (valid until July 1947) and in the May 1946 order valid for all zones (rescinded in 1950), Allied Control Authority Order No. 4, "No. 4 – Confiscation of Literature and Material of
10541-463: The move because of what he dubbed " Expel Them All, Let God Sort Them Out! " decrees. In January 2013 conservative Czech presidential candidate Karel Schwarzenberg said, "What we committed in 1945 would today be considered a grave violation of human rights , and the Czechoslovak government, along with President Beneš, would have found themselves in The Hague ." His opponent, Miloš Zeman, seized on
10668-532: The name of denazification. By 1948, the Cold War was clearly in progress and the US began to worry more about a threat from the Eastern Bloc rather than the latent Nazism within occupied Germany. The delicate task of distinguishing those truly complicit in or responsible for Nazi activities from mere "followers" made the work of the courts yet more difficult. US President Harry S. Truman alluded to this problem: "though all Germans might not be guilty for
10795-410: The nation." The population base represented by this name is manifestly the nation as a whole, as opposed to a geographically select population, such as that represented by a provincial assembly. The powers of a National Assembly vary according to the type of government. It may possess all the powers of government, generally governing by committee, or it may function solely within the legislative branch of
10922-475: The national minorities (Hungarians and Germans) for the collapse of Czechoslovakia, which was why they wanted to create an ethnically homogeneous nation-state. According to the Czechoslovak constitution of 1920, the only body with the power to issue the laws was the National Assembly (parliament) with each law being contrasigned by the president. As there was no way to summon the parliament in exile,
11049-501: The necessity of a slow trial in open court, which was required for those belonging to the most serious categories, more than 90% of cases were judged not to belong to the serious categories and therefore were dealt with more quickly. More "efficiencies" followed. The tribunals accepted statements from other people regarding the accused's involvement in Nazism. These statements earned the nickname of Persilscheine , after advertisements for
11176-457: The occupiers. One of the most notable cases involved Wernher von Braun , who was among other German scientists recruited by the United States through Operation Paperclip and later occupied key positions in the American space program . About 8 million Germans, or 10% of the population, had been members of the Nazi Party. Nazi-related organizations also had huge memberships, such as
11303-535: The official Collection of Laws of Czechoslovakia after the liberation in 1945.Other (not re-published) decrees were ineffective in the liberated Czechoslovakia already in 1945. Yellow color marks constitutional decrees. Red color marks decrees that were later formally abolished. Establishes extraordinary courts, to decide cases in senates consisting of a presiding professional judge and four lay judges . No possibility of appeal. Death sentence to be carried out within 2 hours of sentencing, or within 24 hours if
11430-458: The only body with limited legislative power was the office of the president. The legality of the whole government-in-exile was therefore derived from the person of Edvard Beneš who, nevertheless, resigned his office in October 1938. Beneš returned to his post as president on the premise that his 1938 resignation under duress was invalid. He then appointed members of the government-in-exile and
11557-623: The organizations associated with Nazism, and by trying prominent Nazis for war crimes in the Nuremberg trials of 1946. The program of denazification was launched after the end of the war and was solidified by the Potsdam Agreement in August 1945. The term denazification was first coined as a legal term in 1943 by the Pentagon , intended to be applied in a narrow sense with reference to the post-war German legal system. However, it later took on
11684-506: The other hand, denazification in East Germany was considered a critical element of the transformation into a socialist society , and the country was stricter in opposing Nazism than its counterpart. However, not all former Nazis faced judgment. Doing special tasks for the occupation governments could protect Nazi members from prosecution, enabling them to continue working and in some cases reach prominence, as did special connections with
11811-406: The other side from taking them. The US took 785 scientists and engineers from Germany to the United States, some of whom formed the backbone of the US space program (see Operation Paperclip ). In the case of the top-ranking Nazis, such as Göring , Hess , Ribbentrop , Streicher , and Speer , the initial proposal by the British was simply to arrest them and shoot them, but that course of action
11938-456: The other zones. Because teachers had been strongly Nazified, the French began by removing three-quarters of all teachers from their jobs. However, finding that the schools could not be run without them, they were soon rehired, although subject to easy dismissal. A similar process governed technical experts. The French were the first to turn over the vetting process to Germans, while maintaining French power to reverse any German decision. Overall,
12065-413: The perpetuation of German militarism or Nazism will be closed permanently and taken into custody." The directives were very broadly interpreted, leading to the destruction of thousands of paintings and thousands more were shipped to deposits in the US. Those confiscated paintings still surviving in US custody include for example a painting "depicting a couple of middle aged women talking in a sunlit street in
12192-808: The postwar order, declaring that postwar decisions are not the basis of current discrimination and cannot establish legal relationships. The resolution was adopted by an absolute parliamentary majority and approved by the coalition government and opposition parties, except for the Party of the Hungarian Coalition . It prompted a strong negative reaction in Hungary, and Hungarian President László Sólyom said that it would strain Hungarian-Slovak relations. Politicians and journalists have frequently ignored differences in conditions between Slovakia and
12319-500: The potential numbers of denazification investigations by requiring that no one need fill in the Fragebogen unless they were applying for an official or responsible position. This difference between American and British policy was decried by the Americans and caused some Nazis to seek shelter in the British zone. In January 1946, the British handed over their denazification panels to the Germans. The French were less vigorous, for
12446-572: The pretext of anti-communism . Conditions in the internment camps were terrible, and between 42,000 and 80,000 prisoners died. When the camps were closed in 1950, prisoners were handed over to the East German government. Because many of the functionaries of the Soviet occupation zone were themselves formerly prosecuted by the Nazi regime, mere former membership in the NSDAP was initially judged as
12573-587: The principle of collective guilt . On 28 December 1989 future Czechoslovak president Václav Havel , at that time a candidate, suggested that former inhabitants of the Sudetenland might apply for Czech nationality to reclaim their lost property. The governments of Germany and the Czech Republic signed a declaration of mutual apology for wartime misdeeds in 1997. During the early 2000s, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán , Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber demanded that
12700-553: The punishments for Nazi involvement was to be barred from public office and/or restricted to manual labor or "simple work". At the end of 1945, 3.5 million former Nazis awaited classification, many of them barred from work in the meantime. By the end of the winter of 1945–1946, 42% of public officials had been dismissed. Malnutrition was widespread, and the economy needed leaders and workers to help clear away debris, rebuild infrastructure, and get foreign exchange to buy food and other essential resources. Another concern leading to
12827-422: The reassessment of their common relationship by a commission of Slovak and Hungarian historians. Although the initiative was hoped to lead to a common memorandum about the limitation of mutual injustices, it did not have the expected result. On February 12, 1991, the Slovak National Council formally apologized for postwar persecution of innocent Germans, rejecting the principle of collective guilt. In 2003, speaker of
12954-403: The republic, not an ethnic group in general; decrees meeting the proportionality test; In Decision 14/1995 Coll. the court held that the decree at issue was legitimate. It found that since the decree has fulfilled its purpose and has not produced legal effects for more than four decades, it may not be reviewed by the court for its adherence to the 1992 Czech constitution. In the court's view, such
13081-516: The rest being German. This process happened at the same time as the expropriation of large landowners and Junkers , who were also often former Nazi supporters. Because part of the intended goal of denazification in the Soviet zone was also the removal of anti-socialist sentiment, the committees in charge of the process were politically skewed. A typical panel would have one member from the Christian Democratic Union , one from
13208-480: The setting up of the German-run tribunals, including the idea that the aim of denazification was now rehabilitation rather than merely punishment, and that someone whose guilt might meet the formal criteria could also have their specific actions taken into consideration for mitigation. Efficiency thus improved, while rigor declined. Many people had to fill in a new background form, called a Meldebogen (replacing
13335-512: The several counties of the Kingdom of England, and Dominion of Wales," establishes a national congregational church in England and Wales, corresponding to the presbyteries of Scotland. The language is: "The National Assembly shall be constituted of members chosen by and sent from the several Provincial Assemblies." This National Assembly appears to have no direct link to any French words, although
13462-411: The state declared that the minorities were to blame for the German occupation. Historically it has led to multiple human rights violations and was followed by hate crimes and internments . Germans and Hungarians who had become homeless due to the laws were then subjected to forced labour. It became possible to expropriate their businesses without compensation, and a new constitutional decree allowed
13589-596: The statement to discredit Schwarzenberg, accusing him of being supported by Sudeten Germans. Denazification Final solution Parties Denazification (German: Entnazifizierung ) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War . It was carried out by removing those who had been Nazi Party or SS members from positions of power and influence, by disbanding or rendering impotent
13716-479: The street. On the other hand, the early Parliaments of Europe were mainly of an aristocratic composition. The word had its origins and inspirations from the National Assembly that was responsible for drafting a constitution during the French Revolution . The exact words, "national assembly," have been used prolifically in the international community of nations since the 18th and 19th centuries, considered
13843-557: The two countries were expected to become members of the European Union the issue was moot. Liechtenstein did not recognize Slovakia until 9 December 2009. Prime Minister Miloš Zeman said that the Czechs would not consider repealing the decrees because of an underlying fear that doing so would open the door to demands for restitution. According to Time , former Czech foreign minister Jan Kavan said: "Why should we single out
13970-461: The ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party in response to the activities of Hungarian members of parliament and organizations in Hungary. The Beneš decrees were a significant talking point of the Hungarian extremist groups Magyar Gárda and Nemzeti Őrsereg , which became active in August 2007. The approved text differed from the proposal in several important respects. The resolution commemorated
14097-439: The victims of World War II, refused the principle of collective guilt, expressed a desire to stop the reopening of topics related to World War II in the context of European integration and declared a wish to build good relationships with Slovakia's neighbors. It also rejected all attempts at revision and questioning of laws, decrees, agreements or other postwar decisions of Slovak and Czechoslovak bodies which could lead to changes in
14224-535: The war with the Soviet occupation forces could protect Nazi members from prosecution, enabling them to continue working. Having special connections with the occupiers in order to have someone vouch for them could also shield a person from the denazification laws. In particular, the districts of Gera , Erfurt , and Suhl had significant amounts of former Nazi Party members in their government, whilst 13.6% of senior SED officials in Thuringia were former members of
14351-578: The war, it would be too difficult to try to single out for better treatment those who had nothing to do with the Nazi regime and its crimes." Denazification was from then on supervised by special German ministers, like the Social Democrat Gottlob Kamm in Baden-Württemberg, with the support of the US occupation forces. Contemporary American critics of denazification denounced it as a "counterproductive witch hunt " and
14478-446: The widely disliked Fragebogen ), and were given over to justice under a Spruchkammer , which assigned them to one of five categories: Again because the caseload was impossibly large, the German tribunals began to look for ways to speed up the process. Unless their crimes were serious, members of the Nazi Party born after 1919 were exempted on the grounds that they had been brainwashed . Disabled veterans were also exempted. To avoid
14605-420: Was adopted, in which ethnic Hungarians who were Czechoslovak citizens on 1 November 1938 and lived in Czechoslovakia at the time of the act's promulgation could regain Czechoslovak citizenship if they pledged allegiance to the Republic within 90 days. Taking the oath would, according to German laws valid at the time in 1948, automatically lead to loss of German citizenship. On 13 July 1949, Act 194/1949 Coll.
14732-485: Was adopted. Under article three of the act, the Interior Ministry could bestow citizenship on applicants who had not committed an offence against Czechoslovakia or the people's democracy, had lived in the country for at least five years, and who would lose their other citizenship by receiving the Czechoslovak one. On 24 April 1953, Act 34/1953 Coll. was adopted. Under this act, ethnic Germans who lost Czechoslovak citizenship under Decree 33 and were living in Czechoslovakia on
14859-637: Was also the name of the legislature during France 's Second Republic and the Third Republic , and since 1946 has been the lower house of the French parliament , first under the Fourth Republic , and from 1958, the Fifth Republic . The expression, however, did not originate in 1789. It was already in use in the French language of the times. Louis XIII of France (1601–1643), par la grace de Dieu Roy de France & de Navarre , in
14986-400: Was based on the Ordinance of the SNR 33/1945. The Beneš decrees and SNR ordinances sometimes contained different solutions. The list of decrees which have never been valid in Slovakia contains several with a significant impact on German and Hungarian minorities in the Czech lands: In 1990 the speakers of the Slovak and Hungarian parliaments, František Mikloško and György Szabad , agreed on
15113-577: Was confiscated by Nazi authorities and not nationalized immediately after the war (and who, therefore, could benefit from the laws of 1991 and 1994). The committee found that Brokova was denied her right to equal protection under the law, in violation of article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In 2005, the European Court of Human Rights refused the application of Josef Bergauer and 89 others against
15240-439: Was decided that the numbers simply made this goal impractical. The Morgenthau Plan had recommended that the Allies create a post-war Germany with all its industrial capacity destroyed, reduced to a level of subsistence farming; however, that plan was soon abandoned as unrealistic and, because of its excessive punitive measures, liable to give rise to German anger and aggression. As time went on, another consideration that moderated
15367-486: Was democratization but part of the agenda was also the prohibition of any criticism of the Allied occupation forces. In addition, on May 13, 1946, the Allied Control Council issued a directive for the confiscation of all media that could contribute to Nazism or militarism . As a consequence a list was drawn up of over 30,000 book titles, ranging from school textbooks to poetry, which were then banned. All
15494-796: Was officially blamed on Nazi agents provocateurs from West Berlin , who the Neues Deutschland alleged were then working in collaboration with the Western government with the ultimate aim of restoring Nazi rule throughout Germany. The Berlin Wall was officially called the Anti-Fascist Security Wall (German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall ) by the East German government. As part of the propagandistic campaign against West Germany, Theodor Oberländer and Hans Globke , both former Nazi leaders involved in genocide, were among
15621-530: Was replaced by putting them on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials in order to publicize their crimes while demonstrating, especially to the German people, that the trials and the sentences were just. However, the legal foundations of the trials were questioned, and many Germans were not convinced that the trials were anything more than " victors' justice ". Many refugees from Nazism were Germans and Austrians, and some had fought for Britain in
15748-562: Was rewarded with the option to move into the confiscated houses. The state sought to create an ethnically Slavic nation on the territory of present-day Czechia and Slovakia through Slavicisation . The ongoing process of Slovakization has not received international media attention. The decrees remain politically controversial in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia , and modern Germany . They were never repealed and are still used to confiscate property from Hungarians in Slovakia on
15875-596: Was the "registration" that the Parlement of Paris refused to perform for Louis XVI of France in 1787–1788. When the Estates-General of 1789 formed the National Assembly of 1789, they did not believe they were instituting anything new. In the Assembly of Notables of 1787, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette had used National Assembly and Estates General synonymously when he suggested that France needed
16002-657: Was to establish a Czechoslovak army in France. After the fall of France the committee moved to London , where it became the Interim Czechoslovak Government . The government was recognized as the interim Czechoslovak government by Great Britain on 21 July 1940 and in 1941 it was fully recognized by the U.S. and the USSR as the government of the allied state. Since its recognition in 1940, the government issued decrees to rule over Czechoslovak citizens abroad. Beneš and other Czechoslovak politicians blamed
16129-482: Was too much work to be done to complete the process of denazification by 1947, the year American troops were expected to be completely withdrawn from Europe. Pressure also came from the need to find Germans to run their own country. In January 1946 a directive came from the Control Council entitled "Removal from Office and from Positions of Responsibility of Nazis and Persons Hostile to Allied Purposes". One of
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