War Year 1942 – The Czechoslovak Resistance and the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

  • Date: October 4, 2012
  • Venue: Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes
  • Deadlines for the submission of applications and abstracts: September 7, 2012
  • Application:  DOC ,  RTF 
  • Contact Information: martina.kollinerova@ustrcr.cz
  • Participating languages: Czech, Slovak, English

Annotation:

After the successful realization of the assassination of the Reich protector Reinhard Heydrich, the Czechoslovak resistance found itself at the center of world attention. The names of the village of Lidice and Ležáky, without exaggeration, rapidly spread throughout the world. Thanks to the London exile, the Czechoslovak question appeared on the side of the metropolitan press. Edvard Beneš received unanticipated attention from leading statesmen of the time. As a result, the event influenced the policies of the British government not only as regards the Czechoslovak exile, but also towards the large German minority in Central and Eastern Europe. The brutality of the occupying powers in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia shocked the civilized world. Her majesty’s government withdrew its signature under the Munich Agreement, which the French National Committee declared null from the outset, and the United States finally definitively recognized the Czechoslovak government abroad. Inside the Protectorate, Czechoslovak troop swelled into a massive wave of patriotism and hatred towards all things German. Repression in the Czech lands reached its peak. Nazi retaliation proceeded in the form of genocidal action against the local Jewish population.

The Symposium will be divided into the following blocks:

  1. The international response and impact of the assassination of Czech foreign action.
  2. The reaction to the assassination among Czechoslovak soldiers abroad and among inhabitants of the Protectorate.
  3. The right or wrong decision? The controversy surrounding the significance of the assassination.

Please send registration for the symposium no later that September 7th 2012 to the address: martina.kollinerova@ustrcr.cz. It is also possible to pursue inquiries through this e-mail address. The application must include a title and brief annotation (a maximum of 10 lines). The maximum paper length is 20 minutes. Selected papers will be published in the conference proceedings.