Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

Czech Republic, 1939–1945. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16 March 1939 after the German occupation of the Czech lands. The protectorate remained nominally autonomous and had a dual system of government, with German law applying to ethnic Germans while other residents had the legal status of Protectorate subjects and were governed by a puppet Czech administration. The Protectorate administration became deeply involved in the Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia. The state's existence came to an end with the surrender of Germany to the Allies in May 1945.

Seat of power: Prague

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

On 10 June 1942, 172 boys and men between age 14 to 84 were shot. Altogether, about 340 people from Lidice were murdered in the German reprisal: 192 men, 60 women and 88 children.
On 4 June 1942, Heydrich died after being wounded by Czechoslovak Commandos in Operation Anthropoid. Directives issued by Heydrich's successor, Kurt Daluege, and martial law brought forth mass arrests, executions and the obliteration of the villages of Lidice and Ležáky.
Of the 92,199 people classified as Jews by German authorities in the Protectorate as of 1939, 78,154 were murdered in the Holocaust, or 85 percent.
The population of the protectorate was mobilized for labor that would aid the German war effort. The Germans drafted Czechs to work in coal mines, in the iron and steel industry, and in armaments production.

Picture

Lidice is built near the site of the previous village, which was completely destroyed on 10 June 1942 on orders from Adolf Hitler and acting Reichsprotektor Kurt Daluege in reprisal for the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich.

Image: Miaow Miaow, Public domain, file

Sources

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.