[G.]
Emigration and flight
[6.19. Sudeten accession - harsh anti-Semitism
in ex-CSSR territories after the split of the CSSR -
no-man's-lands]
[Oct 1938: Invasion of
German army in the Sudeten territories]
The problem of mass emigration from Germany and Austria
was compounded by the addition of yet another victim of
Nazi barbarism: Czechoslovakia. In late September 1938 the
Western powers had betrayed the Czechs to Hitler at
Munich. In early October the German-speaking border lands
of Bohemia and Moravia, the so-called Sudeten areas, were
occupied by the Germans.
[Supplement: The German occupation was welcomed by the
German population which had suffered under Czech rule
since 1919, authorized by the French dictation in
Versailles and the treaty of St-Germain. Now the German
invasion was authorized by the Munich conference and by
the English prime minister Chamberlain. Hitler for his
part gave the guarantee not to make war any more. The
national gold of the CSSR was brought into Nazi hands with
English and Swiss help (In: Jean Ziegler: Die Schweiz, das
Gold und die Toten). When Hitler had died now he had been
in a good memory of whole Europe (In: Eitler: Hitlers
Deutsche)].
[Partition of the CSSR:
Hungary and Poland performing occupations - nationalist
Slovakia]
Soon afterward the Hungarians took southern Slovakia and
southern Subcarpathia, while the Poles occupied an area
near Tesín. The democratic character of the Czechoslovak
republic was destroyed, Slovakia became autonomous, and
nationalist and near-Fascist (p.260)
tendencies increased. "Do not ask us for humanity",
officials are reported to have said. "We were not treated
with humanity."
(End note 94: R11, November 1938, report by Noel Aronovici
on a visit to Czechoslovakia)
[Czech refugees, within
about 15,000 Jews - 5-60,000 German Jews in rest CSR -
anti-Semitism - emigration projects]
The number of Czech refugees from the occupied Sudeten
areas was estimated at between 180,000 and 200,000. Of
these, about 15,000 were Jews. In addition, there were
5,000 to 6,000 refugees from Germany and Austria still in
the country.
About 2/3 of all these refugees lacked means of
subsistence and had to be supported. To find work in the
new, smaller Czechoslovakia was a practical impossibility;
anti-Semitism was rampant, and Jews were attacked as a
foreign, germanizing element (most of them spoke German).
Jews themselves were expected to formulate anti-Jewish
laws. In colleges and universities Jews either were not
admitted or, if already registered, were thrown out under
various pretexts. As a result, tremendous efforts were
made by Jews - refugees and natives alike - to leave the
country.
[27 Jan 1939: CSR
government proclamation for emigration of foreign
refugees]
On January 27, 1939, the rightist government of Rudolf
Beran issued a proclamation demanding a speedy emigration
of foreign refugees; it also proclaimed that the
government would review the status of those who had
acquired citizenship since World War I - a measure
expressly directed at the Jews.
[Prague: Jewish central
organization set up under Dr. Josef Popper - help for
Jewish refugees]
In this chaotic and dangerous situation a central
organization of Jewish communities was set up in Prague
under the chairmanship of Dr. Josef Popper. In the Czech
lands Marie Schmolka headed HICEM, dealing with
emigration. The Jewish Social Institute, the chief aid
organization, had to care for 1,290 persons immediately.
To all other persons, the Czech government gave an
allowance of 8 crowns (about 30 cents) a day; those who
could not manage were put into camps.
In the Czech lands 118,000 Jews were now crowded; they
were threatened with the fate of German Jewry.
(End note 95: Karel Lagus and Josef Polak: Mesto za
Mrízemi; Prague 1964, p.334)
Of the 136,000 Jews who had been in Slovakia in 1930,
88,951 remained in 1940; some had emigrated, but the rest
had become Hungarian Jews as a result of the 1938
annexations.
(End note 96: Livia Rothkirchen: The Destruction of Slovak
Jewry (Hebrew); Jerusalem 1961, pp.9, 14 (English summary,
pp. vii, xiv)
In early 1939 a social committee (Zentrales Soziales
Fürsorgekomitee) was working in Bratislava under Dr.
Robert K. Füredi and Mrs. Gizi Fleischmann, who was to
become during the war one of the great (p.261)
heroines of the Jewish tragedy. In January 1939 this
committee was supporting a foreign refugee population of
3,064 who had to be fed daily.
(End note 97:
-- 11-2, report, 2/3/39 [3 February 1939];
-- CON-2, report by Marjorie Katz, 2/12/38; and
-- R11, see note 94 above)
[Jews temporarily driven
into no-man's-lands - Kosice and other border regions]
One of the main problems arising from the Sudeten crisis
was the terrible plight of thousands of Jews who were
driven - by Germans, Slovaks, Hungarians, Poles, and even
Czechs - into no-man's-land, the small areas between the
new borders. Two thousand such unfortunates were driven by
the Slovaks into a no-man's-land near Kosice, a town which
passed into Hungarian hands. The Hungarians drove most of
them back. In the end some 300 refugees, largely stateless
and Slovak Jews, spent the Slovak autumn in the open,
without shelter, food, or medical aid.
A great deal of money was spent providing them with basic
necessities. After many interventions, Slovakia finally
accepted most of these refugees.
(End note 98: See note 94 above [R11, November 1938,
report by Noel Aronovici on a visit to Czechoslovakia)
Hundreds more were reported to be in the Austro-Moravian
border areas, between the new Sudeten frontier and the
Bohemian heartland and on other borders.
(End note 99: 11-4, 10/24/38 [24 October 1938] report)
It is next to impossible to establish the total number,
but there could not have been less than 3-4,000 persons.
It was not until January 1939, more than three months
after Munich, that the last of these people finally found
a country that would harbor them, mostly in refugee camps.
(End note 100: Executive Committee, 2/26/39 [26 February
1939]. According to JTA [Jewish Telegraphic Agency], 2,700
Jews were finally taken out from no-man's-land by
Hungarian and Slovak authorities (1/23/39 [23 January
1939])
[15 March 1939: NS
occupation of rest CSR - JDC with social committees in
Prague and Bratislava - emigration projects]
Then final disaster struck. On March 15, 1939, Germany
occupied the Czech lands; Slovakia became "independent"
under a German protectorate; and Subcarpathia was annexed
by Hungary. In Prague, Marie Schmolka was arrested by the
Nazis immediately after they entered the city; she was not
released until May.
JDC policy in Czechoslovakia was to support the two social
committees in Prague and Bratislava. Prior to March, JDC
was providing 40 % of the budget of the Prague Social
Institute. After March it gave more than 50 %.
(End note 101: 11-2, 6/8/39 [8 June 1939], memo on
Czechoslovakia)
Large-scale aid had to be given to Slovakia to support the
2,938 refugees who were completely dependent on outside
help.
(End note 102: R59, Troper letter, 6/16/39 [16 June 1939])
In the Czech lands an arrangement similar to that in
Germany and Austria was worked out, whereby American
dollars would not go into German coffers (p.262)
but would cover the costs of emigration, while the
emigrants' money would be used to cover local needs. But
in Slovakia the new authorities would not accept these
arrangements, and immediate help was essential.
Reluctantly, Troper cabled his head office on June 15,
1939, that a one-time transfer of $ 20,000 to the Slovak
National Bank was unavoidable; on the 16, New York cabled
agreement.
(End note 103: 11-2, exchange of letters and cables,
6/15/39-7/21/39 [15 June-21 July 1939]
In Prague, JDC support was, as we have seen, indirect, but
it ran at a monthly rate of about $ 33,000.
[April 1939-end 1939:
Emigration of about 35,000 Jews of CSR]
The main concern of the committees and of JDC was, of
course, to aid as many people to emigrate as possible at
the greatest speed. Prior to March 15 there was a great
deal of competition from Sudeten German opponents of
Nazism and from Czechs who wished to leave the country.
Nevertheless, by the end of 1939 about 35,000 Jews managed
to leave the Czech lands.
This was facilitated by a British government-supported
fund, the Lord Mayor's Fund, which had 4 million pounds at
its disposal. Despite the fact that the fund was largely
used for Czech internal requirements, small amounts were
used for Jewish refugee emigration. England was the main
destination of the emigrants; representatives of British
groups, Quakers and others, did a tremendous job in
Prague, sifting and processing applications; the staff of
the British Embassy in Prague was also very helpful.
[Illegal emigration is not mentioned but is very
probable].
[Flight without visa from
the NS CSR - an emigration train without visas]
Nevertheless, there were difficulties. In the panic that
the occupation of the country brought, people simply tried
to flee without bothering to obtain visas. A train with
160 Jews went across Germany in April, only to be stopped
by the Dutch because the emigrants did not have any visas
of final destination. The Gestapo declared that if the
train was still in Germany by a fixed deadline - April 29
- the refugees would be arrested. It was only through a
waving of formalities by the British that these people
were saved.
(End note 104: R60, introduction to the March-April 1939
report)
Illegal emigration to Palestine also flourished; other
persons crossed the border into Poland as Czech refugees,
only to be threatened by the Poles with deportation back
into the Gestapo's hands.
(End note 105: 11-5, Smolar report, 6/9/39 [9 June 1939])
The Germans were pressing for Jewish emigration by the
(p.263)
same methods that had been so successful elsewhere, and in
July 1939 they established in Prague a branch office of
the Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration.
[Since March 1939: Again
Jews driven into no-man's-lands - help]
After March, too, the tragedies of small groups in
no-man's-land were repeated. Germans were expelling Jews
from the Czech lands, and on the Polish border the scenes
of autumn 1938 took place once again. In all these cases
the Prague Social Institute had to intervene to keep the
people alive.
(End note 106: 11-5, Troper cable, 6/15/39 [15 June 1939])
When the curtain came down on the unhappy country in
September 1939, the fate of Czech Jewry had become
identical to that of Germany and Austria.
Where could the Jews of Central Europe have gone? No
country was willing to accept panic-stricken Jewish
refugees without the necessary and delaying prerequisites
of form-filling and careful scrutiny. No country really
wanted penniless Jews.
