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8The ‘‘Righteous’’ and the Brave Compassion and Solidarity with the Persecuted Resentment toward Nazism was naturally more pronounced in Czechoslovakia than in other neighboring countries. Hitler’s anti-Czech tirades and the growing antagonism among the Sudeten Germans generated widespread apprehension and fear of Nazi expansion. Only quite recently did it become known that it was actually President Masaryk himself who initially reviewed Hitler’s Mein Kampf (1933) in the Prager Presse.∞ He did so under the title ‘‘Hitler’s Credo,’’ using the initials V.S., warning the world against the insanity of such chauvinistic and racist ideas. From the very beginning many noted Czech intellectuals actively participated at international conventions, raising their voices of foreboding against National Socialism, fascism, and the totalitarian rule in Germany, foreshadowing in their works and plays the approaching catastrophe. Su≈ce it to recall Karel Čapek’s White Plague, which won worldwide recognition. Another Prague publicist and journalist, Dr. Oscar Singer, wrote his anti-Nazi play Herren der Welt as early as 1935.≤ The Czechoslovak section of the Paris-based Ligue International contre l’Antisémitisme (International League against Anti-Semitism) warrants special acknowledgment. Under its auspices the Věstník čsl. ligy proti antisemitismu (Bulletin of the Czechoslovak League against Anti-Semitism) made its appearance as of 1936. The national chairman of this organization was Pastor Bohumil Vančura of the Church of Bohemian Brethren. The head of the Brno section, Professor Maxmilian Ryšánek, publisher and owner of the press service Tribuna tisková korespondence or Tri-Kor, cooperated closely with the League against Anti-Semitism in extracting features from the Nazi press for distribution at no charge to newspapers and weeklies in Bohemia and Moravia (in both Czech and German). The objective was to make readers aware of Nazi methods, the ‘‘righteous’’ and the brave | 217 racial theories, and treatment of the Jews in Germany and at the same time make people cognizant of their freedom in a democratic country.≥ However, this type of activity gradually petered out following the Munich Agreement and the short-lived Second Republic. After the Ides of March both physical and spiritual resources were channeled to rescue e√orts: last-minute escapes and emigration overseas. The outbreak of war on September 1, 1939, put an end to free emigration from the Protectorate and later (as of 1941) made it di≈cult, if not virtually impossible for individuals to leave the country legally. Altogether around 80 percent of the Jewish population remained in the Protectorate , deprived of basic human rights and, in e√ect, segregated as outcasts. Examining the issue of human solidarity and help extended to the persecuted Jews by their gentile fellow citizens, we should take into account the policies of the Nazi authorities in this enclave (in comparison to the circumstances prevalent in other occupied countries) during the various phases of the war. Germany ’s system of administration and ruling in conquered Europe varied from country to country. Punishment meted out to gentile individuals for various modes of help, such as supplying false papers and ration cards, entailed far less danger in some countries than in others. Ultimately the nature and extent of German control were the primary factors determining the toll of Jewish lives. The conduct of the Nazi authorities vis-à-vis the Jewish entity in the Czech lands di√ered somewhat from the pattern adopted elsewhere. The main reasons for this were the centuries-old Czech-German conflict and Hitler’s long-range policy aimed at ‘‘the solution of the Czech question.’’∂ As indicated in chapter 5, the goal of this policy was incorporation of the lands of Bohemia and Moravia into greater Germany as a ‘‘heartpiece’’ of the Reich. The persecution of the Jews, however, was carried out with more subtlety than in Eastern Europe during the first months of ‘‘appeasement’’: no street attacks upon Jews were forthcoming, aside from those instigated by rabid Volksdeutsche and the Czech fascists in Brno, Jihlava, and some other localities. Initially, the arrests of political and public figures were also made selectively, on ideological grounds and according to prepared lists (Czech patriots, legionnaires , Socialists, Communists, etc.) In this period of general confusion the antiSemitic discrimination seemed to be just one plank of the Nazi oppression. A watershed was the promulgation of the decree on the legal status of the Jews (Rechtstellung der Juden) issued by Reichsprotektor von Neurath on June 21, 1939, wresting full control over the Jewish communities. The decree introduced a...

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