RELEASE NO. 152 SEPTEMBER 28, 1942 NEWS FLASHES FROM UNDER NAZI DOMINATION (The news which is coming through in spite of Nazi censorship!)

HENLEIN PURGED number of soothing speeches delivered by Henlein was sufficient to improve the weakened morale of The latest victim of Himler's purge of the Nazi the "Sudetens." Today the once famous leader of ranks is Konrad Henlein, a leader of the "Sudeten" the Sudeten German revolt finds himself in a Ger• Nazis and Hitler's most important tool in bringing man jail. about the Munich crisis and dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. PLANS FOR POST-WAR According to Nase Noviny, a Czecho• RECONSTRUCTION OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA slovak daily in London, Henlein has been impris• oned. He shares his cell with Dr. Walter Darre, The Czechoslovak Ministry of Economic Recon• ousted German Minister of Agriculture. struction, first ministry of its kind to be set up by The arrest of Henlein is another sign of continuing one of the governments-in-exile, made public, on disintegration of the owing to the strain September 6th, a detailed account of first plans for caused by the unfavorable turn of events on the the post-war rehabilitation of Czechoslovakia. Eastern front, where the Germans were able to gain The plan divides the country's post-war problems new territories but unable to crush the Russian into two categories: those of immediate importance, armies and achieve speedy victory. or the short-term problems, and those of importance in the more remote future. Henlein organized the revolt of the Nazi Germans in Czechoslovakia. He founded the Sudeten German The problems which will arise immediately after Party, which started as a party opposing by legal the war will need about six months after the war's means the alleged oppression of Germans in Czecho• termination for their satisfactory solution, according slovakia and later inaugurated the revolutionary to the ministry's reckoning. movement appealing for outside help from Hitler The foremost task in this period will be that of against Czechoslovakia. From the beginning to the dealing with the expected unemployment resulting end this party was supported by Hitler to serve him from the termination of work in the armament in• as a pretext for meddling in Czechoslovak internal dustries and the return of workers from Germany. affairs. By employing Henlein as a willing tool, Problems involving food and transportation will Hitler, posing as a protector of the German minority also be among the first dealt with under the minis• in Czechoslovakia, succeeded in making of all the try's reconstruction program. Czech people a minority in Germany. The alleged The ministry's program envisions the improvement oppression of one group of German people was of economic conditions at the end of the six-month rectified by him by enslavmg the entire Czech na• period. tion. While the Germans in Czechoslovakia con• The ministry, which is headed by Jaromir Necas, stituted the best treated German minority in Europe for a long time minister of social welfare in the pre• — certainly much better treated than the German war Prague government and former Chairman of the minority in Italy, Germany's ally—the Czech minori• International Labor Office, expects close interna• ty in Hitler's Reich is most brutally persecuted and tional collaboration in the economic field. It calls threatened with annihilation. attention, in the report concerning its program, to the lend-lease appropriation as an outstanding example Henlein served his master well. But the day of his of a new and original method of economic collabo• glory is gone. All is not well not only with the ration. in the "Protectorate" but also with the Ger• mans in the so-called , where consterna• tion was caused by the huge losses of men on the CZECH FARMER ORGANIZATION Russian front. Hitler gave his "Sudetens" ample op• NAZIFIED portunity to pay for their "deliverance," for which All Czech agricultural organizations have been dis• they had to pay in blood. solved and their property taken over by a new body The cost is appaling. The flower of the Sudeten called the Organization of Agricultural and Forest German youth was destroyed in Russia. Discord and Workers in the "Protectorate" of Bohemia-Moravia. dissatisfaction prevails in the "Sudetenland." No Membership is compulsory to all peasants. NEWS FLASHEIS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA UNDER NAZI DOMINATION

NO OUTSIDE GUARDIAN FOR BRITISH MINERS HONORING GERMANS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA CZECH MINING TOWN The Czechoslovak Press Bureau in London, on On September 6th a huge meeting was held at September 1 5, reports that three groups of Germans Stoke-on-Trent, England, for the purpose of starting from Czechoslovakia — namely, the Social Demo• a movement for the rebuilding of Lidice after the cratic Party, the Democratic Party, and the Com• war. Dr. Edvard Benes, President of Czechoslovakia, munists issued a joint declaration of loyalty to the and Will Lawthers, President of the British Miners' Czechoslovak Republic and a statement of policy in Federation, were the principal speakers. Mr. Law- connection with the abolishment of the Munich agree• ther's address read as follows: ment. The declaration was signed by G. Beuer, K. "Just as that mining village of Czechoslovakia, Kreiblich, J. Zinner, J. Lank, Dr. A. Peres, and Dr. whose martyred dead we honor and salute this day, A. Popper for the parties concerned. has earned for itself a place in the pages of history, The declaration states that the Sudeten German so will today's inaugural ceremony mark a new phase anti-Fascists in Britain welcome the formal annul• in the greatest of all human atrributes — justice. We ment of the Munich Pact with deep satisfaction. The are here not to pay empty tributes to those who paid formal annulment of the and the with their lives, but to see to it that a new Lidice recognition of the Czechoslovak Republic with its shall be born with the spirit of the destroyed Lidice pre-Munich frontiers means a further significant act permeating every stone that shall be built. It was the in the reconstruction of a sovereign Czechoslovak Secretary of the Midland Miners, George Jones, who Republic. At the same time it means a final rejection suggested that the British miners, with their fellow of the idea that the German population of other miners the world over, with their fellow citizens in states must see in Hitler their guardian and natural Britain, with all who hate every tyranny and desire savior. that justice should reign, should take steps that you The statement says: "At a time when great, new will endorse. possibilities have opened up, we feel a need to ex• "Today's demonstration of unity with the ideal press again with utmost emphasis our adherance to suggested will be taken up everywhere, wherever the Czechoslovak Republic. In 1938 we, together there breathes that spirit that Lidice typifies — re• with our Czech and Slovak brothers, defended the sistance to the evil thing even unto death. There is Republic against the Nazi invasion. Today we fight not a single individual in this or any other land who together to drive the bloody Nazi hangmen from the has respect for human decency who would not, if soil of our common homeland. The more firmly given the opportunity, have hailed that day when he Czechoslovakia, dismembered by Hitler, draws her could dispatch any of the Nazi fiends as the com• peoples together in a common struggle the more mon folk of Lidice are supposed to have done. We thorough will be the reckoning with the Fascist op• have today to begin this effort to show in the clearest pressors. The place of the Sudeten German anti- unmistakable way that future generations will enter Fascists is in the Czechoslovak front. The place of Lidice as a holy place, consecreted by the humble all able bodied is in the Czecho• sons and daughters of toil, who lived therein until slovak army in which hundreds are already being their destruction on June 16, 1942. To those un• trained for the armed fight on the Continent. This is known men and women of Lidice we say, with Walt the only way in which the Sudeten German people Whitman . . . 'Not until the sun excludes you will can shake off the Fascist foreign rule and achieve we exclude you.' freedom." "British miners have never hesitated to give and give again to worthy causes for noble ends. Born The declaration concludes with this statement: and reared under circumstances in which danger is "We who see the fight against Hitler as our first ever present, our hearts and minds go out to those duty, refuse to turn the questions of future relations who face risks; and today we say to those in all lands of peoples into a subject of controversy now. We under the domination of the Nazis: Every action of share the opinion of the President that the peoples the miners of the nations submerged is welcomed by of Czechoslovakia will themselves decide their social, the miners of Britain, U.S.S.R., U.S.A., and Austra• political, and national problems after they have lia. We will help you, and we know that, once the achieved the destruction of the Nazis. The more call goes out from Britain, the rest of the miners of unitedly we strive together in the war now, the more the United Nations will give also to rebuild Lidice. easily we will achieve, after Hitler's overthrow, a To the miners under the iron heel of the dictators solution of the national problems which will guaran• we express that assurance that we welcome the tee that liberated peoples can live together in peace knowledge that they will do all that lies in their and friendship. power to destroy the Nazi war machine. Fellow NEWS FLASHES FROM CZEGHOSIiOVAKLA. UNDER NAZI DOMINATION miners of tfie International Miners' Movement: that same serene, sure, and steadfast spirit. Only Think for a single moment that here in Britain, in cowards will shirk their duty and ignore their re• the midst of the coalfields, a movement begins to sponsibility to their memory. Today we pledge our• rebuild Lidice. In the United States and Mexico a selves to rebuild Lidice, and we renew our faith and town has been given the name of Lidice, so that determination to see this struggle through to the future generations shall remember why the change bitter end in order to reach the goal that we set our• was made. Think also how at this moment the miners selves with the rest of the United Nations. Victory of the U.S.S.R. have responded against the blood for human liberty, freedom, and democracy, and lust of the Nazis. Miners everywhere and forever will death to Nazism and Fascism! Nothing less will do. remember the carnage of Lidice as long as they can Nothing greater can be asked. To that cause we re- think and feel. Today it is essential to realize in this dedicate ourselves and to the accomplishment of the country that we are saved from the horrors of Lidice immediate task for which we have met. and the grim tragedy of the Donbas coalfields by the fact that we can keep on producing weapons of war. Nothing is more vital than coal for guns, tanks, CZECH RAILWAYMEN and planes to avenge Lidice. It is no use giving our SENTENCED TO DEATH money if tomorrow we withhold by any action of The press service of the Internation8il Transport ours from those men who have been bombing Ger• Workers' Federation, on September 1st, reported many, from those who are strafing the foulest system that thirty Czech railwaymen charged with continued and the wickedest of human scum, the weapons they robbery of German transports in the railway yards need for their job. at Kralupy were arrested, tried, and sentenced to "I take part in the ceremony today because I know death. Robbery is given as the motive, but the there can be no peace on earth or good will among German authorities openly admit that the accused men till Fascism and Nazism are destroyed. To me concealed and buried a large part of the equipment there was given a sacred pledge by one who lost his and other vital transport and war material which life in the struggle against Fascism that I will recall they took from the trains. to you.

Democratic Britain and world democracy were CARPATHIAN RUSSIANS IN THE stirred by the struggle of the Spanish Government to CZECHOSLOVAK ARMY keep the torch of freedom ever burning brightly, and in that fight a number of men came together in the Gen. Sergej. Ingr, Czechoslovak minister of De• famous International Brigade. This was the first fense, reported in his speech to the Czechoslovak United Nations' battalion to fight against Fascism. soldiers "somewhere in Britain", on August II, Like many others who place a low value upon life that a considerable part of the Czechoslovak army when weighed in the scale against liberty and free• unit in Russia is composed of Carpathian Russians. dom, my youngest brother, Clifford, went out with Many of them are former prisoners of war who de• the International Brigade to do his duty. Father and serted their armies and joined the Russians when mother had passed away, and to me he wrote these forced into the Hungarian army on the Eastern front. intimate words that men do to those whom they trust Guerilla activities in Carpathian Russia are increas• and can call upon to carry out this pledge. His last ing, notwithstanding the official denials of the Hun• letter, written when he had been away only six garian government. weeks, said among other things: It has been a pleas• ure and one of life's joys to journey here to meet with men of all countries and men of none. Will, LAST RESERVES OF NAZI GERMANY wherever you can, give all your influence, all your For several months rumors have been circu• support, anything to get men roused to fight this lating in the "Protectorate" that Hitler is going menace of Fascism, the greatest evil that mankind to mobilize Czechs in the German Army. In has ever faced. I am going up the line to give my view of the mass desertions of Czechoslovak life, if necessary, so do what you can. He went "up soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian armies to the the line.' He never returned. Like hundreds of Russians during the First World War, the Czech others, he gave his life. He believed and died. To me people are commenting upon this rumor with that was a sacred trust which I cannot and will not icy remarks: After the mobilization of the betray. What doth it profit a brother who breaks Czechs only one source of reserves will remain the pledge is one of my inspirations — my brother to the Fuehrer, that is, the inhabitants of ceme• Clifford's trust to me to carry on where he laid down teries. the torch. Those miners of Lidice faced death with NEWS FLASHES FROM CZECHOSLOVAKLA. UNDER NAZI DOMINATION

ARYANIZATION A SOURCE CHINA DOES NOT FORGET OF CORRUPTION General Chiang Kai-Shek thanked Dr. Benes for The extent of the corruption resulting from the the Czechoslovak War Cross conferred on him in aryanization policy of the Nazi government of Slo• July. The General wrote "Czechoslovakia has al• vakia is so great that even the government news• ways been China's good friend, and we shall never papers have been forced to admit its existence and forget the freedom and independence of the Czecho• to denounce it. The Daily Slovak recently slovak people while we are fighting for our own. published an article under the heading, "Enrich your• I am firmly confident that, under your auspicious self, but honestly." It says: "It is good that Slovaks leadership, Czechoslovakia will again emerge power• now are given posts from which they were formerly ful when victory is realized." barred. But there are instances of people who sud• denly grew rich, nobody knows how, and who squan• der thousands of crowns in a scandalous manner. It CONTEMPT OF GERMAN NATION was the program of the Hlinka Party to level social A new special court has made its appearance differences, but we should be mistaken if we were to in Bohemia to try persons charged with con• think that social differences have been leveled today. tempt of the German Nation or the Reich. A A bad impression is given by those who, having refusal to dance with a German soldier is con• profited from aryanization, occupy several tables in sidered an act of contempt and is punishable dining cars while traveling all over Slovakia for by a term of several weeks in prison. sport, also by the doorman of a public office who dines daily in a first class restaurant, drinking cham• paign, or by an employee with a medium sized salary CZECHOSLOVAK YEARBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL LAW who spends tens of thousands monthly. One ought to investigate the source of this money. Corruption The Czechoslovak Branch of the International Law Association in London is one of the many Czechoslovak is a very dangerous ulcer in public life." cultural and learned orgajiizations driven by the Nazis The paper continues: "Parliament ought to deal into temporary exile. In spite of the strain of the war the with this vermin problem. On one side great luxury members of the International Law Association established themselves in London and continue the work which Hitler is displayed—three Aryanizers in one business enter• violently stopped when he occupied Prague in March, prise squander more than one Jew squanders. On 1939. The most recent and noteworthy example of this the other side there is a large class of lower State work is the Czechoslovak Yearbook of International Law employees and workers whose standard of living has published in London under the auspices of the Branch. This volume of 240 pages has already received attention sunk rather low. The glaring luxury of the first and recogTiition by a number of American authorities as group undermines the morals of the second group. an important contribution to the literature on modem law. Dr. Edward BeneS, the President of the Czechoslovak Government in London, introduced the Yearbook by an article on the rights of man and international law. Other A NEW UST OF HOSTAGES contributions include the legal treatment of such vital issues as the post-Munich arbitrations by the Axis powers PREPARED in Central Europe, the legislation of the allied powers in According to the bulletin, Listy Pfate- the United Kingdom, the international position of the allied forces in England, the recognition of Czechoslova• 1 u m, published in London, a conference of editors kia, regional understandings and federalism, and several was held in Prague, June 23, at the call issued by additional topics having bearing on the prosecution of the war and the postwar problems. Copies of the Year• Quisling Minister Moravec. At this conference it was book can be obtained from the Czechoslovak National proposed that all members of the family of President Council of America, 4049 West 26th Street, Chicago, HI., or from Josef HanC, American representative of the Benes and the families of Czechoslovak ministers in Czechoslovak Branch of the International Law Associa• exile, especially Ministers Outrata, Necas, Sramek, tion, 1790 Broadway, Room 305, New York City. The price of the volume is $1.75. and Feierabend be arrested and imprisoned.

Czechoslovak National Council of America 4049 West 26th Street, Chicago, III.. U. S. A. (Printed in USA.)