Publication details
Českoslovenští generálové před nacistickým Lidovým soudním dvorem 1941 až 1944
| Title in English | Czechoslovak generals at the Nazi People's Court 1941 to 1944 |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The chapter deals with the Nazi People's Court (Volksgerichtshof – VGH) and the trials of Czechoslovak army generals involved in resistance activities during the Second World War. The People's Court was a political tribunal hearing crimes against the Nazi regime. It was one of the crucial instruments used to suppress the activities of the domestic resistance during the Nazi occupation of the Czech lands. Out of 15 Czechoslovak army generals sentenced to death by the Nazi tribunals and subsequently executed, eight were convicted by the VGH and the remaining seven by the martial courts operating in the Protectorate between 1941 and 1942. The analysis of the eight trials of Czechoslovak army generals conducted by the VGH forms the central part of the study. The first was the trial of the Protectorate Prime Minister, Division General Alois Eliáš, in September 1941, who became the only prime minister of one of the dependent territories or satellites of Nazi Germany to be sentenced to death. The uniqueness of this trial was underlined by a considerable media campaign with the explicit aim of intimidating the Czech population of the Protectorate and discouraging them from supporting resistance organisations. Further trials followed between 1941 and 1944, during which six brigadier generals and the divisional general Bedřich Homola were sentenced to death. The Nazi judicial apparatus attached considerable importance to the trials and tried to use them for propaganda purposes. The author also notes the fact that after the establishment of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1948, these resistance leaders were no longer officially mentioned, and only after 1989 was it possible to freely commemorate the brave actions of men who were among the first to stand up to the Nazi occupying power. |