Alois Eliáš

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R.I.P
Alois

Alois Eliáš (29 September 1890 – 19 June 1942) was a Czech general and politician. He served as prime minister of the puppet government of the German-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from 27 April 1939 to 27 September 1941 but maintained contact with the government-in-exile. Because of his participation in the anti-Nazi resistance, he was the only head of government who was murdered by the Nazis during World War II.

Alois Eliáš a adăugat o fotografie

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R.I.P
Alois

Education Eliáš graduated in geodesy from the Czech Technical University in 1911. Working for a private company as a land surveyor, he was sent to Bosnia to work on the construction of a railway.

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Military career After the Austrian declaration of war on Serbia, Eliáš was called up for service with the Austro-Hungarian Army and was sent with the Prague 28th Infantry Regiment to Galicia. After only a few days, Eliáš was taken prisoner by the Russians on 28 August 1914 during the Galicia campaign. In 1917, Eliáš learnt of the existence of Czechoslovak Legions, which he joined. They were volunteer armed forces fighting on the side of the Entente Powers during World War I (France, Britain, Italy, Russia) with the goal of winning the Allies' support for independence and were ultimately successful. Eliáš was later dispatched to France, where he studied at the officer school at St Maixent, and was later assigned to the 21st Czechoslovak Regiment as a platoon commander. In the autumn of 1918, he took part in battles at Terron and on the Aisne. For his bravery and command skills, he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre and made a member of the Legion of Honour. His studies in France significantly accelerated Eliáš's career after the war. In Prague, he became a general staff officer and was later promoted to brigadier general. As a military expert, he was a…Citește mai mult

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Appointment The first government under the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia of Premier Rudolf Beran was only provisional as Beran had served as the last premier of the Second Czechoslovak Republic. Its replacement was discussed at the end of April 1939, with President Emil Hácha thinking Alois Eliáš would be a good choice for prime minister because the popularity that he had acquired during his earlier military career would legitimise the puppet regime. Although somewhat dubious, some historians have written that Hácha hoped that Eliáš's former contacts with Reichsprotektor Konstantin von Neurath could influence the Reichsprotektor on the desirability of Eliáš as prime minister.

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Activities On 25 March 1939, Adolf Hitler in a speech to all of the various state secretaries held at the Reich Ministry of the Interior stated that Jews should be "excluded" from the public life of the protectorate, but that this was "not the direct responsibility of the Reich" as the "Jewish question" in the protectorate would "develop on its own accord" with no involvement from the Germans. Upon being appointed premier by President Hácha on 27 April 1939, Eliáš was ordered to "intensely" prepare a set of antisemitic laws for the protectorate. Hácha believed it was desirable for the Czech government to introduce antisemitic laws on its own both to prove its loyalty to the Reich and to ensure that the assets owned by the Czech Jewish community, which were worth 20 billion crowns, be transferred over to Czechs rather than the Germans. On 11 May 1939, Eliáš proposed to the Reichsprotektor, Neurath that Jews would be deprived of Protectorate citizenship and subject to various discriminatory measures. Under Eliáš's draft, Jews were to be completely excluded from the arts, education, the civil service, the courts, the corporations, and medicine. Notably, Eliáš in his draft defined Jewishness in terms of…Citește mai mult

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The sandwich affair In early September 1941, Eliáš lost patience with several collaborationist journalists. Eliáš officially invited them to the Office of the Government and planned to poison them. With the help of his urologist, Miloš Klika, sandwiches were laced with botulism toxin, tuberculosis-causing Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and typhus-causing Rickettsia bacteria. On 18 September 1941, the invited journalists ate the poisoned sandwiches. Karel Lažnovský, the pro-Nazi editor of the journal České slovo, was the only fatality. Other journalists, including Jaroslav Křemen and Emanuel Vajtauer, fell ill. Although Eliáš handled the sandwiches, he did not fall ill. Though the Sandwich Affair was investigated by the Gestapo, Eliáš was not charged and remained in office.

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Arrest and execution On 27 September 1941, two days before the appointment of Heydrich as the new Reichsprotektor, Eliáš was arrested, put on trial and sentenced to death. At his trial, Eliáš speaking in the third person stated: "... he [Eliáš] found himself in a dilemma while having to choose between the moral imperative of humanity [Menschlichkeit] and the interests of the Reich. He thus decided to harm the Reich". While awaiting his execution, Eliáš had a letter smuggled out of the prison to his wife that declared: "Zvítězíme!" ("We shall prevail!") Eliáš was executed at the Kobylisy Shooting Range on 19 June 1942. During Eliáš's time on death row, Heydrich was assassinated by the Czechoslovak resistance.

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Legacy Over 60 years later, Eliáš was given a state funeral with full honours on 7 May 2006 and was buried at the National Monument in Vitkov, Prague. The Czech philosopher Jiří Přibáň and the Czech journalist Karel Hvíždala argued that in the Czech memory of the past, there is a tendency to focus more on the Czechs as the victims of others rather than as actors in the story of their history. Přibáň and Hvíždala wrote that in the Czech memory of World War Two, the defining episode was the Lidice massacre of June 1942 while the story of Eliáš tends by contrast to be neglected. Přibáň and Hvíždala maintained that Eliáš showed extraordinary courage and managed to lessen at least some of the burden of the occupation, but that his story is neglected because while "...the Czech nation has heroes, but it is not so fond of them because it prefers victims".

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Bibliography Connelly, John (2020). From Peoples Into Nations A History of Eastern Europe. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691208954. Gruner, Wolf (2015). "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia". In Gruner, Wolf; Osterloh, Jörg (eds.). The Greater German Reich and the Jews: Nazi Persecution Policies in the Annexed Territories 1935-1945. War and Genocide. Translated by Bernard Heise. Berghahn Books. pp. 108–109. ISBN 978-1-78238-444-1. Retrieved 15 March 2022. Kvaček, Robert, 2002. Czech History: Part Two [České dějiny II]. Prague, CZ: SPL-Práce, Úvaly, CZ: Albra. Low, Andrea (2020). German Reich and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia September 1939–September 1941. Berlin: De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110526363. Lustigová, Martina (24 February 2006). "Alois Eliáš otrávil pronacistické novináře" [Alois Eliáš Poisoned Pro-Nazi Journalists] (in Czech). Radio Prague International. Retrieved 15 March 2022. Mastný, Vojtěch (1971). The Czechs Under Nazi Rule: The Failure of National Resistance, 1939–1942. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-03303-6. Přibáň, Jiří; Hvíždala, Karel (2019). In Quest of History On Czech Statehood and Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9788024642673. Rothkirchen, Livia (1999). "The Protectorate Government and the "Jewish Question" 1939-1941". Yad Vashem Studies, Vol. XXVII. Jerusalem. pp. 331–362. Retrieved 13 March 2022 – via Yad Vashem website.

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Biography of Alois Eliáš (in Czech) Members of government led by Eliáš, 27.4.1939 - 19.1.1942 (in Czech) Funeral of Alois Eliáš and his wife 8 May 2006 - record of direct transmission (in Czech) Newspaper clippings about Alois Eliáš in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW