Czechs, Slovaks and the Jews, 1938-48 Beyond Idealisation and Condemnation

Covering the period between the Munich Agreement and the Communist Coup in February 1948, this volume provides the first full account of the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in London. In examining attitudes towards the Jews during World War 2 and its aftermath Jan Lànícek explores the notion that Czechoslovak treatment of the Jews was shaped by resurgent Czech and Slovak nationalism/s caused by the war and by the experience of the occupation by the German army. He challenges the official history of Czechoslovak policy towards the Jews between 1918 and 1948, which still presents Czechoslovakia as an exceptional case study of an East-Central European state that rejected antisemitism and treated the Jews decently. This groundbreaking work offers a novel, provocative analysis of the political activities and plans of the Czechoslovak exiles during and after the war years, and of the implementation of the plans in liberated Czechoslovakia after 1945.

Jan Lánícek works as Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish History at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He received a PhD from the University of Southampton and in 2011-12 worked as a Prins Foundation Postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Jewish History in New York.

List of Tables
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Exiles and the Situation in Nazi Europe
2. The Meaning of Loyalty: The Exiles and the Jews, 1939-41
3. The Holocaust
4. The Jewish Minority and Post-War Czechoslovakia
5. Defending the Democratic 'Myth'
Conclusion: Beyond Idealization and Condemnation
Bibliography