The Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile and the Jews during World War 2 (1938-1948)

The thesis analyses Czechoslovak-Jewish relations in the twentieth century using the case study of the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in London and its activities during the Second World War. In order to present the research in a wider perspective, it covers the period between the Munich Agreement, when the first politicians left Czechoslovakia, and the Communist Coup in February 1948. Hence the thesis evaluates the political activities and plans of the Czechoslovak exiles, as well as the implementation of the plans in liberated Czechoslovakia after 1945.In comparison with previous contributions to the theme, this thesis is based on extensive archival research. It examines how the Czechoslovak treatment of the Jews was shaped by resurgent Czech and Slovak nationalism/s caused by the war and the experience of the occupation by the German army. Simultaneously, the thesis enquires into the role played in the Czechoslovak exiles’ decision making by their efforts to maintain the image of a democratic country in the heart of Europe. An adherence to western liberal democracies was a key political asset used by Czechoslovakia since her creation in 1918. Fair treatment of minorities, in particular the Jews, became part of this ‘myth’. However, the Second World War brought to the fore Czechoslovak efforts to nationally homogenize the post-war Republic and rid it of its ‘disloyal’ minorities. Consequently, the thesis evaluates how the Jews as a minority were perceived and constructed.The thesis is divided into five chapters, following the developments in chronological, as well as thematic order. The first chapter analyses the influence of people in occupied Czechoslovakia on the exiles’ policy towards the Jews. Chapter two and three document the exiles’ policy towards the Jews during the war, including the government’s responses to the Holocaust. Chapter four enquires into the wartime origins of the post-war Czechoslovak policy towards the Jews. Finally, the last chapter analyses the influence of public opinion abroad on the Czechoslovak policy towards the Jews during and after the war

Re-Negotiating Czechoslovakia. The State and the Jews in Communist Central Europe: The Czech Lands, 1945-1989

Roughly 50,000 Jewish citizens called Czechoslovakia home in 1945, out of a prewar population of 315,000. More than half chose to emigrate. Others attempted to conceal their roots. Still others hoped to rebuild the Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust. Before they could establish a new modus vivendi, before the wounds of the war could begin to heal, the Communist Party came to power with dreams of transforming society. It brought the state under the Soviet Union\u27s sphere of influence and ruled until 1989. For those who did not emigrate by 1950, the communist years were marked by renegotiations of ethnicity, nationality, religion, and citizenship, periods of persecution and others of relative freedom and renaissance. Re-Negotiating Czechoslovakia uses the Czech case to think broadly about how the terms of ethno-national and civic integration changed for the Jewish citizens of Central Europe\u27s nation-states after the Holocaust and through four decades of communist rule. The years 1945-1989 represent the final chapter of a two-century-long experiment in which government officials sought bureaucratic solutions to the so-called Jewish Question. The leaders and administrators of the Czechoslovak party-state faltered in their attempts due to the paradigmatically modern difficulty of trying to force Jews to conform to categories developed for thinking about Christian and formerly Christian Europeans of supposedly exclusive ethno-linguistic communities. Czechoslovak officials struggled mightily and in vain to separate Jewish identity and practice into distinct ethnic and religious components, virtually criminalizing the former under the guise of anti-Zionism and officially supporting the latter in the name of freedom of conscience. Managing these divergent, often-competing, yet inextricably linked priorities engendered inter-ministerial conflicts, which opened avenues of influence for Jewish leaders. Indeed, the Jewish leadership and the state administrators in charge of religious affairs entered into a relationship characterized by a mutuality of interests for decades. This was reflected, in particular, in how they both used the restitution and sale of Jewish properties to their joint benefit. Thus, where some now see collaboration, this dissertation argues that a willingness to work with the state actually maintained the Jewish communities through 1989. It also inspired a counter-culture that came to define post-communist Czech Judaism. By thus identifying intra-state friction as a major determining factor of Jewish-state relations, within the contexts of domestic and international politics and Soviet dominance, this dissertation offers an alternative to studies that treat the Central European states as satellite monoliths, driven, where Jews were concerned, by antisemitism alone. It additionally provides a window into how these states operated in general, as Jewish affairs brought so many of their component parts together. An exploration of a wide range of sources demonstrates further that Jewish-state relations also depended significantly upon local popular culture. Despite the pretensions of Czechoslovakia\u27s first communist leaders to revolution, their policies and rhetoric facilitated, by 1952, the transmission of native, pre-communist, anti-Jewish tropes into the party-state system, where they persisted for decades. The association of those early Stalinist years with antisemitism then set the groundwork for communist reformers and, later, even the liberalizing state of the 1960s to deploy the Holocaust as a symbol with which to call for and mark political progress. Holocaust memory (like property restitution) thus emerged as a site of contestation wherein Jewish-state relations intersected with broader political and cultural currents. This dissertation thus also complicates the claim that the Communist Party attempted to hide the truth about the Holocaust, and, instead, attributes much of that perception in the West to changes in the politics of memory on both sides of the Iron Curtain after 1967. Finally, Re-Negotiating Czechoslovakia concludes with two arguments. First, through the twentieth century a plurality of Czech Jews living around the world and also in the Czech lands came to see themselves as members of a transnational, sub-ethnic Czech-Jewish community: the Czechs of the Jewish people and the Jews of the Czech people. Second, most scholarly and popular accounts of Czech-Jewish history have reflected broader trends in narrating the Cold War, centered upon the revelation of communist crimes and a national othering of communism, which have prevented the emergence of more nuanced and sympathetic accounts of the history of Jewish-state relations during the period of communist rule. This dissertation participates in the very revisionist movement whose emergence it seeks to identify in the conclusion

Minding the Gap: Western Export Controls and Soviet Technology Policy in the 1960s

This thesis examines the origins and evolution of Western export controls intended to limit the transfer of high technology, particularly computers, to communist countries, and how technology policy within the Soviet Union and other communist states was shaped by these controls. This work intends to demonstrate that Western attempts to control trade in high technology were responsive to changing economic and political realities and that changes in export controls produced corresponding changes in policy within the USSR. Ultimately, policies on both sides served to maintain and widen the technology gap between East and West far more dramatically than anticipated, deepening the economic stagnation of Eastern Europe and hastening the collapse of communism

Destined or Doomed? Hungarian Dissidents and Their Western Friends, 1973-1998

Through the lens of Hungarian dissidents and their supporters in the West, the following study analyzes the motivations of intellectuals from East and West to engage in an open East-West dialogue, their efforts to change the social and political structure of the Cold War, and their contributions to the peaceful revolutions of 1989. It investigates the alliance of intellectuals from either side of the Iron Curtain, their formative experiences and mutual influences. To understand the origins, functions, and legacy of this network, the study investigates the period from the 1960s to the late 1990s, focusing on the years 1973 to 1998. Findings suggest that the motivations that would bring intellectuals from either side of the Iron Curtain together in the 1980s originated in similarly formative experiences in the 1960s, which shattered their youthful convictions and initiated a search for a new intellectual identity that would bring Easterners and Westerners together by the late 1970s. In response to the encounter, the participants developed a distinct set of political and historical convictions that rooted in cultural liberalism, their commitment to free, open and democratic societies, and the acceptance of universal human rights. This case study touches upon developments throughout Eastern Europe and evaluates the history of the Cold War as interplay between East and West. It indicates a retreat from authoritarian rule in the East as early as 1987, and highlights the problematic, one-sided perception of the Hungarian Democratic Opposition in the West. It discusses the achievements of the former dissidents, and their struggle to adjust to the situation in post-1989 Europe. The project is based on archival research in six different countries; findings are based on documents found in private collections, national libraries, institutional, national and state security archives. Additionally, over forty eyewitnesses and experts shared their experiences and views in interviews conducted between 2009 and 2012

Barry Smith an sich

Festschrift in Honor of Barry Smith on the occasion of his 65th Birthday. Published as issue 4:4 of the journal Cosmos + Taxis: Studies in Emergent Order and Organization. Includes contributions by Wolfgang Grassl, Nicola Guarino, John T. Kearns, Rudolf Lüthe, Luc Schneider, Peter Simons, Wojciech Żełaniec, and Jan Woleński

From Communism To Democracy: Choral Music Education In Czechoslovakia (1948 – 1992) And The Czech Republic (1993 – 2011) as Experienced by Four Prominent Czech Musicians

The Czech Republic has experienced a rich history of singing over many centuries that helped to promote a spirit of national and ethnic identity, culture, and pride. Singing has long been valued because it helped bond people together during difficult times, including during the years of communism. In this thesis, I provide a brief historical overview of music education in the Czech Lands (now Czech Republic) to show how choral music education, as a central part of the curriculum for centuries in this territory, influenced the development of Czech nationalism. The main focus is on choral music education practices and perceptions during the dramatic political changes that occurred during and after communist domination in the latter half of the twentieth century until 2011. The collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the growing dissatisfaction of the population with the economic and political situation in the country resulted in the Velvet Revolution led by unarmed students marching and singing in the streets, which ultimately led to the end of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. This thesis provides an historical and narrative account of the education system and more specifically, choral music education. The study draws heavily on the personal testimonies of four prominent Czech choral music educators who lived and worked during the communist regime, and through the transition to democracy and now during the capitalist economic system. These individuals were interviewed for their personal and professional knowledge of, and insights into, social, political, or economic factors that influenced choral music education in the Czech Lands. The conclusion of this dissertation is not that communism or democracy is necessarily better for Czech choral music education. With the onset of democracy, globalization, technological advances, and goals of individualism and capitalism, people have access to other, far more powerful and far-reaching means to communicate—not just locally, but globally. Singing no longer holds a pivotal & central place, and radical changes in structures are necessary if the choral art is to regain its former prominence. Attention to teacher education practices, and innovative pedagogies & repertoire that educate singing teachers to empower their students will be required to ensure there is quality choral music education in generations to come

Silicon's Second World: Scarcity, Political Indifference and Innovation in Czechoslovak Computing, 1964-1994

How societies invent, adopt, adapt, distribute and innovate with computers is an important puzzle for historians of technology, economists, educators and government planners alike. This dissertation examines the developmental path of Czechoslovakia from when its premier computer scientist, Antonín Svoboda, emigrated in 1964 to slightly beyond state dissolution in 1993. An industrialized consumer society with little to consume, as Jaroslav Švelch noted, Czechoslovakia illustrates both the still-understudied history of computing in state socialist societies and the global story of innovation and adaptation in liminal spaces that provide human capital and emerging markets for the West. An alternate modernity emerged in what Martin Müller calls the 'Global East,' constituted by users living in scarcity, skeptical of state and capital power and maintaining the countercultural community values articulated by exponents like Stewart Brand, Ted Nelson and Buckminster Fuller. This work contributes to the ongoing turn in the history of technology away from Silicon Valley-centered narratives of invention toward the maintenance, adaptation and second-order innovation better representative of technological encounters globally. Czech and Slovak computer users are the focus: Their social origins, personal politics, creativity and negotiated autonomy framed the shape of computing in their country. Their stories are told often by themselves-in extensive oral interviews with key scientists, prominent dissidents and black marketeers-and in the pages of their community's magazines, journals and newsletters, in television interviews, in their jokes and ribald songs. Their voices are part of a global chorus of hobbyism, tinkering, maintenance and technological communities informed by scholars like Jaroslav Švelch, Melanie Swalwell, Honghong Tinn, Helena Durnová, Patryk Wasiak, Ksenia Tatarchenko and Nathan Ensmenger