Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially-<a href="/facts/Annexation/49c8oCxL">annexed</a> territory of <a href="/facts/Nazi_Germany/8kRbqRpo">Nazi Germany</a> that was established on 16 March 1939 after the <a href="/facts/Occupation_of_Czechoslovakia_(1938%25E2%2580%25931945)/tF85umue">German occupation of the Czech lands</a>. The protectorate's population was mostly ethnic <a href="/facts/Czechs/PsqFMBxp">Czechs</a>.
After the <a href="/facts/Munich_Agreement/r4o68xnA">Munich Agreement</a> of September 1938, the Third Reich had annexed the German-majority <a href="/facts/Sudetenland/r9pXRhIv">Sudetenland</a> to Germany from <a href="/facts/Second_Czechoslovak_Republic/MmBzcrmG">Czechoslovakia</a> in October 1938. Following the establishment of the independent <a href="/facts/Slovak_Republic_(1939%25E2%2580%25931945)/EQobAMBX">Slovak Republic</a> on 14 March 1939, and the German occupation of the Czech <a href="/facts/Rump_state/j965C8Kz">rump state</a> the next day, German leader <a href="/facts/Adolf_Hitler/3zyXG1L8">Adolf Hitler</a> established the protectorate on 16 March 1939, issuing a proclamation from <a href="/facts/Prague_Castle/WGyvc5Nl">Prague Castle</a>. The creation of the protectorate violated the Munich Agreement.
The protectorate remained nominally autonomous and had a dual system of government, with German law applying to ethnic Germans while other residents had the legal status of Protectorate subjects and were governed by a puppet Czech administration. During <a href="/facts/World_War_II/2efV5L1U">World War II</a> (1939–1945), the well-trained Czech workforce and developed industry were forced to make a major contribution to the <a href="/facts/Economy_of_Nazi_Germany/4E54M3zv">German war economy</a>. Since the Protectorate was just out of the reach of <a href="/facts/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II/XpgjMqjf">Allied bombers</a> based in Britain, the Czech economy was able to work almost undisturbed until the end of the war. The Protectorate administration became deeply involved in <a href="/facts/The_Holocaust_in_Bohemia_and_Moravia/5R7qs7sd">the Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia</a>.
The state's existence came to an end with the <a href="/facts/German_Instrument_of_Surrender/p0pH3Wd3">surrender of Germany</a> to the <a href="/facts/Allies_of_World_War_II/YzCdtjDY">Allies</a> in May 1945. After the war, some Protectorate officials were charged with collaborationism, but according to the prevailing belief in Czech society, the Protectorate was not entirely rejected as a collaborationist entity.

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia open-in-new

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia