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The Beneš decrees (; ; ; ) refers to a series of laws enacted by the Czechoslovak government of exile during World War II in absence of Czechoslovak parliament (see details in World War II (1939 - 1945)). Today, the term is most frequently used for the part of them dealing with status of Germans and Hungarians in post-war Czechoslovakia and has become a symbol for the whole issue of the Czech ethnic cleansing and extermination of Germans and Hungarians.

Overview

The decrees were issued by President Edvard Beneš. All of the decrees were retroactively ratified by the Provisional National Assembly on March 5, 1946 by constitutional act No. 57/1946 Sb. They can be divided into three parts:

  1. 1940–1944
    These decrees were issued in London exile. They were mainly related to the creation of Czechoslovak exile government (including army) and its organisation.
  2. 1943–1945
    Also issued in exile. Main theme was transition of control of liberated area of Czechoslovakia from Allied armies and organisation of post-war Czechoslovak government.
  3. 1945 (ending October 26)
    A new post-war government was created in Košice consisting of parties united in National Front with a strong influence of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. But a new parliament had not been created yet, so the will of the government was implemented by decrees of president. Decrees were created by the government and Edvard Beneš only signed them. Beside several laws about nationalization of heavy industry these include some very controversial laws mainly connected with confiscation of so-called traitors' property.

List of more controversial decrees

  • 5/1945 Sb. - Dekret presidenta republiky ze dne 19. května 1945 o neplatnosti některých majetkově-právních jednání z doby nesvobody a o národní správě majetkových hodnot Němců, Maďarů, zrádců a kolaborantů a některých organisací a ústavů (Decree of the President of the Republic from May 19, 1945 concerning the invalidity of some transactions involving property rights from the time of lack of freedom and concerning the National Administration of property assets of Germans, Magyars, traitors and collaborators and of certain organizations and associations)

  • 12/1945 Sb. - Dekret presidenta republiky ze dne 21. června 1945 o konfiskaci a urychleném rozdělení zemědělského majetku Němců, Maďarů, jakož i zrádců a nepřátel českého a slovenského národa (Decree of the President of the Republic on June 21, 1945 concerning the confiscation and early allotment of agricultural property of Germans, Magyars, as well as traitors and enemies of the Czech and Slovak nation)

  • 16/1945 Sb. - Dekret presidenta republiky ze dne 19. června 1945 o potrestání nacistických zločinců, zrádců a jejich pomahačů a o mimořádných lidových soudech (Decree of the President of the Republic on June 16, 1945 concerning the punishment of Nazi criminals and their accomplices and concerning extraordinary people´s courts)

  • 27/1945 Sb. - Dekret presidenta republiky ze dne 17. července 1945 o jednotném řízení vnitřního osídlení (Decree of the President of the Republic on June 27, 1945 concerning unified management of domestic settlement)

  • 28/1945 Sb. - Dekret presidenta republiky ze dne 20. července 1945 o osídlení zemědělské půdy Němců, Maďarů a jiných nepřátel státu českými, slovenskými a jinými slovanskými zemědělci (Decree of the President of the Republic on May 20, 1945 concerning the settlement of Czech, Slovak or other Slavic farmers on the agricultural land of Germans, Hungarians and other enemies of the state)

  • 33/1945 Sb. - Ústavní dekret presidenta republiky ze dne 2. srpna 1945 o úpravě československého státního občanství osob národnosti německé a maďarské (Constitutional decree of the President of the Republic on August 2, 1945 concerning modification of Czechoslovak citizenship of persons of German and Hungarian nationality)

  • 108/1945 Sb. - Dekret presidenta republiky ze dne 25. října 1945 o konfiskaci nepřátelského majetku a Fondech národní obnovy (Decree of the President of the Republic on October 25, 1945 concerning cofiscation of enemy property and concerning Funds of national recovery)

Post-war settlement in Europe and the Beneš decrees

The Beneš decrees are most often associated with ethnic cleansing in 1945-47 of about three million former Czechoslovak citizens of German ethnicity (see Sudetenland) in the Czechoslovakia to Germany and Austria. However, they do not directly refer to the expulsion. It was the Potsdam conference in 1945 in which the Allied powers agreed to the ethnic cleansing of some 11 million ethnic Germans from Eastern Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The Czechoslovak government expelled Czechoslovakia's German population into the "occupation zones" which were set up in post-war Germany.

Some of the decrees concerned the expropriation of wartime "traitors" and collaborators accused of treason but also all Germans and Hungarians. They also ordered the removal of citizenship for people of German and Hungarian ethnic origin who were treated collectively as collaborators (These provisions were cancelled for the Hungarians, not however for the Germans, in 1948). This was then used to confiscate their property and expel around 90% of the ethnic German population of Czechoslovakia. These people were collectively accused of supporting the Nazis (through the Sudetendeutsche Partei (SdP) political party led by Konrad Henlein) and his affiliation to the Third Reich in 1938. Almost every decree explicitly stated that the sanctions did not apply to anti-fascists although the term Anti-fascist was not explicitely defined . Some 250,000 Germans, some anti-fascists, but also people required for the post-war reconstruction of the country remained in Czechoslovakia.

Impact on today's political relations

Up to some point the decrees affect the political relations between the Czech Republic and Slovakia and their neighbours, Austria, Germany and Hungary.

The expellees organised within the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft (part of the Federation of Expellees) and associated political groups call for the abolition of the Beneš decrees. They consider the decrees to be based on the principle of collective guilt. So far European and international courts have refused to rule on cases concerning the decrees as most international treaties on human rights took effect after 1945/46. Czech political scene and most of the public refuses any reconsideration of the decrees, suspecting it would be followed by financial demands to the Czech Republic.

See also

External links

Czechoslovak law

Benešovy dekrety | Beneš-Dekrete | Dekretoj de Beneš | Beneš-dekrétumok | Beneš-dekretene | Декреты Бенеша | Benešove dekréty

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Beneš decrees".

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