Authors

Discussion

As Tony Judt argued, most post-war societies in Europe indulged in collective amnesia regarding those parts of the national history of the Second World War considered to be embarrassing or even humiliating. This paper will tell a provocative story about the Nazi occupation of the Czech Lands during World War II. The dismemberment of Czechoslovakia after the 1938 Munich Agreement is typically recalled in Czech historical memory as the beginning of a period of German occupation and Czech resistance. Against this narrative of victimhood, this paper argues that the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia witnessed the unexpected expansion of the Czech welfare state, contributing in turn to the legitimacy of Nazi governance. Local nationalism played a huge role in this process. The paper will demonstrate that ethnically exclusive Czech national ideology dominated politics and everyday life after Munich and during Nazi rule. I will connect central elements of my research – the welfare state and nationalism – and ask the question about the character, tools and strategies of authoritarian welfare.