Nations Apart : Czech Nationalism and Authoritarian Welfare under Nazi Rule

Abstract

Nations Apart tells a provocative new story about 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 humiliation, occupation, and resistance. Against this narrative of victimhood, this monograph argues that the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia witnessed the unexpected expansion of the Czech welfare state, contributing in turn to the stability of Nazi governance. Local nationalisms played a huge role in this process. Through extensive research in Czech, German and Swiss archives, Nations Apart demonstrates that ethnically exclusive Czech national ideology dominated politics and everyday life after Munich and during Nazi rule. Illustrating similarities between the wartime ‘Protectorate’ and the occupation regimes in Western Europe, the monograph sheds new light on occupied societies during WWII and on the origins of welfare states in post-war Europe.