A new attempt to force anti-Semitism upon the Czech population in Bohemia-Moravia, which has hitherto stoutly resisted all previous efforts, has been launched in the Nazi “protectorate” with formation of a new Fascist anti-Semitic organization called the “Czech National Camp.”
The German newspaper Koelnische Zeitung reports that Jan Rys, former editor of the Czech newspaper Vlajka, is leader of the group. Members of the organization are known as the Vlajkari, wear uniforms and give the Fascist salute.
The Vlajkari program’s principal plank is introduction in the “protectorate” of the Reich social legislation and the Nuremberg racial laws. The Camp cooperates with the Moravian Fascists, under the leadership of Jaromir Vala, in a National Committee for Action, the aim of which is to “open the eyes of the Czech population to the racial problem.”
The committee has issued five anti-Semitic pamphlets and has organized an exhibition in Prague which has the slogan, “Jews and Freemasons are the Scourge of the World.” According to the Koelnische Zeitung, the exhibition has scored a great success.
The Nazi newspapers are taking special pains to convince the German reader that the anti-Semitic movement in the “protectorate” has not been inspired by the Nazis but is a native development which was suppressed by the former republic but has been given rein under the opportunity for free development accorded to the Czechs under the “protectorate.” Organs of the new Camp point out that the organization considers German National Socialism as “an ally. They feature a declaration by rys in which he states that the Vlajkari are “ready to collaborate without reserve with Germanism in the protectorate.”
The general aim of the Nazi press is to conceal the fact that anti-Semitism has made little headway in the “protectorate,” despite pressure of the Gestapo, German secret police. In spite of efforts to show that a majority of the subjugated populace is friendly to the Reich, the press is unable to conceal the fact that the Czechs do not act against the Jews unless the Gestapo forces their hand.
Emil Hacha’s Camp of National Unity, Czech organization led by the president of the “protectorate,” is criticized by the Nazi papers for failure to recognize the racial problem in Bohemia-Moravia. Citing figures to prove the alleged domination of Jews in cultural spheres, the German press complains that this domination never disquieted the Czechs.
The Koelnische Zeitung criticizes the Czechs because they failed to place in power the Fascists Radula Gadja and Jiri Stribrny after the resignation of President Eduard Benes, thus obliging the Nazis to establish a “protectorate” in order to see that the Jews were excluded from cultural and professional life.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
