Emil Hácha
Emil Hácha |
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Emil Hácha (July 12, 1872 – June 26, 1945) was a Czech lawyer, the third President of Czechoslovakia, taking office in 1938, and the first and only State President of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
Emil Hácha was born on July 12, 1872 in a town of Trhové Sviny. He graduated from a secondary school in České Budějovice and then applied for the law faculty at the University of Prague. After finishing his studies in 1896 (JUDr.) he worked for the Country Committee of the Kingdom of Bohemia in Prague (a self-government body, quite limited power). Shortly after the outbreak of the World War I, he became a judge at the Supreme Administrative Court in Vienna (the court was responsible for Cisleithania). He met Ferdinand Pantůček there.
After the Treaty of Versailles, Pantůček became President of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Republic of Czechoslovakia in Prague, and Hácha became a judge (1918) and Deputy President (1919) of the court. After Pantůček's death in 1925 he was chosen by T. G. Masaryk as his successor. He became one of the most notable lawyers in Czechoslovakia, a specialist in the English common law and international law. He was also a translator of English literature (most notably the Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome). He also became a member of the Legislative Council.
After the Treaty of Munich and emigration of president Edvard Beneš he was chosen as his successor on November 30, 1938. He was chosen because of his Catholicism and conservatism and because of not being involved in any government that led to the partition of the country. During a night meeting with Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring in Berlin on between 14 and 15 of March, 1939 he was threatened with aerial bombardement of Prague and forced to sign a document accepting of incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia into Germany even though he did not consult the parliament beforehand.
After the occupation of the remnants of Czechoslovakia on March 16, he retained his office as President but was forced to swear an oath to Hitler and Konstantin von Neurath, the newly-chosen Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, in November 1939. He protested against the German policies and Germanization of former Czechoslovakia. However, to little effect. He also secretly cooperated with the exiled government of Edvard Beneš.
His situation changed after Reinhard Heydrich was appointed Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, as Neurath was considered not harsh enough by Hitler. Hácha lost any influence over the matters in his country and became a puppet. Many of his colleagues and friends were arrested (including the Prime Minister Alois Eliáš) and shot or sent to the concentration camps. Because of the terror campaign started by Heydrich, Hácha felt that the collaboration with the occupants was the only way he could help his people and nation.
According to postwar historians, because of Hácha's poor health, he was not responsible for his actions, given his old age and failing mental faculties. In any case, his influence on German policies was close to none since at least 1941 and almost certainly earlier. After the fall of Prague, on May 13 1945, Emil Hácha was arrested and transferred immediately to a prison hospital where he died on June 26. After his death, he was buried in an unmarked grave at the Vinohrady cemetery.
He is regarded by many as one of the most tragic characters of all Czechoslovak history. By others he is seen as one of the most disappointing characters. He collaborated with Hitler's Nazi regime and became the State President in 1939, when Czechoslovakia was overtaken by Hitler and transformed into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a puppet Slovakia. Historians have judged him as a man that tried to save as much of Czechoslovakia's freedom as was possible given the limited options open to him and his own failing health.