Beneš decrees

The Beneš decrees is a current popular term (officially they are called Decrees of the President of the Republic - dekrety presidenta republiky) for a series of laws enacted by the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile during World War II in the absence of Czechoslovak parliament (see details in Czechoslovakia: World War II (1939 - 1945)). Today, the term is most frequently used for the part of the decrees that dealt with the status of Germans and Hungarians in postwar Czechoslovakia; these provisions have become a symbol for historical debates over the flight and expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia during and after World War II and its ramifications in today's politics.

Overview

The decrees were issued by President Edvard Beneš. The decrees can be divided into three parts:

1. 1940–1944

   These decrees were issued during the London exile. They were mainly related to the creation of Czechoslovak exile government (including its army) and its organization.

2. 1943–1945

   Also issued in exile. The main theme was the transition of control of the liberated area of Czechoslovakia from Allied armies and the organization of a 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 were signed by Beneš. Beside several laws about nationalization of heavy industry these include some very controversial laws mainly connected with confiscation of ethnic Germans' and Hungarians' property.

All of the decrees were retroactively ratified by the Provisional National Assembly on March 5, 1946 by constitutional act No. 57/1946 Sb.

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 of 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, Hungarians, 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 expedited 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, traitors 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 of July 17, 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 of July 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 ethnicity)
• 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 confiscation 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 the forcible "population transfer" (deportation) in 1945-47 of about 2.6 million former Czechoslovak citizens of German ethnicity (see also Sudetenland) to Germany and Austria. However, they do not directly refer to it. Their advocates argue that the German exodus from Eastern Europe was agreed upon by the victorious Allied powers at the Potsdam conference.

Despite many disputes, it is generally assumed by both advocates and opponents of the decrees that by their enforcement, Czechoslovakia collectively punished ethnic German and Hungarian minorities by expropriation and deportation to Germany, Austria, and Hungary for their alleged collaborationism with Nazi Germany and Hungary against Czechoslovakia during their struggle for secession from Czechoslovakia and annexation by Nazi Germany and Hungary. Advocates of the decrees describe that struggle as irredentism while opponents claim that the right of self-determination of minorities was denied and that their ethnic area was made part of Czechoslovakia against their wishes after World War I.

Some of the decrees concerned the expropriation of the property of wartime "traitors" and collaborators accused of treason, but of all Germans and Hungarians collectively. They also ordered the removal of citizenship for people of all German and Hungarian ethnic origin. (The provisions were cancelled for the Hungarians in 1948.) This was then used to confiscate their property and expel around 90% of the ethnic German population of Czechoslovakia. The Germans were collectively accused of supporting the Nazis (through the Sudeten German Party—a political party led by Konrad Henlein)—and the Third Reich's annexation of the German populated Czech borderland in 1938. Almost every decree explicitly stated that the sanctions did not apply to anti-fascists, though the term anti-fascist was not explicitly defined . Some 250,000 Germans, some anti-fascists, but also people crucial for industries were allowed to remain in Czechoslovakia.

Revocation of Decree No. 33/1945

On April 13, 1948, Czechoslovak government issued decree No. 76/1948 allowing those Germans and Hungarians still living in Czechoslovakia, to reinstate the Czechoslovak citizenship that had been revoked by decree No. 33/1945. The Slovakian Commissioner of the Interior also revoked the latter decree by issuing decree No. 287/1948.

Status today

With two exceptions, 89 of the Beneš decrees, edicts, laws and statutes, along with extensive pages of instruction for their enforcement, are kept valid by their continued existence in the statutes of the Czech Republic (1993) and the Slovak Republic (1993). These two successor states of the restored Czechoslovakia remain unwilling to revoke the edicts and laws so as not to contradict the results of WWII.

Impact on today's political relations

The continued validity of the decrees has affected to some extent the political relations between the Czech Republic and Slovakia and their neighbours, Austria, Germany and Hungary.

Those expellees organised within the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft (part of the Federation of Expellees) and associated political groups call for the abolition of the Beneš decrees as based on the principle of collective guilt. 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.

Former Czech Prime Minister Miloš Zeman insists that the Czechs would not consider repealing the decrees because of an underlying fear that doing so would open the door to demands for restitution. According to Time Magazine, former Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan argued, "Why should we single out the Beneš Decrees?… They belong to the past and should stay in the past. Many current members of the E.U. had similar laws."

On 20 September 2007 the Slovak Parliament confirmed the decrees. All ethnically Slovak members voted for the decision, only Hungarian minority leaders voted against it. President of Hungary, László Sólyom thinks that it will put a strain on Hungarian-Slovak relations.

Liechtenstein recognizes neither the Czech Republic nor Slovakia due to the decrees and confiscation of property from the Prince of Liechtenstein due to his profiting from Nazism ¹.

External links

• Second World War and its Impact at the website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
• Facing history - The evolution of Czech-German relations in the Czech provinces, 1848-1948: a historical publication sponsored by Czech government, dealing a. o. with the transfer and decrees. A series of PDF files
• The effect of the Benes Decrees on the Accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union: an assessment by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law; a series of PDF files
• Ethnic cleansing in post World War II Czechoslovakia: the presidential decrees of Edward Benes, 1945-1948 - a sharply critical view at a Hungarian-American website; 111 kB DOC file
• No comparison - op-ed from the Prague Post criticising "pseudo-scholars" who allegedly regard the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans as morally equivalent to the Holocaust.