The Carpathian Germans were a small German people living in the territory of today's Slovakia from the 12th century to 1945, when they suffered genocide. This are the current doings, of the people I come from. This page is provided as a private volunteer public service, and does not represent the official opinions of the Carpathian German Landsmannschaft.

Dr. Thomas Reimer 11/05/2001

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CARPATHIAN GERMANS AND THE BENES DECREES

What are the "Benes Decrees," in German Benesch-Decrees:
During World War II, the Western Allies decided to reconstruct Czechoslovakia, and recognized the retired former president Edvard Benesch as head of a Czechoslovak president in exile--though legally, that state had ceased to exist in March 1939 when 27 countries, including France, Great Britain and Russia, recognized the independence of Slovakia. Among Czechs, the decision was not popular, since many blamed Benesch's prewar ultranationalist policies for the break-up of the state. Also, the last prewar Czech parliament had elected the popular Emil Hacha as president. In Slovakia, the thought of a replay of Benesch's oppression of Sloval culture stiffened the resistance of many Slovaks against the Soviet army. But Slovak autonomists were silenced by force after the war, and Hacha died on June 27, 1945 under suspicious circumstances in a Prague hospital. Despite a rather shaky right to issue ordnances concerning people living in the former CSR, Benesch had begun to issue decrees about postwar Czechoslovakia on August 20, 1940. Until October 28, 1945, he issued a total of 143 decrees. On March 28, 1946, the provisional Czechoslovak parliament gave its post-facto blessing to these decrees.

Of these, 15 dehumanized Magyars and German citizens of Czechoslovakia. It is these that are called in the discussion "Benesch-Decrees" and which offend many people opposed to racism. These 15 decrees singled out German and Magyars of the CSR. Czech and Slovaks who had collaborated were to be tried as individuals, but Germans and Magyars were presumed guilty as group, in order to expropriate them without compensation, and then "ethnically cleanse" them from the country. Particularly odious was that all deeds (down to the rape and murder of children) were declared "justified acts of retribution" that could not be prosecuted--not even crimes needing amnesty to protect the murderer from legal measures, though not from public opinion. Even today, any of the Beneschists who murdered children cannot be called an "amnestied criminal" without libel action in court, for the law states that what he did was no crime.

This website lists, in German, the indidividual decrees that dehumanized ethnic Germans and Magyars. An English version will follow: Benesch-Dekrete

2000 1999

Benes Decree Events 2001

2001/03/24. The Carpathian German historian Joerg Hoensch died, 65 years old at the eve of retirement. Born in Freudenthal/Moravia into a family from the Upper Zips, he taught since 1972 at the University of the Saarland in Saarbruecken. In his works about Slovakia, Prof. Hoentsch followed all too often the rule, when in doubt, blame the Germans. He also associated with Ferdinand Seibt of the Collegium Carolinum, who has tried to revise through creative accounting the number of Germans killed in 1945-46 under the Benesch-decrees from 250,000-300,000 down to 40,000. ( For details about that brand of revisionism, see Fritz-Peter Habel's critique on the history page).

2001/03/07 VDA Prize to KDV. The over 125-year old VDA (Verein fuer das Deutschtum im Ausland) awarded its 2001 Prize of 50,000 DM (about $22,000) to the Karpatendeutscher Verein in Slovakia. Present at the award ceremony was Rudolf Schuster, president of the Slovak Republic. He spoke but studiously avoided mentionning the Benesch-decrees. However, Bartolomaeus Eiben, the chair of the KDV, reminded the audience of the pain these unjust and racist laws still caused.

Events 2000

2000/12/08 Benesch-Decrees. Slovak president Rudolf Schuster, in a greeting to the Sudeten German Akademie in Munich, wrote that the countries that ethnically cleansed their German minorities should go beyond occasional apologies and try to make up some of the damage, just as Germany did for Holocaust victims. Predictably, both Czech and Slovak nationalists objected, and Schuster was forced on 1/17/01 to state that he would not push for a voiding of the Benesch-decrees, nor for an apology for measures that hit "fascist collaborators." (By the way, the Landsmannschaft never asked for a pardon for convicted war criminals, so one wonders who insinuated that). But, courageously, Schuster maintained that collective guilt was wrong and that many innocents were harmed in 1945-1947 during measures that "require re-examination." (from Ostpreussenblatt 27 Jan. 2001, P. 6, and Presse (Vienna) 18 Jan. 2001)

2000/08/25-27. Second Carpathian German Day in Pressburg/Bratislava to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the KDV, which has grown to 4,342 members in 36 local branches. About 800 Carpathian Germans from Slovakia, Germany and Austria came. The Slovak government, and the German and Austrian embassies were represented. As Oskar Marczy noted, the chances for survival of our little group are not too bad, all things considered. During a recent visit by President Schuster in Stuttgart, Marczy and other KDL officers spoke with him about the Benes-decrees. Schuster was friendly but stated nothing could be done.

2000/07/12. Madeleine Albright, our Czech-born American Secretary of State, gave Jan Kavan, the Czech foreign minister, an official diplomatic note in which the US government declared any challenge of the Benesch-decrees to be against US interests. This in the same week the US government had Germany (with Austria soon to follow), compensate people who suffered during the Nazi regime from the confiscation of their assets and forced labor solely because of their ethnicity, and did not yet receive any share of the $100 billion paid by Germany and Austria since the 1950s. To deny at the same time Germans whose assets were confiscated and who often had to perform slave labor after the war solely because of their ethnicity the protection of the law shows a perverted sense of morality at the very least. However, since no compensation fund has been set up by the Czech government, should a class-action suit be filed by Sudeten Germans in the US against Czech firms and insurance companies that benefitted from theft and slave labor, then it is likely that any judge will disregard that "statement of interest," as they have the right to do.

2000/02/10. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan stated to Austria that under no circumstances would the Czech Republic alter the Benesch-Decrees. It is to be hoped that the European Union will apply pressure to change his defense of genocidal laws contrary to the UN Charter and common decency. Kavan is on a roll, though, and reiterated his statements on Feb. 28 in Die Welt.

Events 1999

1999/11/11. Benes^-Decrees/Benesch-Dekrete. As the Standard (Vienna) of Nov. 13 reported, during a debate between Austrian legislators and Slovak justice minister Jan Carnogursky on Nov. 11, the latter defended the decision of the Slovak parliament to condemn the Benesch Decrees as immoral YET at the same time to refuse to alter or cancel them. This position is saddening, especially considering the goodwill Carpathian Germans have shown to the Slovak people throughout the Czech occupation and after 1993, when they greatly helped the Slovak Republic counter the negative image created by mainstream German media more sympathetic to the Czech Republic. On the Czech side, Die Welt of Nov. 12 reported that Sudeten Germans in the United States proceed with the preparations for their class action suits against Czecho-Slovak insurance companies who obeyed the orders of the postwar Beneschist regime to hand over their policies to the Czech state. Even Ed Fagan, the star lawyer who represented Jews who had lost their insurance and bank accounts when during the war the Nazis took them, expressed interest in joining the case. Though, owing to 60 years of US media-hatred against Germans, the victims won't be able to enjoy the public support that would force the Czech insurance companies to settle, the legal rulings in favor of Jewish victims of Nazi racism apply to German victims of Czech racism as well. Keep reading about this interesting case!

1999/04/15. The European Parlament in Brussels adopted a resolution asking the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovenia (in ex-Yugoslavia) to abolish postwar laws that discriminate against former citizens solely because of their ethnicity, i. e. the Benesch-Decrees, and in Slovenia the AVNOJ-Decrees, before joining the European Union, thereby rejecting the advice of the Council of Ministers which wanted the Czechs certified as democracy without shadows from the past. On May 20, 1999, the Austrian Parlament (Nationalrat) passed a resolution condemning the Benesch-Decrees and demanding that the Czech Republic abolish these before being able to join the EU, which is based on respect for individuals. Czech nationalists are alarmed, for this may delay Czech membership and access to the fleshpots (EU-subventions) of the rich West. Right now, Slovak politicians refuse to void the Benesch-decrees by pointing to the Czech Republic

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