Information AboutBenes Decrees |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT BENEš DECREES | |
| czechoslovak law | |
| czech history | |
| history of slovakia | |
| slovak law | |
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OVERVIEW The decrees were issued by President Edvard Beneš . All of the decrees were retroactively ratified by the Provisional National Assembly. They can be divided into three parts: # 1940 – 1944 #:These decrees were issued in London exile. They were mainly related to the creation of Czechoslovak exile government (including army) and its organisation. # 1943 – 1945 #:Also issued in exile. Main theme was transition of control of liberated area of Czechoslovakia from Allied armies and organisation of post-war Czechoslovak government. #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 Edvard Beneš only signed them. Beside several laws about Nationalization of heavy Industry these include some very controversial laws mainly connected with confiscation of so-called traitors' Property . LIST OF MORE CONTROVERSIAL DECREES
POST-WAR SETTLEMENT IN EUROPE AND THE BENEš DECREES The Beneš decrees are most often associated with Transfer (expulsion or resettlement) in 1945-47 of about three million former Czechoslovak citizens of German ethnicity (see Sudetenland ) in the Czechoslovakia to Germany and Austria. However, they do not directly refer to the transfer or expulsion. It was the Potsdam Conference in 1945 in which the Allied powers agreed to the expulsion of some 11 million ethnic Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The Czechoslovak government expelled Czechoslovakia's German population into the "occupation zones" which were set up in post-war Germany. Some of the decrees concerned the exproriation of Wartime Traitors And Collaborators Accused Of Treason but also all Germans and Hungarians regardless of their degree of guilt. They also ordered the removal of Citizenship for people of German and Hungarian Ethnic Origin who were treated collectively as collaborators. This was then used to confiscate their property and expel around 90% of the ethnic German population of Czechoslovakia. These people were collectively accused of supporting the Nazis (through the Sudetendeutsche Partei (SdP) political party led by Konrad Henlein ) and his affiliation to the Third Reich in 1938 . The SdP received around 65% of the German vote at the 1935 elections. Almost every decree explicitly stated that the sanctions did not apply to anti-fascists although the term ''Anti-fascist'' was not explicitely defined . Some 250,000 Germans, some anti-fascists, but also people required for the post-war reconstruction of the country remained in Czechoslovakia. IMPACT ON TODAY'S POLITICAL RELATIONS Up to some point the decrees affect the political relations between the Czech Republic and its neighbours, Austria and Germany (and on even smaller scale between Czech Republic and Slovakia and Hungary). The expelees organised within the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft (part of the Federation Of Expellees ) and associated political groups call for the abolition of the Beneš decrees. They consider the decrees to be based on the principle of ''collective guilt''. So far 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. Czech political scene and most of the public refuses any reconsideration of the decrees, suspecting it would be followed with financial demands to the Czech Republic. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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