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         Appendix 1
Chapter 6 of Mémoire III of the Czech Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 Memorandum No. 3. The Problem of the
Germans in Bohemia
VI. The Position of the Germans in the Czechoslovak Republic "It is absolutely necessary to know how the German population will be dealt with in the Czechoslovak State. The Czechoslovak Republic is not only willing to accept - if occasion arises - any international legal regulation laid down by the Peace Conference in favour of the minorities, but is moreover willing to go beyond such regulation and to grant the Germans all the rights due to them. The Czechoslovak Republic will be an absolutely democratic State; all elections will be by universal and direct suffrage; all offices will be open to all citizens; the right to their own schools, judges and courts will never be denied to any minority. It must be added here that the Czechs, although conscious of the fact that the Germans were specially favoured by the previous regime, have no intentions of suppressing, for example, the German schools, universities, schools of technicology, notwithstanding the fact that these have not recently been well attended. To sum up: the Germans in Bohemia would possess the same rights as the Czechoslovaks. The German language would be the second language of the country and measures of oppression would under no circumstances be used against the German part of the population. The constitution would be similar to the constitution of Switzerland. This constitution will be established not only because the Czechs have always had a profound feeling for democracy, right and justice and would justly admit those rights even to their enemies, but also because the Czechs are of the opinion that the aforesaid arrangement, favourable to the Germans, would also be advantageous to the political interests of their own country. They (the Czechs) proved during the 19th century that they had a practical, but above all a political sense. They are much too "realistic" and have too much commonsense not to see that violence and injustice were the causes of the decline of Austro-Hungary and that any similar policy would harm their own country. These historical facts are admitted by the Germans themselves. The German press was filled with descriptions of the revolution which took place in Prague in November 1918. The reports state unanimously that the Czechs guaranteed freedom to all Germans and respected their personal security and property as well as their rights as free citizens.
Résumé:    Documents on the Expulsion of the Sudeten
Germans
Survivors speak out |