the nationality of all inhabitants of the czech provinces and ...

Our own book is written in that same
spirit . For inasmuch as we are striving
for a deeper understanding of the
“anatomy” and “physiology” of the
“wholesale barbarisation” engendered by
World War II we do not wish thereby to
extenuate the events and actions; we seek
neither to excuse or defend them. On the
contrary, we want a deeper understanding
of them. We seek to understand them not
only in terms of the major collective
political, economic, social or cultural
events, processes and phenomena, but
also to appreciate their “microdimension”.
We are striving to detect behind the
major events – which means within them
also – the simple everyday, private nature
of human lives that none of us can
escape. This direction of our research and
our interpretation of the transfer is,
moreover, in keeping with the overall
intentions of present-day historical
research.
***
At the very end it necessary to make
two marginal comments.
The first concerns the overall
character of Czech-German relations in
the light of their historical development.
At periods of intense national struggle
the prevailing mood was of bombastic
nationalist euphoria, which regarded
them as worthless or almost worthless.
That applied to the period of the
struggle to achieve a Czech
(Czechoslovak) state, the “Munich”
period and the resistance during World
War II and the immediate post-war
period, as well as the so-called
“normalisation” years. November 1989
opened the doors to a thoroughgoing
study of those relations and the
opportunity to formulate the results of
that research and publish them freely. In
co-operation with its German
counterpart within the framework of the
joint historical commissions, Czech
historiography made use of those
opportunities – with success, one might
Interpretation of the Transfer
281
Chapter VIII
say. Over these twelve years a whole
number of papers have appeared on both
the Czech and German sides that
sensitively trace and assess various
aspects, positive as well as negative, of
the rich and complex history of Czech-
German relations.
On the other hand there has also been
confirmation of the negative character of
the “shield” of the Habsburg monarchy
that not only protected but also
oppressed the Czechs, and in particular
the utterly negative character of the Nazi
occupation and the Nazi war, which by
and large was the cause of the rift
between the Czechs and the Sudeten
Germans achieved by the resettlement of
the Sudeten Germans, following the
failure of the Germans’ plans for
draining the lifeblood from the Czech
nation.
The second comment is connected
with that. In the recent period a group
has come into existence in the Czech
Republic – one having more in common
with journalism than historiography –
which seeks to enforce on the Czech
consciousness, as part of national selfcriticism,
a position that does not so
much copy the “German” concept –
which is more objective these days – but
instead one which could be termed “selfflagellation”
(albeit well-intentioned on
occasions), that takes no account of
historical circumstances. As
a consequence, there is a prevailing
nervousness here that gives rise to
political controversy about resettlement
(“transfer”, “expulsion”) in connection
with the Czech Republic’s imminent
entry into the European Union.
The texts included in this volume
were also written in that present context.
We have striven to write this book,
which is particularly useful for the
general public, to the best of our ability
and in all conscience, seeking as far as
possible not to be influenced by
momentary emotions or the tendencies
to national self-flagellation or radicalism
that are concomitant with them.