The Beneš decrees were a series of laws enacted by the Czechoslovak government of exile during World War II in absence of Czechoslovak parliament (see details in Czechoslovakia: World War II (1939 - 1945)). Today, the term is most frequently used for the part of them dealing with status of Germans in post-war Czechoslovakia and has become a symbol for the whole issue of their transfer and its ramifications in today's politics (see the final section).

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:

1. 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.

2. 1943 - 1945
Also issued in exile. Main theme was transition of control of liberated area of Czechoslovakia from Allies' armies and organisation of post-war Czechoslovak government.

3. 1945 (ending October 26)
The most controversial decrees were issued in this time. 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 about nationalization of some large industry (generally considered "extinct" now), these include some very controversial mainly connected with confiscation of so-called traitors' property that deserves a special section.

Post-war settlement in Europe and the Beneš decrees

The Beneš decrees are most often associated with transfer (or resettlement) in 1945_47 of about three million former Czechoslovak citizens of German ethnicity (see Sudetenland) in the Czechoslovak Republic to Germany and Austria. However, not a single one of the decrees is about the transfer or expulsion. It was the Potsdam conference in 1945 - an important tool of post-war settlement in Europe - which ordered the expulsion of some 11 million ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The victorious powers resettled Czechoslovakia's German population in the "occupation zones" which they set up in post_war Germany.

Nevertheless, about 10 percent of the decrees concerned the property of wartime traitors and collaborators accused of treason. They ordered its confiscation and removal of citizenship of collaborators of Hungarian ethnic origin. This was then used to confiscate the property and expel some 90 percent of the ethnic German population of Czechoslovakia who were accused of supporting the Nazis (through the party of Konrad Henlein) and affiliation to the Third Reich in 1938. Almost every decree explicitly stated that the sanctions did not apply to anti-fascists. Some 250,000 German anti-fascists remained Czechoslovak citizens after the transfer.

The last section of the decrees are usually referred to when talking about Beneš decrees because this section continues to be an issue today affecting political relations between Czech Republic and its neighbors, Austria and Germany (Bavaria in particular). To be precise, all countries' current governments consider the dispute resolved, which, however, requires them to ignore political pressure from certain groups, i.e. expellees' organisations. They, and political groups associated with them in Germany and Austria (for example, CSU's members of the European Parliament) call for the Czech parliament to revoke the last section of the Beneš decrees. See Expulsion of Germans after World War II and Pursuit of Nazi collaborators in Czechoslovakia for details.

External links

Facing history _ The evolution of Czech_German relations in the Czech provinces, 1848_1948 (http://www.mkcr.cz/article.php?id=1008): a historical publication sponsored by Czech government, dealing a. o. with the transfer and decrees. A series of PDF files