Photograph: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images“For what I have done, the nation will call me a traitor”: the words reputedly spoken by Czech leader Emil Hácha after he signed away Czechoslovakia’s independence in 1939. Hácha was the epitome of coerced compromise, later viewed as collaboration, the fate of many liberal politicians in the 1930s. Hácha’s compromise (or surrender) was the starting point of a recent tour I attended of Prague’s second World War sites. By the time he was seen – some time in the early hours of March 15th – Hácha was dehydrated and exhausted. The German dictator had separately sped to the Czech capital to proclaim the country’s new protectorate status as a fait accompli.

Source: The Irish Times January 13, 2026 09:46 UTC