Prague, Oct 18 (CTK) – About 1.3 million Czechs and Slovaks settled after 1945 in the Czechoslovak borderland, an area forcibly vacated by about three million German inhabitants, and the first transport of the new settlers left Prague for the borderland 70 years ago, on October 19, 1945.
As a result of the resettlement, the borderland’s population shrank by one third on average, and in west Bohemia even by a half.
The 1930s and the 1940s were a dark period for the Bohemian, Moravian and Silesian border areas. First, as a result of the Munich Agreement in 1938, they had to be left by Czechs and other non-German inhabitants who did not want to be second-class citizens of the Third Reich.
After the war, all Germans, with a few exceptions, were transferred from Czechoslovakia, including the borderland, and gradually replaced by the new settlers.
Another blow to the borderland population was the emergence of the Iron Curtain and the formation of an impenetrable border zone “inhabited” mainly by soldiers.
The new settlement of the border areas started shortly after the war. On July 17, 1945, President Edvard Benes issued a decree on the settlement of the country with the aim to “return all areas of the Czechoslovak Republic to the original Slavonic element.”
Many people set out for their new homes individually, but often also within mass transports.
Over 1.3 million returned to or newly settled in the border areas in two years. Before, almost three million Germans had to leave the area. The process is the largest internal migration in the history of the Czech Lands.
Apart from 1.3 million Czechs, the borderland was in 1945-1947 reached by some 200,000 Czechs and Slovaks from other European countries (including almost 40,000 Volhynian Czechs from the Soviet Union). In spite of this, the population in the area shrank sharply, by one third on average.
The newcomers included the original Czech inhabitants who were driven out in 1938, and people returning from concentration camps, forced labour stays and foreign armies.
A large part of the newcomers sought a new home and a better economic position in the borderland. They were mainly low-income people attracted by plots distributed among new settlers, and by the abandoned German properties.
As a result of the population decline, the landscape in the border areas started to change, including villages. The mountainous areas became deserted and desolate. About 3,000 villages ceased to exist, as did 70,000 small businesses, most civic groups and family farms, and 8,000 factories were closed down or moved away.
A number of historical buildings were pulled down or got dilapidated, including hundreds of churches. Instead, the communist regime concentrated heavy industry in the border areas, which negatively influenced the local environment.
Wild nature remained paradoxically almost untouched along the border with Austria and West Germany, where broad border zones and spacious military grounds were established. However, dozens of villages were destroyed there and no industry introduced, which is why the life of humans almost disappeared from the area.
The new settlers had to pay for the property given to them. The prices however, were low, could be paid in instalments, and they were completely lifted for the farmers who later joined farming cooperatives.
The resettlement process started to diminish after 1947, but unorganised settlement of the areas continued until 1953, according to historians.
