Beneš decrees

The Beneš decrees were a series of laws drafted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II. They were issued by President Edvard Beneš from 21 July 1940 to 27 October 1945 and retroactively ratified by the Interim National Assembly of Czechoslovakia on 6 March 1946. The decrees dealt with various aspects of the restoration of Czechoslovakia and its legal system, denazification, and reconstruction of the country. In journalism and political history, the term "Beneš decrees" refers to the decrees of the president and the ordinances of the Slovak National Council (SNR) concerning the status of ethnic Germans, Hungarians and others in postwar Czechoslovakia and represented Czechoslovakia's legal framework for the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia. It was based on the international Potsdam Agreement. As a result, almost all ethnic Germans and Hungarians some of whom had ancestors who had lived in Czechoslovakia for centuries prior to World War II or those who had settled there during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia lost their Czechoslovakian citizenship and property and were expelled from their homes. Some of them died during the expulsion process which took place during the late 1940s. The Beneš decrees were enforced differently in different parts of the country with some decrees being valid only in Bohemia and Moravia, while the ordinances of SNR were enforced in Slovakia. The decrees remain politically controversial in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and modern Germany. They were never repealed and are still used to confiscate property from Hungarians in Slovakia on the grounds that their ancestors should have lost their property. Beneš, who was elected president of Czechoslovakia in 1935, resigned after the Munich Agreement in 1938. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia Beneš and other Czechoslovak politicians and officials emigrated to France, establishing the Czechoslovak National Committee, in November 1939, to restore Czechoslovakia.

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Related concepts (16)

Czechoslovak government-in-exile

The Czechoslovak government-in-exile, sometimes styled officially as the Provisional Government of Czechoslovakia (Prozatímní vláda Československa, Dočasná vláda Československa), was an informal title conferred upon the Czechoslovak National Liberation Committee (Výbor Československého Národního Osvobození, Československý Výbor Národného Oslobodenia), initially by British diplomatic recognition. The name came to be used by other Allied governments during the Second World War as they subsequently recognised it.

Bratislava

Bratislava (ˌbrætɪˈslɑːvə , USalsoˌbrɑːt- , ˈbracislaʋa; Pozsony ˈpoʒoɲ), historically known as Preßburg (Presburg), is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000—approximately 140% of the official figures. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia at the foot of the Little Carpathians, occupying both banks of the River Danube and the left bank of the River Morava.

Hungarians in Slovakia

Hungarians are the largest ethnic minority in Slovakia. According to the 2021 Slovak census, 456,154 people (or 8.37% of the population) declared themselves Hungarian, while 462,175 (8.48% of the population) stated that Hungarian was their mother tongue. Hungarians in Slovakia are concentrated mostly in the southern part of the country, near the border with Hungary. They form the majority in two districts, Komárno and Dunajská Streda.