Figure 1.--Substantial numbers of ethnic Germans lived in Czechoslovakia although ouside the Sudetenland were a minority. Ethnic Germans cheered the entry of the German military into Prague (March 1939). A Waffen-SS regiment, at the time called the SS-VT, accompanied the Whermacht units. This German boy is intrigued by the SS-man's dog. Someone else is presenting a boquet of flowers. The ethnic Germans would play a major role in the German World War II occupation of Czechoslovakia, collaborating with the occupation authorities. They provided needed lanuage skills and because of their knowlege of local people helped control the population by identifying individuals and reporting on any resistance. We do not have much information on what the Waffen-SS units did in Czechoslovakia as it was an unopposed occupation. We believed that they worked closely with Einsatzgruppe I Prag.

What was to become the Waffen-SS at first functioned under different names such as the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler (LAH/LSsAH) and SS-Verfügungstruppen (Special Purpose Troops/Dispositional--SS-VT) without a unified command structure. They participated in all the major campaigns of NAZI Germany. The groups wee creeated with political violence in mind. It was no accident that the LAH personnel, at the time separate from the SS-VT, asembled by Himmler and Heydrich and provided arms by the Reichwehr, that carried out the brutal the Night of the Long Knives supressing the SA (June 1934). The SS-VT participated in all the pre-War actions, including the remilitarization of the Rhineland (March 1936), Austrian Anchluss (March 1938), the seizure of the Sudetenland (October 1938), and invasion of Czechoslovakia (March 1939). The SS-VT at this time was small and poorly armed. The Wehermacht saw them as asphalt soldiers, meaning parade ground formations. They did, however, provide teeth to the Einsatzgruppen formed to hunt down anti-NAZIS and firmly implant German control. We do not yet have details on the coordination, but we believed that worked closely with Einsatzgruppe I Prag in hunting down individuals. This mean Czech who were vocally anti-NAZI or associated with the deposed regiime. There were also Germans in the country that had defied the NAZIS. Einstazgruppen at least later in the War that conducted horific actions as part of the Holocaust has a major Waffen-SS component. These were all unopposed actions, Hitler having successfully backed down the allies committed to British Prime Minister Chamberlain's Appeasement policies.

Created: 6:18 PM 9/2/2014
Last updated: 6:18 PM 9/2/2014