Let's recall some ideas that capture the era in which they were created and explain the logic of further developments. These were expressed by representatives of Germans living in the border regions of the Czech Republic. They will not need comments. Each reader will surely form their own comments.

The years before Munich:

A leaflet from Brno, 1918:"Let the Czechs find their salvation in their own Czechia. But let these foreigners out of German Bohemia, from the Sudetenland, and from Southern Moravia!"

Frank Karl Hermann (in a speech in Karlovy Vary at the end of March 1934): "The Sudeten region and its people must rely on the old Reich and draw new strength from it, but their faces, that is, their chests, and their arms armed with swords, and of course also with the superiority of political skill, must stand against Czechism."

Rutha Heinz, a leading Sudeten German politician (in a speech in Chomutov on March 24, 1937): "It must not be believed that the problem of the Sudeten Germans will not be resolved in the foreseeable future, and that Germany will not intervene. Hitler is waiting to see if Henlein will be able to reach an agreement. If he cannot, we can expect with certainty that Germany will intervene. This does not mean that we should put our hands in our laps, but we will continue to fight against those who, for 18 years, have falsely portrayed our true situation abroad. We will fight to the last breath, we will not yield an inch... Either reconciliation with the Czechs through Henlein, or conflict, for which the Czechs will be responsible."

Konrad Henlein (after a meeting with Hitler in March 1938): "We must therefore continue to demand so much that we can never be satisfied."

Sudeten German slogans - 1938:

"Lieber Führer, make us free from Czechoslovakia!"

"Heim ins Reich!" (Home to the Reich!)

"Ein Volk, ein Wille, ein Ziel" (One people, one will, one goal)

"Es kommt, der Tag" (The day will come)

"Juden raus, Tschechien raus" (Jews out, Czechoslovakia out)

The years of occupation:

Konrad Henlein (after Munich): "It might be easier, instead of a hard, nerve-wracking fight, to dare a heroic gesture, to admit to national socialism from the beginning, and to go to Czech prisons. But whether such a course of action would easily solve the task of breaking up Czechoslovakia as a bastion of the Allied belt against the German Reich, I strongly doubt."

Frank Karl Hermann, former Czechoslovakian member of parliament and occupation state minister (from a memorandum sent to Berlin on August 31, 1940): "The Czech nation... lives not only in German political, but also in German national life. This position excludes the possibility of political independence. The inability of the Czechs to create their own state permanently is fatefully determined by this space... The goal of the Reich's policy in Bohemia and Moravia must be the complete Germanization of the space and the people... Germanization presupposes:

1. The re-nationalization of racially acceptable Czechs

2. The resettlement of racially unacceptable Czechs and anti-German intellectuals...

3. The new settlement of this emptied space with fresh German blood..."

The Landsmannschaft years:

The Eisenstadt Declaration of 1949: "Our unconditional demand is the return to our homes within the language borders of 1937..." (signed among others: former SS-Sturmbannführer Friedrich Brehm, former member of the Gestapo in Prague, Dr. Emil Franzl, former SS-Hautsturmführer Dr. Walter Hergel, former member of the Gestapo, Dr. Hermann Götz, former official of the NSDAP, Dr. Walter Zawadil, etc.)

Becher Walter, a member of parliament and chairman of the SdL, a descendant of the Becherovka liqueur-making family: "As Germans from the Sudeten region, we should today remember the truth about the events that... on October 28, 1918, created the foundation for lies that caused a million people suffering and misery. This lie is called Czechoslovakia."

Herget Toni, a Sudeten German ideologue for Sudetendeutsche Zeitung in 1978: "The Czechoslovakia created sixty years ago was the product of lies and legends..."

The still-valid program from 1961, called "20 Points": "Not only Sudeten Germans, but the entire German nation, must never come to terms with the expulsion of Sudeten Germans from their centuries-old homeland."

A key statement from the Sudeten German Homeland Association from February 2015... The SdL "seeks to have the Czech Republic repeal the validity of decrees, laws, and regulations issued in 1945/1946 by the president of the republic, the government, or the parliament of the then Czechoslovakia, which ordered, or legalized, the factual state of injustice – collective deprivation of rights, expropriation, forced labor, expulsion, and murder."

Bernd Posselt, spokesperson for the SdL (for iDnes, May 2026): The SdL "seeks to repeal those Beneš decrees that are still in force and that ordered or legalized injustices, collective deprivation of rights, expropriation, forced labor, expulsion, and murder."

But why specifically the repeal of President Beneš's decrees, and not the revocation of the resolutions from Potsdam?

It is indeed interesting that the expulsion is associated with President Beneš's decrees, although these decrees did not deal with the expulsion itself. The decisions regarding the expulsion, or as the so-called "Sudeten Germans" call it, the "expulsion," are not found in them. They were agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference by representatives of the three victorious powers – Stalin, Truman, and Atlee. The "hidden truth" lies elsewhere. In the decrees themselves and their consequences. If they had not existed, if they had been repealed, then there would have been an opportunity to raise property claims, and there could have been a demand for compensation for the property left behind, and also to challenge the right of the Czech side to decide on the territory that was previously inhabited or owned by Czech Germans. They now fancifully call it the "right to property." This would also undermine the entire Czech and Slovak legal system, because the decrees did not only concern the so-called "Sudeten Germans," but were used to address post-revolutionary problems and, to some extent, to determine the future direction of our development. The declaration or commitment, which is now part of the documents of the association, that the SdL is giving up property claims, would then become meaningless, because anyone from the descendants of the former so-called "Sudeten Germans" could demand the return of their property or compensation for its confiscation. "The injustices of the past must be rectified," said Václav Havel, isn't that right? It is probably utter nonsense that anyone from the descendants of the former so-called "Sudeten Germans" would then follow the point in the statutes of the mentioned association about giving up the claim for compensation. They would be acting against themselves.

Essentially, it involves three, or four, decrees:

* Decree No. 12/45 Coll. on the confiscation and expedited distribution of property belonging to Germans...

* Decree No. 28/45 Coll. on the settlement of agricultural land belonging to Germans...

* Decree No. 108/45 on the confiscation of enemy property...

And finally, there is Decree No. 33/45 Coll. on the regulation of Czechoslovak citizenship for persons of German nationality... In this case, however, it is only a supporting decree.

So, the mere demand to repeal President Beneš's decrees hides the proverbial "devil's trick." If they were actually repealed, then... Are the Czech confidants of the SdL aware of this? If so, then... One doesn't even want to imagine.

Jaroslav Kojzar, iportaL24.cz