Jewish History

Zdenko Maršálek (Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences)

The Czechoslovak armies in exile during the Second World War was made up not only of soldiers of Czech and Slovak nationality, but also of former Czechoslovak citizens of various national identities. Although Jewish volunteers constituted a high number of the soldiers, their enormous contribution to Czechoslovak exile army units has been, for a number of reasons, marginalized since the end of the war. This lecture will discuss not only the difficulties facing an army comprising soldiers of different ethnicities, religions, and political persuasions, but also the still relevant reasons for the marginalization in the Czechoslovak narrative of the role of Jewish soldiers.