Deceived by Britain, Hitler and Stalin

When you include Hitler and Stalin as your friends maybe you can expect to be stabbed in the back a few times, even by the British government.

Edvard Beneš was the President of Czechoslovakia three years before and three years after the second world war.

A politician through and through, Beneš was also the first and longest-serving Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia. His international stature was such that he held the post through 10 successive governments, one of which that he headed himself.

In 1938 Nazi Germany claimed the German-speaking part of his country and Beneš opposed these moves. But in October that year, Italy, France and the United Kingdom signed the Munich Agreement, which allowed for the military occupation of parts of Czechoslovakia by Germany. The British Prime Minister who convinced Benes to agree to the deal at the time was driven by the misconception that “Both Hitler and Göring said separately and emphatically that they had no desire or intention of making war and I think we may take this as correct.”

Czechoslovakia was not consulted about the annexation of their own country.

Beneš agreed to the annexation, despite opposition from within his country. Shortly after Beneš was forced to resign under German pressure and in October 1938 Beneš went into exile here in Putney.

A year later he organised the Czechoslovak National Liberation Committee and was President of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile. Some of the government-in-exile’s first meetings were said to be held in this house in Gwendolyn Avenue.

Although not a Communist, Beneš was also on friendly terms with Stalin. Believing that Czechoslovakia had more to gain from an alliance with the Soviet Union than one with Poland, he signed an agreement with the Soviets for his country’s post-war arrangements. So after the end of World War II, Beneš returned home and resumed his former position as President.

A Communist-dominated organization won the country’s first elections after the war and approved a new constitution, which was too close to the Soviet Constitution for Beneš to sign. He resigned as President in June 1948 and died of natural causes later that year