Alois Eliáš

Alois Eliáš on photo from Atelier Langhans Prague

Alois Eliáš (29 September 1890 Prague – 19 June 1942 Prague Kobylisy Shooting Range) was a Czech general, politician, member of Czech WWII resistance and later also the prime minister of the Nazi occupied Czech lands. He served as Prime Minister of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from 27 April 1939 to 28 September 1941. He was actively involved in the Czechoslovak resistance during the Second World War. For his resistance activities he was - as the only European wartime premier - executed.

Education

Antonin Eliáš graduated at the Czech Technical University in 1911 in geodesy. Working for a private company as a land surveyor he was sent to Bosnia to work on a railway construction.[1]

Military career

World War I

After the declaration of war on Serbia Eliáš was obliged to join the Austrian army leaving for the east front line. Similar to many other Czechs who refused to take part in the war, Eliáš was taken a prisoner in Russia on 28 August 1914 - after only several days on the front. Later his entire regiment followed him voluntarily to Russian captivity in April 1915.

Czechoslovak legions in France

In 1917 Eliáš learnt on the existence of Czechoslovak Legions and joined them.[2] The Czechoslovak Legion were volunteer armed forces fighting together with the Entente Powers during World War I (France, Britain, Russia). Their goal was to win the Allies' support for the independence, which was ultimately successful.

Eliáš was later dispatched with the legions to France, where he studied at the officer school at St. Maixent, being later assigned to the 21st Czechoslovak Regiment as a platoon commander.

In autumn 1918 he took part in the Terron Battle and in the Battle on the Aisne. For his bravery and commanding skills, he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre (Cross of War) and a medal of Legion of Honour.

Creation of Czechoslovakia

Alois Eliáš in Czechoslovak military uniform

Studies in France significantly accelerated the Elias’s carrier after the war. In Prague Eliáš worked at the General Staff, later being promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.

He took part as an army expert to the Czechoslovak delegation at the Disarmament Conference in Geneva. In 1936 he was promoted to the rank of a General of Division (second highest army rank) and became a commander of the V. Army Corps in Trenčín.

During the so-called Second Czechoslovak Republic he was named the new Minister of Transportation and at the same time he became the member of the Highest State Defence Council of Czechoslovaka.

Prime Minister

Appointment

The first government under the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia was only provisional in nature because it served as a successor to the government of Czechoslovak Second Republic. A replacement of the aforementioned government was discussed at the end of April 1939. The State President of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia Emil Hácha thought Alois Eliáš was his best choice. Hácha hoped that the popularity acquired by Eliáš during his earlier military career would prove beneficial to the puppet regime. He had served with the Czechoslovak Legion in France during World War I, and attained the rank of general. Although somewhat dubious, some historians have written that Hácha hoped Eliáš's former contacts with the Reichsprotektor Konstantin von Neurath could influence the Reichsprotektor of the desirability of Eliáš as the Prime Minister.

Finally, on 27 April 1939, he was appointed Prime Minister. Eliáš took office with the conviction that he might have a unique opportunity to help his country. During his tenure, he gave support to the underground resistance to the Nazi occupiers.

The Sandwich Affair

In early September 1941, Alois Eliáš lost patience with several active Nazi journalists in the country [3] who were actively cooperating with the German occupation regime. Eliáš officially invited the journalists to the Office of the Government and planned their poisoning.

He brought sandwiches to the office of his urologist Miloš Klika. At the urologist's office, the sandwiches were laced with botulism toxin, tuberculosis-causing Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and typhus-causing Rickettsia bacteria . Eliáš took the poisoned sandwiches to the Office of the Government. Although he handled this highly infectious material, he did not fall ill.

On 18 September 1941 the invited journalists ate the poisoned sandwiches. Karel Lažnovský, the pro-Nazi editor of the journal Czech Word (České slovo), was the only fatality.[4] Other journalists, including Jaroslav Křemen and Emanuel Vajtauer, fell ill.[5][6]

Though the Sandwich affair was investigated by Gestapo during the war, the poisoning has not been proven and - at the moment - Eliáš was not charged. The whole affair was completely published only after the war thanks to the work of contemporary historians.

Resistance activities

During the war, Eliáš, though a prime minister of a Nazi occupied country, was trying to maintain secret contacts with the Czechoslovak government in exile led by president Edvard Beneš, while at the same time supporting Czech resistance.

The situation started to deteriorate after massive Nazi operations against the Czech resistance, especially against his close contacts - the government minister Ladislav Feierabend, who closely escaped arrest by Gestapo and after the arrest of the Lord Mayor of Prague Otakar Klapka, who was well informed about Eliáš´s activities in support of families of exiled and arrested Czechs and secret messengers and contacts with Czech president Edvard Beneš in exile.[7]

The end came after the removal of Konstantin Neurath from the position of the Reich Protector and the arrival on of Reinhard Heydrich as the new Reich Protektor.

Arrest and execution

On 27 September 1941, a week after the appointment of Reinhard Heydrich as the new Reich Protektor (German governor of Czech Lands), Eliáš was arrested, put on trial and sentenced to death. Heydrich himself was later assassinated by Czech resistance.

Eliáš was executed at the Kobylisy Shooting Range on 19 June 1942.

It was only recently that prime minister Eliáš was given a state funeral with full honours on 7 May 2006 and was buried at the National Monument in Vitkov in Prague.[8]

References

  1. ↑ http://icv.vlada.cz/en/tema/alois-elias-29-9-1890---19-6-1942-76879/tmplid-676/ Antonin Eliáš on Czech Government official site
  2. ↑ http://icv.vlada.cz/en/tema/alois-elias-29-9-1890---19-6-1942-76879/tmplid-676/ Antonin Eliáš on Czech Government official site
  3. ↑ http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/alois-elias-adding-poison-to-paradox Adding poison to paradox
  4. ↑ "Radio Prague - Alois Elias: Adding poison to paradox". Retrieved 2017-05-06.
  5. ↑ "Protektorátní premiér Eliáš otrávil nacistické novináře". iDNES.cz. 2006-02-20. Retrieved 2017-05-06.
  6. ↑ "Rekonstrukce "chlebíčkové aféry" – atentát v režii odboje". Portál Mzone.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2017-05-06.
  7. ↑ https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=PBs9DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA391&lpg=PA391&dq=alois+elias+executed&source=bl&ots=FFPPgR0mlQ&sig=H5fmVHtF8du6_y078uDwxlilfNI&hl=cs&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=alois%20elias%20executed&f=false Palgrave Macmillan: The Statesman's Yearbook 2017: The Politics, Cultures and Economies of the World
  8. ↑ Czech Radio: Plaue unveiled to General Alois Eliáš|http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/plaque-unveiled-to-general-alois-elias-protectorate-prime-minister-executed-by-nazis]
Government offices
Preceded by
Rudolf Beran		 Prime Minister of Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia
1939–1941 		Succeeded by
Jaroslav Krejčí
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