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John Wahlich’s relations in Czechoslovakia were in grave danger of being sent to a concentration camp in 1938. He tells Gail Dixon how they crossed Europe to safety
John Wahlich reveals how he uncovered the story of his family’s flight from the Nazi invasion of the Sudetenland
On 1 October 1938, Germany’s annexation of the Sudetenland began and Nazi forces started to parade in. Hitler’s propaganda machine justified the move by stating that the three million Sudeten Germans living in this border area of Czechoslovakia had been persecuted by the Czechs. In reality, he wanted to assimilate Sudeten Germans into the ‘Fatherland’, and to seize control of the area’s industry.
Crowds of people cheered Hitler as he drove through the town of Graslitz on 4 October. Was local factory worker Johann Wahlich observing the Fuhrer’s parade that day?
Nazi Threat
Even though he was a Sudeten German, Johann would not have joined in the celebrations. In fact, he already knew at that point that his family faced huge danger.
“My father Johann Wahlich was born in Graslitz in 1920,” John Wahlich explains. “The town is now called Kraslice, and is in the Czech Republic.
“Johann was the second child of Gustav and Marie Wahlich, and he had three surviving siblings: Gustav junior, Elly and Anna. Johann was a staunch Labour Party member all his life, and it was his socialist beliefs that placed him in extreme jeopardy in 1938.”
Johann studied at technical school before working for a company that manufactured musical instruments. He joined the Social Democratic Workers’ Party in Graslitz, like his father Gustav who was a velvet-weaver.
“Johann and Gustav knew that Hitler targeted political opponents first, and that many socialists had been incarcerated in German concentration camps. The whole family had to flee.”
John grew up knowing little about his family’s origins. “My grandmother Marie and Aunt
Anna lived with us when I was young, and Dad always spoke German with them. None of the family talked about the war. I’ve only discovered the perils that they faced through tracing my family history with the help of old papers and photographs.”
Following annexation, the Wahlichs went into hiding in the town of Strančice, near Prague. They were assisted by Fonds Matteotti, a support organisation that was established in memory of Giacomo Matteotti, an Italian socialist politician assassinated by Fascists in 1924.
The family knew that Hitler would invade Czechoslovakia,
‘Johann and Gustav knew that Hitler targeted political opponents first’