Chapter 80:
January 27, 1940
Czech Protectorate – Prague We met with the Czech Side's Delegation in Prague at the Old Czech Government Complex, the same building Hitler had used as the Reich Commissariat for Bohemia and Moravia (Governor-General's Office).
Our Side's Delegation consisted of my father and Chancellor, Hjalmar Schacht, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Weizsäcker, and me, the Vice Minister of the Chancellery.
The Czech Side's Delegation included Edvard Beneš, the President at the time of the Munich Agreement and current Leader of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in France, and Emil Hácha, the Czech Governor who had surrendered to Hitler during the Annexation of Czechia and signed away his country.
After occupying Berlin and dealing with the Nazi Regime, we had also dismantled the Reich Commissariat for the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, but we simply renamed it the Czech Protectorate and reappointed Emil Hácha as Governor, granting a considerable level of Autonomy.
In essence, we had halted the Assimilation Policy previously pushed by Hitler and were now pursuing an Appeasement policy, and since Emil Hácha was, after all, the President elected by the Czechs after the Beneš Cabinet resigned, we kept him in place.
Edvard Beneš, a figure from the Czech Independence Movement against the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the President of Czechoslovakia who had attempted to stand against Hitler by proceeding with the Fortification of the Sudetenland, seemed deeply moved to be stepping on his Homeland's soil again.
"Welcome back to Czechia, Former President. I am Hjalmar Schacht, the Chancellor of Germany."
"…Edvard Beneš. I lead the Czechoslovak government-in-exile."