Alois Eliáš

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Alois Eliáš (1939)

Alois Eliáš (born September 29, 1890 in Royal Vineyards , † June 19, 1942 in Prague ) was a Czechoslovak general and politician. From 1939 to 1941 he was Prime Minister of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . During the Second World War he maintained secret contacts with the Czechoslovak government- in- exile in London. In 1941 he was arrested by the German occupying forces and executed in 1942 after the assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich .

life and work

Alois Eliáš memorial plaque in Prague

Alois Eliáš graduated from the Czech Technical University in Prague in 1911 and worked as a surveyor and in railway construction in Bosnia-Herzegovina . During the First World War he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army and at the end of August 1914 was taken prisoner by the Russians in Galicia . In 1917 he joined the Czechoslovak legions there , was transferred to France and fought with a legionary unit on the western front in 1918 . Eliáš was awarded the Croix de guerre and the Legion of Honor. In the First Czechoslovak Republic he became a general of the newly established army .

On April 27, 1939, Eliáš was appointed Prime Minister of the "Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia" (see Alois Eliáš government ), which had been established by the Germans on March 15, 1939 after the "remaining Czech Republic" had been broken up. In addition to the office of Prime Minister, he also held the position of Minister of the Interior. During his tenure he maintained contact with the Czechoslovak government in exile and President Edvard Beneš in London through the news channels of the resistance organization ÚVOD .

On September 27, 1941, one week after Reinhard Heydrich was appointed Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia , Eliáš was arrested, tried and sentenced to death for high treason and treason . However, the judgment was not carried out for the time being. After Heydrich succumbed to an assassination attempt on June 4, 1942, Eliáš was executed by shooting on June 19, 1942 at the Kobylisy firing range in Prague as part of retaliatory measures . He found his resting place at St. Mark's Church in Markovice .

Former grave of Alois Eliáš

In 2010, a sound recording of a conversation in front of the Gestapo , which had already been recorded after his death sentence, was found in the archive of the Czech Radio .

Posthumous honors

Alois Eliáš, who last had the rank of division general, was raised to the rank of army general after 1945. In 1996 Eliáš was posthumously awarded the Czech Order of the White Lion .

In 2006 the urns of Alois Eliáš and his wife Jaroslava were solemnly buried in the “ National Monument on Vitus Hill ” ( Národní památník na Vítkově in Czech ) in Prague. At the place of execution on the firing range Kobylisy now houses a memorial.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ An exciting find in the radio archive: General Eliáš's last address on Radio Prague on February 26, 2011, accessed on April 26, 2011.
  2. ↑ ES: Elias Alois Ing. . Biography in: Vojenské osobnosti československého odboje 1939–1945 , publication of the Historical Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic, AVIS, Prague 2005, p. 65, online (archived) at: vojenskaakademiehranice.ic.cz / ...
  3. ↑ Solemn burial of General Alois Elias 64 years after his death ( memento from September 7, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) on Radio Prague from July 5, 2006, accessed on April 26, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Eliáš, Alois
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech general and politician, Prime Minister of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1942
Place of death Prague