Obviously, there will be some hard feelings towards the Germans in Czechoslovakia after the Nazi occupation, however, I feel like the treatment of the Germans has some similarities to the way Nazis treated Jewish people but to an obvious lesser extent.
The main line that stood out to me was that Czechoslovakia wanted to build a “new, purely Slavic state” (28). Applebaum also described an “ethnic cleansing” (26), where there were “violet attacks against … German(s), forcing 660,000 men, women, and children to leave the country” (26). Additionally, at the end of WWII, there were groups of Germans “huddled under armed guard, their shirts marked “N” for Nemec, the Czech word for ‘German'” (23). This seems similar to how Jewish people during Nazi occupation had to wear the Star of David to show that they are Jewish.
I also think this goes to explain the antisemitism still in Eastern Europe. They aren’t mad at the Germans because of how they treated the Jewish people, but instead of how the Germans treated them. What I mean by this is they don’t necessarily care about the loss of Jewish life, and the only reason they have hard feelings towards the Germans is because of the Nazi occupation in Czechoslovakia.
The Czechs watched Soviet films to justify the expulsion of Germans and their treatment. There was a huge acceptance of the Soviet culture because 1) they were grateful for the liberation and 2) because it would provide a sense of nationalism. However, it is really nationalism if they are building their culture off of the Soviet Union? It seems to me like Czechoslovakia is sort of a toy for the Soviet Union without knowing it. They want to seem like they are in control of what they do and consume, but there is so much Soviet influence in everyday life that it is impossible for them to become truly independent. So, do you think that Czechoslovakia is sort of a puppet of the Soviet Union to spread Germanophobia and create a purely Slavic Eastern Europe which is isolated from Nazism (therefore capitalism, which is which is supposedly Nazism at its peak)? This would be a sort of indirect way of the USSR spreading communism. Is this treatment of Germans justified? Is Czechoslovakia truly thinking for themselves?
I think it’s important to see that Czechoslovakia is almost mirroring the actions of Nazis by wanting their expulsion, but also where that motivation comes from, as you said. I think that, like many instances in the Cold War, the actions made come from a place of memory from WWII and its major powers, and trying to build something different; however, they repeat the same actions in order to build something different, which does not make sense. I think that Czechoslovakia had the emotion and memory of Nazism, but that these feelings were affirmed by the Soviet Union, and that they affirmed their actions, therefore perpetuating them. Perhaps the Soviet Union saw their hurt and capitalized on this, or they felt that by allowing Czechoslovakia to have a major focal point of an enemy, it would unify and strengthen them. I think that the Soviet Union did want to distance themselves from Nazism, but the similarities between their methods of distancing make it hard to see it that way.