Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

Czech provinces of interwar Czechoslovakia that were were occupied by Germany on March 15, 1939 and were annexed to the Reich as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Following Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland in September 1938, the remainder of Czechoslovakia was broken up. In 1939, Subcarpathain Rus (Slovakian) was annexed by Hungary; parts of Silesia (Czech) were annexed by Poland. Slovakia--closely allied with Nazi Germany--became an autonomous state, while former Czech territories Bohemia and Moravia came under Nazi control as a "protectorate."

RSHA chief Reinhard Heydrich was appointed acting Reich Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in September 1941. During this time, Heydrich established the Theresienstadt ghetto near Terezin. Theresienstadt also served as a labor camp and transit hub for Jews who were to be sent to killing centers further to the east.

Fewer than 8 percent of Czech Jews survived the Holocaust. Of the c. 88,000 Jews living in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1941, c. 80,000 were deported to killing centers and forced labor camps to the east, The majority of them passed through Theresienstadt.