Hácha, Emil

Born July 12, 1872, in Trhové Sviny; died June 1, 1945, in Prague. Czechoslovak statesman who betrayed the national interests of the Czechoslovak people.

Hácha was a lawyer by education. From 1925 to 1938 he was president of the Supreme Administrative Court. After the Munich Agreement of 1938 he became president of a dismembered Czechoslovakia on Nov. 30, 1938, with the support of the Hitlerites and domestic reactionaries. On Mar. 15, 1939, Hácha and F. Chvalkovský, the foreign minister, signed in Berlin a traitorous document liquidating the independence of Czecholovakia. After Czechoslovakia was occupied, Hácha was appointed so-called state president of the “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia” by the Hitlerites. He held this post until April 1945. After Czechoslovakia was liberated by Soviet Army troops, he was arrested on May 16, 1945, and brought to trial as a war criminal. He died in prison.