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59-404: The Kuratorium was established in 1941 partly on the initiative of Colonel Emanuel Moravec to provide athletic and cultural activities for Czech youth between the ages of ten to 18. Many Kuratorium leaders were functionaries or supporters of the fascist Vlajka and Livia Rothkirchen has characterized its programming as an effort at Nazi indoctrination. However, Tara Zahra has noted that at

118-472: A letter bomb . The Czechoslovak government-in-exile also considered targeting Moravec for assassination, but decided to go after Heydrich instead in what became known as Operation Anthropoid . Following Heydrich's death, Moravec was a keynote speaker at several mass rallies throughout the Protectorate. These were intended to demonstrate the opposition of ordinary Czechs to Heydrich's killing. During

177-469: A motion of no confidence "Quislings". Chamberlain's successor Winston Churchill used the term while addressing a conference of Allied delegates at St. James's Palace on 12 June 1941, when he said: "A vile race of Quislings—to use a new word which will carry the scorn of mankind down the centuries—is hired to fawn upon the conqueror, to collaborate in his designs and to enforce his rule upon their fellow countrymen while groveling low themselves." He used

236-571: A "Czech Quisling ". Emanual Moravec was born in Prague , the son of a modest merchant family originally from Kutná Hora . He graduated from a vocational school and found employment as a clerk at a Prague company. At the outbreak of World War I , Moravec was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army and dispatched with his unit to the Carpathian Front . Moravec was captured by

295-615: A 1944 report in The Guardian , the Kuratorium was then putting on "180 theatrical shows a week. In Prague alone its concerts, films, and exhibitions are visited by 13,000 children every day. It has arranged 13 great sports meetings in which 30,000 boys and girls took part. It has taught 80,000 children to swim. Some 200,000 have actively participated in its 'Art for Youth' competition, and 20,000 have been entertained at free holiday camps". The Kuratorium's nationalist-oriented programming reached

354-632: A compulsory subject in schools, explaining that it would become a lingua franca of Europe: "[e]very Czech who desires to excel in the future must acquire the German language so that work opportunities in all fields are open to them not only in the Reich, but also in Europe and the whole world ... learn German in order that the Czechs' good reputation can spread way beyond the frontiers of Bohemia and Moravia". He also promoted

413-740: A creature of Mussolini and Hitler "). In the United States, it was used often. In the Warner Bros. cartoon Tom Turk and Daffy (1944), it was uttered by a Thanksgiving turkey whose presence is betrayed to Porky Pig by Daffy Duck . In the American film Edge of Darkness (1943), about the Resistance in Norway, the heroine's brother is often described as a quisling. The back-formed verb, to quisle ( / ˈ k w ɪ z əl / ) exists, and gave rise to

472-513: A dangerous "double-edged sword". On the one hand, the existence of the Kuratorium showcased Germany's supposed tolerance for Czech institutions and helped educate Czech youth towards an anti-communist worldview, however, on the other hand it severely undermined the ultimate goal of Germanizing the population of the Czech lands . Emanuel Moravec Emanuel Moravec ( Czech pronunciation: [ˈmoravɛts] ; 17 April 1893 – 5 May 1945)

531-594: A government of quislings"), Dick Polman on NPR station WHYY-FM ("Ever since last summer, most Republicans have marinated in their cowardice... The next step toward home-grown tyranny – the quisling phase – has already begun"), and so forth. On 7 July 2020, Lord Chris Patten , former governor of Hong Kong, described Carrie Lam , the Chief Executive of Hong Kong as a "lamentable Quisling figure in Hong Kong's history". On 10 February 2022, Patten expanded his use of

590-399: A much less common version of the noun: quisler . However, the verb form was rare even during World War II and has entirely disappeared from contemporary usage. Quisling was applied to some who cooperated with communist takeovers. As an illustration, the renegade social democrat Zdeněk Fierlinger of Czechoslovakia was frequently derided as "Quislinger" for his collaboration with

649-468: A newspaper article in Dagbladet in 1934, and by the newspaper Vestfold Arbeiderblad , in 1936. The term with the opposite meaning, a Norwegian patriot, is Jøssing . The use of the name as a term for collaborators or traitors in general probably came about upon Quisling's unsuccessful 1940 coup d'état , when he attempted to seize power and make Norway cease resisting the invading Germans. The term

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708-486: A one grade demotion. At the request of Emanuel Moravec, Frank personally appealed to OKW operations chief Generaloberst Alfred Jodl in the matter and the younger Moravec's sentence was quashed. Pavel was sent to school in Salzburg after the establishment of the Protectorate and died in an air raid in 1944. Igor was arrested and executed by hanging at the end of the war on charges of murder and treason . Jurij

767-610: A position writing for the newspaper Lidové noviny , an offer Peroutka declined. During his tenure as education minister, Moravec adopted an anti-Semitic worldview that largely mirrored that of the Nazi Party. It positioned Germany as fighting a war to save humanity from Judaism . Moravec publicly blamed Jews for pre-war tensions between the former Czechoslovakia and Germany. He claimed that "Jewish capitalist interests hitched themselves to Anglo-French strategic interests and, entirely artificially and cunningly, escalated Czech hatred of

826-527: A prisoner of war in Samarkand, was a close relative of the prominent Bolshevik Alexei Rykov . With her he had two sons, Igor (1920-1947) and Jurij (1923-1964). In 1932 he was divorced and, in April that year, married Pavla Szondy, who gave birth to Moravec's third son, Pavel. This marriage also ended in separation, Moravec and Szondy divorcing in 1938. In 1942 Moravec married Jolana Emmerová, his housemaid , who

885-512: A proposal to deploy the Army of the Protectorate to the Eastern Front in support of German operations. Hácha discussed the proposal with Reich Minister for Bohemia and Moravia Karl Hermann Frank who ultimately decided not to forward it to Adolf Hitler . Moravec reportedly offered the noted Czech journalist Ferdinand Peroutka release from Buchenwald concentration camp in exchange for accepting

944-480: A reoriented editorial line, declaring "our nation could have died in war [with Germany]. Now the whole nation will die of fright and fear". Writing in V úloze mouřenína – Československá tragedie 1938 , the most popular of his works, Moravec sought to more fully reconcile his support for the Germans with his earlier calls for resistance. He indicted Beneš and the intelligentsia for Czechoslovakia's defeat and declared it

1003-558: A term predates World War II. The first recorded use of the term was by Norwegian Labour Party politician Oscar Torp in a 2 January 1933 newspaper interview, where he used it as a general term for Quisling's followers. Quisling was at this point in the process of establishing the Nasjonal Samling (National Unity) party, a fascist party modelled on the German Nazi Party . Further uses of the term were made by Aksel Sandemose , in

1062-689: A well-regarded Bohemian patriot; his pre-war record was sufficiently distinguished to earn him a place in history. In 1997 Pernes published a biography of Moravec. He was later criticized for the volume which, it was alleged, was heavily plagiarized from a doctoral dissertation on Moravec's life written by Josef Vytlačil. In 2013, Daniel Landa portrayed Moravec in an episode of the Czech historical drama television series České století  [ cs ] ( Czech Century ), titled "Den po Mnichovu (1938)" ("The Day after Munich"). The episode centres on Moravec' fierce opposition to president Beneš' capitulation to

1121-526: A zenith in the summer of 1944 when the "Week of Czech Youth" was staged in Prague , activities during which included thousands of Kuratorium participants attired in Czech national costume singing traditional Czech songs. Observers from the Hitler Youth came to the conclusion that Kuratorium activities had essentially become nothing more than a continuation of the banned Sokol movement and were concerned that "Reich-loyal" Czech nationalism would transform into

1180-612: Is a term used in Scandinavian languages and in English to mean a citizen or politician of an occupied country who collaborates with an enemy occupying force – or more generally as a synonym for traitor or collaborator. The word originates from the surname of the Norwegian war-time leader Vidkun Quisling (1887–1945), who headed a domestic Nazi collaborationist regime during World War II . Use of Vidkun Quisling 's surname as

1239-561: The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . A 1966 Peanuts comic strip shows Lucy dragging Linus out of Snoopy 's doghouse yelling "Traitor! Quisling! Squealer!" at Snoopy for betraying him hiding there. In a Doctor Who story, Day of the Daleks (1972), the Doctor calls a man who collaborates with the Daleks a Quisling. " The Patriot Game ", one of the best known songs to emerge from

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1298-482: The Czech lands prior to the German arrival and join the military cadre being sent abroad. His offer of service was rejected. Moravec was particularly concerned that his earlier denunciations of Germany, and his reputation as a strident anti-German polemicist, might make him a target of the new regime. He was surprised, therefore, when the new German authorities informed him he could resume writing books and newspaper columns. Moravec returned to writing with gusto and

1357-652: The Czechoslovak Legion , which went on to fight on the side of the White Army in the Russian Civil War . During the interwar period he commanded an infantry battalion in the Czechoslovak Army . As a proponent of democracy during the 1930s, Moravec was outspoken in his warnings about the expansionist plans of Germany under Adolf Hitler and appealed for armed action rather than capitulation to German demands for

1416-744: The Imperial Russian Army in 1915 and held at a prisoner-of-war camp in Samarkand . He was subsequently paroled and given command of a machine-gun platoon in the First Serbian Volunteer Division ; a unit consisting of former prisoners of war, including Serbs and other Slavs from the countries of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, fighting on the Russian side. In September 1916, following fierce action against Bulgarian forces along

1475-590: The Irish nationalist struggle , includes the line "...those quislings who sold out the Patriot Game" in some versions (although the original uses "cowards" and other versions substitute "rebels" or "traitors"). In the Norwegian television series Occupied , Norwegians who are seen as collaborating with the Russian invaders and later with European Union peacekeepers are called Quislings. Max Brooks' 2006 novel World War Z features survivors who lose their minds due to

1534-484: The Prague Uprising of May 1945, Moravec attempted to drive to a radio station under German control in the hope of broadcasting an appeal for calm. When the vehicle he was traveling in ran out of fuel Moravec dismounted and shot himself in the head with a pistol, presumably to avoid capture. He died four days before the liberation of Prague . Moravec was a Master Mason , a fact that earned him contempt from some in

1593-571: The Russian Civil War , fighting on the side of the White Russians . Over the next two years, Moravec saw combat with the Legion in Russia. Moravec returned to a newly independent Czechoslovakia at the end of World War I with the legionary rank of captain . He was accepted into Prague's War School and, upon graduation, commissioned as a major in the Czechoslovak Army . He ultimately came to command

1652-765: The Sudetenland came to a head. In September, General Jan Syrový , inspector-general of the Czechoslovak Army, was installed by President Edvard Beneš as prime minister. In response to the German ultimatum, Syrový declared that "further concessions from our side are no longer possible"; 42 Czechoslovak divisions were mobilized in preparation for an expected German invasion. By the end of September, with Czechoslovakia abandoned by France and Britain, and territorial demands piled on from Poland , Beneš backtracked on Czechoslovakia's refusal to accept further German requests. At this time, as well as holding his army post, Moravec

1711-477: The Sudetenland . In the aftermath of the German occupation of the rump Czechoslovakia, he became an enthusiastic collaborator, realigning his political worldview towards fascism . He committed suicide in the final days of World War II . Unlike some officials of the short-lived protectorate government, whose reputations were rehabilitated in whole or in part after the war, Moravec's good reputation did not survive his tenure in office and he has been widely derided as

1770-619: The 1st Field Battalion of the 21st Infantry Regiment in Znojmo . Simultaneous with his military career, Moravec contributed to newspapers and magazines, including Lidové noviny , on political and military matters. Writing under the pen name Stanislav Yester, he won the Baťa Prize for Journalism . In 1931 Moravec was appointed an instructor at the War School and promoted to colonel . In his writings, Moravec had become increasingly emphatic about

1829-605: The Berlin-appointed Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia held penultimate day-to-day authority in the protectorate, compelled President Emil Hácha to appoint Moravec as the protectorate's education minister. Unlike other protectorate ministries, the education ministry under Moravec was given a measure of autonomy and not required to report to an overseer in the office of the Reich Protector. As with all protectorate ministers, Moravec's mandate to hold office

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1888-467: The Czech physician František Teuner. Following World War II, the Beneš decrees proscribed the Kuratorium as a "fascist organization". In 1947, leaders of the Kuratorium were tried over their involvement in the organization, resulting in the conviction of Teuner and seven others: Eduard Chalupa, Jan Svoboda, Josef Victorin, Karel Žalud, Jiri Málek, Vaclav Krigar, Jaroslav Krigar, and Karel Mihaliče. According to

1947-595: The Dobrudzha Front, Moravec was hospitalized with shell shock . Upon his release, he joined the Czechoslovak Legion , falsely claiming to hold an engineering degree to receive an officer 's commission. The Czechoslovak Legion, a volunteer unit composed of diaspora Czechs and Slovaks as well as deserters from the Austro-Hungarian Army, had been formed in 1917 to support the Allies; it later became involved in

2006-643: The German nation to a state of unbounded fury." In Tatsachen und Irrtümer ("Facts and Errors") Moravec declared that the annexation of the Czech lands to Germany would benefit Czechs "because the Jews have been excluded from the German nation, the agents of capitalism have been rendered powerless in Germany". In the winter of 1939–40, the Czechoslovak resistance group known as the Three Kings attempted to kill Moravec with

2065-422: The apocalypse and pretend to be zombies themselves, even going so far as to biting and eating other survivors. These zombie-like survivors are called Quislings. In the epilogue of Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein , a sign is posted listing available goods and services. One of the items listed is "Jerked Quisling (by the neck)". In the early 21st century, the term demonstrated continued currency as it

2124-531: The brutal, corrupt invader. And still more fiercely burn the fires of hatred and contempt for the filthy Quislings whom he has suborned." The term subsequently entered the language and became a target for political cartoonists. In his work The Yugoslav peoples fight to live , Josip Broz Tito made several descriptions of his enemies as Quislings, including General Milan Nedić ("the Serbian Quisling") and Dr. Ante Pavelić ("the criminal Croatian Quisling ...

2183-463: The creation of the democratic state of Czechoslovakia that had come out of World War I, as well as his personal loyalty to Masaryk: The age of democracy has given us a new man, who has spoken and demanded to be heard in every field of human activity. This new man has given us also a new soldier with new tasks and duties ... No one ... has said so much healthy about the new soldier as President Masaryk. When Masaryk died in 1935, Moravec served as one of

2242-500: The government's evocation of national ideals in its announcement of the agreement, declaring that a state unwilling to defend its ideals should not boast of them in the same way "a whore has no right to boast of her honor". As a further expression of his contempt for the government, he mockingly requested leave to join the army of El Salvador . During the short-lived Second Czechoslovak Republic , with Prague actively seeking to appease Germany to avoid further territorial losses, Moravec

2301-413: The group's camping trips and other retreats for Czech boys and girls a special focus was made in celebrating Czech culture, with Sicherheitsdienst informants reporting to the German authorities that a kind-of "Reich-loyal" Czech nationalism was being organically developed by the Kuratorium. Moravec was chair of the Kuratorium throughout its existence, while the organization was operationally managed by

2360-454: The growing ambitions of Nazi Germany . He called for Czechoslovakia to form an alliance with Poland and Italy against what he saw as a rising German threat. Moravec came to be seen as one of Czechoslovakia's leading geopolitical strategists and caught the attention of President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk . Moravec wrote the preface to a printed edition of one of Masaryk's addresses to the Czechoslovak Army. In it, he signaled his support for

2419-467: The head of the Danube basin and be free to strike against either France or Poland with ease. Although Moravec was concerned with German political and military aims he generally rejected some of the more extreme aspects of anti-German thought, taking a cautiously receptive approach to Emanuel Rádl 's thesis which posited the existence of an irrational Czech racism towards Germans. In 1938 German demands for

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2478-468: The idea of Czech culture as a historic component of Germanic culture. The Czech Women's Center, originally founded during the Second Republic as a group of professional women seeking greater gender equality, operated under Moravec's auspices. It was at his suggestion that it became a leading advocate for nutritional education. Moravec did not limit himself to educational questions. In 1943 he advanced

2537-416: The invading German forces, ending with their face-to-face discussion. A mid-credits scene then reveals Moravec' later conversion to Nazi ideology. The episode suggests an ambivalence between genuine and pathological national pride, also by casting Landa, himself a known and controversial nationalist. Quisling Quisling ( / ˈ k w ɪ z l ɪ ŋ / , Norwegian: [ˈkvɪ̂slɪŋ] )

2596-538: The pallbearers at his funeral. In 1938 Moravec warned that "if Czechoslovakia should fall, France would find herself politically on the European periphery". Moravec argued that the head of the Danube Basin was guarded by what he described as the "fortress of Bohemia" – the land barrier that marked the natural border between eastern and western Europe. If a state were to take Czechoslovakia it would, therefore, control

2655-572: The pre-Protectorate Czech fascist community such as the Vlajka . Both Moravec and his private secretary, Franz Stuchlik, were keen rock collectors. After Moravec's death, his collection was confiscated by the Czechoslovak state and donated to the National Museum . As of 2015, 107 mineral samples from Moravec's private collection were still held by the museum. Moravec was married three times. His first wife, Helena Georgijevna Beka, whom he met while

2714-405: The term again in an address to both houses of Congress in the United States of America on 26 December 1941. Commenting upon the effect of a number of Allied victories against Axis forces , and moreover the United States' decision to enter the war, Churchill opined: "Hope has returned to the hearts of scores of millions of men and women, and with that hope there burns the flame of anger against

2773-796: The term four days after The Times editorial was published. The War Illustrated discussed "potential Quislings" among the Dutch during the German invasion of the Netherlands . Subsequently, the BBC brought the word into common use internationally. Chips Channon described how during the Norway Debate of 7–8 May 1940, he and other Conservative MPs who supported Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Neville Chamberlain called those who voted against

2832-714: The term. For instance, Joe Scarborough in The Washington Post ("These are desperate times for the quislings of Trump"), Rich Lowry in Politico ("The GOP elite... is the quisling establishment"), former United States Mint director Philip N. Diehl in The Hill ("The historical reference that more aptly applies to pro-Trump Republicans is that of the Quislings"), David Driesen in History News Network ("Trump seeks

2891-723: Was a Czech army officer and writer who served as the collaborationist Minister of Education of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia between 1942 and 1945. He was also chair of the Board of Trustees for the Education of Youth , a fascist youth organisation in the protectorate. In World War I , Moravec served in the Austro-Hungarian Army , but following capture by the Russians he changed sides to join Russian-backed Serbian forces and then

2950-458: Was arrested and sentenced to a prison term at the end of the war and upon release emigrated to West Germany . Denounced by the Allies and the Czech government-in-exile during World War II as a "Czech Quisling ", Moravec has been described by John Laughland as "an enthusiastic collaborator" with Nazi Germany. This contrasts with other protectorate-era officials like Emil Hácha, whom Laughland calls "a tragic figure", or Jaroslav Eminger , who

3009-415: Was at the pleasure of the Reich Protector, as set-out in the 16 March 1939 decree of the German government. By the time Moravec was given authority for the education ministry, Czech universities had been closed, school textbooks revised, and more than 1,000 student leaders deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp . In his new post as minister of education, Moravec instituted the study of German as

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3068-530: Was forced to quit teaching at the military academy. Moreover, he found himself prohibited by the government from writing for newspapers due to concerns that the incendiary, anti-German nature of his editorials would be unduly provocative. On 16 March 1939, Germany occupied the rump Czechoslovak state and the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was declared. According to František Moravec , Emanuel Moravec attempted to leave

3127-514: Was in the blood of this people led nowhere. The soppy lemonade of moribund pacifism offered in the fragile glass of the League of Nations (that was after 1919 already cracked) was enjoyed only by a group of the intelligentsia that had a particularly girlish character. In 1941 Moravec helped found the Board of Trustees for the Education of Youth , a fascist youth group, and served as its chairman. The following year, Reinhard Heydrich who, in his role as

3186-710: Was later completely exonerated for his service in the Protectorate government. During the 2006 presentation of the Gratias Agit Award , given annually by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs to recognize those who promote the Czech Republic, foreign minister Cyril Svoboda declared that "... we are also a country of those who have deformed our good name, people [such] as Emanuel Moravec, Klement Gottwald ". Czech historian Jiří Pernes has argued that had Moravec died before March 1939 he would have been remembered as

3245-597: Was only sixteen when their relationship caused the end of his previous marriage. Igor fought on the Eastern Front as a volunteer with the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf . His younger brother, Jurij, served in the Wehrmacht 's 137th Infantry Division and unlike Igor was privately critical of his father's political views. While serving in France, Jurij was caught drunk on guard duty and sentenced to six months imprisonment and

3304-911: Was serving as a member of the Committee for the Defense of the Republic, a nationalist pressure group led by the son of the former Czechoslovak finance minister Alois Rašín . In that capacity he sought an audience with Beneš during the last week of September, on the eve of the Munich ratification. During a two-hour confrontation with Beneš, Moravec pleaded with the president to declare war against Germany, and not capitulate to German demands. His pleas went unheeded. The Munich Agreement left Moravec disillusioned with both Western democracies and Beneš' diplomatic competence. According to Moravec, "apostles without courage" had led Czechoslovakia to capitulation. He expressed anger at

3363-406: Was the unwillingness of the elite to confront Germany militarily that demonstrated democracy's moral decay, thereby ultimately justifying its termination: ... the mottoes humanism and democracy were fluttering about everywhere, but the Czech nation was actually living off its great military tradition of Hussitism and revolutionary armies. All attempts to smother the old-soldierly character that

3422-526: Was used by some American writers to describe President Donald Trump and his associates based on the idea that Russia interfered with the 2016 U.S. presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. For example, in a June 2018 New York Times column, Paul Krugman called US President Trump a "quisling", in reference to what Krugman described as Trump's "serv[ing] the interests of foreign masters at his own country's expense" and "defend[ing] Russia while attacking our closest allies". Other publications also applied

3481-490: Was widely introduced to an English-speaking audience by the British newspaper The Times . It published an editorial on 19 April 1940 titled "Quislings everywhere", in which it was asserted that "To writers, the word Quisling is a gift from the gods. If they had been ordered to invent a new word for traitor... they could hardly have hit upon a more brilliant combination of letters. Aurally it contrives to suggest something at once slippery and tortuous." The Daily Mail picked up

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