Kauza moravských Chorvatů
| Title in English | The Case of Moravian Croats |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The historical territory of Moravia is an ethnically and culturally differentiated region where the coexistence of Czech population and large German-speaking minority played a significant role. The Croats formed a specific minority in South Moravia; they represent the northernmost outpost of Croatian colonisation that covered the area beginning with Austrian Burgenland to western Slovakia. Czech, German and Croatian literature paid due attention to the South-Moravian Croats in terms of their history and folk culture, however, from the late 19th century, they became a subject of Czech-German rivalry. With the formation of Czechoslovakia (1918), the pressures on Germanization disappeared, but the foundation of Czech schools was not free of conflicts in this region. After the disintegration of Czechoslovakia, the Croats became part of the Greater German Reich. It is questionable how many members of the Croatian minority succumbed to Nazi ideology, of which they were accused after the war. The national reliability of Croats was checked out in several stages, but the final solution to the “Croatian” problem came after February 1948. The Croatian residents were labelled “nationally unreliable” and, for the reason of state border security, it was decided to resettle them (without confiscating their property) to the inland and the northern borderlands. The dispersion of the Croatian community over the whole of Moravia and Silesia was motivated by the effort to assimilate them as soon as possible. The political changes after November 1989 cleared the way for activities that led to the revitalization of the Croatian nationality´s ethnic awareness. How successful these efforts will be depends on the members who declare their Croatian identity. |
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