And nearby , there are these words from Lamentations ( 1:12 ): “ Let it not come unto you , all ye that pass by ! Behold , and see if there be any pain like unto my pain .”
For three years after the war ’ s end , Czechoslovakia , having become almost whole once again , sought to rebuild itself under the leadership of its president , Edward Benes . He had succeeded Tomas Masaryk in 1935 and served until the ill-fated Munich agreement in 1938 , to then become leader of the government-in-exile , headquartered in London , in 1940 .
The country ’ s prewar cultural and intellectual vibrancy was extinguished in the name of Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy , its art in the name of Socialist Realism .
Benes presided over a National Front government that included members of the Communist Party . By 1948 , the Communists were in complete control , after the president accepted the resignation of the non-Communist ministers , paving the way for a Communist seizure of power , with Klement Gottwald at the helm . It was also the year that Jan Masaryk , the son of Czechoslovakia ’ s first president and himself a popular foreign minister , was found dead . The Communists claimed he committed suicide ; others , more persuasively , suspected the foul play of KGB henchmen .
While some Jews stayed , either because of their involvement in the Communist Party or their attachment to their native land , an estimated 20,000 Jews from across Czechoslovakia left for Israel by 1950 , after which emigration became almost impossible .
Until 1989 , Czechoslovakia was in the hands of the Communist Party . It was a loyal Soviet client state . It was a member of the Warsaw Pact and Comecon , the Soviet-dominated regional economic group . It had its secret police , show trials , kangaroo courts , gulags , listening devices , snitches , censors , jamming of Western broadcasts , heavily fortified borders , and all the other accoutrements of a highly repressive society . The country ’ s prewar cultural and intellectual vibrancy was
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