Summary: | What radio policy did the Nazi authorities implement in the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia? What were the possibilities of collaboration or, conversely, of Czech resistance within Czech Radio. What impact did the situation have on programming and on mutual relations between Czechs and Germans within this institution? Based largely on archival sources and an analysis of radio program schedules, this study seeks to answer those questions. The author pays special attention to political, anti-Semitic, Worker's Radio and political satire programming. The main findings of the study are that the occupation authorities implemented a range of policies starting with passive censorship of Czech-made programming and increasing over time to active production of German-inspired programs. Initially, an unqualified bureaucrat named Lothar Scurla led the occupation team supported by Sudeten-German Czech Radio staff. Czech staff reacted successfully to this manipulation with passive resistance. After taking charge in Prague, Reinhard Heydrich removed Scurla and more qualified German radio professionals took control under the leadership of the SS-Obersturmführer Ferdinand Thürmer. The new team gradually increased the quantity of factual programming while decreasing overtly political program content at...
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