Under the influence of the Sudeten German Party propaganda, ethnic and political tensions in the city escalated, reaching a peak in September 1938. Nazi gangs attacked real and perceived enemies, and shops, including some German ones, were looted.
Already on September 21, Nazi banners appeared on many buildings and the population began to ignore the Czechoslovak state authorities. After the Munich Agreement, a mass exodus of Czech, Jewish and anti-Nazi German residents began.
On the evening of October 8, the Nazi takeover of the city was completed. The market square was renamed SA Square, German troops marched along it, and the gathered people rejoiced with shouts of “Our homeland is free! A new era has begun.”
Why did the representatives of the free world, through the so-called Munich Agreement, agree with the Nazi demands for the annexation of the Czechoslovak border regions? What did they want to achieve by doing so?