5 May 1939

But these events do not appear terrible if we consider the conditions as temporary, if we attribute to them only a relatively short, and we still hope as short as possible, duration.
It is said that our officials work wonders in the financial administration; they also speak disparagingly of the stupidity of the Germans. (Where one official is enough for us, the Germans need three.)
The German regime has indeed succeeded in directing the spiritual life of its people in such a way that their one-sidedness borders on stupidity. An example of the German view: the Poles are our friends, we have treaties with them, we will not fight them. The Russians, they have a socialist set-up similar to ours and there is no reason why we should fight them. The English? The English have always been our friends. Who's left? France? No one. Germany's dominion over the world. And the Czechs? Why do you Czechs have something against us? We don't understand.
They don't understand. They probably don't know that Czechs arrested by the German Gestapo are put in ice water for two days until they get kidney disease. That they are artificially bloated. That they are suffocated until the veins in their necks swell up. That they are beaten on the head with iron bars. Why would they have anything against the Germans? Because from time to time the relatives of those arrested receive reports of their deaths? People die, there's nothing strange about that.
Why would the Czechs have anything against the Germans?! Because they stole the tapestries from Prague Castle? Because they looted the entire Beneš villa in Sezimovo Ústí? All the furniture down to the last chair, wardrobes, paintings. The spoils of war are the right of the victors! Didn't Hitler say in his speech in Kassel yesterday that “the World War (is) for us Germans the source of the proudest memories”? How could the Czechs have anything against the Germans? Is not the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, despite the robberies and atrocities crying out for revenge, a boon for the Czechs? Did not Frank say in his speech

in Budějovice yesterday that “the Germans are willing to give the Bohemian nation a share in the blessings and benefits of a great and mighty empire”? What else do the Czechs want?!
The Germans still have fascists in reserve, disguising themselves as them, organizing them, hiring them. Hácha fights them, but with what result? That depends on the Germans and the international situation. So far, Hácha is developing concepts that his officials say are German. So far, the administration work has been done in the Czech language.
Administration of the Czech land!
Whose hands did you fall in?! The sun is still shining on you. The sun is still shining on the houses, on the streets, on the people.
A hundred years from now, perhaps someone will be looking at a view of Prague, a picture of life in Prague; just as we look at pictures from the Empire Style today; they will see: buildings, trees, lights, shadows, colours, figures in fashionable suits, soldiers, a child, a street, a square, an orchard, the general view of the city. What silence and peace will surround the view of today's events a hundred years from now.
The Royal Gardens were to be opened to the public, the Ballroom repaired and some sort of swimming pool set up in front of it; the President's private residence was to be built in Lumbe Gardens. Will these projects of the First Republic ever be carried out? Will the refurbishment of the Hvězda Summer Palace be completed? Will the avenue along the Royal Gardens be widened? Let us hope and believe that they will. But already today the sun of the past is falling on the Czernin Palace of the First Republic. A sun that quiets the cries, stops the tears and the waving banners. If we were to depict the beautiful days of this spring and summer, the same flowering groups of shrubs and trees would be in the picture as in the pictures of all the past years. This year 1939 has the same flowers, the same city, as 1839. In the year 2039, this picture I am attempting here will also be surrounded by silence, the silence of the past, marked 1939.