| Original caption: “The tragedy of this Sudeten woman, unable to conceal her misery as she dutifully salutes the triumphant Hitler, is the tragedy of the silent millions who have been `won over’ to Hitlerism by the `everlasting use’ of ruthless force.” The 4 Power Munich Agreement of September 30, 1938, between Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the United Kingdom and France allowed Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) to annex the Sudetenland, the German-speaking provinces of Czechoslovakia. Hitler had been agitating for them to join Großdeutschland (“Greater Germany”) since the Austrian Anschluss (“Union”). 400,000 Czechs, including tens of thousands of Czech Jews, fled when the Nazi German Heer (“Army”) crossed the border into the Sudetenland on October 1, 1938. Eduard Bloch (January 30, 1872 – June 1, 1945) and his wife, the doctor who treated Klara Hitler (August 12, 1860 – December 21, 1907) for breast cancer, were protected by the Gestapo but forbidden to practice medicine. He was designated Edeljude (“Noble Jew”) by Hitler, the only 1 in Linz. Hitler said, “If all Jews were like him, there would be no Jewish question.” He was protected for 3 years, and immigrated to the United States, where he died of stomach cancer. Hitler left Berlin on his special train on October 2, 1938. Traveling overnight, he arrived at the Sudetenland and drove through crowds of cheering Volksdeutsche. Hitler drove through the towns and villages of Sudetenland, stopping for lunch en route between Franzensbad and Eger (today Cheb, Czech Republic). At Eger, Hitler spoke in the town square to adoring crowds. He then continued visiting Sudeten settlements until October 10. This photo was used to illustrate the downfall of Czechoslovakia, and all of Europe, but it was cropped to show just the crying woman. TIME Magazine, which published a cropped version of this photo on October 22, 1945, published a letter from United States Navy Reserve Lieutenant Earle A. Cleveland (August 23, 1915 – February 12, 1992) on November 12, 1945, correcting the record: “the picture was snapped by a German press photographer and 1st appeared in the National Socialist newspaper, Völkischer Beobachter, in the fall of 1938, shortly after the Sudeten “Anschluss.” The Nazi explanation was that here were portrayed the intense emotions of joy which swept the Sudeten Germans as Hitler crossed the Czech border at Asch and drove through the streets of the nearby ancient city of Eger, 99 percent of whose inhabitants were ardently pro-Nazi Sudeten Germans at the time.” Eger’s Burgomeister Andreas Prokisch (September 4, 1882 -circa March 4, 1945) was deposed and replaced with a pro-Nazi Mayor on October 7, 1938; he later was arrested for anti-Nazi statements and died in Dachau. The synagogue, built in 1893, was destroyed in the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938. Regierungsbezirk Eger (“Eger Administrative District”) was administered by Lord Mayor Siegbert Schneider (April 19, 1913 – ????) from 1939 to 1945. On April 9, 1945, Schneider ordered that all residents should stay and defend the city. He left on April 10 for Bavaria. The United States Army liberated Eger on April 28, 1945; occupying troops remarked on the pro-Nazi sentiment of its residents. The Volksdeutsche were forced to leave in June 1945. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0808.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.06 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 4599 x 2913 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | October 3, 1938 |
| Location | |
| City | Eger |
| State or Province | Karlovy Vary |
| Country | Czechoslovakia |
| Archive | Bundesarchiv |
| Record Number | Bild 183-H13160 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database