The DSAP office – Doreen Warriner

As a result of the Munich agreement, many Sudeten German opponents of Nazism, social democrats and communists, Czechs and Jews fled from the border areas of Czechoslovakia into the safe interior of the country, above all to Prague. However, it was clear to the Sudeten German social democrats that the Nazis would sooner or later reach Prague, too. With the help of British volunteers, they organised emigration to safe target countries. These included Sweden, Britain (from whence emigrés later continued to Canada), Norway, and Belgium.

British volunteer Doreen Warriner was the main person in charge of the efforts to obtain visas for the Sudeten German refugees. From her office in Slezská street she organised their onward journeys. On 15 March 1939, however, German troops arrived in Prague and some days later Doreen Warriner’s office, set up by the Sudeten German social democratic party DSAP, was searched by the Gestapo and its contents confiscated, including refugees’ passports.

This guided walk is a part of the “Democracy on the Brink. Historical lessons from the late 1930s” project supported by the Europe for Citizens programme of the European Union.