“The war is going to end. But if people do not stop offending God, another, even worse one will begin in the reign of Pius XI. When you shall see a night illuminated by an unknown light know that this is the great sign that God gives you that He is going to punish the world for its many crimes by means of war, hunger, and persecution of the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent it, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays.
“London, January 25th, 1938. The Aurora Borealis rarely seen in Southern or Western Europe spread fear in parts of Portugal and lower Austria tonight while thousands of Britons were brought running into the streets in wonderment. The ruddy glow led many to think half the city was ablaze. The Windsor Fire Department was called out thinking that Windsor Castle was afire. The lights were clearly seen in Italy, Spain, and even Gibraltar. The glow bathing snow-clad mountain tops in Austria and Switzerland was a beautiful sight but firemen turned out to chase non-existent fires. Portuguese villagers rushed in fright from their homes fearing the end of the world.”
Pius XI Pope from 6 February 1922 - 10 February 1939
Second World War, global military conflict lasted from 1939 to 1945
The Munich Pact
The agreement was signed in the early hours of 30 September 1938. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the future of the Sudetenland in the face of territorial demands made by Adolf Hitler. The agreement was signed by Nazi Germany, France, Britain, and Italy. The Sudetenland was of immense strategic importance to Czechoslovakia, as most of its border defenses were situated there, and many of its banks were located there as well.
Because the state of Czechoslovakia was not invited to the conference, Czechs and Slovaks sometimes call the Munich Agreement the Munich Dictate. The phrase Munich Betrayal is also used because the military alliance Czechoslovakia had with France was not honoured.
Czechoslovakia was invaded the following March;
it obvious that Poland would be next; nobody believed that Hitler would stop with Czechoslovakia, and everybody realised that war was the only way Hitler would be stopped.
Czechoslovakia was one of the few remaining democracies in central/eastern Europe. By annexing it, Hitler was destroying a democracy - which alarmed Britain, France and even President Rossevelt of the USA.
The invasion of Czechoslovakia was so obviously unjust, that it gave the British the moral high gound; when war loomed, Britain was able to go to war ‘to defend the right’, rather than simply for self-interest.
From 1918 to 1938, after the break up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, more than 3 million ethnic Germans were living in the Czech part of the newly created state of Czechoslovakia.
Sudeten German pro-Nazi leader Konrad Henlein offered the Sudeten German Party (SdP) as the agent for Hitler’s campaign. Henlein met with Hitler in Berlin on March 28, 1938, where he was instructed to raise demands unacceptable to the Czechoslovak government led by president Edvard Beneš. On April 24, the SdP issued the Carlsbad Decrees, demanding autonomy for the Sudetenland and the freedom to profess Nazi ideology. If Henlein’s demands were granted, the Sudetenland would then be able to align itself with Nazi Germany.