“They immediately seized the most valuable apparatus,
instruments, and scientific equipment in many of the occupied
institutions. The scientific libraries were systematically and
methodically damaged. Scientific books and films were separated
and taken away, the archives of the Academy Senate (the highest
university authority) were torn up or burned, the card indexes
destroyed and scattered.
“Suppression of Czech schools. . . .
“K. H. Frank, in November 1939, personally ordered the closing
of all Czech higher educational institutions.
“Such university students as were still at liberty were
forbidden to exercise any intellectual profession and were
invited to find manual occupation within 48 hours, failing which
they would be sent to labor camps in Germany.
“The closing of the universities was aggravated by the closing
of the great scientific libraries and of all institutions
capable of offering intellectual sustenance to the students
expelled from the universities. The library of the University of
Prague was henceforth accessible to Germans only.
“Suppression of all scientific activities:
“The closing down of Czech universities and colleges was merely
a preliminary step towards the complete suppression of the
entire Czech scientific life. The buildings of scientific
institutions were converted either into German universities and
colleges or placed at the disposal of the German military and
civil authorities. The Germans removed all scientific
instruments and books and even complete laboratories to Germany,
on the pretext that the Czechs would no longer need them. The
number of works of art, pictures, statues, and rare manuscripts
stolen from the library of the University of Prague and from
private collections cannot be calculated, nor can their value be
estimated. Scientific collections were also given to German
schools, provided they had not been stolen piecemeal.”