English Translation

- 12 - in many places attempts have been made to secure Sokol's property and files from official access by declaration as private property or by other means. The cessation of Sokol's activities should not have been unexpected for the affected circles, since a possible intervention had been expected for a long time in Sokol circles. Sokol officials in Pilsen were concerned that, in the event of a conflict with Yugoslavia, action against the Sokol and the arrest of all Sokol functionaries would follow.In places, local bans on cultural events of the Socol were initially assessed as a sign of an imminent sharp action against him and the Czech Republic in general. The prevailing view of the cause of the ban on activities was that in Yugoslavia there was found incriminating material on the relations between the Czech and Serbian Sokol. In addition, it was spread that during the fights in Yugoslavia, Serb prisoners had been made in Sokol uniforms, which would have caused the massacres against the Czech Sokol (OLB Königgrätz). In Beneschau (OLB Tabor), Czech circles claimed that declarations of sympathy by the Prague Sokol and friendship rallies of the Czech Sokol community had led to a cessation. In Prague, it was generally believed that the Sokol would soon be completely dissolved due to its illegal ties with Yugoslavia and that its assets would be confiscated by German authorities. The motivating measures about the reasons for the Sokol's cessation led Šokol members in Kuttenberg (OLß Kolin) to commission a Czech who is friendly to German language to investigate under his German clientele what further measures the German authorities are planning against the Socol. The fact that the prohibition of the activities against the Sokoi was imposed by the protectorate authorities on several occasions in Czech and also German circles gave rise to the assertion that the Czech authorities had been prevented by the intention to dissolve the Sokol by the Germans (OLB Olmütz and Iglau). The opinion was also extremely widespread that Germany needed to take possession of Sokol's assets for war financing purposes; Prague's Sokol districts were therefore partly responsible for a boycott of the commercial Sokol companies still licensed by the public authorities, which was based on a probable future takeover of these businesses by German authorities.