If you have sacrificed my nation to preserve the peace of the world, I will be the first to applaud you. But if not, gentlemen, God help your souls." Czechoslovakian foreign minister Jan Masaryk to Lord Halifax as reaction to announcement of allies' betrayal in 1938.

Jan Masaryk
About This Quote

During the Munich Conference in 1938, it was agreed that Germany would annex the Sudetenland, a disputed region of Czechoslovakia. Then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and German Foreign Secretary Joachim von Ribbentrop signed the agreement. When Chamberlain returned to London, Daladier and the other signers of the agreement tried to convince him not to go through with it. They said that he should give Hitler one more chance to change his mind and that if he did not then they would be forced to declare war on Germany. The phrase “God help your souls” is a very solemn statement which is meant to shock and warn the nations involved about the consequences of them making such a decision.

If you have sacrificed my nation to preserve the peace of the world, I will be the first to applaud you. But if not, gentlemen, God help your souls."

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