Munich - The Peace of Paper (1988). Documentary on the 1938 Munich agreement with Robert Kee.

New York Times review:
The 1938 Munich Agreement, by which Britain and France gave Hitler the go-ahead to take over the Sudetenland, stands as one of the more shameful episodes leading to World War II. Nothing in ''The Peace of Paper'' is designed to change that estimate, but it helps us to understand the play of forces behind what is called here ''a symbol of diplomatic naivete and military weakness.''

The sober narrative of Robert Kee, dramatic newsreel footage and the recollections of Czechoslovaks, Britons, Germans and others capture the tragic dimensions of Munich. The intelligent and moving 90-minute documentary will be shown tonight at 9 on Channel 13.

''The Peace of Paper'' begins with the Versailles Treaty, which created Czechoslovakia out of remnants of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Among the numerous ethnic minorities in the new republic were more than three million Germans, living in the Sudetenland and ready to serve as a wedge for Hitler's assault on Central Europe's one liberal democracy.

Most of the grim story, produced and directed by Cate Haste for Thames Television in Britain, is told from a British point of view. The main player was Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who inherited his country's inclination for appeasement when he took office in 1937.

The most moving memories here come from Czechoslovaks old enough to recall the overwhelming pressures on their leaders, not only from Hitler but also from their putative protectors. In an interesting aside, the documentary reports that German officers and diplomats who were opposed to Hitler urged London to take a strong stand, and the Czechoslovaks themselves, as newsreel clips of the time attest, were more than ready to fight.

But the Chamberlain Government, more anti-Communist than anti-Nazi, was pressing France, which had a military alliance with Czechoslovakia, to get the Czechoslovaks to back off. With the Soviet military decimated by Stalin's purges and the United States in no mood to get involved in Europe's commotions, the Czechoslovaks were alone.

''We are not ready to accept peace at all costs!'' declared the Czechoslavak leader Jan Masaryk, even as Chamberlain was bowing to Hitler's ever tougher demands. A Czechoslovak official recalls his delegation being confined to a Munich hotel room while the Western democracies agreed to his nation's dismemberment.

We see Chamberlain, billed as the savior of peace on his return from Munich, waving a sheet of paper signed by Hitler that the Prime Minister called a declaration of ''peace with honor.'' A former German official quotes Hitler as assuring his advisers privately that the paper was ''of no importance at all.'' When the French leader Edouard Daladier found himself being cheered after the British-French capitulation, he remarked, ''These people are crazy.''

In a powerful sequence, we hear the announcement by the Czechoslovak military command to its troops, who had dug in to resist the Germans: ''The Czechoslovak defense will not be activated!'' Six months later, Hitler took over the entire country and within a year, the world was at war. ''The Peace of Paper'' ends at that point, but viewers can hardly help reflecting that the tragedy of Czechoslovakia was not ended by the Allied victory in World War II. Once again, its independence was crushed, and once again no help was forthcoming from the champions of democracy.

Видео Munich - The Peace of Paper (1988). Documentary on the 1938 Munich agreement with Robert Kee. канала Major Esterhazy