The Admission of German soldiers to the Czechoslovak foreign army in the West during World War II

The thesis examines the process of recruitment of German prisoners of war (the former Wehrmacht soldiers) to the Czechoslovak foreign army in the West. Based on a wide variety of sources mainly of military origin, the thesis investigates the process of enlistment with all its specific regional features (the recruitment differed slightly based on the country where it took place). More specifically, the thesis also deals with questions concerning the German captives' security clearance, e. g. to which extent the actual recruitment followed the official instructions and guidelines, in which ways the captives presented themselves and what image they tried to create, how they were appraised and perceived by the Czechoslovak authorities and by officers, etc. The final mosaic should demonstrate that recruitment of the former Wehrmacht soldiers was not only inevitable, but also vital and necessary for completion of Czechoslovak armed forces. The vetting itself was a very strict and thorough process aimed on preventing potentially dangerous, unreliable individuals who might have posed a security risk from joining the Czechoslovak army