Abstract
This text discusses the history of the Ethnographic Department during the 1938-1948 period, i. e., chiefly during the Second World War and the Third Czechoslovak Rpublic. There was significant shift in the ideological concept of the National Museum, as the institution progressed from the ideology of Czechoslovakism to defence of the Czech nation, and it was also necessary to deal with the prevading Nazi ideology and its specific manifestations (e.g., Germanisation and Arisation).
On a practical level, the department primarily had to cope with a lack of space, as well as the gradual loss of and the fluctuations in staff. The fate of Drahomíra Stránská, who was a key figure in the museum's ethnography, is also discussed.
On a conceptual level, the department did not advance much and remained at the level of descriptive or comparative ethnography with an emphasis on other Slavic nations and the domestic environment.