Abstrakt
Like other governments in exile fleeing to the British Isles from Hitler-occupied Europe, the Czechoslovak one renewed the awarding of honours to its soldiers and foreigners who helped it with its duties and administration. For various reasons, however, the institution of the Order of the White Lion, which had a strong tradition on the international diplomatic stage from the interwar period, was never used frequently in exile. The need for a highly prized order that would be an appropriate form of recognition for high-ranking non-combatants was eventually solved by the Czechoslovak government by establishing an entirely new decoration, which it called the Order of the White Lion "For Victory".
Internal conflicts over the form and function of the future Order (which was designed to be in long-term continued use even back home in Czechoslovakia after the war), as well as production difficulties in Britain's wartime economy, eventually resulted in the formal establishment of this decoration only in February 1945. Freshly discovered archival sources show that the physical production of the Order in London did not begin until after the war, and that distribution to the recipients did not take place until 1946 and beyond. The Order was given an unorthodox name with which it broke the previous taboo, which prohibited the awarding of the Order of the White Lion to Czechoslovak citizens. In the hierarchy of domestic decorations after 1945, it was ranked at the very top.
Despite the fact that it was awarded to the most famous domestic war heroes, as well as to a high number of foreign personalities including Winston Churchill, Charles De Gaulle, Dwight Eisenhower and a number of senior Soviet commanders, it was not continued. Contrary to the original plan, the Order, along with other decorations limited to World War II, was declared a closed chapter by the Communist government in 1949. Sources suggest that this was also because for the Communists it personified the Western foreign resistance, whose veterans were persecuted or even sent to forced labour camps after 1948. It was intolerable for the new regime to keep in circulation the symbolic capital of an Order, which, as the Communists claimed, belonged (among others) to "persons treacherous and directed against the people's democratic establishment."
This is also why the Order of the White Lion "For Victory" has largely been forgotten as an episode of a single armed conflict. Its history has never been closely examined historically, which the presented article seeks to rectify. It makes use of sources from military archives and collections which were never published before. Among other things, they accurately reveal the internal and diplomatic negotiations leading up to the establishment of the Order, the numbers of its production in London and Prague, and insights into the register of decorated persons, which has survived in the military archives despite previous expectations.