John wrote: >Would we be wrong in assuming that Bohemians are just German Czechs? I have read that Bohmen is the German word for Czech, in the Wikipedia encyclopedia.< Yes, the assumption would be wrong. Boehmen is simply the German-language form of the term "Bohemia". ("boehmisch", which you will also see, is the adjective, ie., Bohemian) The german terms refer to the place, and to people who are citizens of that place, without regard for their ethnic or language affiliations. Bohemia was part of the Austrian empire, and the official language of the empire was German. Accordingly, all Bohemians, regardless whether they were czech-speaking or german-speaking, carried passports which indicated they were from "Boehmen." (Assuming of course that they left with official permission and had a passport or travel pass). There was no official acknowledgment of the term "czech" in the austrian empire. Thus before the end of WWI even the czech-speaking inhabitants of Bohemia were officially "boehmisch" and lived in "Boehmen". To make matters more complicated, many czech-speaking Bohemians coming to the US had at least a rudimentary knowledge of german, and may also have used the german terms themselves under appropriate circumstances, such as, perhaps, if giving information to a german-american court clerk in Milwaukee. During the 19th and early 20th century, the same period in which the greatest emigration to the US from Bohemia took place, the idea of czech nationalism slowly grew, both in the old country and among those immigrants who maintained an interest in political events back home. To describe yourself in english as "czech" rather than "bohemian" was, in a sense, to assert support for a separate "czech" nationality. Thus its use would have been unlikely among Bohemians of german language or ethnicity. The use of the term "czech" I think probably increased greatly among czech-american groups after the czech lands became the focus of an international crisis when Hitler demanded that Czechoslovakia be dismembered and the areas in Bohemia and Moravia with large german- speaking populations be handed to him to be incorporated into the 3rd Reich. This was accomplished in 1938 when Britain and France cut a deal with Germany that they would not intervene while the German Wehrmacht rolled into Czechoslovakia, in return for Hitler's promise that he would not make further territorial demands, thus affording, in the famous words of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, "Peace in our Time". While the other world powers looked the other way, Nazi Germany not only annexed the Sudetenland areas, but reduced Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia more or less to slave labor "protectorates" run by the forces of Nazi occupation. World War II broke out the following year when Germany broke the deal with England and France and invaded Poland as well.