The Munich Agreement transferred Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland to Germany after Hitler claimed it was his final territorial demand in Europe. In March 1939, German forces occupied Prague and dismantled the remaining Czech state. The breach destroyed confidence in appeasement and revealed that Hitler's assurances had been deliberately deceptive.

The collapse of the agreement shaped the political poetry of W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and other anti-fascist writers. Auden's September 1, 1939 reflects a Europe in which public language, promises and political certainty had lost credibility.