The slogan “One of ours, all of yours”

Excellent question. You have identified a very significant and historically layered slogan that has re-emerged in contemporary political discourse.

Origin and Original Language

The slogan you are asking about, “One of ours, all of yours,” is a direct translation from Czech.

Original Czech Phrase:
“Jeden za všechny, všichni za jednoho!”

This is the classic, literal Czech version of the motto. It is also universally known in a nearly identical form in German, due to the famous novel The Three Musketeers.

• German: “Einer für alle, alle für einen!”

• Russian: “Один за всех, и все за одного!” (Odin za vsekh, i vse za odnogo!)

The most historically significant usage for your context is the Czech version.

Translation and Meaning

• Literal Translation: “One for all, all for one.”

• Meaning in Context: It expresses the principle of collective solidarity and mutual responsibility. An injury or threat to one member is the concern of the entire group, and the group will rally to defend the individual.

Short Historical Information

The phrase gained profound political significance in Czechoslovakia during two key 20th-century periods:

1. World War II & The Heydrich Terror (1942): This motto became a deadly serious rallying cry for the Czechoslovak resistance following the assassination of Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich by Czech and Slovak commandos (Operation Anthropoid). In brutal retaliation, the Nazis obliterated the villages of Lidice and Ležáky, executing all men and sending women and children to concentration camps. The Nazis aimed to crush the spirit of resistance by showing that harming “one of theirs” (Heydrich) would lead to the destruction of “all of yours.” The slogan, in this context, symbolized the collective punishment inflicted by the occupiers and the collective sacrifice borne by the occupied.

2. The Prague Spring (1968): The slogan was revived during the period of liberalization under Alexander Dubček. It came to represent the solidarity of the Czechoslovak people with their reforming leaders against the pressure from the Soviet Union. This spirit of collective defiance was famously captured in a photo of a tank commander during the Warsaw Pact invasion, with the words “Jeden za všechny, všichni za jednoho” painted on his vehicle.

Connection to Current U.S. News

The slogan has re-entered the news because it has been adopted by U.S. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik in her criticism of the pro-Palestinian campus protests and the handling of antisemitism.

• Her Adaptation: She uses a direct translation: “One of ours, all of yours.”

• Her Context: She applies it to suggest that universities and the Biden administration are holding all Jewish students collectively responsible for the actions of the Israeli government (the “one” in this analogy), thereby justifying, in her view, a permissive attitude toward antisemitic rhetoric. She inverts the traditional solidarity meaning to accuse others of practicing a form of collective blame.

In summary: The slogan is a centuries-old motto of solidarity, most famously the Czech version “Jeden za všechny, všichni za jednoho.” It carries heavy historical weight from the Czech experience of Nazi oppression, representing both collective punishment and collective resistance.

Its modern political usage in the U.S. is a deliberate and provocative invocation of this history to frame a current political debate.

This is open for discussion.