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Current AffairsVillage commemorates arrival of parachutists who assassinated Reinhard Heydrich

29-12-2011 16:43 | Jan Richter

Photo: www.nehvizdy.cz The village of Nehvizdy, in central Bohemia, on Wednesday commemorated the 70th anniversary of the start of Operation Anthropoid, the targeted killing of the Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich. Two Czechoslovak commandoes who carried out the killing, landed near the village on the night of 28 December, 1941. More

From the ArchivesAfter 1945: something like normality

24-09-2011 02:01 | David Vaughan

Czech Radio building in May 1945 In From the Archives this week we carry on where we left off at the end of August in our chronological journey through the Czech Radio archives. We had reached the point just after the end of World War Two; after the initial euphoria, the hard work of rebuilding the country began: not least at the Czechoslovak Radio building itself, which had been shot to pieces in the Prague Uprising and received a direct hit from a German aerial torpedo. More

Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 9

03-09-2011 02:01 | David Vaughan

Lidice We have reached the ninth and final part of our serialized reading of “If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” by Jaroslava Skleničková. The war is over, and Jaroslava’s account takes us from the traumas of her return to the present day, and her life with her husband Mirek in the new Lidice. But first, David Vaughan sums up the story so far. More

Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 8

27-08-2011 02:01 | David Vaughan

Ravensbrück concentration camp In the last few weeks Veronika Hyks has been reading from the memoirs of Jaroslava Skleničková, an extraordinary story of survival in war. We have now reached May 1945. After nearly three years in Ravensbrück, the women of Lidice are now free, although they still face the trauma of returning home to find that the village has been wiped off the map and that all their menfolk and nearly all their children are dead. David Vaughan introduces the eighth episode. More

Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 7

06-08-2011 02:01 | David Vaughan

Jaroslava Skleničková Over the last few weeks, the actress Veronika Hyks has been bringing us extracts from Jaroslava Skleničková’s memoirs, “If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…”. The book tells the moving story of how Jaroslava was sent with the other women from her home village of Lidice to the Ravensbrück concentration camp near Berlin, after the Nazis razed the entire village to the ground in June 1942. The men of the village were shot in cold blood, and nearly all the children were gassed in Poland, but throughout their stay in Ravensbrück, the women had no idea of their fate. As the end of the war drew close, Jaroslava, together with her mother and sister, were marched out of the camp, together with hundreds of other women. David Vaughan brings the story up to date. More

Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 6

30-07-2011 02:01 | David Vaughan

Women in Ravensbrück concentration camp We have now reached the sixth part in our serialized reading of “If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…”, the memoirs of Jaroslava Skleničková. Veronika Hyks has been reading the story of Jaroslava’s childhood in Lidice, brought to a violent end in June 1942, when the Nazis decide to wipe away any trace of the village. Jaroslava – or Jaří – is the youngest of the women of Lidice to be sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, and she is there with her mother and sister, Míla. Nobody dares to think about what might have happened to the men and the children of the village. David Vaughan brings us the story so far. More

Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 5

23-07-2011 02:01 | David Vaughan

Ravensbrück concentration camp In Czech Books we hear the fifth part of Jaroslava Skleničková’s moving memoirs, “If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…”, read by the Czech-British actress, Veronika Hyks. After the assassination of the Nazi Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, the “Butcher of Prague”, Reinhard Heydrich, the Czech village of Lidice was chosen for complete destruction on the night from 9-10 June 1942. Jaroslava – or Jaří – was among 184 women from the village sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. David Vaughan gives us the story so far. More

One on OneJaromíra Kostlánová – still working as a tour guide at the remarkable age of 92

18-07-2011 13:39 | Ian Willoughby

Jaromíra Kostlánová Though 92 years of age, Jaromíra Kostlánová is still working as a tour guide, introducing the sights of Prague to visitors from around the world. If that were not remarkable enough, the good-humoured nonagenarian is also one of the oldest students in the Czech Republic. More

Czech HistoryEmanuel Moravec – the face of Czech collaboration with the Nazis

12-07-2011 15:55 | Chris Johnstone

Emanuel Moravec Some figures are cast as heroes and others as villains. Emanuel Moravec - the face, voice and main force behind Czech collaboration with the occupying Nazis during WWII - unmistakeably belongs to the latter category. For his actions he became dubbed ‛the Czech Quisling’ – a reference the more famous Norwegian collaborator. In this week’s Czechs in History, Chris Johnstone explores Moravec’s complex character and path to collaboration. More

Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 4

09-07-2011 02:01 | David Vaughan

Destruction of Lidice We continue with the fourth episode of “If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” by Jaroslava Skleničková, in which she tells the extraordinary story of her life following the destruction of her home village of Lidice at the height of the Nazi occupation in June 1942. David Vaughan gives us the story so far. More

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