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From the ArchivesEdvard Beneš: a choice of evils
In sombre tones the second Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš announced
his resignation on Czechoslovak Radio on October 5 1938. Since becoming
president in 1935, he had been haunted by the spectre of Nazi Germany, as
Hitler had fuelled separatist sentiment among the country’s 3.5 million
German speakers. Here is an extract from one of President Beneš’ vain
appeals for reconciliation, in April 1938. More
Current AffairsCommemorative ceremony at Czech Radio building marks 66th anniversary of Prague Uprising
A now famous appeal broadcast from the Czech Radio building on May 5, 1945,
sparked the Prague Uprising. After hearing it on the air, thousands of
people took to the streets to fight the Nazi oppressors. On Thursday,
several events were held to mark the 66th anniversary of the start of the
Prague Uprising, including a ceremony in front of the Czech Radio building. More
PanoramaRadio Free Europe celebrates 60 years of broadcasting
This month marks the 60th anniversary of the official launch of Radio Free
Europe, the American-funded broadcaster which was established as an
anti-communist source of information during the Cold War and is widely
considered to have played a critical role in the ultimate collapse of
communism. Now based in Prague, Radio Free Europe continues to provide news
and information to countries where independent media reporting is either
banned by government authorities or not fully developed. In this edition of
Panorama, we look back at the history of Radio Free Europe, which is widely
respected in many quarters, although it also has its detractors. More
Czech BooksCharles Ota Heller: a soldier at the age of nine
In the last days of World War II, nine-year-old Ota Heller picked up a
revolver and fired it at a German soldier. He did not wait to see if the
man was still alive. For decades afterwards he talked to no one about the
experience, and only recently has Ota Heller – or Charles Ota Heller, as
he is now called – felt able to return to his memories of the war,
collecting them in his book “Out of Prague”. In this week’s Czech
Books he talks to David Vaughan. More
SpotlightInside Prague’s labyrinth of bomb shelters
Deep beneath the city of Prague is another city altogether, one that most
people are completely unaware of, and that they’ll hopefully never see.
It is a system of hundreds upon hundreds of concrete bunkers with their own
electricity, water and ventilation systems awaiting the day that you might
hear the air-raid sirens wailing. More
Czech BooksThe occupation of 1939: could it have been avoided?
Earlier this week we remembered the 72nd anniversary of the German
occupation of Bohemia and Moravia on March 15 1939. Much has been written
about the years that led up to the occupation: the growing tensions with
Czechoslovakia’s German speaking minority, Hitler’s rise to power in
Germany and then the Munich Agreement of September 1938 that ceded a
quarter of Czechoslovakia’s territory to the German Reich. There is a
sense of inevitability about the events, but could things have been
different and could Czechoslovakia’s President Edvard Beneš have played
his cards differently? More
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