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Current AffairsRadio Prague running special reports to mark 60th anniversary of end of WWII
Over the next week Radio Prague will be marking the 60th anniversary of the
end of Word War II with a number of special reports, ranging from a trip to
the English village where the Czechoslovak government in exile were based
to the first military parade on Prague's Letna plain since the fall of
communism.
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Current AffairsSilent witness: Raw footage of the Allied liberation of western Bohemia premieres in Prague
Some fifty communities across the western part of the Czech Republic are
holding celebrations in the coming days to mark the 60th anniversary of
their World War II liberation by U.S., Czech and Belgian soldiers under
the command of the American General George S. Patton. The Allies' role in
the liberation of Czechoslovakia from Nazi tyranny was, to put it mildly,
played down by the Soviet Union for propaganda purposes. Ahead of the
celebrations marking 'V-E' day, the U.S. Embassy in Prague has
commissioned a compilation of raw, historical footage, which, as Brian
Kenety reports, bears silent witness to the Allies' mission, and the raw
emotions - of jubilation, vengeance, disbelief, fear and capitulation - of
the anonymous Czechs and Germans, Soviets and Allies, depicted therein. More
Current AffairsRemembering the liberation of Plzen, sixty years on
At the end of World War II most of Czechoslovakia was liberated from the
east by the Red Army, but until the fall of communism, the fact that it
was the Americans who liberated the far west of the country was largely
ignored. It was sixty years ago this week - on the 18th April 1945 - that
General George Patton's 3rd Army entered Czechoslovakia, liberating
Western Bohemia from six years of Nazi-German occupation. The largest
Czech city they freed was Plzen - about 80 kilometres south-west of Prague
- and this year the city is to mark the 60th anniversary with major
celebrations.
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SpecialMemories of World War II in the Czech Lands: Remembering Russian Cowboys
In this series women recount some of their memories of wartime.
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Current AffairsNationwide celebrations planned to remember the end of World War Two
On the 8th May 1945 Prague was the last city in Europe to be liberated, a
painful irony given that six years earlier, in March 1939, it had also
been the first foreign capital to be occupied by German troops, months
before World War Two had even broken out. So in this May's commemorations
to mark 60 years since the end of the war in Europe, Prague will have a
special place. Veterans of both the Soviet and American liberating armies,
as well as survivors among the 50,000 Czechs and Slovaks who fought in the
allied armies through the war, will be coming together in Prague and other
Czech cities to remember their fallen comrades. But there will also be
celebrations. The highpoint will be a huge historical parade on Prague's
Letna Plain, a wide open space not far behind the castle, as the main
organizer Vaclav Marhoul told David Vaughan. More
Current AffairsThe Battle of the Airwaves: the extraordinary story of Czechoslovak Radio and the 1945 Prague Uprising
Welcome to a special programme to mark the 58th anniversary of the end of
the Second World War, a national holiday in the Czech Republic. The
anniversary has a special significance in Prague, because it was here that
some of the last shots of the war in Europe were fired, long after most
European cities had been freed. The liberation of Prague by the Red Army
on the 9th May 1945 was preceded by three days of fierce fighting in the
streets of the city, and over 3000 people lost their lives fighting for
Prague's freedom. In the uprising, the radio and the very building from
which we are now broadcasting, was right at the heart of events.
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