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From the ArchivesD-Day and Dukla: liberation draws closer
By 1944 Czechoslovakia’s liberation no longer seemed a distant prospect,
as Nazi Germany’s enemies closed in from East and West. On June 6 1944
over 130,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. Later that
same day, the Allied forces’ Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower, took to
the airwaves: More
From the ArchivesBombs over Prague and Brno
The scene is Prague. It is just before midday on St Valentine’s Day,
February 14, 1945. An air-raid siren begins to wail. In previous weeks,
Czechs have got used to the sirens, as Allied bombers have launched raid
after raid on German cities, but so far the German-occupied Czech capital
has been spared. This time it is different. Not long after the sirens stop
a fleet of American Flying Fortresses appears in the skies. 152 tons of
bombs are dropped on the densely populated centre of the city. The result
is 701 people killed and over a thousand injured. More
Current AffairsNew documentary opens up sensitive chapter in country's post-war history
In the run-up to the 66th anniversary of the end of WWII Czech public
television featured a documentary throwing more light on events that have
received little publicity in the past – the atrocities committed on
German civilians in post-war Czechoslovakia. The subject has been avoided
for years, but film director David Vondráček says Czechs need to hear
about what happened and face up to events they may not be proud of. 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
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
Czech BooksPřemysl Pitter: the good fundamentalist
It is quite likely that you will never have heard of the Czech teacher,
religious thinker, pacifist and humanist, Přemysl Pitter, but he deserves
to be remembered as one of the great Czechs of the 20th century. Pitter
touched the lives of thousands, and his work helping children during and
just after the Second World War, matches the extraordinary achievements
Oskar Schindler. In a new biography of Přemysl Pitter, the writer and
journalist Pavel Kosatík puts his extraordinary life in context. We find
out more in Czech Books with David Vaughan. More
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