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Current AffairsBelka praises call for reconciliation with anti-fascist Sudeten Germans
The Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka paid a one-day visit to Prague on
Thursday - and praised Czech counterpart Jiri Paroubek's efforts at
reconciliation with anti-fascist Sudeten Germans expelled from
Czechoslovakia after the war. Both Poland and the Czech Republic have made
strides towards reconciliation with Germany in recent years, though the
efforts are not to everyone's liking. Rob Cameron has more.
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Current AffairsPM's reconciliation plan for Sudenten German anti-fascists meets with opposition
The Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek's plan for a reconciliation gesture
towards Sudeten Germans who were expelled from the country after WWII
despite the fact that they had actively opposed the Nazi regime has run
into serious problems. Even before the prime minister had time to specify
what kind of conciliatory gesture he had in mind, the opposition parties
and president Klaus slammed the idea as "totally irresponsible and
potentially dangerous". In addition to that the Slovak Prime Minister
Mikulas Dzurinda has now made it clear that his country wants nothing to do
with it.
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Current AffairsParoubek plans gesture towards "anti-fascist" Sudeten Germans
The expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II
remains a live issue, with calls from Sudeten Germans for the return of
their property regularly dismissed by Czech politicians; they say the
expulsions were legal and demands for compensation have no validity. But
now the Czech prime minister, Jiri Paroubek, is planning to make a gesture
towards the Sudeten Germans - or at least the minority who actively
resisted the Nazis.
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SpecialMemories of World War II in the Czech Lands: the expulsion of Sudeten Germans
In this series women to recount some of their memories of wartime.
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Talking PointNative sons and daughters of Zatec (Saaz) return to mark a millennium of recorded history
Better known abroad by its German name, Saaz, the region of Zatec north of
Prague is world famous as the home of wonderfully aromatic hops, which are
used to add flavor to Czech beer but also to European, American and even
Japanese brews. This month Zatec celebrated one thousand years of recorded
history -- much of it turbulent. More
Current AffairsSeventy prominent German intellectuals and politicians make a gesture of reconciliation to their neighbours
Seventy prominent German intellectuals, writers and politicians, including
the chairman of the federal parliament have signed an open letter to the
Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, very publicly renouncing claims to any
property in the neighbouring countries of Central Europe. All the
signatories have one thing in common. They, or their parents, originally
came from what is now the territory of Poland or the Czech Republic, but
were expelled after the Second World War. Millions of ethnic Germans were
forced to move westwards, as the map of Europe was redrawn after the war,
an episode that continues to create tensions within the region. David
Vaughan joins me in the studio. More
WitnessJosef Skrabek - tragi-comedy in the Sudetenland in October 1938
Sixty-five years ago, at the beginning of October 1938, the Nazis marched
into the Czech border regions, known as the Sudetenland. With the Munich
Agreement at the end of September the British and French governments had
notoriously given Hitler the green light to annex these mainly
German-speaking areas. Overnight this had a huge impact on millions of
Czechoslovak citizens. At the time Josef Skrabek was ten years old, and
lived in the village of Valec in the heart of the Sudetenland. His father
was Czech and his mother German, one of many mixed families in the region,
for whom the events of 1938 were a painful blow. Here Josef Skrabek
remembers a tragi-comic episode as the village was waiting for the German
army to arrive.
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