Prague remembered its victory. At the end of the war, the people of Prague rose up against the occupiers — ČT24 — Czech Television
People remembered the memory of the fallen on Sunday afternoon in front of the Czech Radio building, which 74 years ago called on the citizens of Prague to resist the occupiers.
“Prague will never forget its fallen, who returned its face. Tens of thousands decided not to wait for one of the approaching armies to liberate them, but decided to contribute to fate themselves and take their fate and that of their city into their own hands,” said Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates).
“The people whose memorial we are commemorating today died for freedom, for their republic and for the ideals they believed in unconditionally. I want to express the hope that blood will never again be shed in front of the Vinohrady radio building for freedom of speech,” said Senate President Jaroslav Kubera (ODS). About 170 people died in the uprising in front of the radio station.
“I would very much like that we still measure our courage, dedication and patriotism against the phenomena that still surround us today – cleverness, selfishness, demagoguery and populism,” added the head of the Senate.
About the ideals of René and the general director of radio Zavoral. “Today, ideals are being relativized. Therefore, the attitudes of the participants in the uprising are more important than ever. We need their bravery, fearlessness, fortitude, selfless patriotism and desire for freedom. We need to rely on the ideals of people who have shown us that it is possible to find the strength to behave correctly, in accordance with the moral principle,” he said.
Commemorative events were also held on the Old Town Square on Sunday.
It is also our victory, says the historian
On the morning of May 5, people already knew that the end of the hated protectorate was coming. “It was six o’clock in the morning and the radio announced it in Czech! Czech, not German! That was an encouragement for us,” he recalls participant in the uprising Emil Šneberg.
In Prague, people began to tear down German signs and put up Czech flags, including Šneberg. “Director Vallo came to me and we went to erase the German signs,” he said.
However, there were still hundreds of thousands of German soldiers and SS units on Czech territory. They reacted immediately, shooting at the people who were displaying the flags. Two thousand barricades were gradually built in the metropolis. There was a fight for the radio, which called on the citizens to defend it.
“For me, this is an example of heroism. That the Czechs did not sit idly by, and when we celebrate Victory Day, it is also our victory,” says Eduard Stehlík, historian and director of the Department for War Veterans of the Ministry of Defense.
But the people of Prague had nothing to shoot at. “The crowd was excited, but they had no weapons. So he had to capture them somewhere,” recalls Šneberg. Together with his father, he stole seven “Mausers” from a German warehouse near the Vokovice train station.
The lightly armed defenders of the barricades were helped in critical moments by the so-called Vlasov units, which were former Soviet prisoners who sided with the German army. “They had tanks, they had artillery, they had combat experience. In some parts of Prague, they saved thousands of lives,” says historian Stehlík.
On Sunday, people remembered the contribution of the people of Vlasov to the uprising, for example at the Olšan Cemetery, where 187 of them are buried. “Few people have done as much for the people of Prague and saving human lives as they have. And few people are celebrated and remembered so little either,” added Tomáš Jakl from the Military Historical Institute Prague.