Four completely demolished cars now “decorate” the south side of the Strahov Stadium.

“As part of the festival, we also made an exhibition of Car wrecks from Ukraine. We brought vehicles from Buč, Irpina and Hostomel, behind which four incredible human stories are hidden,” Mikuláš Kroupa, director and founder of the non-profit organization Post Bellum, which manages the Memory of the Nation collection, explains to Novinky.

The organizer of the exhibition wants to tell the story of what happens to ordinary people in Ukraine through car wrecks.

According to Kroupa, behind every car there is a dramatic story of a family that had to flee Ukraine and narrowly escaped death.

“But those families all survived, we don’t display coffins here, we chose the kind of cars that tell the happy stories of families that escaped from Russian aggression,” he adds.

For example, the Kia car belongs to a swimming instructor who hid his family in the basement after the war broke out. Here they were without food or water for several days and registered the war only by hearing – through the rumble of rocket explosions. Their house was also hit, but everyone survived except for the dog Koby.

“This man saved his family by saving the white flags from the tablecloths, and then they drove in his other car – because the one here was burned and smashed by the Russian aggressors – all over the battlefield in Irpini with their hands up. It was a miracle because the Russians shot such people. They made it to the Ukrainian checkpoint and were rescued,” Kroupa recounts.

The luxury car Ford Mustang, on the other hand, tells the story of the CEO from Buč, who left the house with his pregnant wife the day before the war broke out. “The only news they got from their neighbors was that their house was completely razed to the ground and their car just burned down,” says the project manager.

Rostislav from Irpina owned a Range Rover, with the help of which he even cleared the snow. He fled with his family in a van, leaving this second car parked in front of the house.

“The interesting thing is that he left the keys and technical license in this car to prevent his neighbors from fleeing, which ultimately did not happen,” adds the director.

Transporting the cars was expensive because they come directly from the suburbs of Kyiv. According to Kroupa, the organization did not want to use money from the Ukrainian fundraiser, which was launched in February and in which a total of 400 million crowns have been collected so far, for the transport. In the end, he helped, who offered a million crowns. The wrecks were bought back from the owners.

The exhibition will possibly be seen in several cities in the Czech Republic in the coming months. It can be seen at the Strahov Stadium from Thursday, September 29 to October 1, after which it will travel to other cities.

Admission to the festival is voluntary. In addition to the stories of Ukrainian families afflicted by the war, there is a rich accompanying program. “There will be concerts, theater, lectures, discussions, film screenings and many other events,” promises Kroupa.