Project Concept for the 70th anniversary of World War II
The 70th anniversary project is focused on the Czechoslovak soldiers from both fronts, East and West, fighting in the anti-Hitler coalition. The theme to be considered will not be the Second World War itself, but the fate of these soldiers after 1945 and 1948 in Czechoslovakia. It's not just about the soldiers, but the entire Nazi opposition resistance, that was persecuted after 1945 by the communist totalitarian regime for their patriotic efforts during the fascist dictatorship, which was then substituted by the criminal communist dictatorship.
The Eastern Army, formed in the Soviet Union, will consist of two discussion themes; the first being Svoboda’s and Kratochvil’s Army Corps in the Soviet Union and the other dealing with Czechoslovaks fighting in the Soviet army.
The part dealing with the western army will touch upon Czechoslovaks in France, Great Britain, Africa, also Czechoslovaks within the U.S. Army of liberation and others.
The theme is rather painful, because the main topic in this exposition will be tragic fates of the people who fought against fascist coalition of the German army, i.e. against the Romanians, Italians, Japanese and other allies of Hitler. Then after the end of the 2nd World War and the Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia; these people who fought the Nazis and their allies, ended up either on the scaffold or in prison or in exile or in complete oblivion, for their patriotic efforts.
The project encompasses thousands of names, unknown to the younger generation, because they historically disappeared in deliberate obscurity.
The project will work with American and German support. Beside the support of the Embassy of the United States, also involved from the American side in this project is the son of the Clay-Eva Special Operations Executive parachutist group leader, Antonin Bartos, jr., who is Vice-President of Slavic-American-Sokol and the Czech and Slovak language school in Washington. Others involved will include many descendants or direct participants of the 2nd World War. Through the U.S. Embassy, we plan to apply for patronage of the U.S. Department of Defense and the President.
The project is unique in that it includes the participation of the Russian side of the story, which to them is a controversial project that speaks volumes about the crimes committed by the Communist Party to the soldiers, who together or alongside the Soviet Army fought against fascism.
The project will also highlight information that showed former Gestapo officers working within the ranks of the Communist secret police, now as members of the Communist Party after the communist coup, who participated in the destruction of anti-communist opposition in Czechoslovakia. The project will also address the work of US Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) agents from the ranks of former intelligence officers and others in the Czechoslovak army. It will also address the origin of the Czechoslovak anti-communist intelligence organization on the other side of the border. It will recall officers deliberately forgotten or generals who disagreed with Czechoslovakia’s leaning towards the Soviet Union, who were executed, demoted, imprisoned, or otherwise affected, and many had to flee into exile. In the event that the consent of their families is received, the fate of these families will also be documented. The project also touches upon Catholic priests, religious, evangelical clergymen, writers, poets, artists, Orel and Sokol members, scouts, and ordinary citizens persecuted by the communist totalitarian regime for their uncompromising positions toward both (Nazi and Communist) totalitarian regimes.
We asked for cooperation from the Federation of Jewish communities, through their representative JUDr. Tomas Kraus, because many of the Jews that were in the Czechoslovak Army Corps in the Soviet Union, were previously deported into the Gulag. Subsequently, they participated in all of the fighting on the Eastern Front all the way up to the Battle of Dukla Pass. Many of these Jews left after the communist coup in Czechoslovakia, immigrating to the emerging state of Israel and other places in the world. We asked for cooperation from associations and private organizations, which have documents relating to this area, and on historians dealing with this subject area. The project is also being supported by the Office of Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism; part of the Police of the Czech Republic. Its director, Colonel Dr. Pavel Bret, was responsible for tasking his subordinates from the documentation section, to design a total of 20 panels. Next, we contacted the Police Museum because of “Operation Stone” and the border police, who were used against the CIC agents from the west, made up mostly from former military officers, soldiers in the anti-Hitler coalition, and from the police and gendarmerie in the period before the Communist takeover. The project is being supported by a number of historians who do not work in any official institutions; they are supporting it because they see the project as important. The uniqueness of the project has lead us to seek additional documents in the archives of the German Stasi, which has records on displaced Sudeten Germans, many of whom also fought in the anti-Hitler coalition, and in 1945, together with other Germans were evacuated. We asked the city of Brno, Brno Mayor Roman Onderka, for support from the City of Brno and a grant that would further this project. For financial support, we have also asked the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, and in the future we are asking the Czech-German Fund for the Future, as well as other private sponsors and donors. Mayor Roman Onderka and Daniel Herman, Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, took this event under their auspices.
It is expected that the project will be launched on the anniversary of the end of World War II with a large jazz concert and concert. The first exhibition outside the Czech Republic will be opened in the military museum in Volgograd, as well as other places in the Russian Federation and in the United States. We approached the Director General of Czech Centers, Vilma Anyzova, requesting that the project’s exposure be realized using a series of transportable panels for all the Czech centers throughout the world. The exposition will also be placed in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, as was the case for many of our expositions that were previously presented at the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg. The most recent exhibition in the European Parliament was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Czechoslovak Legions and was made possible by the Vice-President of the European Parliament and MEP Oldrich Vlasak. We asked for his cooperation on this project.
The exhibition will be complemented by extensive color publications, possibly film documentary footage of the trial processes of the soldiers or their personal testimonies.
The extent of the project will be widened and broadened with the help of additional research documents and the work of other co-researchers. The “Museum of Czech, Slovak and Ruthenian Exiles” owns a number of exile archives, where these documents permanently reside. Some of these will be used for the first time in this exposition.
The project will also encompass a documentary in the Czech Television, prepared from our oral archive of soldiers and other contemporary testimony of living witnesses of the time. The documentary will be directed and filmed courtesy of a leading Czech documentary filmmaker, Kristina Vlachova.
As circumstances permit, materials from the exhibits, supporting publications and film documentaries, will be donated to all schools in the Czech Republic.
Jan Kratochvil, director of the “Museum of Czech, Slovak and Ruthenian Exiles in the 20th Century,” Brno
Read more...