Historian: The Czech Republic did not count its dead from the Second World War | iRADIO

“The defeat of Nazism in 1945 was absolutely crucial for the whole of Europe. All those who have given their lives in the fight against evil deserve our immense respect because they are the reason we are here. And it doesn’t matter what their uniform was or what their nationality was,” says Stehlík.

Guest: military historian and director of the Lidice Memorial Eduard Stehlík. Hosted by Zita Senková

The number of direct participants in the battles and witnesses of the horrors is decreasing year by year. But it is all the more necessary to pass on their testimony. “The saying ‘He who does not know his past is condemned to relive it’ is extremely true. That’s why I’m happy for the project of the company Post Bellum, which films the memories of the witnesses. Many of them are no longer here. And it is up to us to pass on their testimony and legacy, because otherwise it will disappear. And that would be terribly wrong,” warns the director of the Lidice Memorial.

A thousand heroes

However, according to Stehlík, Czech society owes one huge debt to those who fought for our freedom.

“The Czech Republic is one of the few countries that has never counted, let alone tried to name, its dead from the Second World War. We do not know how many citizens of Czechoslovakia, how many of our ancestors gave their lives, either in active combat, or were murdered by the German Nazis. At some point, the number 360,000 was floated, but no one ever filled it with names. And that is absolutely terrifying to me.”

Scary because it’s a step from nameless victims to claiming we had no heroes. “Czechs often claim that they have few heroes. I say we have thousands of them. But we didn’t learn to know their names. People know Gabčík and Kubiš. But if they were to name another three or four paratroopers who jumped from Great Britain to the occupied homeland, and they were the same heroes as Gabčík and Kubiš, I dare say that 99% of the people in this country would not add any other names,” he explains.

White spaces

According to Stehlík, it should mainly be the work of historians and historical institutions. “And I ask myself how it is possible that so long after the Second World War we do not have a relevant monograph that would cover the Czechoslovak resistance during the occupation in a completely unbiased and unbiased way without political embellishments. We have a number of partial monographs, a publication where there would be a basis, but we don’t. And I’m afraid that there is no one here to write it, because the witnesses are leaving and no one wants to go to the archives.”

According to Stehlík, the fact that we still don’t know how some things really happened also prevents naming specific events by their real names. We do not know the details of the end of the war in Bohemia and Moravia, for example the actions of the airborne troops sent from the Soviet Union.

“We are missing a number of absolutely crucial and extremely important documents that I believe have been preserved in the Moscow archives. The Ukrainian archives, to which Czech historians gained access, helped us a lot, but there is still a lot missing. And if we don’t know how things happened, the true interpretation is limited,” adds the historian.

Zita Senková, brother, Eduard Stehlík

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on LinkedIn

Print

Copy the url address

Abbreviated address





Copy to clipboard

Close