Source: http://www.valka.cz/clanek_14856.html
Hello everyone,
today, we will have a look at one topic that I was wondering about now for a while. The long article what you are about to read (if you choose so), deals with the question, how Czechoslovak soldiers regarded the Germans and Italians during WW2.
The article came out on valka.cz and I remember reading it some time ago. At first, I thought about translating it, because it might be interesting for others than myself – and I did. After that however, I decided not publish it, since the topic (even though specifically concerning WW2) has little to do with tanks.
Well, this decision lasted until today. The impulse, or perhaps the “last straw” for me was an article about the Sudeten Germans and Austrians denying the fact that Czechs were chased out from occupied nazi territories. Obviously, that’s a nonsense (although the proclamation was probably distorted by the journalists to sound more sensationalist than it was), but the cold hard truth is – there are deniers and revisionists amongst us. Those people, who want to depict the nazi regime as something “not that bad” (here, we can draw a parallel with the communist regimes in Europe – sadly, 20 years after the fall of communism, communist party is on the rise again).
I think it’s very important to remember the past. Take this article as a part of that remembrance. Especially the personal memories and diary excerpts from people “who were there” are valuable. I hope you get to read it.
- Silentstalker
“The Picture of the Enemy” by PhDr. Ladislav Kudrna, PhD.
National point of view
Of all the nations in Europe, it was the Czech people, who had the dubious honor of being the first to feel the occupation might of the nazi regime. To be correct, we’d have to state that it was in fact Austria, who was the first, being “attached” (SS: “Anschluss”) by the Third Reich a year earlier than Czech lands. But it is prudent to also state that the vast majority of Austrians hysterically welcomed their beloved Führer with open arms, just like the German people in Czech borderlands in October 1938. The Munich treason meant not only the major loss of Czech territory, but also tens of thousands of refugees, arriving to Czech inlands. It was more than two hundred thousand refugees, consisting of Czechs, German anti-fascists and Jews. The two latter groups were not welcomed with open arms however. The reason for that was the nationality of Germans and the language (often German) of Jews.
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