World War Two – Page 4

Celebrating brave Czechoslovak Airmen and the Official Birthday of Her Majesty the Queen

The 'Winged Lion' monument © Ricky Yates — The ‘Winged Lion’ monument © Ricky Yates

As I mentioned at the beginning of my previous post, I had a most interesting week in advance of my laptop computer lock-out problems. The highlight was attending two interrelated events on the afternoon and early evening of Tuesday 17^th June.

The first event was the official unveiling of this monument, entitled ‘The Winged Lion’, by Sir Nicholas Soames MP, grandson of Sir Winston Churchill. It commemorates the nearly two and a half thousand Czechs and Slovaks who escaped from Czechoslovakia after the country was occupied by the Nazis in 1939, and served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

As this BBC news article explains, the idea for the memorial came from members of the British expat community currently living and working in the Czech Republic. They in turn, successfully raised the £100,000 that the monument has cost. However, contrary to what the news report says, it wasn’t just British expats who contributed towards the cost, but also other English-speaking expats and some Czech business people too.

Unfortunately, after the communist coup of February 1948, as is briefly referred to the BBC news report, the Czechoslovak airman who returned to their native country following the defeat of Hitler, were extremely badly treated by the communist authorities, who deemed them to have fought for ‘the wrong side’. Some were imprisoned whilst others were made to undertake demeaning manual labouring jobs. Seen as heroes in the West, they were regarded as a security threat by the communists.

One part of this story which is not recounted in the BBC report is that, just as many young British women met and married American servicemen who were ‘overpaid, oversexed and over here’, and became ‘GI brides’, so also, quite a number of young British women married these Czechoslovak airmen. They came to live with their husbands in Czechoslovakia in 1945-6 and then were treated just as badly by the communist authorities because of the men they were married to. If their husbands were imprisoned, then they were left to fend for themselves, often in small rural towns and villages and with little fluency in Czech or Slovak.

I first heard the story of these remarkable women from Linda Duffield, who was the British Ambassador when I first came here in September 2008. She told me that each year just before Christmas, she held a tea party at the embassy for these Czechoslovak airmen’s wives and widows, but that each year, there were inevitably fewer and fewer of them attending.

Crowds attending the unveiling ceremony © Ricky Yates

Since the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the brave Czechoslovak airmen who served in the RAF, have had their, rank, medals, pensions etc restored to them and they are now rightly regarded as national heroes. But as the BBC article states, only nine survivors were able to be present at the unveiling of this monument that celebrates what they and their colleagues did in the service of freedom.

My official invitation - minus the 'Rev'd' :-( — My official invitation – minus the ‘Rev’d’

Following the unveiling ceremony, I went on to attend a Garden Party at the British Embassy, celebrating the official birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, a regular annual event about which I’ve previously written on this blog. This year, having been greeted by the current British Ambassador Jan Thompson, the guests were invited to walk down to the terrace where we then had a splendid view of the flypast by a WW2 Spitfire which is referred to in the BBC report.

After the flypast and the playing of ‘Where is my home?’ and ‘God save the Queen’, there was speech of welcome in both Czech and English by the ambassador, followed by a speech in English, by President Zeman, in which he praised Sir Winston Churchill and at the end, proposed a toast to Her Majesty the Queen on the occasion of her 88^th birthday. In case any reader is wondering about the Czech National Anthem, the Czechs do know where their home is – the title is a rhetorical question.

After the formal part of the evening, we then all returned to the embassy garden for drinks and refreshments which were, as in previous years, an interesting eclectic mix of things British and Czech. As usual, I both reconnected with people who I already know, be they embassy staff, fellow Brits or Czech business people. I also got to meet in person for the first time, Marie Knezová, who I previously only knew online. She asked me to pose with her for this delightful photograph, taken for us by her sister Jana who is the Vice Consul at the Embassy.

With Marie Knezová at the Queen's Birthday Garden Party © Marie Knezová — With Marie Knezová at the Queen’s Birthday Garden Party © Marie Knezová

In her description of this photograph on Facebook, Marie describes me as her ‘favourite pastor and blogger – charismatic Ricky Yates’. Now that’s a reputation to live up to 🙂

A Memorial to Czechoslovak heroes of the Second World War

Fountain memorial commemorating the Czechoslovak airmen who assassinated Reinhard Heydrich © Ricky Yates

During my recent visit to the UK, I met up with my nephew Tim in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, so we could have lunch together. Before our lunch, Tim took me on a short walking tour through Jephson Gardens, an attractive park in the town centre, in order to show me this memorial fountain commemorating the seven Czechoslovak airmen responsible for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the most senior figures in the Nazi Third Reich.

In January 1942, Heydrich chaired the infamous Wannsee Conference, which set out plans for the enslavement and murder of 8 million European Jews. The Slavs, according to Heydrich’s plans, would have been next. At the time of his assassination, Heydrich was the acting Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, the present-day Czech Republic.

The seven Czechoslovak airmen were based just outside Leamington Spa and were parachuted into their homeland by the RAF, in a covert action called ‘Operation Anthropoid’. Seventy-two years ago on 27^th May 1942, two of the seven carried out the assassination, though not everything went to plan as is explained in this BBC News report marking the seventieth anniversary of the event in 2012. As the report also explains, sadly all seven also lost their lives.

The memorial fountain is in the shape of a parachute around the edge of which the names of the seven are inscribed. The water dripping of the edges of the structure is meant to illustrate the strings of a parachute. Behind the fountain is this commemorative plaque.

On the base of the fountain is a double tailed rampant lion, the Czech national symbol, and superimposed on it is a shield with a double cross, the Slovak national symbol. I am most grateful to Tim for showing me this fascinating link between Warwickshire, the county of my birth, and the Czech Republic, the country where it has been my privilege to live for the past nearly six years.

Czech & Slovak national symbols © Ricky Yates

Villa Tugendhat, Brno and the novel by Simon Mawer entitled ‘The Glass Room’

Villa Tugendhat in Brno, was designed by the German architect Ludwig Mies van de Rohe and constructed between 1928 -1930 on a hillside slope overlooking the city centre. It was commissioned by the wealthy Jewish industrialist Fritz Tugendhat and his wife Greta and was their home for eight years before the couple, along with their children, were forced to flee to Switzerland following the dismembering of Czechoslovakia brought about by the Munich agreement of September 1938.

An icon of modern architecture, today Villa Tugendhat is considered one of the finest examples of functionalist design anywhere in the world. A revolutionary iron framework allowed Mies to dispense with supporting walls and massive plate glass windows give the extensive living space a wonderful feeling of space and light. The minimalist interior is famous for featuring an onyx wall and for using rare tropical hardwood.

Interior of Villa Tugendhat with onyx wall on the left © Ricky Yates

Sadly, during the Second World War and the communist era that followed, Villa Tugendhat suffered from inappropriate alterations and with internal materials being removed and used elsewhere. Some of the original wood panelling was found at Masaryk University, in a building used by the Gestapo as their Brno headquarters. In the latter years of communism, efforts were made to restore the building and a few years after the Velvet Revolution, it was opened as a museum under the auspices of Brno City Council.

In February 2010, a second major and expensive renovation project began with the aim of restoring Villa Tugendhat completely to its former glory. This work has included the creation of exact copies of the original furniture which was also designed by the architect Ludwig Mies van de Rohe. The building reopened to the public in March 2012.

An amazing sunset seen from inside Villa Tugendhat © Ricky Yates — An amazing sunset as seen from inside Villa Tugendhat © Ricky Yates

Since reopening, the number of people able to visit each day has been strictly limited in order to preserve the fabric of the building. The advice on the official website is to book an entrance ticket, at least one month in advance! Therefore I was greatly privileged to be able to visit Villa Tugendhat late one afternoon in September 2012, as a guest at a reception organised by the British Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic, without needing to book in advance! The photographs illustrating this post were all taken by me on that occasion.

'The Glass Room' by Simon Mawer — ‘The Glass Room’ by Simon Mawer

At that reception, the British novelist Simon Mawer, read some extracts from his novel, first published in 2009, entitled ‘The Glass Room’. It is a fictional story inspired by Villa Tugendhat, and takes it title from the extensive living space, with its plate glass windows and onyx wall, that is the central feature of the villa. I had been given a copy of the novel a few months previously and my visit inspired me to set about reading it, something I’ve since done twice, always planning to eventually write a blog post. My apologies that this post has taken eighteen months to gestate 🙂

The novel is both excellently conceived and extremely well written. What I particularly like about it is the very accurate retelling of the history of Central Europe over a sixty year period, against which the life stories of the various characters are played out. I very much agree with one reviewer who wrote, ‘Mawer creates a passionately detailed portrait of individuals struggling to snatch order and happiness from frightening, irrational times….a truly enjoyable read’.

As well as reading extracts from his novel, Simon Mawer also happily held an author signing session and so I got my copy suitably inscribed. The book is available from Amazon and has also been translated into several other languages, including Czech.

The author Simon Mawer signing a copy of his novel 'The Glass Room © Ricky Yates — The author Simon Mawer signing a copy of his novel ‘The Glass Room’ © Ricky Yates

My copy of 'The Glass Room', suitably inscribed by the author — My copy of ‘The Glass Room’, suitably inscribed by the author

The Ukraine crisis as seen from the Czech Republic

The Vltava River & Charles Bridge © Ricky Yates

I hope my regular readers will forgive me for tackling a current political issue. However, as Ukraine is almost on the doorstep of the Czech Republic, I thought it appropriate to reflect on how the current crisis is seen here, and the impact the crisis may have in the near future.

Before proceeding any further, I should point out that it is not quite as close as one American TV news channel tried to illustrate. MSNBC successfully reinvented Czechoslovakia, a country that ceased to exist on 31st December 1992, and showed it as bordering Ukraine as can be seen in this link. Just to confirm, whilst Slovakia does border Ukraine, the Czech Republic does not.

What may surprise many people is the fact that Ukrainians are by far the largest group of immigrants by nationality, living and working in the Czech Republic. According to the 2011 census, there were 118,000 Ukrainians resident here. The same census also registered 36,000 Russians as being present in the Czech Republic. However, there is quite a contrast in what each nationality group does here.

Most Ukrainians do what many relatively newly arrived immigrants do in so many countries around the world. They do the jobs that the host countries own citizens don’t want to do. In the Czech Republic this means that they work as building labourers, street cleaners or washing up and cleaning in bar-restaurants. Often they send home some of the money they earn, to support their families living back in Ukraine.

In contrast, most Russians living here are quite wealthy. As I’ve written previously, they are mainly responsible for parts of the more seedy side of life here such as Herna (gambling) Bars and prostitution. Of course there are Russians living in the Czech Republic, whose main purpose in being here is just to keep well clear of Putin. Inevitably, all Russians get tarred with the same brush, especially during this current crisis.

There is a general, considerable Czech dislike of Russians, because of past history. Czechs quite rightly, see little difference between the former communist-led USSR and present day Putin-led Russia. Both are seen as wanting to dominate and control the neighbouring states of Central and Eastern Europe, either by military or economic means – often a combination of both.

The current situation in the Crimea peninsula, has many echoes of the events of August 1968 here in the Czech Republic. By the will of the people, there is a change of government to one that is not to the liking of Moscow. So the troops are sent in to seek to reimpose Russian control and influence. In 1968, certain members of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party are supposed to have invited the Soviet Red Army to invade the country. In 2014, Putin’s government claim that former President Viktor Yanukovych, invited Russian troops to intervene in Ukraine, before he was deposed.

There are also wider historical echoes to the origins of the Second World War, with lands that are part of the present-day Czech Republic, being central to the dispute that eventually led to the outbreak of hostilities. As I’ve previously written, when the new nation of Czechoslovakia was established in 1918, the country included many people of German ethnic origin. According to a census taken in 1921, just over three million Germans lived in Czechoslovakia accounting for around 23% of the country’s total population. The areas where Germans formed a majority were known as Sudetenland and the people themselves as the Sudetendeutsche.

During the 1930s, Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, actively encouraged dissent among the Sudetendeutsche, hoping to provoke a reaction from the Czechoslovak authorities. The aim was to provide justification for military intervention, ostensibly to protect ethnic Germans. This is exactly what Putin-led Russia is doing presently in the Crimea peninsula. Putin claims he is only protecting ethnic Russians but at the same time, he is actively encouraging confrontation with Ukrainians, hoping to provide justification for his actions.

Hitler got his way without needing to forcibly invade. Because of the policy of appeasement adopted in Munich at the end of September 1938, by Neville Chamberlain and his French counterpart Édouard Daladier, Nazi Germany took control of the Sudetenland, without needing to fire a shot. To most Czech people and to me, the parallels are very apparent. Allowing a Putin-led Russia, to take control of the Crimea peninsula because it has a majority ethnic Russian population, will not solve the problem. Instead, it will embolden Putin, to seek to take control of further territory, with the ultimate goal of effectively re-establishing the USSR as an enlarged Russian Federation.

Whilst I thoroughly disapprove of the actions of President Putin, Western leaders, particularly those of the USA and the UK, have a serious problem. When either President Obama or Prime Minister Cameron, point out that Russia has invaded a sovereign country in breach of international law, Putin responds by pointing out that the USA and the UK did exactly the same thing, when they invaded Iraq in 2003. Neither side can claim to hold the moral high ground.

So far, both the United States and the European Union, have adopted a series of economic measures to try and force a change in Russian policy. Fortunately, the weather is helping them. The main economic lever the Russians have, is that much of Central and Eastern Europe relies on Russian natural gas and oil, for heating. But because of the most mild winter of recent memory, stockpiles are high and the winter is coming to an end. With the Russian rouble at an all time low, Putin may be forced to make concessions to keep Russia economically afloat. We shall see. All one can be certain of is that a period of great uncertainty lies ahead.

Czechoslovak border fortifications

Border fortification in the Orlické hory © Ricky Yates

At the end of the First World War, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, President (1918-1935) of the newly declared independent nation of Czechoslovakia, was very keen that the western boundaries of the country should be the historic ones of Bohemia and Moravia which predominantly follow the ridges of the surrounding hills and mountains. This was for two main reasons. The first was to ensure that nearly all Czech speakers would be residing within the new nation. The second was to have borders that were relatively easy to defend, should conflict once more arise in the future.

However, as explained in a blogpost I wrote two years ago, one important consequence of the adoption of these borders was that many people of German ethnic origin were also incorporated within the new nation of Czechoslovakia. According to a census taken in 1921, just over three million Germans lived in Czechoslovakia, accounting for around 23% of the country’s total population. The areas where Germans formed a majority were known as Sudetenland and the people themselves as the Sudetendeutsche.

Soon after Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, he started making demands for the incorporation of German minorities into a ‘Greater Germany’, in particular the Sudetendeutsche residing in Sudetenland. This alarmed the Czechoslovak government who began to make defensive plans to counteract any future Nazi invasion attempt.

Border fortification in the © Ricky Yates — Border fortification in the Orlické hory © Ricky Yates

The Orlické hory now lie parallel to the border with Poland, but until 1945, this was the border with German Nieder Schlesien – Lower Silesia. Between 1935-1938, a whole series of defensive fortifications were built here, as can be seen in these photographs. The idea was that, from these positions, any possible invasion could be held in check, until the wider Czechoslovak Army could be mobilised to deal with it.

It is somewhat ironic that the construction of these defences, created much needed employment for the local population who had been hard hit by the financial crash of 1929 and the economic depression that followed. Yet the majority of these people were themselves, German speakers!

The whole issue of Sudetenland and the Sudetendeutsche, came to a head at the Munich Conference, held at the end of September 1938. In an effort to appease Hitler and avoid conflict, the then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, along with his French counterpart Édouard Daladier, signed the infamous ‘Munich Agreement’, giving Hitler control of the Sudetenland. All this was done without the Czechoslovak government being consulted or represented at the conference.

As a result, all these border fortifications were never used for the purpose for which they were built. Despite Hitler promising that the the annexation of the Sudetenland would be the end of German territorial expansion, six months later, his forces occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. And because Czechoslovakia had now lost the very defensive borders that Masaryk had insisted upon in 1918, the Nazi Army was able to do so, with hardly a shot being fired.

In the past few years, with the aid of EU funds, a walking trail with information boards has been established, linking the various fortifications and giving an explanation about their construction. The rather large fortification at Tvrz Hanicka, is now a museum.

Whilst walking the trail, I could not help but notice that a linguist choice had clearly been made by someone in authority. Information boards about the geology, geography, flora and fauna of the Orlické hory are in Czech, Polish and German, the three languages most likely to be spoken by visitors to this delightful area. Those explaining the origin of these defensive fortifications, are also in three languages – Czech, Polish and English. I will leave my readers to decide about the significance of this difference.

A refreshment truck at Tvrz Hanicka, covered with camouflage netting! © Ricky Yates