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Prague uprising

April 11, 2024

For the 1848 events, see Prague uprising (1848).
Prague uprising
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II

Prague residents putting up a barricade, 6 May. In the background, a German-language sign has been painted over.
Date5–9 May 1945
Location
Prague, Bohemia and Moravia
50°04′43″N 14°26′04″E / 50.07861°N 14.43444°E / 50.07861; 14.43444
Result Inconclusive
Belligerents

Czech resistance

 Germany
Strength
30,000 insurgents[1][a]
18,000 Russian Liberation Army defectors[7]		 40,000[1][b]
Several aircraft[11]
Casualties and losses
1,694–2,898 insurgents killed[12][13][c]
3,000 insurgents wounded[16][17]
300 ROA defectors killed and wounded[18][19][d]		 380–953 killed[20][e]
263–2,000 Czech civilians killed[18][21]
1,000+ German civilians killed[22][f]

The Prague uprising (Czech: Pražské povstání) was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945, during the end of World War II. The preceding six years of occupation had fuelled anti-German sentiment and the rapid advance of Allied forces from the Red Army and the United States Army offered the resistance a chance of success.

On 5 May 1945, during the end of World War II in Europe, occupying German forces in Bohemia and Moravia were spontaneously attacked by civilians in an uprising, with Czech resistance leaders emerging from hiding to join them. The Russian Liberation Army (ROA), a collaborationist formation of ethnic Russians, defected and supported the insurgents. German forces counter-attacked, but their progress was slowed by barricades constructed by the insurgents. On 8 May, the Czech and German leaders signed a ceasefire allowing all German forces to withdraw from the city, but some Waffen-SS troops refused to obey. Fighting continued until 9 May, when the Red Army entered the nearly liberated city.

The uprising was brutal, with both sides committing several war crimes. German forces used Czech civilians as human shields and perpetrated several massacres. Violence against German civilians, sanctioned by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, continued after the uprising, and was justified as revenge for the occupation or as a means to encourage Germans to flee. George S. Patton's Third United States Army was ordered by Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower not to come to the aid of the Czech insurgents, which undermined the credibility of the Western powers in post-war Czechoslovakia. Instead, the uprising was presented as a symbol of Czech resistance to Nazi rule, and the liberation by the Red Army was used by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia to increase popular support for the party.

Background edit

German occupation edit

In 1938, the Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler, announced his intention to annex the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia with a high ethnic German population.[24] British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier acquiesced to Hitler's demands at the Munich Agreement, in exchange for guarantees from Nazi Germany that no additional lands would be annexed. No Czechoslovak representatives were present at the negotiations.[25] In March 1939, German forces invaded and occupied the remaining Czech territories, establishing the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.[26] Although France had a defensive alliance with Czechoslovakia, neither the French nor British intervened militarily.

The Nazis considered many Czechs to be racially Aryan, and therefore suitable for Germanisation.[27] As a consequence, the German occupation was less harsh than in other predominantly Slavic nations, with wartime living standards being actually higher than in Germany itself.[28] However, freedom of speech was curtailed by the occupational government and 400,000 Czechs were conscripted for forced labour programs in Nazi Germany.[29] During the six-year occupation, more than 20,000 Czechs were executed by German forces and thousands more died in concentration camps.[30] While the general violence of the occupation was much less severe than in Eastern Europe, it nevertheless incited violent anti-German sentiment in many Czechs.[28][31][32]

Military situation edit

class=notpageimage|
Positions of armies on 6 May 1945; Soviet forces in red, German in gray, and United States in green

During the spring of 1945, partisan forces in Bohemia and Moravia totalled about 120 groups, with a combined strength of around 7,500 people.[33] Partisans disrupted the railway and highway transportation by sabotaging track and bridges and attacking trains and stations. Some railways could not be used at night or on some days, and trains were forced to travel at a slower speed.[34] Waffen-SS units retreating from the Red Army's advance into Moravia burned down several villages in reprisal.[17] Despite losing much of their leadership to a March 1945 purge by the Gestapo, Communist groups in Prague distributed propaganda leaflets calling for an insurrection.[35][36][37] German soldiers and civilians became increasingly worried and prepared to flee violent retaliation for the occupation.[38] In an attempt to reassert German authority, SS police official Karl Hermann Frank broadcast a message over the radio threatening to destroy Prague and drown any opposition in blood.[39]

In early 1945, former Czechoslovak Army officers set up the Bartoš Command [cs] commanded by General Karel Kutlvašr to oversee fighting inside Prague, and the Alex Command [cs] under General František Slunečko to direct insurgent units in the suburbs.[40] Meanwhile, the Czech National Council [cs], with representatives from various Czech political parties, formed to take over political leadership after the overthrow of the Nazi occupational government and the collaborationist authorities.[41] Military leaders planning an uprising within Prague counted on the loyalty of ethnically Czech members of the city police, gendarmerie and the Government Army of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, as well as employees of key civil services, such as transport workers and the fire brigade.[42] The 1st Infantry Division of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA), composed of Soviet prisoners of war that had agreed to fight for Germany, was stationed outside of Prague. Hoping that the ROA could be persuaded to switch sides in order to avoid accusations of collaboration, the Czech military command sent an envoy to General Sergei Bunyachenko, the commander of the 600th Infantry Division. Bunyachenko agreed to switch sides to help the Czech resistance.[7][43] As the ROA soldiers were wearing German uniforms, it was decided that they would be given Russian white-blue-red flags to distinguish them.[44]

On 4 May, the US Third Army under General George S. Patton entered Czechoslovakia.[45][46] British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was the only political leader to advocate the liberation of Prague by the Western Allies. In a telegram to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Churchill said that "the liberation of Prague...by US troops might make the whole difference to the postwar situation of Czechoslovakia and might well influence that in nearby countries."[47] Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, also wanted his forces to liberate the city, and asked that the Americans stop at Plzeň, 50 miles (80 km) to the west.[48] The Red Army was planning a major offensive into the Protectorate, due to start 7 May.[49] Eisenhower, disinclined to accept American casualties or risk antagonising the Soviet Union, acquiesced to the Soviet demands that the Red Army enter Prague.[50]

Uprising edit

See also: Prague Offensive

5 May edit

 
Prague shop owner painting over German-language signage on 4 May

Staff of Czech Radio opposed to the occupation began the morning by broadcasting in the banned Czech language.[51] The Bartoš Command and Communist groups met separately and both scheduled the armed uprising to begin 7 May.[52] Czech citizens gathered in the streets, vandalised German inscriptions, and tore down German flags.[43] Czechoslovak flags appeared openly in windows and on jacket lapels.[53][54] Tram operators refused to accept Reichsmark or to give the stops in German, as was required by the occupiers. Some German soldiers were surrounded and killed.[21] In response to growing popular agitation, Frank threatened to shoot Czechs gathering in the streets,[55] and increased armed German patrols.[56] Some German soldiers began to fire into the crowds.[57]

Around noon, the radio broadcast a series of appeals to the police and gendarmerie requesting aid in fighting SS guards inside the radio building.[58] A detachment of Government Army policemen responded to the call, and met stiff resistance as they retook the building.[59][60] During the entire time, the radio continued to broadcast.[61] Although not directed at the populace, the appeal ignited fighting all over the city, concentrated in the downtown districts.[62] Crowds of unarmed civilians, mostly young men with no military training, overwhelmed German garrisons and stores.[5] Many casualties were inflicted by German soldiers and civilians sniping from strong-points or rooftops; in response, Czech forces began to intern Germans and suspected collaborators.[56] Czech noncombatants assisted by setting up makeshift hospitals for the wounded and bringing food, water, and other necessities to the barricades, while German forces were often resorted to looting to obtain essential supplies.[63] Czech forces seized thousands of firearms, hundreds of Panzerfausts, and five armoured vehicles, but still suffered a shortage of weapons.[64]

By the end of the day, the resistance had seized most of the city east of the Vltava River. The insurgents held many important buildings, including the radio, the telephone exchange, most railway stations, and ten of twelve bridges. Three thousand prisoners were liberated from Pankrác Prison.[65] By controlling the telephone exchange, resistance fighters were able to sever communication between German units and commanders. German forces held most of the territory to the west of the river, including an airfield at Ruzyně, northwest of the city, and various surrounded garrisons such as the Gestapo Headquarters.[65]

At the orders of Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, in command of Axis forces in Bohemia, Waffen-SS units were pulled from fighting the Red Army and sent into Prague. The SS was relatively well-equipped with tanks, armoured carriers, weaponry and motorised units. Information on this force movement reached insurgent headquarters late in the day.[66] The radio broadcast appeals in English and Russian for an air attack on the tanks.[67] Hearing of events in Prague, Patton asked for permission to advance to the Vltava in order to aid the Czech resistance, but Eisenhower refused.[50][g] The Red Army was ordered to advance the launch of its offensive to 6 May.[69][70]

6 May edit

 
Barricade at Olšany cemetery

Late in the evening on 5 May, the radio broadcast an appeal to the people in the streets of Prague to build barricades in order to slow the anticipated German attack. Despite poor weather, tens of thousands of civilians worked overnight to construct over 1,600 barricades by morning.[71] A total of 2,049 were constructed by the end of the uprising.[72]

SS General Carl Friedrich von Pückler-Burghauss ordered the Luftwaffe to firebomb Prague, but the attack had to be scaled back due to lack of fuel.[70] The first strike was made by two Messerschmitt Me 262A jet fighter-bombers from elements of KG 51 at Ruzyně.[73] One of their targets was the radio building, which was hit by a 250-kg bomb that disabled the transmitter. However, the radio continued to broadcast from alternate locations.[73] In successive attacks, the Luftwaffe bombed barricades and hit apartment buildings with incendiary bombs, causing many civilian casualties.[74][75]

At midday, the First Battalion of the ROA entered Prague and attacked the Germans;[54][76] during its time in Prague, it disarmed around 10,000 German soldiers.[7] An American reconnaissance patrol met with an ROA officer as well as Czech leaders. This was when the Czechs learnt of the demarcation line agreement and that the Third Army was not coming to liberate Prague. As a consequence, the Czech National Council, which had not been involved in negotiations with Bunyachenko, denounced the ROA.[77] A Soviet liberation meant that they could not politically afford to endorse the ROA, whom Stalin considered traitors.[7][54] Despite the rejection of the ROA, their aid to Prague became a point of friction between Moscow and Czechoslovakia after the war.[78]

7 May edit

 
Captured AMR 35 tanks deployed by insurgents on Bartolomějská street in the Old Town

Under the terms of the provisional unconditional surrender, signed in the early hours of 7 May, German forces had a forty-eight-hour grace period to cease offensive operations.[79] Eisenhower hoped that the capitulation would put an end to the fighting in Prague and therefore obviate American intervention.[80] However, the German leadership was determined to use the grace period to move as many soldiers as possible westward to surrender to the Americans.[81] Schörner denounced the rumours of a ceasefire in Prague and said that the truce did not apply to German forces fighting the Red Army or Czech insurgents.[80]

In order to gain control of Prague's transportation network, the Germans launched their strongest attack of the uprising.[81] Waffen-SS armoured and artillery units arriving in Prague gradually punched through the barricades with several tank attacks.[82] Intense fighting was accompanied with the SS use of Czech civilians as human shields[6] and damage to the Old Town Hall and other historic buildings.[83] When the Bartoš Command learnt of the Rheims surrender, it ordered an immediate ceasefire for Czech forces. This caused some confusion among the defenders, who were also suffering from desertion due to the worsening military situation.[84] The ROA played a decisive role in slowing the progress of the Germans,[81] but withdrew from Prague over the afternoon and evening in order to surrender to the US Army. Only a few ROA units stayed in the city, departing late on 8 May.[6] With the bulk of the ROA gone, the poorly armed and untrained Czech insurgents fared badly against the reinforced German forces.[83] By the end of the day, German forces had taken much of the rebel-held territory east of the Vltava, with the resistance only holding a salient in the Vinohrady-Strašnice area.[85] ROA forces captured the Luftwaffe airfield at Ruzyně, destroying several aircraft.[11]

8 May edit

 
Destroyed German self-propelled artillery in Klárov [cs], 9 May

In the morning, the Germans made an air and artillery bombardment followed by a renewed infantry attack.[86] The fighting was almost as intense as the previous day. One particularly fierce battle took place at the Masaryk train station. At 10 am, SS troops captured the station and murdered around 50 surrendered resistance fighters and noncombatants (cs).[6][h] In one of the last battles of the uprising, Czech insurgents regained the train station at 2 am on 9 May[6] and photographed the victims' bodies.[89]

Faced with military collapse, no arriving Allied help, and threats to destroy the city, the Czech National Council agreed to negotiate with Wehrmacht General Rudolf Toussaint.[90] Toussaint, running out of time to evacuate Wehrmacht units westward, was in an equally desperate position.[81] After several hours of negotiations, it was agreed that on the morning of 9 May, the Czechs would allow German soldiers to pass westward through Prague, and in exchange German forces leaving the city would surrender their arms.[91] A ceasefire was finally agreed to around midnight. However, some pockets of German forces were unaware of or disobeyed the ceasefire,[78] and civilians feared a continuation of the German atrocities which had intensified over the previous two days. Late in the evening, reports reached Prague of the liberation of Theresienstadt concentration camp, northwest of the city, and the advance of the Red Army into other areas north of Prague.[92]

9 May edit

 
Residents greet Marshal Ivan Konev upon the arrival of the Red Army on 9 May 1945.

The last of the German forces to escape Prague left in the early hours of the morning.[93] At 4:00, elements of the 1st Ukrainian Front reached the suburbs of Prague. Fighting was mostly with isolated SS units that had been prevented from withdrawing by Czech insurgents. Over the next few hours, the Red Army quickly overcame the remaining German forces.[94] Because most of the Germans had already left, the 1st Ukrainian Front avoided the house-to-house fighting that had occurred in the capture of Budapest and Vienna.[95] The Red Army lost only ten soldiers in what has been described as their "easiest victory" of the war.[96][i] At 8:00 am, the tanks reached the centre city and the radio announced the arrival of the Soviet forces. Czechs poured out into the streets to welcome the Red Army.[98]

War crimes edit

German edit

 
Victims of the massacre at Masaryk station

German forces committed war crimes against Czech civilians throughout the uprising. Many people were killed in summary executions, and the SS used Czech civilians as human shields,[1][6] forced them to clear barricades at gunpoint, and threatened to shoot hostages in revenge for German soldiers killed in action.[89] When tanks were halted by barricades, they were known to fire into surrounding houses.[89] After violently evicting or murdering the inhabitants, German soldiers looted and burned Czech houses and apartment buildings.[89] On several occasions, more than twenty people were killed at once; most of the massacres occurred on 7 and 8 May.[89] Among those killed were pregnant women and young children, and some of the dead were found mutilated.[74][99] After the uprising, a Czech police report described war crimes committed by the Nazis:

The doors of houses and flats were burst in, houses and shops were plundered, dwellings were demolished... The inhabitants were driven from their homes and forced to form a living wall with their bodies to protect German patrols, and constantly threatened with automatic pistols... Many Czechs lay dead in the streets.[74][100]

In addition to the war crimes committed by the Wehrmacht and the SS, Luftwaffe soldiers, along with the SA, participated in the torture and murder of prisoners held at the Na Pražačce school.[89]

Czech edit

The Czechoslovak government-in-exile planned to expel the German minority of Czechoslovakia in order to create an ethnically pure Czech-Slovak nation-state.[17][32] Throughout the occupation, Czech politicians had broadcast messages from London calling for violence against German civilians and suspected Czech collaborators.[32] President Edvard Beneš believed that vigilante justice would be less divisive than trials, and that encouraging Germans to flee would spare the effort of deporting them later.[101] Before he arrived in Czechoslovakia, he broadcast that "everyone who deserves death should be totally liquidated... in the popular storm"[102] and urged the resistance to avenge Nazi crimes "a thousand times over."[103] Minister of Justice Prokop Drtina [cs] asked resistance leaders to make liberation "bloody" for the Germans and to drive them out with violence.[103] Communist leaders also supported the violence.[32] Military leaders not only overlooked anti-German massacres and failed to punish the perpetrators, but actively encouraged them.[104] The Czech Radio likely played a role in inciting the violence by passing on the anti-German messages of these political leaders,[21][32] as well as broadcasting anti-German messages on its own initiative.[104] Almost no one was prosecuted for violence against Germans, and a bill was proposed in the postwar parliament that would have retroactively legalised it.[105]

In Prague, Czech insurgents killed surrendered Nazi German soldiers and German civilians both before and after the arrival of the Red Army.[106] Historian Robert Pynsent [cs] argues that there was no clear-cut distinction between the end of the uprising and the beginning of the expulsions.[107] Some captured German soldiers were hanged from lampposts and burned to death,[75][108] or otherwise tortured and mutilated.[109] Czech rioters also assaulted, raped, and robbed German civilians.[21] Not all those killed or affected by anti-German violence were actually German or collaborators, as perpetrators frequently acted on suspicion,[106][110] or exploited the chaos to settle personal grudges.[111] In one massacre at Bořislavka on 10 May, forty German civilians were murdered.[112] During and after the uprising, thousands of German civilians and surrendered soldiers were interned in makeshift camps where food and hygiene were poor. Survivors claimed that beatings and rape were commonplace.[113][114] The violence against German civilians continued throughout the summer, culminating in the expulsion of Sudeten Germans. About three million Czechoslovak citizens of German ethnicity were stripped of their citizenship and property and forcibly deported.[115]

Legacy edit

 
Memorial statue of a fallen barricade defender at Barricade Bridge [cs] in Prague.

As "the greatest military action of the Czechs for freedom and national independence fought on their own territory,"[j] in the words of journalist Jindřich Marek [cs],[117] the Prague uprising became a national myth of the new Czechoslovak republic and the subject of much literature.[116]

The Western Allies' failure to liberate Prague was seen as emblematic of their lack of concern for Czechoslovakia, first demonstrated by the Munich Agreement. It also served as a blow to democratic forces within the country who opposed Czechoslovakia's drift towards communism in the years after the war.[50] It was not forgotten that Stalin had opposed the Munich Agreement and Prague's liberation by the Red Army turned public opinion in favour of communism.[118][k] Few Czechs were aware of the demarcation line agreement between the Western Allied and Soviet forces,[119] allowing communists to accuse the American forces of "having remained a cowardly or cynical onlooker while Prague was struggling for life," in the words of Hungarian historian Stephen Kertesz.[120] According to British diplomat Sir Orme Sargent, the Prague uprising was the moment that "Czechoslovakia was now definitely lost to the West."[50]

In 1948, the democratic government of Czechoslovakia was toppled by a Communist coup d'état.[121] Following the coup, Czechoslovakia became a communist state aligned with the Soviet Union until the Velvet Revolution in 1989.[122] The Communist government attempted to discredit the Czech resistance, which was considered a threat to Communist legitimacy, by purging or arresting former resistance leaders,[123] and distorting history, for instance overstating the role of the working class in the uprising[l] and inflating the number of Red Army soldiers killed in Prague.[124][m]

References edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ A few thousand of these were policemen from the Prague police and gendarmerie as well as soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the Government Army, all of whom were lightly armed.[2] The remainder were civilians, mostly young men with no prior military training.[3][4] Numerous female civilians fought in the uprising, while others were escaped Allied prisoners of war (some of whom were Soviet, British, French and Dutch) or Jews who had escaped from Nazi concentration camps.[5][6]
  2. ^ Approximately 10,000 of these were Waffen-SS troops who were sent to Prague after the start of the uprising.[8] The remainder included regular Wehrmacht infantry, Luftwaffe personnel from the disbanded I Flak Corps, Hitler Youth members and armed German civilians.[9][10]
  3. ^ The lower figure is the official estimate published in 1946.[14] Only casualties whose identity could be verified were included.[15] The higher figure is argued by Marek.[13]
  4. ^ Bunyachenko stated that ROA casualties in the uprising were 300 killed or wounded, but MacDonald suggests that this may have been "exaggerated for political purposes" as Bunyachenko was trying to avoid being handed over into Soviet captivity.[19]
  5. ^ These figures in theory included civilian casualties. However, Staněk considers the total number of Germans killed during the uprising to be well above 1,000.[20]
  6. ^ The official figure of 1,000 German civilian casualties is "almost certainly an underestimate, especially considering the scope and nature of the violence that took place in and around the city, and doesn't take into account official attempts to play down the violence against civilians." For example, of 300 Germans buried in a mass grave in a suburb of Prague, three-quarters were classified as military casualties despite the fact that a majority were wearing civilian clothes.[23]
  7. ^ About this decision, Patton later wrote: "I felt, and I still feel, that we should have gone on to the [Vltava] River and, if the Russians didn't like it, let them go to hell. I did not find out until weeks afterwards the reasons, which were sound, which implemented General Eisenhower's decision..."[68]
  8. ^ According to the police report, there were 53 victims;[87] Bartošek says that 47 were killed;[88] Pynsent's figure is 58.[6]
  9. ^ The offensive that had put the 1st Ukrainian Front in position to liberate Prague was less bloodless, with Soviet forces suffering nearly 50,000 casualties.[97]
  10. ^ Pynsent points out that this is a true but weak statement, because the Czech lands had not been the site of major armed insurrection either before 1945 or afterwards.[116]
  11. ^ This took place in spite of multiple instances during the Red Army's advance into the country where Soviet soldiers committed rape and stole from the Czech civilian population.[96]
  12. ^ In fact, the majority of those killed were from the petite bourgeoisie and less than a fifth were working-class.[15]
  13. ^ Communist sources give between 400 and 500 Red Army soldiers killed, which is more than an order of magnitude over that estimated by the best sources.[125] Such inflation is often accompanied by rhetoric similar to Bartošek's statement that, on 9 May, "the alliance of the fraternal peoples of the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia [was] sealed in blood."[126][125]

Citations edit

  1. ^ a b c Mahoney 2011, p. 191.
  2. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 34–35.
  3. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 55.
  4. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 149–150.
  5. ^ a b Bartošek 1965, p. 53.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Pynsent 2013, p. 297.
  7. ^ a b c d Julicher 2015, p. 171.
  8. ^ Dickerson 2018, p. 97.
  9. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 54.
  10. ^ Jakl 2004, p. 25.
  11. ^ a b Thomas & Ketley 2015, p. 284.
  12. ^ Kokoška 2005, p. 258.
  13. ^ a b "Publikace, kterou historiografie potřebovala: padlí z pražských barikád 1945". Vojenském historickém ústavu Praha. 3 May 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  14. ^ Soukup 1946, p. 42.
  15. ^ a b Pynsent 2013, p. 285.
  16. ^ Soukup 1946, p. 39.
  17. ^ a b c Orzoff 2009, p. 207.
  18. ^ a b Marek 2005, pp. 13–14.
  19. ^ a b MacDonald & Kaplan 1995, p. 186.
  20. ^ a b Staněk 2005, p. 197.
  21. ^ a b c d Merten 2017, p. 114.
  22. ^ Lowe 2012, p. 127.
  23. ^ Lowe 2012, pp. 127–128.
  24. ^ Noakes & Pridham 2010, p. 102.
  25. ^ Bryant 2007, p. 24.
  26. ^ Bryant 2007, p. 28.
  27. ^ Bryant 2007, p. 126.
  28. ^ a b Duffy 2014, p. 282.
  29. ^ Kuklík 2015, p. 118.
  30. ^ Ėrlikhman 2004, p. 54.
  31. ^ Bryant 2007, p. 62.
  32. ^ a b c d e Frommer 2005, p. 42.
  33. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 101.
  34. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 101–102.
  35. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 42.
  36. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 75.
  37. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 113.
  38. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 76–77.
  39. ^ "Projev K. H. Franka k českému národu (30. 4. 1945)" (in Czech). Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  40. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 34–36.
  41. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 34, 40–41.
  42. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 35.
  43. ^ a b MacDonald & Kaplan 1995, p. 175.
  44. ^ Joachim, Hoffmann (1984). Die Geschichte der Wlassow-Armee. Rombach. p. 216. ISBN 9783793001867. Retrieved 11 January 2024. Noch in der Nacht vom 5.zum 6.Mai wurden die Angriffsziele in Prag vom Divisionsstab und Vertretern des tschechischen Militärkommandos "Bartos" besprochen und festgelegt. Es wurde auch beschlossen, die Soldaten der 1.Division der ROA zur Unterscheidung von den ähnlich uniformierten deutschen Soldaten mit weiß-blau-roten Trikoloren zu versehen.
  45. ^ Fuller 2003, p. 108.
  46. ^ Fuller 2003, p. 149.
  47. ^ Olson 2018, p. 427.
  48. ^ Erickson 1983, pp. 625–630.
  49. ^ Erickson 1983, p. 627.
  50. ^ a b c d Olson 2018, p. 429.
  51. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 18, 22–23.
  52. ^ Pynsent 2013, pp. 290, 296.
  53. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 19.
  54. ^ a b c Dickerson 2018, p. 96.
  55. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 18.
  56. ^ a b Bartošek 1965, p. 29.
  57. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 18–19.
  58. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 22–23.
  59. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 25.
  60. ^ Pynsent 2013, p. 296.
  61. ^ Vaughan, David (8 May 2003). "The Battle of the Airwaves: the extraordinary story of Czechoslovak Radio and the 1945 Prague Uprising". Radio Prague. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  62. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 24, 31.
  63. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 151.
  64. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 53, 128.
  65. ^ a b Bartošek 1965, pp. 50–54.
  66. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 51–53, 79, 127–128.
  67. ^ Erickson 1983, p. 634.
  68. ^ Patton & Harkins 1995, p. 327.
  69. ^ Glantz & House 1995, p. 273.
  70. ^ a b Kershaw 2012, p. 370.
  71. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 129, 135, 136.
  72. ^ . The City of Prague Museum. Archived from the original on 17 August 2020. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  73. ^ a b "Německé" (in Czech). Czech Radio. 19 April 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  74. ^ a b c Tampke 2002, p. 87.
  75. ^ a b MacDonald & Kaplan 1995, p. 190.
  76. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 155–157.
  77. ^ Andreyev 1989, p. 75.
  78. ^ a b Pynsent 2013, p. 284.
  79. ^ Act of Military Surrender Signed at Rheims at 0241 on the 7th day of May 1945, The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, © 1996–2007, The Lillian Goldman Law Library in Memory of Sol Goldman.
  80. ^ a b MacDonald & Kaplan 1995, p. 185.
  81. ^ a b c d Jakl 2013, p. 3.
  82. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 148.
  83. ^ a b MacDonald & Kaplan 1995, p. 192.
  84. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 196, 209–210.
  85. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 147.
  86. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 212.
  87. ^ "Masakr na Masarykově nádraží 8. 5. 1945" (in Czech). Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  88. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 211.
  89. ^ a b c d e f "Masakry českých civilistů a zajatců během Pražského povstání" (in Czech). Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  90. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 215–217.
  91. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 222.
  92. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 224.
  93. ^ Jakl 2013, p. 4.
  94. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 226.
  95. ^ Pynsent 2013, p. 288.
  96. ^ a b Lukes 2012, p. 50.
  97. ^ Glantz & House 1995, p. 300.
  98. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 232.
  99. ^ Pynsent 2013, p. 298.
  100. ^ Merten 2017, pp. 114–115.
  101. ^ Frommer 2005, pp. 40–41.
  102. ^ Frommer 2005, p. 41.
  103. ^ a b Frommer 2005, p. 40.
  104. ^ a b Pynsent 2013, p. 281.
  105. ^ Pynsent 2013, p. 321.
  106. ^ a b Pynsent 2013, p. 309.
  107. ^ Pynsent 2013, p. 320.
  108. ^ Duffy 2014, p. 283.
  109. ^ Pynsent 2013, p. 299.
  110. ^ Frommer 2005, p. 43.
  111. ^ Pynsent 2013, p. 280.
  112. ^ Puhl, Jan (2 June 2010). "Massacre in Czechoslovakia: Newly Discovered Film Shows Post-War Executions". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  113. ^ Lowe 2012, pp. 128–129.
  114. ^ Ther & Siljak 2001, p. 206.
  115. ^ Ther & Siljak 2001, p. 62.
  116. ^ a b Pynsent 2013, p. 282.
  117. ^ Marek 2005, p. 12.
  118. ^ MacDonald & Kaplan 1995, p. 198.
  119. ^ Pynsent 2013, p. 286.
  120. ^ Kertesz 1956, p. 203.
  121. ^ Lukes 2012, p. 4.
  122. ^ Swain & Swain 2017, pp. 153, 330.
  123. ^ Pynsent 2013, pp. 293–294.
  124. ^ Pynsent 2013, pp. 282–283, 285.
  125. ^ a b Pynsent 2013, pp. 284–285.
  126. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 227.

Bibliography edit

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  • Soukup, Jan (1946). Prhehled bojur Pražského povstání ve dnech 5.–9. kvehtna 1945, inPražská květnová revoluce 1945: k prvnímu výročí slavného povstání pražského lidu ve dnech 5.-9 (in Czech). Hlavní město Praha. pp. 16–45.
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External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Prague uprising.
  • Czechs commemorate Prague revolt, BBC News, 5 May 2005
  • , The Prague Post, 5 May 2005
  • Summary of the Prague uprising 2018-06-12 at the Wayback Machine
  • (in Czech) Picture gallery of Prague uprising - a gallery located at the official website of The Prague City Archives
  • (in Czech) Execution of German civilians in Prague (9 May 1945) (Czech TV documentary) (Adobe Flash Player, 2:32 min)
  • (in Czech) War crimes committed by Germans in Prague, including graphic images

April 11, 2024
prague, uprising, 1848, events, 1848, part, eastern, front, world, iiprague, residents, putting, barricade, background, german, language, sign, been, painted, over, date5, 1945locationprague, bohemia, moravia50, 07861, 43444, 07861, 43444resultinconclusivebell. For the 1848 events see Prague uprising 1848 Prague uprisingPart of the Eastern Front of World War IIPrague residents putting up a barricade 6 May In the background a German language sign has been painted over Date5 9 May 1945LocationPrague Bohemia and Moravia50 04 43 N 14 26 04 E 50 07861 N 14 43444 E 50 07861 14 43444ResultInconclusiveBelligerentsCzech resistance Russian Liberation Army GermanyStrength30 000 insurgents 1 a 18 000 Russian Liberation Army defectors 7 40 000 1 b Several aircraft 11 Casualties and losses1 694 2 898 insurgents killed 12 13 c 3 000 insurgents wounded 16 17 300 ROA defectors killed and wounded 18 19 d 380 953 killed 20 e 263 2 000 Czech civilians killed 18 21 1 000 German civilians killed 22 f The Prague uprising Czech Prazske povstani was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945 during the end of World War II The preceding six years of occupation had fuelled anti German sentiment and the rapid advance of Allied forces from the Red Army and the United States Army offered the resistance a chance of success On 5 May 1945 during the end of World War II in Europe occupying German forces in Bohemia and Moravia were spontaneously attacked by civilians in an uprising with Czech resistance leaders emerging from hiding to join them The Russian Liberation Army ROA a collaborationist formation of ethnic Russians defected and supported the insurgents German forces counter attacked but their progress was slowed by barricades constructed by the insurgents On 8 May the Czech and German leaders signed a ceasefire allowing all German forces to withdraw from the city but some Waffen SS troops refused to obey Fighting continued until 9 May when the Red Army entered the nearly liberated city The uprising was brutal with both sides committing several war crimes German forces used Czech civilians as human shields and perpetrated several massacres Violence against German civilians sanctioned by the Czechoslovak government in exile continued after the uprising and was justified as revenge for the occupation or as a means to encourage Germans to flee George S Patton s Third United States Army was ordered by Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D Eisenhower not to come to the aid of the Czech insurgents which undermined the credibility of the Western powers in post war Czechoslovakia Instead the uprising was presented as a symbol of Czech resistance to Nazi rule and the liberation by the Red Army was used by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia to increase popular support for the party Contents 1 Background 1 1 German occupation 1 2 Military situation 2 Uprising 2 1 5 May 2 2 6 May 2 3 7 May 2 4 8 May 2 5 9 May 3 War crimes 3 1 German 3 2 Czech 4 Legacy 5 References 5 1 Notes 5 2 Citations 5 3 Bibliography 6 External linksBackground editGerman occupation edit In 1938 the Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler announced his intention to annex the Sudetenland a region of Czechoslovakia with a high ethnic German population 24 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier acquiesced to Hitler s demands at the Munich Agreement in exchange for guarantees from Nazi Germany that no additional lands would be annexed No Czechoslovak representatives were present at the negotiations 25 In March 1939 German forces invaded and occupied the remaining Czech territories establishing the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia 26 Although France had a defensive alliance with Czechoslovakia neither the French nor British intervened militarily The Nazis considered many Czechs to be racially Aryan and therefore suitable for Germanisation 27 As a consequence the German occupation was less harsh than in other predominantly Slavic nations with wartime living standards being actually higher than in Germany itself 28 However freedom of speech was curtailed by the occupational government and 400 000 Czechs were conscripted for forced labour programs in Nazi Germany 29 During the six year occupation more than 20 000 Czechs were executed by German forces and thousands more died in concentration camps 30 While the general violence of the occupation was much less severe than in Eastern Europe it nevertheless incited violent anti German sentiment in many Czechs 28 31 32 Military situation edit nbsp nbsp 8th Army nbsp 6th SS Panzer Army nbsp 1st Panzer Army nbsp 17th Army nbsp 4th Panzer Army nbsp 7th Army nbsp 1st Army nbsp 3rd Army nbsp 1st Ukrainian Front nbsp 4th Ukrainian Front nbsp 2nd Ukrainian Front nbsp Pragueclass notpageimage Positions of armies on 6 May 1945 Soviet forces in red German in gray and United States in green During the spring of 1945 partisan forces in Bohemia and Moravia totalled about 120 groups with a combined strength of around 7 500 people 33 Partisans disrupted the railway and highway transportation by sabotaging track and bridges and attacking trains and stations Some railways could not be used at night or on some days and trains were forced to travel at a slower speed 34 Waffen SS units retreating from the Red Army s advance into Moravia burned down several villages in reprisal 17 Despite losing much of their leadership to a March 1945 purge by the Gestapo Communist groups in Prague distributed propaganda leaflets calling for an insurrection 35 36 37 German soldiers and civilians became increasingly worried and prepared to flee violent retaliation for the occupation 38 In an attempt to reassert German authority SS police official Karl Hermann Frank broadcast a message over the radio threatening to destroy Prague and drown any opposition in blood 39 In early 1945 former Czechoslovak Army officers set up the Bartos Command cs commanded by General Karel Kutlvasr to oversee fighting inside Prague and the Alex Command cs under General Frantisek Slunecko to direct insurgent units in the suburbs 40 Meanwhile the Czech National Council cs with representatives from various Czech political parties formed to take over political leadership after the overthrow of the Nazi occupational government and the collaborationist authorities 41 Military leaders planning an uprising within Prague counted on the loyalty of ethnically Czech members of the city police gendarmerie and the Government Army of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia as well as employees of key civil services such as transport workers and the fire brigade 42 The 1st Infantry Division of the Russian Liberation Army ROA composed of Soviet prisoners of war that had agreed to fight for Germany was stationed outside of Prague Hoping that the ROA could be persuaded to switch sides in order to avoid accusations of collaboration the Czech military command sent an envoy to General Sergei Bunyachenko the commander of the 600th Infantry Division Bunyachenko agreed to switch sides to help the Czech resistance 7 43 As the ROA soldiers were wearing German uniforms it was decided that they would be given Russian white blue red flags to distinguish them 44 On 4 May the US Third Army under General George S Patton entered Czechoslovakia 45 46 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was the only political leader to advocate the liberation of Prague by the Western Allies In a telegram to General Dwight D Eisenhower the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Churchill said that the liberation of Prague by US troops might make the whole difference to the postwar situation of Czechoslovakia and might well influence that in nearby countries 47 Joseph Stalin leader of the Soviet Union also wanted his forces to liberate the city and asked that the Americans stop at Plzen 50 miles 80 km to the west 48 The Red Army was planning a major offensive into the Protectorate due to start 7 May 49 Eisenhower disinclined to accept American casualties or risk antagonising the Soviet Union acquiesced to the Soviet demands that the Red Army enter Prague 50 Uprising editSee also Prague Offensive 5 May edit nbsp Prague shop owner painting over German language signage on 4 MayStaff of Czech Radio opposed to the occupation began the morning by broadcasting in the banned Czech language 51 The Bartos Command and Communist groups met separately and both scheduled the armed uprising to begin 7 May 52 Czech citizens gathered in the streets vandalised German inscriptions and tore down German flags 43 Czechoslovak flags appeared openly in windows and on jacket lapels 53 54 Tram operators refused to accept Reichsmark or to give the stops in German as was required by the occupiers Some German soldiers were surrounded and killed 21 In response to growing popular agitation Frank threatened to shoot Czechs gathering in the streets 55 and increased armed German patrols 56 Some German soldiers began to fire into the crowds 57 Around noon the radio broadcast a series of appeals to the police and gendarmerie requesting aid in fighting SS guards inside the radio building 58 A detachment of Government Army policemen responded to the call and met stiff resistance as they retook the building 59 60 During the entire time the radio continued to broadcast 61 Although not directed at the populace the appeal ignited fighting all over the city concentrated in the downtown districts 62 Crowds of unarmed civilians mostly young men with no military training overwhelmed German garrisons and stores 5 Many casualties were inflicted by German soldiers and civilians sniping from strong points or rooftops in response Czech forces began to intern Germans and suspected collaborators 56 Czech noncombatants assisted by setting up makeshift hospitals for the wounded and bringing food water and other necessities to the barricades while German forces were often resorted to looting to obtain essential supplies 63 Czech forces seized thousands of firearms hundreds of Panzerfausts and five armoured vehicles but still suffered a shortage of weapons 64 By the end of the day the resistance had seized most of the city east of the Vltava River The insurgents held many important buildings including the radio the telephone exchange most railway stations and ten of twelve bridges Three thousand prisoners were liberated from Pankrac Prison 65 By controlling the telephone exchange resistance fighters were able to sever communication between German units and commanders German forces held most of the territory to the west of the river including an airfield at Ruzyne northwest of the city and various surrounded garrisons such as the Gestapo Headquarters 65 At the orders of Field Marshal Ferdinand Schorner in command of Axis forces in Bohemia Waffen SS units were pulled from fighting the Red Army and sent into Prague The SS was relatively well equipped with tanks armoured carriers weaponry and motorised units Information on this force movement reached insurgent headquarters late in the day 66 The radio broadcast appeals in English and Russian for an air attack on the tanks 67 Hearing of events in Prague Patton asked for permission to advance to the Vltava in order to aid the Czech resistance but Eisenhower refused 50 g The Red Army was ordered to advance the launch of its offensive to 6 May 69 70 6 May edit nbsp Barricade at Olsany cemeteryLate in the evening on 5 May the radio broadcast an appeal to the people in the streets of Prague to build barricades in order to slow the anticipated German attack Despite poor weather tens of thousands of civilians worked overnight to construct over 1 600 barricades by morning 71 A total of 2 049 were constructed by the end of the uprising 72 SS General Carl Friedrich von Puckler Burghauss ordered the Luftwaffe to firebomb Prague but the attack had to be scaled back due to lack of fuel 70 The first strike was made by two Messerschmitt Me 262A jet fighter bombers from elements of KG 51 at Ruzyne 73 One of their targets was the radio building which was hit by a 250 kg bomb that disabled the transmitter However the radio continued to broadcast from alternate locations 73 In successive attacks the Luftwaffe bombed barricades and hit apartment buildings with incendiary bombs causing many civilian casualties 74 75 At midday the First Battalion of the ROA entered Prague and attacked the Germans 54 76 during its time in Prague it disarmed around 10 000 German soldiers 7 An American reconnaissance patrol met with an ROA officer as well as Czech leaders This was when the Czechs learnt of the demarcation line agreement and that the Third Army was not coming to liberate Prague As a consequence the Czech National Council which had not been involved in negotiations with Bunyachenko denounced the ROA 77 A Soviet liberation meant that they could not politically afford to endorse the ROA whom Stalin considered traitors 7 54 Despite the rejection of the ROA their aid to Prague became a point of friction between Moscow and Czechoslovakia after the war 78 7 May edit nbsp Captured AMR 35 tanks deployed by insurgents on Bartolomejska street in the Old TownUnder the terms of the provisional unconditional surrender signed in the early hours of 7 May German forces had a forty eight hour grace period to cease offensive operations 79 Eisenhower hoped that the capitulation would put an end to the fighting in Prague and therefore obviate American intervention 80 However the German leadership was determined to use the grace period to move as many soldiers as possible westward to surrender to the Americans 81 Schorner denounced the rumours of a ceasefire in Prague and said that the truce did not apply to German forces fighting the Red Army or Czech insurgents 80 In order to gain control of Prague s transportation network the Germans launched their strongest attack of the uprising 81 Waffen SS armoured and artillery units arriving in Prague gradually punched through the barricades with several tank attacks 82 Intense fighting was accompanied with the SS use of Czech civilians as human shields 6 and damage to the Old Town Hall and other historic buildings 83 When the Bartos Command learnt of the Rheims surrender it ordered an immediate ceasefire for Czech forces This caused some confusion among the defenders who were also suffering from desertion due to the worsening military situation 84 The ROA played a decisive role in slowing the progress of the Germans 81 but withdrew from Prague over the afternoon and evening in order to surrender to the US Army Only a few ROA units stayed in the city departing late on 8 May 6 With the bulk of the ROA gone the poorly armed and untrained Czech insurgents fared badly against the reinforced German forces 83 By the end of the day German forces had taken much of the rebel held territory east of the Vltava with the resistance only holding a salient in the Vinohrady Strasnice area 85 ROA forces captured the Luftwaffe airfield at Ruzyne destroying several aircraft 11 8 May edit nbsp Destroyed German self propelled artillery in Klarov cs 9 MayIn the morning the Germans made an air and artillery bombardment followed by a renewed infantry attack 86 The fighting was almost as intense as the previous day One particularly fierce battle took place at the Masaryk train station At 10 am SS troops captured the station and murdered around 50 surrendered resistance fighters and noncombatants cs 6 h In one of the last battles of the uprising Czech insurgents regained the train station at 2 am on 9 May 6 and photographed the victims bodies 89 Faced with military collapse no arriving Allied help and threats to destroy the city the Czech National Council agreed to negotiate with Wehrmacht General Rudolf Toussaint 90 Toussaint running out of time to evacuate Wehrmacht units westward was in an equally desperate position 81 After several hours of negotiations it was agreed that on the morning of 9 May the Czechs would allow German soldiers to pass westward through Prague and in exchange German forces leaving the city would surrender their arms 91 A ceasefire was finally agreed to around midnight However some pockets of German forces were unaware of or disobeyed the ceasefire 78 and civilians feared a continuation of the German atrocities which had intensified over the previous two days Late in the evening reports reached Prague of the liberation of Theresienstadt concentration camp northwest of the city and the advance of the Red Army into other areas north of Prague 92 9 May edit nbsp Residents greet Marshal Ivan Konev upon the arrival of the Red Army on 9 May 1945 The last of the German forces to escape Prague left in the early hours of the morning 93 At 4 00 elements of the 1st Ukrainian Front reached the suburbs of Prague Fighting was mostly with isolated SS units that had been prevented from withdrawing by Czech insurgents Over the next few hours the Red Army quickly overcame the remaining German forces 94 Because most of the Germans had already left the 1st Ukrainian Front avoided the house to house fighting that had occurred in the capture of Budapest and Vienna 95 The Red Army lost only ten soldiers in what has been described as their easiest victory of the war 96 i At 8 00 am the tanks reached the centre city and the radio announced the arrival of the Soviet forces Czechs poured out into the streets to welcome the Red Army 98 War crimes editGerman edit nbsp Victims of the massacre at Masaryk stationGerman forces committed war crimes against Czech civilians throughout the uprising Many people were killed in summary executions and the SS used Czech civilians as human shields 1 6 forced them to clear barricades at gunpoint and threatened to shoot hostages in revenge for German soldiers killed in action 89 When tanks were halted by barricades they were known to fire into surrounding houses 89 After violently evicting or murdering the inhabitants German soldiers looted and burned Czech houses and apartment buildings 89 On several occasions more than twenty people were killed at once most of the massacres occurred on 7 and 8 May 89 Among those killed were pregnant women and young children and some of the dead were found mutilated 74 99 After the uprising a Czech police report described war crimes committed by the Nazis The doors of houses and flats were burst in houses and shops were plundered dwellings were demolished The inhabitants were driven from their homes and forced to form a living wall with their bodies to protect German patrols and constantly threatened with automatic pistols Many Czechs lay dead in the streets 74 100 In addition to the war crimes committed by the Wehrmacht and the SS Luftwaffe soldiers along with the SA participated in the torture and murder of prisoners held at the Na Prazacce school 89 Czech edit The Czechoslovak government in exile planned to expel the German minority of Czechoslovakia in order to create an ethnically pure Czech Slovak nation state 17 32 Throughout the occupation Czech politicians had broadcast messages from London calling for violence against German civilians and suspected Czech collaborators 32 President Edvard Benes believed that vigilante justice would be less divisive than trials and that encouraging Germans to flee would spare the effort of deporting them later 101 Before he arrived in Czechoslovakia he broadcast that everyone who deserves death should be totally liquidated in the popular storm 102 and urged the resistance to avenge Nazi crimes a thousand times over 103 Minister of Justice Prokop Drtina cs asked resistance leaders to make liberation bloody for the Germans and to drive them out with violence 103 Communist leaders also supported the violence 32 Military leaders not only overlooked anti German massacres and failed to punish the perpetrators but actively encouraged them 104 The Czech Radio likely played a role in inciting the violence by passing on the anti German messages of these political leaders 21 32 as well as broadcasting anti German messages on its own initiative 104 Almost no one was prosecuted for violence against Germans and a bill was proposed in the postwar parliament that would have retroactively legalised it 105 In Prague Czech insurgents killed surrendered Nazi German soldiers and German civilians both before and after the arrival of the Red Army 106 Historian Robert Pynsent cs argues that there was no clear cut distinction between the end of the uprising and the beginning of the expulsions 107 Some captured German soldiers were hanged from lampposts and burned to death 75 108 or otherwise tortured and mutilated 109 Czech rioters also assaulted raped and robbed German civilians 21 Not all those killed or affected by anti German violence were actually German or collaborators as perpetrators frequently acted on suspicion 106 110 or exploited the chaos to settle personal grudges 111 In one massacre at Borislavka on 10 May forty German civilians were murdered 112 During and after the uprising thousands of German civilians and surrendered soldiers were interned in makeshift camps where food and hygiene were poor Survivors claimed that beatings and rape were commonplace 113 114 The violence against German civilians continued throughout the summer culminating in the expulsion of Sudeten Germans About three million Czechoslovak citizens of German ethnicity were stripped of their citizenship and property and forcibly deported 115 Legacy edit nbsp Memorial statue of a fallen barricade defender at Barricade Bridge cs in Prague As the greatest military action of the Czechs for freedom and national independence fought on their own territory j in the words of journalist Jindrich Marek cs 117 the Prague uprising became a national myth of the new Czechoslovak republic and the subject of much literature 116 The Western Allies failure to liberate Prague was seen as emblematic of their lack of concern for Czechoslovakia first demonstrated by the Munich Agreement It also served as a blow to democratic forces within the country who opposed Czechoslovakia s drift towards communism in the years after the war 50 It was not forgotten that Stalin had opposed the Munich Agreement and Prague s liberation by the Red Army turned public opinion in favour of communism 118 k Few Czechs were aware of the demarcation line agreement between the Western Allied and Soviet forces 119 allowing communists to accuse the American forces of having remained a cowardly or cynical onlooker while Prague was struggling for life in the words of Hungarian historian Stephen Kertesz 120 According to British diplomat Sir Orme Sargent the Prague uprising was the moment that Czechoslovakia was now definitely lost to the West 50 In 1948 the democratic government of Czechoslovakia was toppled by a Communist coup d etat 121 Following the coup Czechoslovakia became a communist state aligned with the Soviet Union until the Velvet Revolution in 1989 122 The Communist government attempted to discredit the Czech resistance which was considered a threat to Communist legitimacy by purging or arresting former resistance leaders 123 and distorting history for instance overstating the role of the working class in the uprising l and inflating the number of Red Army soldiers killed in Prague 124 m References editNotes edit A few thousand of these were policemen from the Prague police and gendarmerie as well as soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the Government Army all of whom were lightly armed 2 The remainder were civilians mostly young men with no prior military training 3 4 Numerous female civilians fought in the uprising while others were escaped Allied prisoners of war some of whom were Soviet British French and Dutch or Jews who had escaped from Nazi concentration camps 5 6 Approximately 10 000 of these were Waffen SS troops who were sent to Prague after the start of the uprising 8 The remainder included regular Wehrmacht infantry Luftwaffe personnel from the disbanded I Flak Corps Hitler Youth members and armed German civilians 9 10 The lower figure is the official estimate published in 1946 14 Only casualties whose identity could be verified were included 15 The higher figure is argued by Marek 13 Bunyachenko stated that ROA casualties in the uprising were 300 killed or wounded but MacDonald suggests that this may have been exaggerated for political purposes as Bunyachenko was trying to avoid being handed over into Soviet captivity 19 These figures in theory included civilian casualties However Stanek considers the total number of Germans killed during the uprising to be well above 1 000 20 The official figure of 1 000 German civilian casualties is almost certainly an underestimate especially considering the scope and nature of the violence that took place in and around the city and doesn t take into account official attempts to play down the violence against civilians For example of 300 Germans buried in a mass grave in a suburb of Prague three quarters were classified as military casualties despite the fact that a majority were wearing civilian clothes 23 About this decision Patton later wrote I felt and I still feel that we should have gone on to the Vltava River and if the Russians didn t like it let them go to hell I did not find out until weeks afterwards the reasons which were sound which implemented General Eisenhower s decision 68 According to the police report there were 53 victims 87 Bartosek says that 47 were killed 88 Pynsent s figure is 58 6 The offensive that had put the 1st Ukrainian Front in position to liberate Prague was less bloodless with Soviet forces suffering nearly 50 000 casualties 97 Pynsent points out that this is a true but weak statement because the Czech lands had not been the site of major armed insurrection either before 1945 or afterwards 116 This took place in spite of multiple instances during the Red Army s advance into the country where Soviet soldiers committed rape and stole from the Czech civilian population 96 In fact the majority of those killed were from the petite bourgeoisie and less than a fifth were working class 15 Communist sources give between 400 and 500 Red Army soldiers killed which is more than an order of magnitude over that estimated by the best sources 125 Such inflation is often accompanied by rhetoric similar to Bartosek s statement that on 9 May the alliance of the fraternal peoples of the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia was sealed in blood 126 125 Citations edit a b c Mahoney 2011 p 191 Bartosek 1965 pp 34 35 Bartosek 1965 p 55 Bartosek 1965 pp 149 150 a b Bartosek 1965 p 53 a b c d e f g Pynsent 2013 p 297 a b c d Julicher 2015 p 171 Dickerson 2018 p 97 Bartosek 1965 p 54 Jakl 2004 p 25 a b Thomas amp Ketley 2015 p 284 Kokoska 2005 p 258 a b Publikace kterou historiografie potrebovala padli z prazskych barikad 1945 Vojenskem historickem ustavu Praha 3 May 2015 Retrieved 20 June 2018 Soukup 1946 p 42 a b Pynsent 2013 p 285 Soukup 1946 p 39 a b c Orzoff 2009 p 207 a b Marek 2005 pp 13 14 a b MacDonald amp Kaplan 1995 p 186 a b Stanek 2005 p 197 a b c d Merten 2017 p 114 Lowe 2012 p 127 Lowe 2012 pp 127 128 Noakes amp Pridham 2010 p 102 Bryant 2007 p 24 Bryant 2007 p 28 Bryant 2007 p 126 a b Duffy 2014 p 282 Kuklik 2015 p 118 Ėrlikhman 2004 p 54 Bryant 2007 p 62 a b c d e Frommer 2005 p 42 Bartosek 1965 p 101 Bartosek 1965 pp 101 102 Bartosek 1965 p 42 Bartosek 1965 p 75 Bartosek 1965 p 113 Bartosek 1965 pp 76 77 Projev K H Franka k ceskemu narodu 30 4 1945 in Czech Retrieved 3 July 2018 Bartosek 1965 pp 34 36 Bartosek 1965 pp 34 40 41 Bartosek 1965 p 35 a b MacDonald amp Kaplan 1995 p 175 Joachim Hoffmann 1984 Die Geschichte der Wlassow Armee Rombach p 216 ISBN 9783793001867 Retrieved 11 January 2024 Noch in der Nacht vom 5 zum 6 Mai wurden die Angriffsziele in Prag vom Divisionsstab und Vertretern des tschechischen Militarkommandos Bartos besprochen und festgelegt Es wurde auch beschlossen die Soldaten der 1 Division der ROA zur Unterscheidung von den ahnlich uniformierten deutschen Soldaten mit weiss blau roten Trikoloren zu versehen Fuller 2003 p 108 Fuller 2003 p 149 Olson 2018 p 427 Erickson 1983 pp 625 630 Erickson 1983 p 627 a b c d Olson 2018 p 429 Bartosek 1965 pp 18 22 23 Pynsent 2013 pp 290 296 Bartosek 1965 p 19 a b c Dickerson 2018 p 96 Bartosek 1965 p 18 a b Bartosek 1965 p 29 Bartosek 1965 pp 18 19 Bartosek 1965 pp 22 23 Bartosek 1965 p 25 Pynsent 2013 p 296 Vaughan David 8 May 2003 The Battle of the Airwaves the extraordinary story of Czechoslovak Radio and the 1945 Prague Uprising Radio Prague Retrieved 6 July 2018 Bartosek 1965 pp 24 31 Bartosek 1965 p 151 Bartosek 1965 pp 53 128 a b Bartosek 1965 pp 50 54 Bartosek 1965 pp 51 53 79 127 128 Erickson 1983 p 634 Patton amp Harkins 1995 p 327 Glantz amp House 1995 p 273 a b Kershaw 2012 p 370 Bartosek 1965 pp 129 135 136 Build Barricades Exhibition to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Prague Uprising The City of Prague Museum Archived from the original on 17 August 2020 Retrieved 20 June 2018 a b Nemecke in Czech Czech Radio 19 April 2015 Retrieved 27 June 2018 a b c Tampke 2002 p 87 a b MacDonald amp Kaplan 1995 p 190 Bartosek 1965 pp 155 157 Andreyev 1989 p 75 a b Pynsent 2013 p 284 Act of Military Surrender Signed at Rheims at 0241 on the 7th day of May 1945 The Avalon Project Yale Law School c 1996 2007 The Lillian Goldman Law Library in Memory of Sol Goldman a b MacDonald amp Kaplan 1995 p 185 a b c d Jakl 2013 p 3 Bartosek 1965 p 148 a b MacDonald amp Kaplan 1995 p 192 Bartosek 1965 pp 196 209 210 Bartosek 1965 p 147 Bartosek 1965 p 212 Masakr na Masarykove nadrazi 8 5 1945 in Czech Retrieved 16 June 2018 Bartosek 1965 p 211 a b c d e f Masakry ceskych civilistu a zajatcu behem Prazskeho povstani in Czech Retrieved 7 July 2018 Bartosek 1965 pp 215 217 Bartosek 1965 p 222 Bartosek 1965 p 224 Jakl 2013 p 4 Bartosek 1965 p 226 Pynsent 2013 p 288 a b Lukes 2012 p 50 Glantz amp House 1995 p 300 Bartosek 1965 p 232 Pynsent 2013 p 298 Merten 2017 pp 114 115 Frommer 2005 pp 40 41 Frommer 2005 p 41 a b Frommer 2005 p 40 a b Pynsent 2013 p 281 Pynsent 2013 p 321 a b Pynsent 2013 p 309 Pynsent 2013 p 320 Duffy 2014 p 283 Pynsent 2013 p 299 Frommer 2005 p 43 Pynsent 2013 p 280 Puhl Jan 2 June 2010 Massacre in Czechoslovakia Newly Discovered Film Shows Post War Executions Spiegel Online Retrieved 24 June 2018 Lowe 2012 pp 128 129 Ther amp Siljak 2001 p 206 Ther amp Siljak 2001 p 62 a b Pynsent 2013 p 282 Marek 2005 p 12 MacDonald amp Kaplan 1995 p 198 Pynsent 2013 p 286 Kertesz 1956 p 203 Lukes 2012 p 4 Swain amp Swain 2017 pp 153 330 Pynsent 2013 pp 293 294 Pynsent 2013 pp 282 283 285 a b Pynsent 2013 pp 284 285 Bartosek 1965 p 227 Bibliography edit Andreyev Catherine 1989 Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement Soviet Reality and Emigre Theories Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521389600 Bartosek Karel 1965 The Prague Uprising Artia Bryant Chad Carl 2007 Prague in Black Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism Harvard University Press ISBN 9780674024519 Burian Michal 2002 Assassination Operation Arthropoid 1941 1942 PDF Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic Retrieved 20 May 2010 Dickerson Bryan J 2018 The Liberators of Pilsen The U S 16th Armored Division in World War II Czechoslovakia McFarland ISBN 9781476671147 Duffy Christopher 2014 Red Storm on the Reich The Soviet March on Germany 1945 Routledge ISBN 9781136360336 Erickson John 1983 The Road to Berlin London Weidenfeld amp Nicolson ISBN 978 0297772385 Ėrlikhman Vadim 2004 Poteri narodonaselenii a v XX veke spravochnik Moskva Russkai a panorama ISBN 978 5 93165 107 1 Frommer Benjamin 2005 National Cleansing Retribution Against Nazi Collaborators in Postwar Czechoslovakia Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521008969 Fuller Robert Paul 2003 Last Shots for Patton s Third Army New England Transportation Research ISBN 9780974051901 Glantz David M House Jonathan M 1995 When Titans Clashed How the Red Army Stopped Hitler Lawrence University Press of Kansas ISBN 978 0 7006 0899 7 Jakl Tomas 2004 Kveten 1945 v ceskych zemich in English and Czech Miroslav Bily ISBN 9788086524078 2013 Ceske narodni povstani v kvetnu 1945 in Czech Vojensky historicky ustav Praha Julicher Peter 2015 Enemies of the People Under the Soviets A History of Repression and Its Consequences McFarland ISBN 9780786496716 Kershaw Ian 2012 The End The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler s Germany 1944 1945 Penguin ISBN 9780143122135 Kertesz Stephen Denis 1956 The fate of East Central Europe hopes and failures of American foreign policy University of Notre Dame Press ISBN 9780598159373 Kokoska Stanislav 2005 Praha v kvetnu 1945 historie jednoho povstani in Czech Lidove noviny ISBN 9788071067405 Kuklik Jan 2015 Czech law in historical contexts Charles University in Prague Karolinum Press ISBN 9788024628608 Lowe Keith 2012 Savage Continent Europe in the Aftermath of World War II St Martin s Press ISBN 9781250015044 Lukes Igor 2012 On the Edge of the Cold War American Diplomats and Spies in Postwar Prague Oxford University Press ISBN 9780195166798 MacDonald Callum Kaplan Jan 1995 Prague in the shadow of the swastika a history of the German occupation 1939 1945 Melantrich ISBN 9788070232118 Mahoney William 2011 The History of the Czech Republic and Slovakia ABC CLIO ISBN 9780313363061 Marek Jindrich in Czech 2005 Barikada z kastanu prazske povstani v kvetnu 1945 a jeho skutecni hrdinove in Czech Svet kridel ISBN 9788086808161 2015 Padli na barikadach padli a zemreli ve dnech Prazskeho povstani 5 9 kvetna 1945 in Czech Vojensky Historicky Ustav ISBN 9788072786527 Mastny Vojtech 1971 The Czechs Under Nazi Rule The Failure of National Resistance 1939 1942 New York Columbia University Press ISBN 978 0 231 03303 9 Merten Ulrich 2017 Forgotten Voices The Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern Europe After World War II Routledge ISBN 9781351519540 Noakes J Pridham G 2010 2001 Nazism 1919 1945 Foreign Policy War and Racial Extermination Vol 3 2nd ed Devon University of Exeter Press Okecki Stanislaw 1987 Polacy W Ruchu Oporu Narodow Europy PWN Polish Scientific Publishers ISBN 9788301068608 Olson Lynne 2018 Last Hope Island Britain Occupied Europe and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War Random House Publishing Group ISBN 9780812987164 Orzoff Andrea 2009 Battle for the Castle The Myth of Czechoslovakia in Europe 1914 1948 Oxford University Press ISBN 9780199709953 Patton George Smith Harkins Paul Donal 1995 War as I Knew it Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ISBN 978 0395735299 Pynsent Robert B in Czech 18 July 2013 Conclusory Essay Activists Jews The Little Czech Man and Germans PDF Central Europe 5 2 211 333 doi 10 1179 174582107x190906 S2CID 144749278 Roucka Zdenek Skonceno a podepsano Drama Prazskeho povstani Accomplished And Signed Pictures of the Prague Uprising 163 pages Plzen ZR amp T 2003 ISBN 80 238 9597 4 Stanek Tomas 2005 Povalecne excesy v ceskych zemich v roce 1945 a jejich vysetrovani in Czech Ustav pro soudobe dejiny ISBN 9788072850624 Soukup Jan 1946 Prhehled bojur Prazskeho povstani ve dnech 5 9 kvehtna 1945 inPrazska kvetnova revoluce 1945 k prvnimu vyroci slavneho povstani prazskeho lidu ve dnech 5 9 in Czech Hlavni mesto Praha pp 16 45 Swain Geoffrey Swain Nigel 2017 Eastern Europe Since 1945 Macmillan International Higher Education ISBN 9781137605139 permanent dead link Tampke Jurgen 2002 Czech German Relations and the Politics of Central Europe From Bohemia to the EU Springer ISBN 9780230505629 Ther Philipp Siljak Ana 2001 Redrawing Nations Ethnic Cleansing in East Central Europe 1944 1948 Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 9780742510944 Thomas Geoffrey J Ketley Barry 2015 Luftwaffe KG 200 The German Air Force s Most Secret Unit of World War II Stackpole Books ISBN 9780811716611 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Prague uprising Czechs commemorate Prague revolt BBC News 5 May 2005 Prague s war Legacy of questions Historians still debate myths and mysteries of the liberation The Prague Post 5 May 2005 Summary of the Prague uprising Archived 2018 06 12 at the Wayback Machine in Czech Picture gallery of Prague uprising a gallery located at the official website of The Prague City Archives in Czech Execution of German civilians in Prague 9 May 1945 Czech TV documentary Adobe Flash Player 2 32 min in Czech War crimes committed by Germans in Prague including graphic images Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Prague uprising amp oldid 1212087665, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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