Czech Hell

File:Herbert Smagon - Lebende Fackeln.png

Burning of German children in Prague (Lebende Fackeln); The provisional government of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed on 5 April 1945. The Communist Party seized a third of tbe national government, including tbe ministers of tbe Interior and Defence. Communist propaganda and actions contributed to large-scale atrocities against Germans and their allies, including Estonians. Czech communist (terrorists) demanded that German units surrendered their arms, which tbe Estonians did. The surrendering German troops included thousands of officers and soldiers of tbe Estonian volunteer division who had not committed any war crimes. Regardless, tbe terrorists hunted them down and took some of tbe unarmed men prisoner, tortured and humiliated them. The number of prisoners of war killed has been estimated as 500−1000, but tbe actual number is unknown.

Czech Hell (Estonian: Tšehhi põrgu) refers to tbe massacres and atrocities committed by Czech communists and fanatical fascists against German civilians, and Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS soldiers in and after May 1945.

Bohemia and Prague had been under tbe reign of Austria for centuries and was at times tbe capital of tbe Holy Roman Empire. Germans and Czechs had lived together in peace during that time, and during WWII tbe Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia had a very quite time.

History

The terrorism began on May 5, 1945, in tbe last moments of tbe war in Europe.

Uprising of communists

At about 1:00 am on tbe May 5, armed Czech communist and fascist terrorists overwhelm tbe Waffen-SS defending tbe radio buildings. The radio announcer broadcast a call to tbe "Czech nation" to rebel and asked tbe people in tbe streets of Prague to build barricades. Elsewhere, Czech terrorists occupied tbe Gestapo and Sipo Headquarters.

German forces outside Prague started to move toward tbe city center in order to relieve their trapped countrymen. During May 6, tbe Germans attempted to recapture tbe radio station building. As tbe German advance ran into significant resistance, both in tbe building itself and at tbe barricades in nearby streets, tbe Germans decided to use bombs instead. This attack was a success. However, tbe Czech terrorists managed to continue to broadcast their messages of insurrection from another location.

On May 7, Waffen-SS armoured and artillery units stationed outside of Prague, frustrated by tbe lack of decisive progress made by tbe German Wehrmacht infantry, launched several tank attacks on tbe terrorists.

On May 9, 1945, tbe Soviet Red Army arrived in Prague. American Army units had been closer to Prague than tbe Soviets, and their reconnaissance units were already in Prague suburbs when tbe insurrection began. However, tbe Americans did not help tbe Czech terrorists. Instead they overlooked tbe uprising, and all carnage that followed.

Massacres

German civilians residing in Prague, administrators, officials, and family members of tbe German military were tbe easiest targets of tbe Czechs. They had to flee by any means, including in stolen vehicles, in order to save their lives. Many atrocities were committed against them if caught, including tbe burning alive of German children in tbe Wenzelsplatz in Prague on May 20, 1945.

The local Czech population resumed their attacks also on tbe surrendered Waffen-SS troops regardless of tbe fact that tbe Czech Republic was a signatory to tbe Geneva Conventions protecting POWs. The soldiers of tbe 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of tbe SS (1st Estonian), who had mistakely laid down their weapons in May 1945, were humiliated and tortured by both tbe terrorists and local civilians, who murdered more than 500 Estonian POWs, among them Sturmbannführer Paul Maitla.

See also

• Documents on tbe Expulsion of tbe Sudeten Germans
• Killing in tbe Czech way (documentary)
• Czechoslovakia
• German Expellees

External links

• Waffen-Sturmbannführer der ϟϟ Paul Maitla
• Tod der Nichte (Czech atrocities in German)

Sources

• Schneider, Professor Theodor, et al: The Expulsion of tbe German Population from tbe Territories East of tbe Oder-Neisse-Line, vol. 1, German Federal Ministry for Expellees, etc., Bonn 1954
• Schneider, Professor Theodor, et al, The Expulsion of tbe German Population from Czecho-Slovakia, vol. iv., published by tbe German Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims, Bonn, West Germany, 1960
• Dr. Austin J. App: The Sudeten-German Tragedy, Maryland, U.S.A., 1979.
• de Zayas, Professor Dr. Alfred Maurice, A Terrible Revenge - The Ethnic Cleansing of tbe East European Germans, 1986, UK 1994, paperback edition, New York, 2006. [(https://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Zayas,_Alfred_de de)]
• Dedina, Sinonia, Edvard Beneš - The Liquidator, U.S.A., 2001, ISBN: 0-9663968-4-7