Ostrava Liberation Day - April 30

We visited the celebrations of liberation of Ostrava in 1945. First we watched soldiers laying flower wreaths at a memorial in Komenskeho Sady. Some of the living veterans got medals and the dead veterans got flower wreaths. Some politicans had speeches. Then we watched planes flying over the city. It was very noisy. Then we had an opportunity to have a look at historical and modern army equipment. Some of us stayed until afternoon to watch the battle of Ostrava reenactment with planes, tanks, historical cars and soldiers in old uniforms. It was very noisy and smelly and scary. It was also crowded. We could pick empty patrons after the battle. I would not want to be in a war. I hope that wars can be prevented by negotiations.

(Filip, grade 9)

LEST WE FORGET

In 9 grade, we have studied lives of Czechoslovak WWII  veterans. We saw that young people from different background went protect their country. We learned that they were heroes because they fought hard, but that they weren´t perfect. We observed how they were often pesecuted during the communism. We observed how they dealt with it. We made powerpoint presentations in Czech for history lessons and also found some inspirational quotes

First Days of the Independent Czechoslovakia

At the end of the Great War (1914-1918),  the Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed and new states emerged. One of them was Czechoslovakia.

Czechoslovak politicians both in the country and abroad wanted to make the transition as peaceful as possible, without armed conflicts. They wanted to prevent a violent revolution. We studied how they did it:

1) When they were taking over important offices like ministries, town halls, etc. and railway stations, they didn´t rely on army or militia, but just on mandate by provisional government, to avoid armed conflict.

2) They kept people informed: used media - press and radio - and posters in the streets : people were told the country is free, who leads the country now and whose orders they should obey.

3) They encouraged people to protect personal freedom and property of all parties involved.

4) They appealed to people´s pride on being finally independent and used quotes from well-known Czech patriotic authors (ex. Kollar: Only those who respect freedom of others are worthy of freedom.)

5) They reminded people that the whole civilized world is looking at them and and judging if they are worthy of independence.

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