Prague, Sept 15 (CTK) - Historian Frantisek Hybl and actor and film director Jiri Havelka were presented with the Rudolf Medek Prize today, the thing they have in common being mainly the massacre near Prerov in June 1945, with which they dealt or are dealing in their works. Hybl, 80, dealt with the post-war massacre at the Svedske sance hill near Prerov, north Moravia, for over 30 years and was previously awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit for his work.
Havelka, 41, has focused on the issue within his project in the National Theatre in Prague.
A total of 265 Carpathian Germans, Hungarians and Slovaks were massacred at Svedske sance in the night of June 18-19, 1945. At the time, more than one month after WWII end in Europe, two transports met at the local railway station. In one transport, the Carpathian Germans, Hungarians and Slovaks were returning home to Slovakia from the Sudetenland, the Czech border region, where they had been placed in wartime. The other transport carried members of the 17th infantry regiment from Bratislava-Petrzalka, which was previously part of the 1st Czechoslovak Military Corps.
The meeting of the two groups, some members of which personally knew each other, resulted in the murder of 265 of those returning home, mostly women and children. The massacre started with the lieutenant commander's order to "do away with the SS men", but in vconsequence, Czechoslovaks murdered other Czechoslovaks in what was one of the biggest post-war tragedies in Czechoslovakia. Civilian as well as military authorities repeatedly investigated the event. The file contains the testimonies of the commander and other witnesses, as well as the course of the events and the reactions of those involved and those who met the shooting soldiers later at home in Slovakia.
The massacre has entered people's awareness mainly thanks to Hybl, a Prerov-based historian who spent 30 years clarifying the event. In 2017, Germany bestowed the Federal Cross of Merit on him.
The Rudolf Medek Prize has been awarded since 2008, originally introduced by the Foundation of Committed Non-Party Members. After the foundation ended, the role was taken over by the Russian Tradition group. The medal goes to experts dealing with Czech-Russian relations in the 20th century, with the development trends and key moments in East and Central European countries in the past century, and with support and development of democracy. Rudolf Medek (1890-1940) was a Czech poet, army-related prose writer and a general in the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia in the late 1910s.
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P.S.
I did not find the article on the ČTK website, it was probably published only in the paid section. The public Czech Television was silent. Mr. Hýbl asked the organizer to send an invitation to the event to me. Unfortunately, I did not receive any invitations. I am the only journalist who has fully documented the acts of reverence at the Swedish Chance in recent years.
J.Š. 20.9.2021
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