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BBC iPlayer - 1945: The Savage Peace
When the Second World War ended, the people of liberated Europe celebrated their freedom from Nazi tyranny. Their years of suffering had ended, but for millions of Germans, the end of the conflict opened a new and terrible chapter. The Savage Peace reveals the appalling violence meted out to the defeated, especially to those ethnic Germans who had lived peacefully for centuries in neighbouring countries.
An interesting program on BBC 2 this evening showing what was happening in Germany in 1945 whilst we in Britain were celebrating victory in Europe. I did feel the program pointed more towards crimes committed by the Soviets after the war, where I'm sure us Brits, the French and Americans weren't exactly saints. Still a very sad and moving account of post war Europe though.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05x30lb/1945-the-savage-peace
J.Š.30.5.2015
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Central European Observer p. 344 – 1945
Frank Muska Authorized by Jan A. Bata 21.November 1939
Batanagar's foundation stone was placed on 28. October 1934
J.Š. 16.5.2015
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By ADAM KIRSCH | September 5, 2007
Book Review
No Simple Victory
by Norman Davies
To the historian of Poland, the history of all Europe looks different. Ordinarily, Eastern Europe is thought to begin somewhere around Prague, with everything beyond relegated to mystery and backwardness. Half a century behind the Iron Curtain only deepened the traditional estrangement, making it seem natural to regard countries with very different identities as part of a monolithic Eastern Bloc. People who instinctively recognize the difference between the Germans and the Dutch feel no need to understand the difference between Ukrainians and Poles, or between Serbs and Croats — until they start to kill one another, whereupon they become examples of "age-old," unchangeable hatreds. This state of affairs has been decried over and over again by writers such as Milan Kundera, who once protested the way "a Western country like Czechoslovakia has been part of a certain history, a certain civilization, for a thousand years and now, suddenly, it has been torn from its history and rechristened ‘The East.'"
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Conan O'Brien once joked that Czechoslovakia was split into two separate parts in 1993: Slovakia, and the good part. It's true that except for the occasional headline touting a Slovak economic miracle, the CR has received the better press since the two went their separate ways. Jan Telensky, a Czech-born U.K. property owner who estimates his real-estate holdings at £500m, struck back last week in the Financial Times. The Slovaks overtook the Czechs because of the Czech mentality, he said. "In Prague, they're always boasting, bullshitting and pretending, and they've always been like that," he said. "If a tree fell across the road, a car full of Czechs would turn around and take a long diversion, but a car full of Slovaks would get out and move the tree." He said he sold his Czech plastics business because he was tired of the Czech bullshit and baffle-brains. But of course he's just a complex-ridden émigré.
http://www.fsfinalword.com/?page=archive&day=2008-03-07
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By John Nash
"You all know about the chief's attitude in the prewar years. Sure, all we Batamen, from the chief to the last man in the ranks of the industrial Empire anywhere were Czech patriots.[1]”
“When the Munich crisis cam near and the government could not procure money for armament by loans - a Defense Donation Action was started. The Governor of the National Bank who initiated this drive was very pessimistic whether it would bring more than 300 million Kc (Czech Crowns). Then he called on the Chief, Jan A. Bata. The chief called on you in turn to support and promised to give as much as you all over the world would donate. In one day a 30 million Kc. donation was collected. The Defense Donation Action was oversubscribed with 1,500 million during five days.[2]”
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By John Nash
The man who supplied Czechoslovakia with strategic defense materials and industries prior to WWII remains unknown
It is just incredible that one of the most important Czechs, responsible for the acquisition of a tremendous supply of raw materials as well as the development of key defense industries in Czechoslovakia is unknown to Czechs. This article discovers a lost piece of Czech history that shows how one man and his nationwide organization of more than 40,000 Czechs and Slovaks was preparing enough raw materials to sustain the Czech Army for at least two years. This effort involved the development of specialized industries to convert the raw materials into necessary defense items like tires, gas masks, and other strategic materials to support the Czech Army and defend the nation. This article traces the acquisition of the raw materials until the events of Munich. After Munich, these raw materials and specialized industries were disassembled in Zlin and transported to areas of the world that were still free. And finally, how these industries were reassembled and repurposed to support the Allied Cause. Readers will discover importance of the Czech businessman who was the mastermind and financier of this effort. Incredibly, this story is completely unknown to the Czech people.
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By John Nash
It has come to light how the men, materials, and equipment sent out of Czechoslovakia by Jan A. Bata were used after the Munich crisis. It turns out that after the Munich decision of Sept. 1938, Jan Bata ordered the disassembly of an enormous amount of machinery and equipment from Zlin. This machinery was a part of defense industries that Bata has created for at the request of the Czech general staff. As soon as it became apparent that Czechoslovakia would not defend itself, Bata decided to ship everything possible out of the country. As a part of this effort, one container ship packed with Zlin machinery was sent to India.
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By Anthony Cekota
"On Mach 15, 1939, Hitler scrapped the piece of paper signed in Munich by the representatives of the French and British governments, and occupied the remaining Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia.”
“As I watched the panzer columns of the Nazi army stream past the Bata factories into the city of Zlin.”
“Behind the army moved the Gestapo, tall men in high boots and black Mercedes with mounted megaphones, steel filing cabinets and sub-machine guns.”
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Watch and listen carefully and start thinking. J.Š.17.4.2015
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