Prague uprising

This article is about the resistance action during World War II. For the events of Spring 1968, see Prague Spring.

Prague Uprising of 1945
Part of World War II
Residents greet Marshal Ivan Konev upon the arrival of the Red Army on 9 May 1945
Date 5–9 May 1945 Location Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia 50°04′43″N 14°26′04″E Result German tactical victory Armistice Liberation of Prague from German occupation
Belligerents
Germany	Czech Resistance Government Army Russian Liberation Army
Commanders and leaders
Karl Hermann Frank Rudolf Toussaint Carl von Pückler	Otakar Machotka Sergei Bunyachenko
Strength
40,000	30,000 18,000
Casualties and losses
1,000 killed	2,898 killed 300 killed
2,000 Czech civilians killed

The Prague uprising (Czech: Pražské povstání) was an attempt by the Czech resistance to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation during World War II. Events began on 5 May 1945, in the last moments of the war in Europe. The fighting continued until 9 May, when the Red Army entered the nearly liberated city.

Background

See also: Participants in the Prague uprising and Czechoslovak resistance

Several factors greatly influenced the daily life of the majority of people, including the militarization of the economy, the elimination of political rights, transportation to Germany for forced labor, and national oppression. Various forms of German oppression in the cities affected not only the working class, but also the "middle strata"—the small and middle businessmen, and the lower categories of state and civic employees, for example.

In the spring of 1945 throughout Czechoslovakia, there were both many large and small partisan groups that totaled about 7,500 people. These followers mostly took part in the "battle of the rails", in which they disturbed the railway and highway transportation, attacked trains and stations, as well as German troop trains, and damaged tracks and bridges. For example, there were some lines the Germans could use only in the daytime and not even every day. The goal of the resistance was to force the German army to retreat to Germany and prevent it from executing its orders to destroy Prague.

From 30 April-1 May 1945, the Waffen-SS Senior Group Leader (Obergruppenführer) and General of Police Karl Hermann Frank announced over the radio in Prague that he would drown any uprising in a "sea of blood". As rumors of an impending Allied approach reached Prague, the people of Prague streamed into the streets to welcome the victors. Frank ordered the streets to be cleared and instructed the German army and police forces in Prague to fire at anyone who disobeyed.

On 4 May, Czech citizens began to spontaneously vandalize German inscriptions and tear down German flags. Tram operators refused accept Reischmarks or to give the stops in German, as was required by the occupiers. Some German soldiers were surrounded and disarmed.

Planning for the Battle for Czech Radio began in 1944. The Nazis were aware that control of the airwaves might prove decisive in the event of an uprising, and increased security at the beginning of May. About 90 SS guards were posted inside the building at Vinohradská 12 in downtown Prague, and a barbed-wire fence was erected outside the entrance, with two machine guns controlling entry and exit.

Uprising

Entrance to the Český Rozhlas (Czech Radio) headquarters in Prague

Battle for Czech Radio

Main article: Battle for Czech Radio

At 6:00 on 5 May, for the first time in six years, the Czech Radio broadcast in the banned Czech language and played Czech music. They called upon the police and government for help. A group of Czech policemen attempted to seize the radio building on Vinohradská street, without realizing that a detachment of SS soldiers was already stationed there, which resulted in bitter fighting. With the sounds of combat in the background, the radio station continued to broadcast messages of defiance, encouraging citizens to revolt. At 12:33, the Prague radio broadcast an appeal to all Czechs to come to the radio building's defence:

"Calling all Czechs! Come to our aid immediately! Calling all Czechs!"

This message triggered a massive popular response and is considered the start of the uprising.

Fighting breaks out

File:Alois Kříž (1911–1947).jpg

Arrest of Nazi collaborator Alois Kříž in Prague on 5 May 1945.

The radio announcer broadcast a call to the Czech nation to rise up and asked the people in the streets of Prague to build barricades. Elsewhere, Czech resistance fighters occupied the Gestapo and Sipo Headquarters.

In the afternoon of May 5, the Prague mayor formally switched allegiance to the National Committee in the City Hall. The Czechs in the streets tore down the German road traffic signs and store inscriptions. The insurgents attacked any German soldiers within sight and seized their weapons. The Germans defended themselves as best as they could by shooting at the insurgents.

In the remaining hours of May 5, the resistance headquarters learned of the Nazis' intent to crush the uprising by invading Prague with additional SS units pulled from fighting the Red Army north of the city, bringing with them tanks, armored carriers, weaponry and motorized units.

By the morning of May 6, over 1,600 barricades had been erected. As many as 100,000-250,000 citizens may have been involved in building barricades, and many people gave up their furniture and other possessions. Cobblestones were also used. At least 2,049 barricades were constructed by the end of the uprising.

The resistance had managed to seize half of the city before the Germans reacted in force. German garrisons throughout Prague were surrounded. The insurgents forced the besieged Germans to surrender by cutting off their electricity, water supplies, and telephone wires. Prague experienced a rash of anti-German excesses, while some Germans, mainly the SS, took revenge on the Czech non-combatants. By the end of the day, most of the city east of the Vltava river was controlled by the Czechs, while most of the territory to the west of the river was in German hands, including an airfield at Ruzyně, northwest of the city.

German counter-attack

German forces outside of Prague started to move toward the city center in order to relieve the garrison. Their other objective was to capture the railroad and highway communication network. Possession of these transportation links would secure free passage westward to the American lines for the troops of Army Group Center.

On May 6, the German forces attempted to recapture the radio station building. As their advance ran into significant resistance, both in the building itself and at the barricades in nearby streets, they decided to use bombers instead. This attack was a success. However, the Czech resistance managed to continue to broadcast its message from the Hussite church tower. The tower was used on the 7–9 May 1945 as an impromptu radio tower when it also sheltered Czech resistance fighters who were trying to evict the occupying German force from the city. The Luftwaffe also bombed barricades and hit apartment buildings with incendiary bombs, causing many civilian casualties.

With news that Americans were already in Pilsen, hopes were initially high about their tanks reaching Prague soon. But the insurgents were not aware of the demarcation line agreement between the Americans and the Soviets some 70 km (43 mi) west of Prague. The Czech radio appeals to the United States Army remained unanswered. Insurgents also did not know where the Red Army might be at the time and the German military pressure was increasing.

On May 7, Waffen-SS armoured and artillery units stationed outside of Prague, frustrated by the lack of decisive progress made by the infantry of the Army, launched several tank attacks on the city defenders. The Waffen-SS started to use their heavy equipment. In the next hours, the German occupation forces gradually overwhelmed the Czech fighters. The resistance had only a few anti-tank weapons to counter German tanks. In addition, their ammunition was running out.

The ROA arrives

ROA T-34 tank.

During the march south, the 1st Infantry Division (600th German Infantry Division) of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) commanded by General Sergei Bunyachenko came to the help of the Czech insurgents. The overall commander of the ROA, General Andrey Vlasov, was initially reluctant, but ultimately did not resist General Bunyachenko's decision to fight against the Germans. On 6 May, the ROA entered Prague. Other units attacked the Luftwaffe airfield at Ruzyně, which was overrun late on 7 May with several aircraft destroyed. The ROA withdrew from Prague over the night of 7-8 May in order to surrender to the US Third Army of General Patton.

German retreat

On May 8, faced with no arriving Allied help and threats of the imminent destruction of the city, the insurgents were forced to negotiate, and accepted the German terms presented by General Rudolf Toussaint, the German Military Governor. Formally called the German capitulation, in fact it gave the German forces and civilians the opportunity to not follow the terms of surrender and escape to the west, to American captivity. The insurgent leaders were already informed that American Army would not move from its final positions, while on the other hand the Red Army seemed to be days away from Prague. In fact, the capitulation saved only the German forces in the immediate vicinity of Prague. Most German units were interrupted by the rapid advance of Soviet units from the north, which entered Prague on 9 May.

Not all SS units obeyed the surrender, and atrocities against Czech civilians continued.

Arrival of the Red Army

Main article: Prague Offensive

On May 9, the Soviet Red Army entered Prague. U.S. Army units had been closer to Prague than Soviets, and their reconnaissance units were already present in the suburbs of Prague when the uprising culminated. However, the Americans did not help the Czech insurgents due to previous political agreements with the Soviets.

Mass grave of two generals and 187 unknown soldiers of the Russian Liberation Army in Prague cemetery

Casualties

During the uprising in Prague, 2,898 Czechs were killed and another 1,600 seriously wounded. Five percent of Czech combatants killed were younger than 18. Almost 1,000 German soldiers were killed. The number of German civilian casualties is unknown. The ROA lost 300 men. On May 9, the Red Army casualties amounted to 30 killed.

War crimes

Between 5 and 8 May, the school at Na Pražačce was used to hold Czech prisoners and hostages. In the Massacre of Pražačce, the SA tortured and murdered 44 people.

German

The SS reported on 6 May that "The tactics of terror are working and we shall soon be in control of the city." On several occasions during the uprising, the SS shot unarmed Czechs. The SS used Czech civilians as human shields. Victims included men, women, and young children, and some of the dead were found mutilated. After the uprising, a Czech police report described war crimes committed by the SS:

The worst acts of violence were committed by young men between 17 and 20 years of age. 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.

The single largest German atrocity was the Massacre at Masaryk Station, committed after the official German surrender. Late in the day on 8 May, SS troops captured the Masaryk station, and murdered resistance fighters who had surrendered and civilians who had taken no part in the fighting.

Most of the German war crimes were committed by Waffen-SS units. However, a detachment of the 1. Flakkorps known as the Kampfgruppe Reimann also fought in Prague and is believed to, along with the SA, have participated in the torture and murder of prisoners held at the Na Pražačce school. About 2,000 Czech civilians lost their lives as a result of the uprising.

Czech

Czech authorities actively encouraged violence against German civilians. President Edvard Beneš believed that vigilante justice would be less divisive than trials. Before he arrived in Czechoslovakia, he advised resistance leaders that "everyone who deserves death" should be "liquidated in the popular storm." He said that popular violence against Germans would encourage them to flee and spare the effort of deporting them later. Upon his arrival in Prague on May 10, he advocated for the "liquidation" of Germans and Hungarians "in the interest of a united national state of Czechs and Slovaks." Minister of Justice Prokop Drtina said that the expulsion of Germans ought to begin "immediately" and that the Czechs should "use all possible means" to that end. Communist leaders also supported the violence, declaring that "[o]nly the occupiers have been defeated and expelled. But their lackeys are still among the ranks of our nation... You must chase them before your own just court." The Czech Radio likely played a role in inciting the violence, passing on the messages of these political leaders and calling for "death to all Germans."

Czech partisans committed acts of reprisal against surrendered German soldiers and German civilians both before and after the arrival of the Red Army. One estimate holds that 300 people were murdered after May 8. In one massacre at Bořislavka, a few hours after liberation, forty German civilians were murdered. Some claimed that the massacre had been carried out by the Red Army, but the action was filmed by Jiří Chmelíček, a Czech perpetrator. Czech rioters also beat, raped, and robbed German civilians.

The violence against German civilians continued throughout the summer, culminating in the expulsion of Sudeten Germans. More than two million Czech citizens of German ethnicity were legally stripped of their citizenship and property and forcibly deported. As a result of the expulsions, tens of thousands died.

See also

• Czechoslovak resistance
• Slovak National Uprising

Bibliography

• Bartosek, Karel. 1965. The Prague Uprising. Prague, Czech Republic: Artia.
• Bebutova, Erika. Otakar Matoušek a jeho působení v Československém rozhlase. Praha: Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta sociálních věd, Institut komunikačních studií a žurnalistiky, 2009. 61 s. Vedoucí práce PhDr. Jakub Končelík, Ph.D.
• Frommer, Benjamin (2005). National Cleansing: Retribution Against Nazi Collaborators in Postwar Czechoslovakia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521008969.
• Jones, Michael (2015). After Hitler: The Last Ten Days of World War II in Europe. Penguin. ISBN 9780698407817.
• Mahoney, William (2011). The History of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. ABC-CLIO. p. 191. ISBN 9780313363061.
• Matousek, Otakar: http://abicko.avcr.cz/archiv/1999/9/obsah/otakar-matousek-100.-vyroci-narozeni.html
• Merten, Ulrich (2017). Forgotten Voices: The Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern Europe After World War II. Routledge. ISBN 9781351519540.
• Barrow, Stephen R. (2016). Death of a Nation: A New History of Germany. Book Guild Publishing. ISBN 9781910508817.
• Roučka, Zdeněk. Skončeno a podepsáno: Drama Pražského povstání (Accomplished And Signed: Pictures of the Prague Uprising), 163 pages, Plzeň: ZR&T, 2003 (ISBN 80-238-9597-4).
• Skilling, Gordon H. “The Czechoslovak Struggle for National Liberation in World War II.” Dec. 1960. The Slavonic and East European Review. 39: 174-197. Retrieved March 11, 2009 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/4205225.pdf)
• Tampke, Jürgen (2002). Czech-German Relations and the Politics of Central Europe: From Bohemia to the EU. Springer. ISBN 9780230505629.

External links

• Czechoslovakia marks 56th anniversary of liberation, Český rozhlas, 2001
• "Calling all Czechs, calling all Czechs!" - the Prague Uprising remembered, Czech Radio, 12-05-2004
• 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, May 5, 2005
• Template:Cs icon Picture gallery of Prague uprising - a gallery located at the official website of The Prague City Archives
• Execution of German civilians in Prague (9 May 1945) (Czech TV documentary) (Adobe Flash Player, 2:32 min)
• War crimes committed by Germans in Prague, including graphic images