This group of two silent films shows events in Czechoslovakia at the end of WWII. First is “May 1945” which shows the Prague Uprising. Czech citizens are seen tearing down or erasing German signs and banners. At 1:30 a German street sign goes into the river and at 1:45 the national banner goes up on the telegraph office. At 1:56, German police are seen setting up submachine guns in the street as a show of force. A large mob of patriots is dispersed by the Germans at 2:13, and army trucks block a street. At 2:28 the fight for the radio and communications building is seen, with gunfire clearly evident on the streets of Prague. Dead civilians lie in the street. At 3:40, the radio station is secured and a broadcast made across the country while at 3:50 German papers and flags are burned. At 4:00 a barricade is erected in anticipation of a German counter attack. At 4:21 the fuselage of a German airplane
forms part of the blockade. At 4:30, Czech snipers get in position. At 4:40 the old town square is bombarded by German artillery and a prominent building is aflame. At 5;00 German officers surrender en masse. At 5:30, german officers and collaborators are led away at gunpoint and in handcuffs. At 5:55 a card declares that May 9th, the “Red Army Frees Prague”. Russian Army elements including rocket launcher trucks and infantry arrive in the city, followed by tanks and halftracks (6:24). The Russians are welcomed by civilians at 6:40.
At about 7:00 another film about the return of President Benes to Prague begins. Benes arrives by train at 7:52, and is greeted by newsreel cameras before getting in an open car and riding through Prague to a hero’s welcome. Edvard Beneš, sometimes anglicised to Edward Benesh was a Czech politician who was twice President of Czechoslovakia (1935–1938 and 1945–1948). He was also Minister of Foreign Affairs (1918–1935), 4th Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia (1921–1922) and the President of Czechoslovakia in exile (1939–1945). A member of the Czechoslovak National Social Party, he was known as a skilled diplomat.
At 10:38, the 17th of May, 1945, a victory parade is undertaken in Prague.
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 May 5, 1945, in the last moments of the war in Europe. The uprising went on until May 8, 1945, ending in a ceasefire between the Czech resistance and the German army, which decided to leave Prague on the same day. Next morning, the Red Army entered the nearly liberated city
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