“Wallachian Lidice”: End of War in Zlín Region

The end of the Second World War in Zlín was more cruel and painful than in other regions. In November 1944, it was hit by allied bombing. Around the same time, Slovak partisans came to Moravian Wallachia and sought help among local people. Many of these locals paid for their willingness with their lives in the last weeks of the Nazi occupation. On April 3, 1945, an SS unit murdered the inhabitants of Juříček’s mill in Leskovec, on April 19, the settlement of Ploština was burned down (24 dead), on April 23, the killing continued in Prlov (21 dead). When Germans burned down the settlement of Vařákovy Paseky on May 2, celebrations of the liberation and the arrival of the Russian army were heard from afar. However, the Soviet soldiers didn’t just bring freedom, they also heralded the early fall of Czechoslovakia into the communist totalitarianism. The documentary film produced by Memory of Nations is based on the testimonies of those who survived this terror. It includes memories of Eva Jiřičná, Iva Ondráčková, Jan Hronek, Bohuslav Žák and many others. The title of the documentary reflects the words of one of the survivors: “When you say Lidice, everyone knows what you are talking about. But few people are aware of the horrors of Prlov.”