PMonument: A large granite object on an articulated pedestal-like base with a plaque bearing this text: “Těm, kteří padli, abychom my žili v letech 1938 – 1945.” (“To those who died in 1938–1945 so that we might live.”)
German patients worked to build the structures throughout the Kladruby stud farm up to the start of 1945. Beginning in spring 1945, reports of the bombardment of Czech territory were more and more frequent. Meanwhile the withdrawal of Germany’s armies due to the liberation of Czechoslovakia by the Red Army from the east and the western Allies from the west was becoming clear to all. One unmistakable proof of the war’s approaching end lay in the unusual wood-roofed wagons that appeared here in large numbers at the end of April. These cattle-drawn wagons carried children, essential household tools, and stocks of goods. The children were refugees from the eastern portions of the collapsing Reich. These wagons were generally then followed only by the retreating German armies.
In the same period, the citizens of Kladruby received instructions from the town to gather up essentials and be prepared for evacuation. This information made them greatly afraid for their lives, and they built temporary shelters in the adjacent fields and forests. In the first days of May, soldiers were leaving the field hospital in Kladruby. A motorcade was stopped on Žižkov square in Vlašim and disarmed by local rebels. On May 5 and 6, there were still many German tanks and cannons riding past near the field hospital, but now they bore white flags or handkerchiefs, and none of the Germans paid heed to the citizens looking on. At most, the soldiers would try to procure civilian footwear.
On May 7, 1945, the Germans retreated past Kladruby overland towards Vlašim. During these days, locals could also pick up a radio transmission with cries for help from Prague. Shooting could be heard in the background of this transmission, and people were very agitated by the news they were hearing from the Prague transmitter. This agitation remained until Prague was liberated on May 9 by the Red Army. Only after this did the locals begin to look up and around. They gathered weapons and ammunition strewn around the roads, including panzerfausts, pistols, etc. Far and wide, one could see overturned cars along the roadways, and even tanks. But the important thing was that the war had ended.
According to the remaining records, a repatriation station was set up in Kladruby after the Germans’ departure, and Soviet soldiers and former POWs passed through it before their return home. From January to September of 1946, the sanatorium was under the administration of the Central Trade Union Council, and disabled veterans from throughout Czechoslovakia were treated here.
Today’s monument to the victims of World War II stands in a park near the local elementary. Its construction in 1949 was a typical response by the Sudetenland’s newly arrived Czech internal migrants to the new situation in politics and society. Contemporary witnesses recount that this monument was unveiled during a folk celebration that included a show with cultural performances. After 1989, it was further transformed in connection with this new change in the political situation. The plaque’s size and color were changed, the original text was replaced with a new text, the old fence and the communist symbols were removed, and changes were made to the surrounding greenery. Today the monument bears this text: “Těm, kteří padli, abychom my žili v letech 1938–1945." (“To those who died in 1938–1945 so that we might live.”).
Note: This monument stands today in roughly the same place where a monument to World War I veterans stood in 1929–1945.
Pravděpodobně nová kovová deska na starém pomníku, ze zadní strany je vidět, že tam byl nějaký nápis z jednotlivých (kovových?) písmen.
The monument in the park was originally built in the very first years of the Czechoslovak state’s existence to honor the local men who fell on the battlefields of World War I. Its transformation after World War II was a typical response by the Sudetenland’s new Czech settlers to the new situation in politics and society.
The Paths of Liberation—The Pilsen Region