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There are two widely held stereotypes of Czechs during the war: while some see a plucky little nation that heroically struggled to survive under the Nazi jackboot, others have argued that Czechs buckled and failed to resist the force of Hitler's Germany. But inevitably history is a great deal more complicated than the stereotypes, and in the course of today's programme, we'll be trying to unravel some of these complexities.

Some 400 Czech volunteers enlisted in the German, Soviet and Czechoslovak armies on Saturday ahead of the battle for control of the Mosnov airfield. There were no reported causalities, or even wounded, thankfully, as this was merely a re-enactment of the bloodiest battle to take place on Czech soil during World War II: the liberation of Ostrava from Nazi German control.

...At midday the Russians launched an almighty attack on Hrabyne, their air force led the barrage. From over the hills a whole chain of Russian tanks approached. The Germans retaliated with a desperate counter attack. This was the start of a terrible panzer battle, which is impossible to imagine for those who weren't there. The din of anti-tank weaponry, the explosion of grenades and the baying of the tanks' machine guns fused into one. There was a constant explosion of bombs and mines. The battle lasted all afternoon. Several times the Russians

In this series women to recount some of their memories of wartime.

In this series women recount some of their memories of wartime.

Pope John Paul II was a respected figure worldwide. Even though he was often criticised for his conservative stances in questions like abortion, contraception or gay marriages, he still enjoyed great popularity that can be hardly compared to his predecessors. One factor contributing to his general popularity had been his energetic image as well as the enormous number of trips he made around the globe. John Paul II was also popular in the generally non-religious Czech Republic, even though the reasons for his popularity here may have been slightly

Antonin Dvorak's Stabat Mater has to be one of the most beautiful and most moving pieces of music ever to come out of the Czech lands. The text is a devotional poem written in Latin in the 13th century, probably by the Franciscan monk Jacopone da Todi. It opens with the grief of the Virgin Mary at Christ's crucifixion, but then turns into a prayer, written in the first person and addressed to the Virgin - in which the writer longs to be reunited with Christ. The poem ends with the hope of the resurrection. The poetry is powerful in its very

In today's special my guest is businessman Peter Osicka - one of the many Czechs who left their homeland following the Soviet-led invasion of 1968. Just nineteen at the time, with little English, Peter made his way to Canada and like many new immigrants was sent to parts of the country that didn't exactly fit his expectations. Nevertheless, he made it through, and eventually founded his own marketing company, which he still operates today.

In today's Special Jan's guest is Joe Schlesinger, one of Canada's most respected journalists, who for years was the CBC's - that is, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's - top foreign correspondent. Fifteen years ago - in 1989 during the fall of communism - Joe Schlesinger's news reports carried special resonance precisely because they marked a return to his homeland Czechoslovakia. As a boy Joe had been sent out of the country to escape the Nazis and the Holocaust. When he returned after the war, he learned his parents had not survived. And,

The Porrajmos, literally "the Devouring," is the term that the Roma use to describe the Nazi regime's attempt to wipe their people off the face of the Earth; for the genocidal wave of terror known to most of the world as the Holocaust. An estimated half million Roma were killed during the Second World War — only five percent of the Czech-born population survived. Nearly all who lived through internment in the Czech-run labour camps near Hodonin and Lety — now the site of a pig farm — later perished in the so-called "Gypsy family camp"