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Perhaps no figure in modern Czech history is as controversial as Edvard Benes. He was the second president of Czechoslovakia: twice he had to give way to hostile forces while in power and he is also often criticised for signing the decrees that resulted in 2.5 million Germans being deported from the Czech lands after the Second World War. To mark the 120th anniversary of his birth a special seminar has been held in Prague to redefine his legacy.

Last week marked the 59th anniversary of the final days that led-up to the end of the Second World War. In Bohemia those fateful days were defined by the Prague Uprising, which saw some 30, 000 take up arms in the Czech capital against their German occupiers. Though the Nazi grip on Bohemia and Moravia began to weaken, the threat of newer Nazi atrocities grew with every passing hour.

Elsewhere in the Czech capital, around 200 people attended a ceremony at the Olsansky cemetery in memory of Soviet soldiers who died during World War II. Until 1991, May 9 was celebrated in Czechoslovakia - as in Russia - as the end of World War II in Europe. Now it is marked in the Czech Republic a day earlier, on May 8.

A ceremony has been held on Prague's Vitkov hill to mark the 59th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. President Vaclav Klaus laid a wreath at the grave of the Unknown Soldier during the ceremony, which was also attended by other senior politicians and World War II veterans. Among the latter was Oldrich Prazak, who took part in the Prague Uprising between May 5 and 9, 1945: he said his generation had fought for the existence of the Czech nation and the survival of its identity.

May 5th is the 59th anniversary of the Prague Uprising that saw Czechs engage their German occupiers in deadly battle, in an attempt to take back their city during the final days of the Second World War. At 12:33 on May 5th Prague radio called on all Czechs to take up arms in the organised resistance: it was the beginning of five days of fierce fighting that would see thousands lose their lives.

Welcome to a special programme to mark the 58th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, a national holiday in the Czech Republic. The anniversary has a special significance in Prague, because it was here that some of the last shots of the war in Europe were fired, long after most European cities had been freed. The liberation of Prague by the Red Army on the 9th May 1945 was preceded by three days of fierce fighting in the streets of the city, and over 3000 people lost their lives fighting for Prague's freedom. In the uprising, the radio

Over 200 people came to the village of Javoricko in Moravia on Monday to commemorate the death of 38 men who were killed by the Nazis 58 years ago. Besides the victims' relatives, members of the Czech Union of Freedom Fighters, representatives of the local authorities, and politicians attended the ceremony. On May 5 1945, over 200 Nazi officers surrounded Javoricko, shot all 38 men who were between the ages of 15 and 76 years dead, and set the village on fire. Only a school, a chapel, and a farm house with a barn can be found on the site today.

Czech politicians, WWII veterans and Prague citizens, on Monday, gathered outside the Czech Radio building to commemorate the 1945 Prague Uprising. The commemorative ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla, deputy chairman of the Senate Premysl Sobotka, and the deputy mayor of Prague Petr Hulinsky, who laid wreaths in front of the Czech Radio Building and paid homage to the memory of those who lost their lives. The Prague Uprising began on May 5th, 1945 with a call to arms, broadcast on the radio. Around 30,000 people spontaneously joined the freedom fighters in the Czech capital.

Fifty eight years ago on May 5, 1945, Czechoslovak Radio called on citizens to rise up against the Nazi occupying force. With this the Prague Uprising began, and for five days Czechs took up arms against the German troops until the Red Army arrived in the Czech capital on May 9. This, the end of the Second World War, is being commemorated around the Czech Republic on Monday.

On May 5th, 1945, Czechoslovak Radio issued a call for people to rise up against the Nazi occupiers. The fiercest fighting took place in Prague, where 1,700 Czechs lost their lives in the struggle for freedom. Rob Cameron and Olga Szantova look back at the liberation of Prague.