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Freedom Celebrations in the west Bohemian town of Pilsen, marking the end of WWII, will come to a close on Sunday night with a huge open air concert at the city centre. Hundreds of people turned up during the day to greet an unofficial convoy of 80 historical military vehicles. On Saturday, thousands of people came to see the official military convoy, called A Ride of Freedom, carrying war veterans who helped to liberate the city 71 years ago.

A number of memorial events took place on Sunday across the Czech Republic to mark the 71st anniversary of the end of World War II. The main ceremonies were traditionally held in Prague and in the west Bohemian town of Pilsen, which was liberated by US Army. President Miloš Zeman and prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, along with Cardinal Dominik Duka and other politicans and military officials attended a ceremony at Prague's Vítkov memorial and laid wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Two gripen fighter jets flew over the memorial to mark the national holiday.

Four-day Freedom Celebrations got underway on Thursday in Pilsen to mark the liberation of the city by the US army in 1945. The event started with a reading of the names of Holocaust victims’ in the city centre on the occasion of Yom Ha Shoah, the day of remembrance of Holocaust victims. This year’s celebrations will offer commemorative meetings, military presentations, concerts, exhibitions, as well as meetings with veterans. A Ride of Freedom, including historical Jeeps with war veterans, will cross the town centre on May 7.

A memorial ceremony was held at Czech Radio’s Prague headquarters on Thursday to mark the start of the Prague uprising against years of Nazi oppression at the end of the Second World War. It was a radio broadcast which sparked the rising and the building became the focus for some of the fiercest fighting over the following days in the capital and surrounding countryside.

A convoy of American WWII jeeps passed through the Prague city centre on Friday within the end-of-the-war remembrance events taking place in the country. The veterans’ convoy stopped at the US Embassy in Prague where it was greeted by Ambassador Andrew Shapiro, who thanked the organizers of the event for keeping alive the memory of US soldiers who had laid down their lives to bring Europe freedom and security. The convoy will also appear at the end-of-war celebrations in Plzen which was liberated by US units commanded by General George S. Patton.

A monument in Plzeň honouring the city’s liberation by US soldiers at the end of World War II may have to be rebuilt, the newspaper Plzeňský deník reported. There are visible cracks in the Díky, Ameriko (Thank You, America) monument and a study found that the two granite columns that comprise it are in poor condition. The mayor of the district of Plzeň where it stands said the columns would have to be replaced, adding that a discussion should be held on the future form of the monument, which was unveiled in 1995.

In the spring of 1945, just before he ended his six-year exile in Britain, President Edvard Beneš gave an address in English that was broadcast by the BBC. The fight to liberate Czechoslovakia was still under way, but by now it was clear that the war was drawing to a close and Beneš was already looking towards the post-war future of his country. A recording of the historic speech was recently rediscovered in the Czech Foreign Ministry, and is one of a number of archive broadcasts that David Vaughan has been studying with his students from the Anglo-American

President Zeman‘s plans to attend commemorative events in China marking the end of WWII in the Pacific has made the Czech Republic the only country to break EU ranks on a proposed boycott of the celebrations. EU leaders are reportedly staying away from the events due to tensions between China and Japan, and according to Tuesday’s Hospodářské noviny which carried the story, the fact that the Czech Republic threw a spanner in the works of a coordinated EU position because of its president has not been well-received. I asked Jakub Janda of the European

Around three hundred people are taking part in the march from Pohořelice to Brno commemorating the victims of the violent expulsion of local ethnic Germans that took place after the end of WWII. On May 31, 1945, some 20,000 German-speaking inhabitants of Brno were forced to leave the city and walk to the Austrian border. Around 1,700 are believed to have died of exhaustion on the way. Saturday's ‘Pilgrimage of Reconciliation’ will culminate with a commemorative meeting in the Old Brno monastery, attended by the mayor of Brno and other Austrian and German public officials.

Just over a week ago around 300 schoolchildren from the West Bohemian city of Plzeň crowded into its art nouveau masterpiece, now serving as its main cultural centre, to hear from around a dozen men around 75 years older. The former US and Belgian soldiers were among those who 70 years earlier had fought their way through Europe and landed up, sometimes fleetingly, in Plzeň at the end of World War II.