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Remembrance events marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, organized by the European Jewish Congress in the Czech Republic have strained relations between Prague and Warsaw and left Czech politicians fending off accusations that the country is pandering to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was not invited to attend the commemorative events in neighbouring Poland.

Public broadcaster Czech Radio has backed in initiative for a Vickers Wellington bomber undergoing restoration work in Great Britain to feature the markings of the Czechoslovak 311th squadron which flew with that type of RAF bomber in World War II. Czech Radio’s correspondent in London, Jiří Hošek, first learned of the reconstruction project last autumn, and came forward with the idea. What are the chances the plane could feature the colours of the 311th? And what is the aircraft’s place in Czechoslovak military history? Find out in today’s

President Miloš Zeman will pay at least one visit to Russia this year, the news site Parlamentnilisty.cz reports citing his spokesman Jiří Ovčáček. According to the president’s spokesman the Czech head of state has already accepted an invitation to take part in Moscow’s celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two. President Zeman has likewise received an invitation for a state visit to Russia in the fall of this year, though this visit has not yet been confirmed. The Czech president has come under fire for allegedly fostering close ties with Russia and the Washington Post recently described the Czech head of state as a "virtual mouthpiece for Russian President Vladimir Putin".

Great Britain’s Sir Nicholas Winton will receive the Order of the White Lion in Prague on October 28th, in a special ceremony, the president’s spokesman revealed on Monday. Prague Castle decided to honour Mr Winton, who saved hundreds Jewish children from the Nazis in the kindertransports to Great Britain ahead of WW II, in a ceremony of his own, out of respect for his age. Sir Winton is 105. The aim, the spokesman made clear, was to make the ceremony as comfortable as possible. A separate ceremony will be held for the other recipients.

Sir Nicholas Winton, who saved the lives of 669 children by bringing them out of German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War, is to come to Prague at the end of October to receive the Order of the White Lion, the Czech Republic’s highest state distinction. The award is to be presented to him by the President Miloš Zeman on the occasion of the country’s public holiday October 28th. President Zeman told journalists on Thursday that Sir Nicolas Winton had accepted the invitation and was looking forward to the visit. Nicolas Winton organized train transports of Jewish children from Czechoslovakia to Britain in 1939, securing departure permits from the German authorities, entry permits from Britain and their admission to British families. The children would otherwise have ended up in concentration camps and gas chambers. Czech top officials have repeatedly nominated Sir Nicholas Winton for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Czech government nominates two legendary Czech WWII heroes – pilot Josef Frantíšek and Captain Otakar Jaroš – in memoriam for the Czech Republic’s highest honour, the Order of the White Lion. The final decision will be President Miloš Zeman’s. Josef Frantíšek survived dozens of battles and had 17 confirmed enemy kills. Captain Jaroš, an officer in the Czechoslovak forces in the Soviet Union, fought and died in Sokolovo, Ukraine. He was the first foreigner to ever be given the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

President Miloš Zeman on Wednesday received a delegation of Czechoslovak WWII veterans at Prague Castle, members of a branch of the Czech Association of Freedom Fighters. The president had earlier promised to do so and – according to Czech TV - will continue to meet with veterans on a regular basis.

During the Second World War, millions of people lost their homes, family and friends, and were forced to start new lives elsewhere. The book Adventurers Against Their Will traces several such stories, based on wartime correspondence between a Czech Jewish physician who found refuge in China, and his friends and relatives scattered around the world. The award-winning book by Joanie Schirm has just come out in Czech.

The Nazi persecution of the Jewish people before and during WWII affected all layers of the society, regardless of the victims’ social status or achievements. Among the estimated 80,000 Jewish people from Bohemia and Moravia murdered in the Holocaust were also many distinguished scientists and scholars from various fields of science. A new book entitled Disappeared Science now profiles several dozen of them.

Chris Kelly is the granddaughter of Edina Winkelbauer, nee Clam-Gallas (1889-1970), a member of the old nobility who was a nurse with the Knights of Malta on the Italian front in WW I. On her mother's death Chris Kelly inherited a collection of more than 500 letters – correspondence between members of her family during World War I and World War II. The letters her grandmother sent from the front and others exchanged by family members during World War II are a moving document of the times and reveal how the wars changed her family’s fortunes and