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Czechs are marking the 65th anniversary of the end of WWII with commemorative ceremonies, exhibitions and cultural events. In Prague President Vaclav Klaus, political leaders and war veterans gathered at a memorial on Vítkov Hill to pay tribute to those who laid down their lives in the fight for freedom. Commemorative gatherings also took place at Prague’s Olšany cemetary, where the remains of foreign soldiers who died on Czech soil are buried and as well as Czechs who lost their lives in the Prague uprising. On the occasion of the anniversary the city of Prague unveiled a memorial to the legendary Czech pilot František Peřina who took part in the Battle of France and later served in the RAF. He received many medals for valor, among them the Czechoslovak War Cross, the Order of the White Lion and the French Legion d’Honneur.

This week marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Plzeň and West Bohemia by General Patton's Third Army. In a special programme to mark the anniversary, Rob Cameron travelled to the spa town of Konstantinovy Lázně, former headquarters of the US Army's 16th Armoured Division, where he spoke to George Thompson - a veteran of the fighting in West Bohemia, Charles Noble - son of the commander of the 16th Armoured Division’s Combat Command B, and George Patton Waters, grandson of the legendary General George S. Patton.

Public broadcaster Czech TV will screen a documentary film on Thursday entitled Zabíjení po česku, or ‘Killings Czech style’. It features unique footage of a massacre of over 40 ethnic Germans that took place in Prague in May, 1945, shortly after the end of the war. The authors say they want to draw attention to the atrocities committed on German civilians in post-war Czechoslovakia, though some historians believe this particular murder was carried out by Soviet troops.

They are the country’s unsung war heroes: thousands of men and women who fled Nazi-occupation to serve in foreign armies during the Second World War. Those who returned to communist Czechoslovakia after the war were branded enemies of the state, those who stayed away were given no credit, unless they had fought alongside the Soviet forces on the Eastern front. Historians are now working on an internet project which aims to map the fate of some 83 thousand Czechs and Slovaks who fought against Nazi oppression in different parts of the world.

Wednesday is the 65th anniversary of the start of the Prague Uprising, when thousands of people took to the streets in an attempt to liberate the city from Nazi occupation, just days before the arrival of the Red Army. Several events have been held to mark the date, including a memorial at Czech Radio, which made a dramatic call on citizens to fight the occupiers on the morning of May 5, 1945.

Thousands of people cheered American and Belgian veterans in Plzeň on Sunday during an event held days before the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the west Bohemian city at the end of World War II. The old soldiers, now in their 80s and 90s, waved to the crowd from jeeps which were part of a convoy of over 200 historical military vehicles that drove through Plzeň. Celebrations will reach a climax on Thursday, which is the actual anniversary of the liberation on May 6, 1945.

Some 2500 scouts gathered in the Beskydy Mountains on Saturday at a site where five scouts were executed during World War II. The victims, aged between 19 and 26, were shot by German Nazis in 1945. Each year, scouts add stones to a stone mound at the site of the shooting. It was erected in memory of scouts from all over the world who died for a cause. The mound currently measures 40 square meters, with some stones from such distant locations as America or Peru. The five scouts killed were active in the anti-fascist resistance movement. The incident happened just weeks before the end of the war, when some parts of the country had already been freed from Nazi rule by the Soviet army.

If you’re not looking for it then you’ll probably overlook the rather nondescript building of the Ministry of Industry, near the top of Prague’s Wenceslas Square. If, however, you are one of the few who read Prague’s street-side memorial signs, you get the full impact of what the dirty grey, rough-hewn building called Petschek’s Palace means to modern Czech history: “In the time of the Nazi occupation,” it reads, “this building housed the torture chambers of the Gestapo. Fighters for the freedom of our country fought, suffered and died here. We

The fates of Czech soldiers who died abroad during the first and second world wars are being mapped in a newly created War Graves Record. The internet-based project documents more than 1,800 war graves around the world where Czech soldiers are buried, along with information about how and when they died.

Sixty-five-years ago, shortly after midday on February 14th, 1945, a fleet of 62 U.S. Air Force bombers dropped their deadly cargo on Prague in the mistaken belief they’d reached their intended target Dresden. A total of 701 civilians were killed and dozens of buildings – including Prague’s largest synagogue - were destroyed. As soon as the all-clear sounded a Red Cross photographer named Stanislav Maršál went out into the streets to document the aftermath; he was so traumatised by what he saw that he hid the photos away for sixty years. Now, five