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Day 6 In the Footsteps of a Polish POW Geordie Hussar
To Czec Silesia via Slovakia.
It’s time to leave the youthful grandeur of the Tatra Mountains thrusting at the top of Carpathean crescent. We’re heading for the maturity of elevated valleys and the more rolling ancient geology of the Sudetes.
German officers made the Tatras their playground in WWll, but Sudetenland was the first territory to be at issue (and then taken) which set the whole thing 'a 'haad'.
The word "Sudetenland" only came into existence in the early 20th century and did not come to prominence until after the First World War, when the German-dominated Austria-Hungary was dismembered and the Sudeten Germans found themselves living in the new country of Czechoslovakia. The Sudeten crisis of 1938 was provoked by the Pan-Germanist demands of Nazi Germany that the German speaking Sudetenland be annexed to Germany, which in fact took place after the later infamous Munich Agreement. In many ways it is comparable to the current crisis in Crimea where Russian speakers are in a majority. On 22nd February 2014, midst Ukrainian demonstrations, Russian President Vladimir Putin convened an all-night meeting with President of Ukraine without agreement…at the end of the meeting Putin remarked that "we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia. On 23 February, Russian troops invaded and took control.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler in Berchtesgaden on 15 September 1938 and agreed to the cession of the Sudetenland; three days later, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier did the same. But no Czechoslovak representative was invited to these discussions. Germany was now able to walk into the Sudetenland without firing a shot. Chamberlain met Hitler in Godesberg on 22 September to confirm the agreements. Hitler, aiming to use the crisis as a pretext for war, now demanded not only the annexation of the Sudetenland but the immediate military occupation of the territories, giving the Czechoslovak army no time to adapt their defence measures to the new borders. To achieve a solution, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini suggested a conference of the major powers in Munich and on 29 September, Hitler, Daladier and Chamberlain met and agreed to Mussolini's proposal (actually prepared by Hermann Göring) and signed the Munich Agreement, accepting the immediate occupation of the Sudetenland. The Czechoslovak government, though not party to the talks, submitted to compulsion and promised to abide by the agreement on 30 September. (Thanks Wikipedia).
As soon as we crossed the (soft!) border into Slovakia the predominance of wooden housing yielded to pebbledash and brieze-block.
In many rural small towns we saw a single pine tree swathed in ribbons perched on top of a very high slender pole stripped of its bark. It is a May Tree erected on the 1st May.
Traditionally, a boy would plant a May Tree in front of the house of the girl he fancied the night before May Day. The lucky girl would also get a kiss under a blossoming cherry tree that day.
Cumbrian friends Sally and Gary live in Milburn, a small village in the lee of Crossfell, where a similar Maypole stands as a permanent feature (without the ‘Christmas Tree’ on the top).
Our route took us past the Orava reservoir, then from Slovakia back into Poland, and then into Czech Republic all the time crossing a green forested land scape.
Approaching the city of Ostrava, more industry became evident. This was the ‘steel heart’ of the Soviet Czech Republic because of its coal field and iron industry. But at the fall of The Wall the industry closed down in
1994.
We’re now staying in Opava, a smaller university town away from the chimneys, but close to my Dad’s satellite POW work camp at Bruntal where we will visit today.
Post script
Graduation days
We saw another May tradition in shop windows : head shots of smiling young faces. Not a bizarre marketing scheme, but a tradition for graduating classes from high schools to put their photos in the windows of local stores. Also on panels in the park which encircles the old town
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