David Broz
7 months agoI am Czech and a history teacher. This scene took place in my homeland. Sad to see this traumatized girl (probably hit in the face with a rifle butt and then raped). This time was a nasty time of lawlessness. The Nazis murdered many Czech citizens and planned to eliminate the entire Czech nation (Germanizing the "Aryans", evicting the others or shooting them). When the German army collapsed, it was time for revenge. But revenge is not justice. As a rule, they took revenge on anyone who was simply German (and there were almost 3 million of them in the territory of Bohemia and Moravia) - many German civilians were murdered and no one was punished for this. Even today, this dark side of Czech history is taboo for many people. They say: "he who sows the wind will reap the storm". It was simply "them". But it was about the principle of collective guilt - this is something that the Nazis practiced, but it has no place in the civilized world
Markus Hawranke
1 year agoShe would be identified as Lore Bauer, a young German girl who had been assigned as a Luftwaffenhelferin to operate anti-aircraft guns, as Germany was experiencing massive losses of male soldiers. Stationed in Czechoslovakia when the war ended, she and her other german and austrian females were brutally beaten and raped. When she ran into an American unit on the road, you can see her bury her face into a small notebook. It turns out that she had hidden about 100 Czech crowns (currency) which she did not realize was worthless at the end of the conflict. She flashed the currency to bribe the soldiers into allowing her to pass. To let her know that the unit was American, cameraman Haglund handed her a US penny. Over time she made her way back to Germany and married after the war. She gave birth to two children, and it was her granddaughter, Emi, who would visit Haglund’s grave in San Bernardino, California and leave a penny–the very same penny given to her grandmother in 1945–on his headstone.
