Stonarov, South Moravia, June 23 (CTK) – More than a hundred people, half of whom arrived from Germany, took part in the unveiling of a memorial plaque to Germans who died in a local detention camp shortly after World War Two at the Stonarov cemetery yesterday.
According to a local parish book, 201 Germans, mostly children and old people, died due to a lack of food and bad sanitary conditions.
The ceremony was attended by descendants of local German families that had to leave their homes after the Nazis lost the war.
The memorial plaque with a symbolic gravestone is located near the mass grave, which can be found under more recent graves.
Stonarov Deputy Mayor Ivan Sulc said the public and especially the descendants now have an opportunity to remember the dead in a dignified way.
About 3000 Germans went through the Stonarov detention camp that operated until February 1946. The exact number of the inmates is not known, however, as only those who had died were registered.
“They died of typhus, heart failure and similar diseases,” said Ladislav Plavec who focuses on this part of history.
Plavec said many babies under 12 months were among the dead.
Until the end of the war, Germans prevailed among Stonarov inhabitants. But the Germans from Stonarov were sent to detention camps in Jihlava, the regional centre, while Germans from Jihlava were sent to the Stonarov camp. They were waiting to be moved out of the country.
Most of the Germans who were expelled from the Czechoslovak border regions found new homes in Austria and Bavaria.
According to historian Jiri Vybihal, about 10,000 Germans went through seven detention camps that were set up in Jihlava and its surroundings.
Until 1945, Jihlava was a natural centre of the Czech-German settlement. Next weekend, the Jihlava Days/Heimattage festival focusing on the joint Czech-Germany history will be held in the town for the first time.
kva/dr/rtj
