Pohorelice/Brno, May 20 (CTK) – About 300 people set out on a 30-km Reconciliation Pilgrimage from Pohorelice to Brno today to commemorate the victims of the post-war transfer of the German-speaking inhabitants from Brno.
The event is held within the Meeting Brno festival focused on unity in diversity.
About 30 people protested against the march in Brno.
This year’s march was started with a prayer on the spot of a mass grave of the victims of the Pohorelice internment camp.
The pilgrims are expected to arrive in Brno at around 6:00 p.m. CEST.
The first commemorative march was staged by a group of students in 2006.
“Since the very beginning, these events aim to recall the former events, to return them to the mental map of the Brno inhabitants because they were forgotten or suppressed for decades, and this has been definitely managed,” organiser Jaroslav Ostrcilik told CTK today.
“Since 2015, the march has gone in the opposite direction, from Pohorelice to Brno as a symbol of reconciliation and joint future,” he added.
The wild transfer from Brno on May 30-31, 1945, still arouses questions about the causes and course of the event.
At least 19,500 Germans had to leave Brno within one night.
Minimally 1700 people died during the march to Austria which is sometimes controversially called the Brno death march.
Sudeten German historians put the number of victims at 5000 to 10,000. Many people succumbed to diseases and exhaustion, others fell victim to violence.
Historians say the transfer of Brno Germans is still difficult to deal with because of a strong layer of various versions of historical memory.
ms/dr
