Sites of Memory in Czechoslovak Silesia 1945–1948

Abstract

Abstract The paper aims to describe and analyze the changes in public sites of memory in the multi-ethnic border region of Czechoslovak Silesia during the period of restoration of Czechoslovak sovereignty, between the fall of Nazism in May 1945 and the communist putsch in Czechoslovakia in February 1948. This research focuses on transformations and (dis)continuity of cults and symbols during that period, and on specifics and differences within the examined region with regard to ethnic and social structure of local population. Research is based primarily on the recorded agendas of state and district administrations, but preserved memorials and photographs or descriptions of vanished sites of memory also serve as important sources. After the expulsion of German population, the western part of the region was repopulated by settlers from various regions of East-Central Europe. Most of local German sites of memory vanished, with the partial exception of religious symbols and a few “apolitical” memorials. New monuments and memorials were dedicated mainly to personalities of Czech history in an effort to inculcate the “official” identity amongst the new-settlers. In the Ostrava coal basin, the new regime invoked the pre-war tradition of working-class identity and showed tolerance towards the sites of memory of the local Polish minority, except memorials related to the former Czech-Polish border conflicts. In the Hlučín region specifically, a strong pro-German narrative survived despite the “Czechization” efforts of state authorities. In general, the state-supported memory policy aimed to create the narrative of a “Slavic” and “socialist” Silesia, suppress the German past of the region, and weaken frictions between Czechs and Poles.