Every city has days to celebrate. Many cities also have dark days in their past. Photo: Screenshot, British Movietone / AP video.
Brno, Mar 15 (BD) – This Sunday will be the 80th anniversary of an infamous event in the history of Brno. On March 17, 1939, Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor of Germany and the Führer of the Nazi Party, came for a visit.
Watch the Associated Press video footage: Click here.
“HITLER IN BRUENN” shows Hitler leaving Hlavní nádraží on a Friday morning just after 11 a.m. It shows Hitler standing in an open-top car moving up Masarykova. It shows Hitler moving through a jam-packed náměstí Svobody and turning past where the McDonald’s is today. And it shows Hitler ascending the stairs in the courtyard of the Brno Town Hall, the same stairs where many couples climb en route to civil wedding ceremonies.
Swastikas and Nazi flags are everywhere. Hitler salutes and the crowd salutes back. Nazi soldiers are everywhere.
Throughout it all, there are throngs of people welcoming Hitler as a liberator, cheering, watching, waving handkerchiefs from the windows.
The video has no sound, making it feel as though watching ghosts parading through the streets of Brno.
Hitler established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on the day before his visit to Brno. It was before World War II started in Europe. From his point of view, it was one of the first steps in his quest for domination.
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