On The Streets Of The Protectorate - A New Exhibition In Prague

[CARL]

The lower floor of the Prague Army Museum has recently opened an excellent new display, titled "On The Streets Of The Protectorate"

As ever, admission is free of charge.

Images as follows:

1) Entrance display

2) The Men In Charge, pt.one: (L-R) Reichsprotektor Konstantin von Neurath (1939-1943), Deputy Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich (1941-1942), Deputy Reichsprotektor Kurt Daluege (1942-1943)

3) The Men In Charge, pt.two: (L-R) Reichsprotektor Wilhelm Frick (1943-1945) and finally, Karl H Frank, who served as Secretary of State of The Reich Protectorate (1939-1943) and then German Secretary of State for Bohemia and Moravia (1943-1945)

[CARL]

4-5) Wall sized images portraying the Prague skyline and an execution by firing squad

[CARL]

6) Car pennant of Konrad Henlein, German Sudeten Leader

7) Political visor of Konrad Henlein

8) Reconstructed display showing the secret establishment of a radio connection between the Protectorate and London - a large room features various materials related to this action, including a belt used by Germans to locate radio signals whilst walking the streets of the Protectorate

9) Security Police tunic (note, the image in the background shows the Gestapo HQ in Prague)

[CARL]

10) Handcuffs used when hanging up prisoners during interogation / punishment

11) "Dollar" cuffs, named due to their form resembling the US currency and several clubs from various Protectorate prisons

12) More "Dollar" cuffs, a warrant disc and Gestapo summons for a woman to report to the Gestapo HQ during September 1942

[CARL]

13) Reconstructed guillotine, similar to the one used at Pankrác Prison in Prague

14) From autumn 1941 until as late as April 1945, a former college site in Brünn (Brno, Moravia) was used to hold thousands of Czech nationals, especially academics, resistance members, patriots etc. Jews were also held at the site which was used as an assembly locale in addition to its function as a prison. The courtyard of said site was the site of hundreds (estimates rise as high as 1,300) of public executions, with tickets being sold regularly. The majority of tickets were bought by local women of German origin

[CARL]

15) One of more impressive museum features I have seen in recent years is this corridor, modelled to resemble a prison block corridor. Opening the viewing panel on each door reveals an individual display inside, related to a former inmate of one of the many sites of incarceration and torture located in the Protectorate

16) This display, located behind one of the prison doors, shows Oldřich Pechal, a paratrooper whose gloves are part of the display. Pechal ultimately perished in KZ-Mauthausen on 22nd September 1942

17) Another display features Anna Nováková, whose rag doll she sewed whilst imprisoned in Pankrác Prison, Prague is shown below. Anna Nováková was one of many murdered during the investigation of the Heydrich assassination. She died in late October 1942, like Oldřich Pechal, in Mauthausen concentration camp

[CARL]

18) Propellor blade from a downed B-17

19) German Stereoscopic Rangefinder (x8), manufactured by Carl Zeiß Jena co.

20) Fliegerfaust, Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck

[CARL]

21) Armaments section

22) Reconstructed barricade, similar to those used during the Prague uprising - note the 200L fuel can

23) German helmet painted with Soviet colours post liberation

[CARL]

The thread linked below addresses another section of the new display at Prague Army Museum:

Karl Frank exhibit, his glass eye...and other items of note...

[Chopperman]

Very nice posts.