Jiří Filip

* 1986

Historian
1944 - 1945 - The liberation of Czechoslovakia, 8. 5. 1945 - End of WWII
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    Why Marshal Konev gave the order to bomb the town

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    duration: 04:48
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    "The reason for the bombing is clear. The terms of surrender of the German forces included the obligation for the German troops to halt wherever they were at the time the surrender took effect and await the arrival of the Allied armies, whether American or Soviet. They had to stop. We know that the German columns were still moving westward, into American captivity, on the night of 8 May and in the morning of 9 May. Probably thanks to the paramilitary groups, this came to the attention of the Soviet command and also Marshal Konev who was near Dresden at the time. On the night of 8 May, he attended a banquet during which he was informed that the German troops were not honouring their obligaiton and were moving. Marshal Konev immediately informed the attendees that the surrender condition had been violated, and ordered a large-scale bombardment of the area to prevent further movement of the German troops. It was not just Mladá Boleslav: Mělník was also bombed heavily on 9 May, as was Roudnice and other small towns that were of importance as road and railway junctions." - "Did this also happen in the vicinity of Mladá Boleslav?" - "Yes, for example Jizerní Vtelno and Zámostí were hit by bombs dropped from individual planes searching such places. We can say Mladá Boleslav was obvious as a crucial node and a good target from a military point of view. The culprits of the air raid were truly the German troops disobeying the terms of surrender by moving on. Stopping this was essential in terms of war booty and enforcement of the surrender. It can be argued that it was unnecessary, but what is necessary and what is not in war? When is a war over and when is it not? From a strategic point of view, it may have been dangerous to expose Rybalko's tank sortie from the Ore Mountains towards Prague to such an onslaught of German troops pouring in from the east. Personally, I do not consider it necessary to blame the Soviet command for this operation. It was just the continuation of the global tragedy that was the Second World War. Unfortunately, Mladá Boleslav fell victim, and it affects me because I this is where I come from."

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    Number of victims of the bombing of Mladá Boleslav

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    "The element of surprise resulted in massive casualties. If you count the civilian victims in Mladá Boleslav at the time - those were not only the citizens of Mladá Boleslav but also of the adjacent villages present in Boleslav at that moment as well as the German soldiers killed, and of course this does not include the number of those wounded - the number of victims of 9 May alone was about 500. This is due to the element of surprise, as people were hit in the streets. We know from witness testimonials that planes armed with machine guns shelled the streets of Mladá Boleslav, of course mainly columns of soldiers, but they also killed Czech civilians. There were many, many victims. In terms of the number of victims, it was the most terrible bombing in Bohemia."

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    The bombing caught people completely off guard

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    "The weather was lovely from the early morning. It was sunny, and people came out into the streets to watch the frantic flight of the Germans, namely after some of them learned that the road was cut off because a tank raid towards Prague had made it impossible for them to go via Mělník. The columns were really frantic and desperate. People went to see it, not least because it felt liberating for them to see the Germans defeated and watch the undignified flight of the Wehrmacht that wanted to dominate Europe and the world. All of this meant that streets were full of people. Another problem was that the public alert system which would have warned of impending air danger was off. The sirens were not working, even if any warning came in... I didn't trace any telegraph or telephone warning. The only one who could have sounded the alarm was the guard atop the Old Town Hall tower who was watching the raid from the tower - unless he hid in the process. People stayed in the streets until the very last minute, watching the planes at a very high altitude - two to two and a half kilometers. That's also why they couldn't see any insignia, since airplanes at that altitude are too small to discern anything."

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    Praha, 13.10.2021

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    duration: 02:17:21
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When one lies for too long, they can no longer even see the truth

Jiří Filip during the filming
Jiří Filip during the filming
photo: Post Bellum filming
photo: Post Bellum filming
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Jiří Filip was born in Mladá Boleslav on 9 April 1986. He graduated from Dr. Josef Pekar Grammar School, having taken interest in the modern history of his region during his high school studies. He was greatly influenced by his history teacher Karel Herčík. In his final year, he wrote a study on the bombing of Mladá Boleslav by the Soviet army on 9 May 1945. It was the most detailed historical paper on the topic to date. He began studyig political science and history at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. He worked as a curator of museum collections in Bělá pod Bezdězem. He published multiple historical articles in the Boleslavský deník daily and the Boleslavan monthly. He has been involved in the publication of the Boleslavica collection since 2011. He has worked for the Czechoslovak Legionary Community since 2012, and he worked as a secretary at its Prague headquarters in 2021.

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  • Jiří Filip during the filming
    Jiří Filip during the filming
    photo: Post Bellum filming
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  • Jiří Filip during the filming
    Jiří Filip during the filming
    photo: Post Bellum filming
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