Portal:Czech Republic

Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination camps. Its conditions were deliberately engineered to hasten the death of its prisoners, and the ghetto also served a propaganda role. Unlike other ghettos, the use of slavery was not economically significant.

The ghetto was established by the transportation of Czech Jews in November 1941. The first German and Austrian Jews arrived in June 1942; Dutch and Danish Jews came in 1943, and prisoners of a wide variety of nationalities were sent to Theresienstadt in the last months of the war. About 33,000 people died at Theresienstadt, mostly from malnutrition and disease. More than 88,000 people were held there for months or years before being deported to extermination camps and other killing sites; the role of the Jewish Council (Judenrat) in choosing those to be deported has attracted significant controversy. The total number of survivors was around 23,000, including 4,000 deportees who survived. (Full article...)

• 2 June 1541 – A fire destroys much of Malá Strana and the northern part of Prague Castle
• 10 June 1348 – The foundation stone of Karlštejn Castle (pictured) is laid
• 20 June 1976 – The Czechoslovakia national football team win UEFA Euro 1976
• 23 June 1955 – The first national Spartakiad is held, marking ten years after the nation's liberation at the end of World War II
• 30 June 1945 – State security service StB is established

Leoš Janáček (Czech: [ˈlɛoʃ ˈjanaːtʃɛk] ^ⓘ, 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, music theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic music, including Eastern European folk music, to create an original, modern musical style.

Born in Hukvaldy, Janáček demonstrated musical talent at an early age and was educated in Brno, Prague, Leipzig, and Vienna. He then returned to live in Brno, where he married his pupil Zdenka Schulzová and devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research. His earlier musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín Dvořák, but around the turn of the century he began to incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music, as well as his transcriptions of "speech melodies" of spoken language, to create a modern, highly original synthesis. The death of his daughter Olga in 1903 had a profound effect on his musical output; these notable transformations were first evident in the opera Jenůfa (often called the "Moravian national opera"), which premiered in 1904 in Brno. (Full article...)

• ...that the Sedlec Ossuary is a chapel decorated with the bones of 40,000 people?
• ... that in 2013, the Czech Republic plans to directly elect its president for the first time in its history?
• ... that footballer Petr Vrabec won six Czechoslovak league titles with Sparta Prague?
• ... that a 1926 voyage to Java inspired Czech poet Konstantin Biebl for the remainder of his life?