Thank You America!

Yesterday we were in Plzeň. Plzeň is a small city west of Prague that has a unique place in Central European history. As most of us know, the Nazi army invaded most of what we now call Central Europe in 1939, beginning the epic conflict now known as World War II. (If you’re old-school, you call it the World War, because World War I was the “Great War.”) The land of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) fell under the advance of the Nazis in that year.

Near the culmination of World War II, the Allies made an agreement about how the capture of the final Nazi holdouts should take place. Russia was to advance from the east and take Prague. The United States, led by General Patton, would advance and take Plzeň, but stop there so as not to interfere with (or complicate) the Russian advance. Thus, two days before the complete liberation of Europe, Plzeň greeted General Patton’s tanks and troops at the final stage of their advance. Now, sixty-one years later, as 8 May marks Liberation Day in the Czech Republic, 6 May marks Thank You America Day in Plzeň.

We stood amidst the crowd at the Thank You America monument in downtown Plzeň as six different speakers took the stage and spoke of the memory of the United States Army’s military efforts in Europe. All around us—in fact, all over town—American flags were as numerous as the Czech flags.

It was intriguing to hear the speakers at the Thank You America celebration (all the speeches were translated into English, except that of the US Ambassador to the Czech Republic, whose thick Texas accent was translated into Czech). All six spoke of the repeated occupation of the land—by the Nazis, then by the Soviets—and of the great blessing of their liberation. At least one speaker attributed both liberations to American effort: the end of World War II and the Velvet Revolution in 1989. It was strange to be a U.S. passport-holder and be present for this lavish praise of American military might in a foreign country.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing to me was the desire to remember. The date of Patton’s advance into Plzeň and the nationality of those soldiers (save for the Belgian volunteer contingent of whom we kept hearing) is etched in stone on a pair of pillars in the plaza. But the story of what happened—of what Plzeň needed liberation, of how this liberation would have to be repeated in 1989—exists in the minds of Plzeňers, and they know it. 6 May serves Plzeň as a day to remember, a day to tell the story again, a day to be warned by the substance of that story of how easily people find themselves in captivity.

Of course, they may still hear the stories of men who were there on 6 May 1939. Several of them—American, Belgian, and Czech—marched across the plaza in full dress uniform and placed wreaths on the steps of the monument. There are still those whose wounds, whose eyes, and whose storytelling serve to keep the tragedy of World War II in the collective memory. But soon those people will be dead. And how will a pair of stone pillars tell the same story?

It was not my U.S. passport that made the experience of Thank You America! Day powerful. It was Plzeň’s determination to remember, with gratitude, the meaning of their liberation. May we all be as determined.

~emrys