Prague uncovered: The end of World War II is captured in newsreels and re-enactments

Some of the past anniversaries have been preserved online, and there is also newsreel footage of the Prague Uprising, the subsequent liberation of Prague by Soviet forces, and the return of President Edvard Beneš from his exile in Britain.

In 2015, one of the highlights of the celebrations was videomapping on a facade at Old Town Square, staged by The Macula. The seven-minute show, called Radio 45, depicted the events of the May 5–8 Prague Uprising in a graphic novel style.

Czech Radio on May 4, 1945, sent out the message “Calling all Czechs! Come quickly to our aid! Calling all Czechs!” which started some of the last fighting in Europe in World War II.

“For some time radio staff had been working secretly with the Czech underground to prepare the ground for the uprising. Their radio appeal marked the beginning of the battle. In the confusion of the following three days with street battles going on around the city, radio was to play an important role, and the radio building also became the focus of much of the fighting. On some recordings that survive you can still clearly hear gunfire in the background,” The Macula said of their show.

In 2015 there was also a live two-hour re-enactment in Prague’s Žižkov neighborhood at Havlíčkovo náměstí called Barikáda 2015. It involved approximately 400 actors in period costume ranging from Czech, German and Russian military uniforms to butchers’ aprons, nurses’ outfits and civilian suits and dresses.

There was also a reconstruction of the fighting outside the Czech Radio building in 2005, using actors and historical vehicles.

Silent newsreel footage from May 1945 can be seen in the British Pathé clip called Prague Liberated. It includes street fighting, the building of barricades from paving stones, burning of German banners, scenes of the destruction in Old Town Square, and the arrival of Soviet troops, who were welcomed by the civilian population, and the return of Edvard Beneš. Czech women can be seen with flowers in their hair, cheering on the soldiers as they go by.

The National Film Archives has a half-hour film, made largely of amateur footage, called May Revolution in Prague 1945 (Květnová revoluce v Praze 1945), covers the same events with some rather shaky footage.