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The very fist memories of Prague I have are quite unpleasant, I was twelve years old in 1938, and still at school, and one geography lesson was about Europe, and the things that where going on, particularly in Germany. It was a lesson that began my understanding of politics and the history of Germany, and now with the emergence of Nazism, the demands that Hitler was making. It was the first time I was to hear the name "Sudetenland" I was too young to understand the real significance of Hitler's demands, and the threat to Prague, but I was soon to find out. I was very disappointed with the British and French using appeasement in dealing with the issue. Winston Churchill was against any collaboration with Hitler, but he was called a warmonger, nobody listened to him, and the rest is history.
The next time Prague was to be in my mind, was in 1968 when Dubcek introduced reforms, and the Soviets invaded Prague. Again I was embarrassed at the lack of intervention from the West.
I had developed my interest in short wave radio in the early sixties, and I was tuning in all around the world, and was able to tune into radio Prague, unfortunately it was controlled by the communist regime, and the picture you got of Prague was far from the truth, as now, after freedom as at last returned to Prague, we are able to see what was going on.
In the early Nineties Prague at last became the capital of the new Czech Republic, and now a much Happier picture emerges.
Eric Cunningham, England.
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