For the heroes of wartime
Memorial Zámeček
The site on which the present Memorial Zámeček is located was part of the preserve that belonged to the Larisch Villa. This building was occupied after the occupation by the Schutzpolizei, who set up a shooting range on the site. After the assassination of the acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich, the shooting range became the execution site of the Pardubice Gestapo, where 194 people from Pardubice, Kolín and Hradec Králové were executed at three stakes over 18 days in June and July 1942.
The memorial consists of a place of remembrance with a monument and a museum building with an exposition that commemorates the events associated with World War II and Nazi crimes in Pardubice in order to permanently preserve the memory of the victims of the second martial law and the courage of Czechoslovak resistance fighters who became collaborators of the Silver A parachute drop and other drops.
www.zamecek-memorial.cz
Institute of Memory of the Nation
The Institute of the Memory of the Nation is a modern space designed for meetings, education and, above all, sharing memories. A technologically unique interactive exhibition - at the border of games, film and augmented reality - tells visitors the real stories of 20th century memorials. At the beginning of the tour, you choose the story you want to follow, and then let yourself be carried away by the narrative of the memoirist, supplemented by projections, unusual effects and interactive screens.
You can relive World War II with Jaryna Mlchová, who saved hundreds of Jews thanks to the discovery of an unknown compound. Or you can hear the story of Tomáš Sedláček, who walked through all of Europe's Second World War battlefields. Interestingly, the very place where the Institute is located is also connected to Operation Silver A. According to the testimonies that have been traced, the commander of this airborne group briefly resided here.
www.institut.pametnaroda.cz/pardubice
Pardubice in the footsteps of Silver A
The Educational Trail through Pardubice in the Footsteps of Silver A - The Last Journey of Alfred Bartos introduces visitors to the fate of the local inhabitants during World War II, presents places connected with the activities of the Silver A steamship in Pardubice and the fate of the main actors, especially the figure of Captain Alfred Bartos. The trail has two circuits. The shorter one with 6 stops in the city centre and the longer one with 11 stops from the Zámeček Memorial to the Pardubice main railway station.
www.pardubice.eu/silvera
Stones of the Disappeared
The Stolpersteine (Stones of the Disappeared) are paving stones with a brass surface, bearing text commemorating the victims of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime. The stones are embedded in the pavement in front of the victims' houses. The Stolpersteine are the project of German artist Gunter Demnig, who installed the first stone in 1992 in Cologne. The first stone appeared in the Czech Republic in 2008. Pardubice joined the project in 2020. Each victim has his or her own Stolpersteine, this is because in the extermination camps the prisoners had their names taken away and replaced by mere numbers without identity or history. The project thus gives back to each tortured person their own name and thus their dignity.
www.pardubice.eu/kulturni-mapa?fulltext=kameny
Civil defence cover
One of the most secret places of Pardubice Castle is the civil defence shelter in the north-eastern roundel of the castle ramparts, where several ventilation shafts protrude above the surface.
Construction of the shelter began in 1953 and its construction was subject to secrecy. The structure was not intended to protect the general civilian population, but was built as a civil defence command post. It was therefore intended to be a headquarters to manage the rescue work in the city in case Czechoslovakia was attacked by the enemy.
It was maintained in a functional state until the 1990s. In the 1990s, the East Bohemian Museum began to use a part of the shelter, which was then owned by the district authority, and it still manages the shelter as a whole. It is primarily an archaeological depository of excavated and often unprocessed archaeological material.
www.vcm.cz/zamek/kryt-civilni-obrany
Larisch Villa
The long-neglected gem in the form of a hunting lodge or the Larisch Villa is located less than an hour from the centre of Pardubice. The place where Pardubice's elite once gathered for parfour hunts and horse races is overshadowed by another less glorious stage of our history - World War II. The villa became the headquarters of a battalion of the Böhmen reserve police regiment, the so-called Schutzpolizei, and 194 Czech citizens from Pardubice and its surroundings and from the burnt-out village of Ležáky were executed in its vicinity after the assassination of Heydrich. Currently, this chateau belongs to the Czechoslovak Legionary Community and is undergoing intensive repair and care.
www.zamecekpardubice.cz
War Hospital - Quarantine
The war hospital in Pardubice was established shortly after the beginning of the First World War at the turn of 1914 and 1915. The hospital had 365 buildings, mostly typical wooden barracks equipped for the stay and treatment of more than 10,000 wounded or sick soldiers from all battlefields. After the war, the hospital was called the Quarantine Hospital after one of its five wards. Today on its site stands the Dukla housing estate built in the 1950s.