Newsreel Coverage of the Prague Uprising of May 1945

This unedited film footage capturing the atmosphere in the streets of Prague during the May Uprising was created mainly by the cameramen of the Aktualita company. This film production company focused mainly on the creation of a regular weekly newsreel. Unlike the German UFA and its weekly Die deutsche Wochenschau, it operated continuously until May 1945. The last issue of its Czech Sound Newsreel was ready for a premiere on 5 May 1945. The Czech segments in this collection were completely apolitical. Wartime conditions were evoked only by regular reports from the battlefield which were fraught with Nazi propaganda.

At the turn of April and May, projects of purely documentary purpose, not propaganda, were created independently of this official production. The tone-setting shots of springtime Prague, shot by cameraman Josef Čepelák, were likely created out of fear that Prague would see the same fate as other European cities affected by the horrors of war. The film stock presented the last chance to immortalize the city’s historical monuments and picturesque corners with its everyday peaceful life. But even this footage alludes to the end of the Nazi Reich. People are buying newspapers with the headline ‘The Führer Has Fallen’, and defeated German soldiers wander the streets aimlessly and later try to leave the city.

Negative film stock, used to preserve Individual scenes from the Prague Uprising, was given by the head of Nationalfilm, Karel Feix to director Otakar Vávra, who recalls this in his memoirs, "All cameramen, not only Aktualita’s but also feature film cameramen, took their silent cameras and film stock, I was in telephone contact with them and sent them to the places where things were happening. The primary ones were, of course, the Masaryk Embankment (Masarykovo nábřeží), Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí), and then on Saturda,y the Battle for Czech Radio." Over twenty filmmakers were filming in the streets of Prague, not only documentary filmmakers (Jindřich Brichta, Jiří Bronec, Josef Čepelák, František Čihák, Ivan Frič, Miroslav Lang, Jiří Lehovec, Jan Novák, Ladislav Novotný, Oldřich Payer, Karel Plicka, Pwetr Sádek, Karel Smutný, Václav Vandrovec, Čeněk Zahradníček, Josef Rudolf Zíka, Karel Zrůbek), but live-action filmmakers as well (Karel Degl, Václav Hanuš, Ferdinand Pečenka, Jan Roth, Petr Rovný, Jan Stallich, Josef Střecha, Jaroslav Tuzar, Míla Vích). Among them, we can see Miroslav Wagner, the owner of Zenith Film, who during the war collaborated with NSDAP advisor for cinematography Franz Treml and who was banned from filmmaking after the war. The created footage includes the tearing down and repainting of German signs, the hoisting of Czechoslovak and Allied Powers flags, the assembling of volunteer armed units (Revolutionary Guards), the erection of barricades, the arrest of collaborators, the creation of makeshift memorials to the victims, the activities of the Czech National Council, and the arrival of Red Army soldiers who are welcomed by enthusiastic Prague citizens.

Most of what was filmed at that time couldn’t be used later on, mainly for ideological reasons. This was especially true for the sequences featuring the activities of the Russian Liberation Army units (so-called Vlasov Army) and their commander, Sergei Kuzmich Bunyachenko, in Prague. Very problematic in those days was the use of footage depicting conflicts between the Czech and German populations. The following warnings were written on NFA identification cards: ‘This footage was not officially distributed and could be misused due to its contents (aggression towards Germans). DO NOT USE!’

Some events had to be re-enacted retroactively. Shots of two German tanks that bombarded the Old Town Hall (Staroměstská radnice) on 8 May 1945 were filmed after 1945 by director Otakar Vávra for his compilation film ‘Cesty k barikádám’ (‘The Way to the Barricades’). ‘I filmed them from the gallery of the Týn Church (Týnský chrám) to make it more believable, and it also works in conjunction with the burning Town Hall.’ Footage of Prague citizens threatening Germans with raised fists was similarly filmed later. The result was relatively dubious, so it couldn’t be used.

This unedited film footage can, however, in no way provide a complete picture of this historical event. Its significance lies in the fact that it was not subject to corrections at the time or a priori judgements. Like shards of a broken mirror, it depicts major historical moments alongside minor personal stories, and important figures are followed by nameless participants of historical events. Thus, it does not try to interpret the event, but forces the viewers to reflect on it themselves