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Relations between Czechs and Sudeten Germans have improved significantly in recent years, and the days when Czechia viewed conferences of the Landsmannschaft with apprehension are now a thing of the past, the Czech ambassador to Germany, Tomáš Kafka, said in an address to the annual gathering of Sudeten Germans in Augspurk, Bavaria. The Sudeten German Landsmannschaft which organizes annual gatherings is one of the biggest organisations representing ethnic Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after World War II. Ambassador Kafka attended the meeting as the official representative of the Czech government. He conveyed to the gathering greetings from President Petr Pavel, saying that the Czech head of state is very pleased with the direction and dynamism with which Czech-German relations are developing.

In the past, Czech-German relations were burdened by the past, driven also by Czech fears of potential property demands from descendants of Germans expelled after the war. The moto of this year’s gathering, which was held three weeks before the European Parliament elections, is Sudeten Germans and Czechs - Together for Europe.

Top officials, WWII veterans and foreign diplomats attended a ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the Terezín ghetto on Sunday. Among the participants were President Petr Pavel, Senate chair Miloš Vystrčil and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová.

In her address, the speaker of the lower house said it is the moral duty of people to remember what happened at Terezín and to consistently fight against those who want to forget, distort history, belittle  or even deny the horrors of the Holocaust.

Also known as Theresienstadt, the 200-year-old fortress town was transformed by the Nazis into a camp where Jews from across Europe were massed until they could be transported to extermination camps. Between 1940 and 1945 over 155,000 prisoners entered its gates. Around 117,000 of them did not survive the war. Some 35,000 died in the camp itself of stress, hunger and atrocious living conditions.

Public broadcaster Czech Radio opened its doors to thousands of visitors on Saturday, within celebrations marking 101 years since the start of regular radio broadcasting. People were given tours of the radio’s main building on Vinohradska street, getting a peek into the studios where their favourite programs are made and the chance to meet and chat with popular radio personalities. Regional studios around the country also opened their doors to the public.

Two giant butterflies made from Spitfire aircraft fuselages are being installed on the Máj department store in the centre of Prague, which will soon reopen to the public after a 2-year-reconstruction. The giant art sculptures are the work of artist David Černý, who has many unusual art pieces around Prague. His latest work has come under fire from the Club for Old Prague which claims that the purple-and-turquoise butterflies are kitsch. Černý has fiercely defended them, countering that Spitfires are the most beautiful symbol of the fight for freedom and it is symbolic that they will appear on a building on Narodni trida where communist police cracked down on a student demonstration in 1989 sparking the Velvet Revolution which brought down the communist regime. The unveiling of the art work is highly anticipated.