Remembering the sounds of Czech bells stolen by the Nazis
The Vanished Bells (“Zaniklé Zvony”) project, a collaboration between Czech Radio and Wikimedia Czech Republic, has been launched online to preserve Czech cultural heritage. It focuses on recording and digitizing the sounds of historic bells, many of which are tied to early 20th-century Czech history, including those that were repurposed during the Second World War for the war effort.
The initiative was started by sound engineer Miloslav Turek, who realized that sound recordings of bells from the early 1940s, captured during a time of national turmoil, were invaluable.
These recordings, made on sound foils, offer a rare glimpse into Czech history, especially from the era of the Czech and Moravian Protectorate under German occupation. The bells were often used to inspire national pride during the Nazi occupation.
As Turk began to sift through the archives, archivist Jana Bartošová took on the task of obtaining detailed information about each bell. She connected the recordings to broadcast data and even contacted the municipalities where the bells were recorded to uncover their origin and fate. Unfortunately, many of these bells are no longer in existence.
Turk detailed what led them to begin the project to Radio Prague:
“A year ago, we had the opportunity to vaccinate many people here at work. I met [my collaborator] Jana at the doctor’s clinic while we were waiting, and she started telling me that she began working on the bells project. She explained what was important about the bells. For example, many of the bells were not very old; some were only 20 years old because the original bells in the villages were melted down and destroyed at the end of the First World War. They were replaced with new bells, which were again destroyed and repurposed during the Second World War.
“This story was confirmed when Jana was in contact with the villages. She confirmed that this wasn’t a unified effort. I kept looking for more information and realized that almost 90% of the bells were removed. Most of the bells across the Czech territory were taken away. So, the bells are now much more valuable.”
During the Second World War, a large number of bells from villages across the Czech lands were melted down and sent to Germany to be repurposed into weapons. This process was part of a larger effort to use anything of value in the war.
These bells had been made from bronze and were often melted down for the production of weapons, including artillery shells. Through their research, the team behind Zaniklé Zvony discovered that nearly 90% of the bells from the Czech territory were taken during the war.
The project is ongoing, with new bells still being uncovered. While much of the project focuses on recordings from the early 1940s, the team is also expanding its efforts to include other historical recordings of bells, including some from the 1930s. There's even hope that additional bell recordings from the Moravian region might surface, as researchers continue to dig through archives.
A Work in Progress
In the future, the project aims to continue expanding its collection and working with experts in the field, including renowned campanologists and radio hosts who specialize in the history and recording of bells. The project’s team believes that this collaboration could lead to the discovery of even more historical recordings.
According to Turek, they are not quite yet at the end of the project:
“I’d like to say it’s finished, but it’s not quite there yet. These sounds were recorded on a tape recorder, a significant technological innovation that came with the German occupation because the Germans had it. That’s also why we were able to record these sounds, otherwise, we’d have to use sound foils, which is much more complicated. Since the sounds were recorded on tapes, they were later transferred to foils for archival purposes. We’re almost sure we have everything because we’ve checked every corner. But recently, a colleague discovered some other bells on a different shelf, so it’s possible that we might still add more sounds to the project.”
The team’s work is primarily about reconnecting Czech people with their history. By restoring the sounds of these bells, the project hopes to revive a piece of history that many may not even know was lost.
