# Liberation Festival Pilsen, Czech Republic



## Lucky Larry (Sep 3, 2012)

Pilsen was one of the cities liberated in May 1945 from the Nazi's by Patton's 3rd Army.  Since 1990 they have been celebrating the liberation, and like any festival hoping to bring in some money for the town, by having a 3 day festival.  We're going to be in  Germany/Austria/Czech region in May and this would fit in nicely.

Has anyone been to this in the past or even visited Pilsen?

Is it worth going and spending 3 - 5 days in the region?


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## mav (Sep 4, 2012)

I was there for a few days this past summer. The Pilsen beer brewery and museum is worth a visit and there is the  Patton museum.  I would go over the liberation festival but I would not think more then 1 or 2 nights would be needed here in Pilsen. The neat thing about Pilsen to is there are virtually no Americans or English speaking people so you feel more like you are in a foreign town. There is a nice Marriott Courtyard that is steps from old town and has free parking and internet.  The staff is very nice and the breakfast was good. And you can literally roll into the brewery.  We enjoyed our stay in Pilsen wandering all over town and checking out the shops but I don't think I would  go back.  Been there done that.
   If I was you I would DEFINITELY go and stay for 3 or 4 nights in Chesky Krumlov. We loved it!


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## Carolinian (Sep 4, 2012)

Czechloslovakia had an extremely brutal ethnic clensing of ethnic Germans (actually really Austrians whose families had lived there for centuries, as this had been part of the Austrian Empire until 1918) after WWII.  Most of the areas along the borders with Austria and Germany were majority German, some overwhelmingly German in 1918-1945.  All of them were chased out and many killed in 1945.  So I would have very mixed emotions about participating in any event celebrating the events of 1945 in that part of the Czech Republic.  While the defeat of Hitler was a huge positive, what was done to the Austrian civilians in the Czech Republic was a war crime.   They planned on a similar ethnic clensing of ethnic Hungarians from eastern Czechloslovakia, but Stalin put a stop to that, probably the only positive thing Stalin ever did.


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