Holidays

Liberation Day - May 8

Three significant events occurred in the Czech Republic during the first few days of May 1945. General Patton liberated most of western Bohemia from Nazi Germany’s control by May 5. On May 8, the Germans officially surrendered to the Allied forces on the western front. The Second World War ended a day later when the Soviet Red Army arrived in Prague. During the communist era, Czechs celebrated their liberation from Nazi Germany on May 9 in commemoration of the Soviet liberation of Prague. However, after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, the date of commemoration was moved to the eighth of May.