WWII and Holocaust Tour Prague – news - Prague: Local Historian Tours

Follow me on Instagram for the latest news!

local.historian.tours.prague

We lost another WWII hero, Myron Wilson of Cedar R

We lost another WWII hero, Myron Wilson of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at the age of 99. He was one of the veterans I interviewed during my June/July trip to the USA. He served as a radioman in the US Navy from 1944. Thank you for your service! 🫡

Donald Howkins was 23 years old when he landed on

Donald Howkins was 23 years old when he landed on Gold Beach with his 90th Middlesex Regiment on June 6, 1944. Now, at 103, he lives in North London, where I recently met him. He fought his way through Normandy, moving through Belgium and the Netherlands, where he was wounded in December 1944. What a hero! 🇬🇧

Meet 🇬🇧 WWII hero Doug Baldwin, whom I recen

Meet 🇬🇧 WWII hero Doug Baldwin, whom I recently interviewed.
He served with the 6th Battalion of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. Doug saw combat in Normandy, where he was taken as a POW in August 1944. He spent the next nine months in several Stalags in Germany, some of which were near the Czech border. He
said prisoners were treated like “cattle” and got to “think like an animal” as he ate dandelion leaves.

Hello from the United Kingdom! 🇬🇧 I am here

Hello from the United Kingdom! 🇬🇧
I am here for a couple of days to interview British WWII veterans!
Today, I met a 99-year-old veteran, Peter Lovett!
He landed on D-Day at Juno Beach, later joined the Parachute battalion, and participated in the bloody Battle of the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge). He was also dropped as a paratrooper during Operation Varsity in March 1945. He has seen heavy combat.

108th birthday?! 😳🥳 An incredible 108 years

108th birthday?! 😳🥳

An incredible 108 years is being celebrated by Czech-American WWII veteran Joseph Chervenka (Josef Červenka) who now lives in Florida, United States. He was born in August 1916.
During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy. He was part of units that protected convoys sailing across the dangerous Atlantic, where German submarines were operating. During the Normandy landings, he served on the beaches as a so-called “beachmaster,” whose role was to manage incoming supplies and newly arriving troops so they could later join the fight against Nazism on the European continent.

Happy birthday!🥳🇺🇸🇨🇿

Finnish veterans’ achievements! 🇫🇮 I had t

Finnish veterans’ achievements! 🇫🇮
I had the honor of meeting three veterans of the Finnish army from the so-called Continuation War, during which they defended their homeland against the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1945. One of them shared his story for the very first time. He was severely wounded in the Battle of Tali-Ihantala in June 1944, losing part of his hand. At the age of 100, he maintains a very positive mindset. Incredible.
Another, Hannes Tuovinen, is still active at 100 years old, just like another veteran, Jakko Rajala from Tampere.

#WWIIveteran #veteran #sotaveteraanit #taliihantala #finnisharmy #WWIIhistory #wwiitour #battlefieldtour #battlefieldtours #therifle #bestdefencefoundation #warveteran #mannerheim #Normandy80 #Dday80

Hello from Finland! 🇫🇮 Even though I am on v

Hello from Finland! 🇫🇮
Even though I am on vacation, I am still trying to meet WWII veterans from all over the world.
Today, I had the great honor of interviewing a 106-year-old veteran, Ilmari Koppinen. He still lives on his own, works out every day, and is a veteran of the Winter War, the war when the Soviet Union attacked Finland in 1939-1940.
This is the first Finnish veteran I have ever met, and hopefully not the last one!

At the age of 100, Czech war hero Miroslav Bernat

At the age of 100, Czech war hero Miroslav Bernat has passed away. He was one of the last veterans who fought in the Battle of Dukla 1944 on the Eastern Front.

Miroslav Bernat, a Volhynian Czech, volunteered to join the Czechoslovak foreign army in the Soviet Union in March 1944. He was wounded in the Battle of Dukla and later participated in the liberation of eastern Slovakia.

He was born on February 15, 1924, in the village of Teremno near Lutsk in Volhynia, then part of interwar Poland. During his time in Volhynia, he lived through both Soviet and Nazi occupations, completed primary school under the Soviet regime, and trained as a car mechanic.

At the age of twenty, in the spring of 1944, he volunteered for the Czechoslovak foreign army. He gained his first combat experience shortly after. He later obtained a driver’s license for trucks and as a front line driver he fought in the Carpathian-Dukla operation—experiencing the bloody events in Machnowka and the battles near Zyndranowa, where he was accidentally wounded in the wrist, which temporarily complicated his service as a driver.

During our meetings, he often recalled Dukla. “My truck was hit in the front axle. I got out and hid between the rear wheels to take cover from enemy fire. A friend of mine with another truck was behind me. He first hid in a ditch. Nearby, there was a house where he wanted to take shelter. He ran from the ditch towards the house. They hit him, and he was dead on the spot,” Mr. Bernat told me.

With the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps, he made it as far as Liptovský Mikuláš. There, in February 1945, he contracted double pneumonia. He was treated at a brigade medical station and later in a military hospital in Poprad. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was discharged on permanent leave from the replacement regiment in Košice on February 27, 1945.

Miroslav Bernat was one of the heroes of my book on forgotten war veterans. I will miss him.
I will never forget the beers we drunk together.

We lost Czech-American WWII hero Robert Nejdl. He

We lost Czech-American WWII hero Robert Nejdl. He was 99 years old.

Robert Nejdl was a proud Czech-American whose ancestors left the Czech lands for the United States in the 19th century. They settled in the state of Iowa, in the city of Cedar Rapids, where Robert, who was known to everyone as Bob, was born in February 1925 to Norbert Nejdl and his wife Jiřina Motejlová. Sadly, his mother died shortly after his birth, so he was raised by foster parents.

Bob enlisted in June 1943 while still in high school. Although we speak of him as a airmen, he was technically assigned to the U.S. Navy, specifically to the Naval Air Forces, which primarily operated from aircraft carriers in the Pacific.

Bob underwent military training, which was very lengthy for airmen. He was selected for the position of rear gunner on the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver dive bomber, which attacked moving enemy ships with torpedoes. The training itself was extremely demanding; many crews perished during training due to common technical issues and the complex handling of the bomber.

Bob completed his training as an rear gunner and after nearly two years, was ready for combat deployment. He was assigned to the 19th Bombing Squadron (VB-19), which moved to the Pacific in early August 1945. Before he could see combat, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing the war to its end.

Bob was a great Czech patriot. He loved Czech culture and cuisine, and few were as proud of their heritage as he was. After the war, he ran a business with his Czech wife in Czech Village in Cedar Rapids, and he remained active in the Czech community until the last days of his life.

Bob was also one of two Czech veterans who attended my lecture at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids at the end of June. His smile and good mood were impossible to overlook. His heroism was honored with a standing ovation from the full house. I greatly valued our friendship. I will miss him a lot. 🖤🫶🏻🇨🇿🇺🇸

We remember Arnie Ahrens, a brave member of Compan

We remember Arnie Ahrens, a brave member of Company G, 333rd Infantry Regiment of the 84th Infantry Division. Arnie, who lived to be 99, was one of the remarkable veterans I had the honor of visiting in the USA just a month ago.

His story is one of incredible resilience. In November 1944, during his first battle in western Germany, Arnie was severely wounded when a bullet passed through the back of his skull. Miraculously, he survived, recovered, and returned to fight in the Battle of the Bulge.

Thank you for your service! 🖤

Arnold Ahrens
March 15, 1925 - July 26, 2024

#ww2veteran #wwiiveteran #czechoslovakia1945 #prague1945 #anthropoid #operationanthropoid #dday #NormandyTrip #WW2History #battlefieldtour #DdayAnniversary #WW2Travel #NormandyBeaches #WW2Normandy #NormandyTour #ww2prague #WW2Sites #NormandyHistory #Dday75 #WW2Traveler #NormandyBattlefields #DdayTour #WW2Remembrance #NormandyExperience
#DdayHistory #omahabeach #dday79 #greatestgeneration #dday80 #therifle

Richard Nelson, a member of the 738th Field Artill

Richard Nelson, a member of the 738th Field Artillery Battalion and one of the last veterans who helped liberate Czechoslovakia in 1945, passed away at the age of 99.

Richard loved the Czech people. He often recalled experiencing the happiest moments of his life in Sušice when the Czechs allowed him to sleep on the floor of their house for a few days instead of in a trench. He never forgot the gratitude of the people in southwestern Bohemia for their liberation.

The 738th Artillery Battalion was involved in the liberation of the Klatovy region, specifically Sušice and the surrounding villages of Podmokly and Čímice.

I discovered Richard just a month ago in the state of Iowa. He had never shared his story with anyone, so I am grateful that I managed to record it on camera.

We will never forget! 🖤🇨🇿🇺🇸

#ww2veteran #wwiiveteran #czechoslovakia1945 #prague1945 #anthropoid #operationanthropoid #dday #NormandyTrip #WW2History #battlefieldtour #DdayAnniversary #WW2Travel #NormandyBeaches #WW2Normandy #NormandyTour #ww2prague #WW2Sites #NormandyHistory #Dday75 #WW2Traveler #NormandyBattlefields #DdayTour #WW2Remembrance #NormandyExperience #DdayHistory #omahabeach #dday79 #greatestgeneration #dday80 #therifle

We lost another WWII veteran, George Thompson, mem

We lost another WWII veteran, George Thompson, member of 16th Armoured Division who liberated our city Pilsen (Plzen).
We are so grateful to our liberators in the Czech Republic. Today I drove from Prague to Pilsen and signed condolence book for George.
Thank you for your service! 🫡🖤🇨🇿🇺🇸

We lost another WWII veteran today, 100 years old

We lost another WWII veteran today, 100 years old Roger H. Charbonneau from Iowa.
He flew 37 missions as a tail gunner on B-17G (563 BS, 388 BG) over France, Germany and Czechoslovakia.

He was last survivor who was part of 87 B-17G who bombed my hometown Karlovy Vary in Czechoslovakia on April 19, 1945!
During another mission, they were most likely hit by Me 262 and bailed out over France.

You will never be forgotten! Thank you for you service!

I recently had the honor of visiting the USA and i

I recently had the honor of visiting the USA and interviewing 37 WWII veterans in Iowa and Illinois. More than half of these heroes had never shared their stories before. I am deeply grateful for their service and thank them for their bravery 🙏🫡

#ww2veteran #wwiiveteran #czechoslovakia1945 #prague1945 #anthropoid #operationanthropoid #dday #NormandyTrip #WW2History #battlefieldtour #DdayAnniversary #WW2Travel #NormandyBeaches #WW2Normandy #NormandyTour #ww2prague #WW2Sites #Dday75 #WW2Traveler #NormandyBattlefields #DdayTour #WW2Remembrance #NormandyExperience #DdayHistory #omahabeach #dday79 #BandofBrothers #greatestgeneration #dday80 #therifle

NEW BOOK has been released! I am honored that firs

NEW BOOK has been released! I am honored that first reader of my first book published in English is Vietnam War veteran who joined one of my tours.

You can order book via website and soon on Amazon

This is me, Jiri! Explore Prague and Czech country

This is me, Jiri!
Explore Prague and Czech countryside with me or join me on WWII battlefield tour in Central Europe and discover stories and locations that changed history!

#tourguide #prague #tourprague #battlefieldtour #1945 #wwii #generalpatton #dday80 #loketcastle #wwiiprague #wwiiveteran #historian #historiantours #localhistorianprague #terezin #theresienstadt #hiddengems #hiddengemprague

Follow on Instagram

Follow me also on my English Facebook page

Follow me on my Czech language Facebook page