A United Nations Security Council session held in Lake Success, New York during the Cold War. Representatives of different nations are seated. One delegate takes his seat and speaks about the Communist Coup of February 1948 in Czechoslovakia and Czech refugees.
Former President of Czechoslovakia Edvard Beneš arrives in the United States. He is accompanied by his wife, Hana Benešová. Officers and dignitaries gather in a hall. Benes addressing the people. He praises the American freedom and democracy.
German troop movement to Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia just before World War II. Mercedes Benz heavy trucks are parked on air field as lines of German Wehrmacht soldiers stand at attention on the other side of the field. A German officer reads instruction from a booklet. Wehrmacht troops marching on the field, toward aircraft. Two Junkers Ju-52 aircraft parked in airfield. A German officer salutes to a flight crew, who then board an aircraft. German soldiers marching to the airplanes. German soldiers climb aboard transport plane. A soldier hands over rifles to his comrade inside the aircraft. Nazi soldiers take their bicycle and belongings with them to the aircraft. German soldiers push a motorcycle into a transport plane. Crewman closes the door of the aircraft after the last soldier boards the plane. Junkers Ju-52 aircraft taxi and takes off from airfield.
Legislators entering a hall in Czechoslovakia, in 1948. Inside,an image of the Small Coat of Arms of the Republic of Czechoslovakia (1920) dominates the scene. New scene shows Gustav Husak, acting Prime Minister, delivering an address urging support for the Communist Party. The next sequence shows violent Communist-led demonstrations, as armed trade unionists riot in the Prague streets, attacking the offices of the political opposition. Police attempt to restore order. On February 25, 1948, the communists achieve a Czechoslovak coup d'état. On February 27th, Czech President, Edvard Benes, receives a delegation including communist Premier Klement Gottwald and the 12 new members of the cabinet, at the Presidential Palace. He is seen signing documents accepting the communist cabinet. Change of scene shows Czech Foreign Minister, Jan Masaryk, giving a speech rejecting the change. (He remained in office, but died under suspicious circumstances on On March 10, 1948.) View of Masaryk in his casket. Mourners at his funeral.The Czech Parliament Building with flag at half staff. President Benes seen strolling, using a cane, accompanied by his wife, Hana Benes, in the garden of their summer home, Benesova vila, in Sezimovo Usti. Narrator notes that he refused to sign a new constitution drawn up by the communists. He died of natural causes at his villa on September 3, 1948. Scenes of his funeral and of him in his casket. Views of Benes' state funeral, with mourners lining the streets. View of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Narrator describes circumstances using Churchill's term "Iron Curtain." A communist parade in an Eastern European city. A person who was roughed up on the street. View of East German uprising in 1953, being suppressed with Soviet tanks. Uprising in Poland in 1955 being put down by local police and Russian soldiers. Polish musicians playing and examples of Polish political cartoons permitted under relaxed communist rule.
Film opens showing map of Czechoslovakia and various sections perceived early in World War 2. View of military ceremony with German swastika flag being raised over newly occupied Czechoslovakian territory. Momentary glimpse of Nazi flag flying in snow covered mountains, and mountain troops nearby. Map is shown again, this time highlighting Czech Republic – Slovakia (Tschecho – Slowakei). Closeup of that area is labeled Sudete Germans (Sudete Deutsche). Next are views of German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini, Italian Premier, and French Prime Minister, Édouard Daladier, each signing the accords acquiescing to Hitler’s demands concerning the annexation of the Sudetenlands. (The Munich Agreement.) View of German newspaper announcing the pact. Closeup of a border marker showing Seal of Czechoslovakia. German troops throw it down and allow others to enter, some on a motorcycle with sidecar. German soldiers use a hatchet to cut the Czech seal from the downed border post. German Panzer I tanks begin crossing the border. (Anti tank devices are seen unused in the foreground.) Next, Adolf Hitler is seen visiting with German officers who guide him on a tour. He steps inside what appears to be a large canvas field tent. Scene shifts to a town (in Eger or Egerland), where a German armored car is parked in the center of the road as German soldiers on motorcycles pass it, followed by others in German Hanomag Sd. Kfz. 11 Half-Tracks towing 4-wheeled 88mm guns. Welcoming citizens crowd the sidewalks and cheer them. Formation of German troops marches slowly into the town. Closeup of local people enthusiastically cheering them. A contingent of local youth march carrying many flags. View of houses and streets decorated with swastikas and crowds jamming the sidewalks. A church with many spires looms over the town. Adolf Hitler at a speaker’s stand, as huge crowd renders Nazi salute. Hitler, later standing in an open car driving slowly through the throng. Overview of picturesque city in a valley surrounded by mountains. View in the city of Hitler walking with entourage of officers and saluting, as he passes numerous Panzer I tanks lined up side by side and their crews. View from rear as they pass the camera. Hitler standing on a balcony saluting a vast crowd gathered below. More views of him standing in an open car moving amidst the crowds. Hitler and others in a motorcade. View from ground of church spires and a zeppelin passing overhead. Scene shifts to grass airfield where Hermann Goering and others walks toward a Junkers Ju 52 airplane that is just taxiing in to park. Goering speaks to a young German airman. View of Goering in town amongst a crowd. He gives a piece of candy to a little girl, held by her mother. Goering accompanying Hitler as he walks about a town. A banner reading “Lebensmitteltransport für das Deutsche Sudetenland.” (Food transport for the German Sudetenland.) Open air food cooking stoves are seen and one where people around are being fed. Closeup of some people eating and being served.
A review of significant events that occurred in the year 1945. Scenes from fourth inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as President. Wide view of snow covered lawn of the White House, and guards positioned on the south White House lawn. View of President Roosevelt as he is sworn in as President of the United States, on the south portico of the White House due to wartime austerity measures, on January 20, 1945. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin pose at the Yalta Conference. Death of Roosevelt in April 1945. Burial procession and funeral ceremony of Franklin Roosevelt. Men and women weeping. An African American woman waves her handkerchief as she mourns. Wreath on grave of President Roosevelt. Harry S. Truman sworn in as U.S. President on April 12, 1945. Surrender of the Germans signed by General Jodl and General W.B. Smith in Reims, France. Representatives of Russia, Britain, France and United States at the surrender. General Dwight Eisenhower smiles.
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