417/7 Kladenská, Praha 6 - Vokovice

Bořislavka

During the Prague Uprising, Bořislavka experienced bloody clashes between the Nazis and Czech insurgents. The Czech civilians who were killed are commemorated on a memorial plaque on the façade of the former Na Bořislavce Cinema, no. 417.

After the fighting in May 1945, this cinema served as a gathering spot for German prisoners of war and Prague citizens of German nationality from the residential quarters in Hanspaulka and Ořechovka. They were used as a workforce to remove the barricades and to repair the pavements in Prague.

On 9 May 1945, a crowd of 41 German civilians was led to Bořislavka Cinema, up Kladenská Street, on the site of the current Bořislavka Square. It is certain that the primary intention was not execution but rather work or merely transfer. The crowd was brutally shot by an unknown perpetrator and then subsequently run over by a Red Army vehicle. According to contemporary witnesses, the victims included not only Germans but also individuals of other nationalities – one Czech and a Swedish family.

Even the post-war investigation could not identify the perpetrator and arrived at an ambiguous conclusion: ‘The shooting of the detained individuals was caused by an unidentified Red Army officer whose action caused the gathered crowd of random pedestrians to attack and shoot the detained.’ The amateur cameraman J. Chmelíček recorded the execution at Bořislavka on film. The family did not release the footage until after 1989.

Building no. 417 at the corner of Kladenská Street and Bořislavka Square, where the eponymous cinema was located; around 1967. Museum of Prague, unknown photographer.