Educational materials

THE UNBREAKEN AND THE SACRIFIED: 1989 in Czechoslovakia and other Soviet bloc countries

Project worksheet for social studies lessons

Educational material for the Unbreakable and the Sacrificed film festival. This year's fifth edition of the Twentieth Century Film Festival is dedicated to the fall of communist regimes in Czechoslovakia and other Soviet bloc countries in 1989. The festival will mark the 35th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.


TIGRID - JOURNALIST, EXILE AND POLITICIAN

Worksheet for project lesson of social science subjects

The Twentieth Century Memorial Museum has prepared an outdoor exhibition on the life, activities and work of Pavel Tigrid (1917-2003), an important figure in Czechoslovak and Czech history. His life was greatly influenced by the great turning points of the 20th century. He went into exile twice and returned to his homeland twice. To accompany the exhibition, the museum has prepared a worksheet and a publication on the life, activities and work of this important figure in Czechoslovak and Czech history.

TIGRID_PRAC_list_PRINT

1984: George Orwell and Czechoslovakia

Worksheet for project lesson of social science subjects

The Museum of the Memory of the Twentieth Century, in cooperation with the Kampa Museum, Prague City Tourism, Libri prohibiti and The Orwell Society, has prepared an outdoor exhibition on the life and work of the writer George Orwell and Czechoslovak reflection on his work. The exhibition also presents the Orwellian year 1984 in Czechoslovakia, the repression of opponents of the communist regime and expressions of solidarity with political prisoners. The museum has prepared a Czech-English catalogue with a number of unique photographs and documents and a worksheet for the project lesson.

ORWELL_worksheet

Horses. Soviet Marshal and his Prague monument

Project lesson for history and social science subjects

The bronze statue of Soviet Marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev (1897-1973) was originally placed in 1980-2020 on the Interbrigade Square in Prague's Bubenč. It is now one of the prominent artefacts of the forthcoming permanent exhibition of the Twentieth Century Memorial Museum.

A popularization-oriented book entitled Konev. The Soviet Marshal and his Prague Monument is equipped with a number of contemporary photographs and archival documents. In the first part of the book, historian Jiří Fidler describes the life story of Marshal Konev, focusing on his military career. In the second part, historian Petr Blažek presents the history of the Prague monument, which was created as a propaganda gesture several years after Koněv's death. The foreword was written by architectural historian Zdeněk Lukeš.

In addition to the publication, the Twentieth Century Memorial Museum has previously prepared a short film entitled The Statue of Marshal Konev.

Project lesson worksheet (PDF)

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Anti-Communist Resistance in Film

Educational material for the 4th 20th Century Film Festival Unbreakable and Sacrificed

This year's film festival is dedicated to the theme of anti-communist resistance in film, which was chosen by the programme committee in the context of the 70th anniversary of the journey of the Mašín brothers and their friends to West Berlin. The programme for schools at the festival (31 October to 3 November 2023 at the Atlas Cinema) includes worksheets suitable for project lessons in history or social studies classes. These materials can be used even if the school class did not attend the film screening directly.

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Eyes of the State Security with the subtitle Organizations, Members and Actions of the StB Surveillance Administration

Educational material for Outdoor exhibition

Project lesson for history and social science subjects

The main themes of the exhibition are the surveillance units of the State Security and photographs of historical personalities, important events and places taken by its employees during the communist regime. For example, the secret police surveillance actions against Václav Havel, Pavel Kohout, Jan Patoček, František Cardinal Tomášek, František Kriegl and Western diplomats are presented. The structures of the Surveillance Administration, its staff, chiefs and collaborators are also described. The service career of Antonín Kavan, who headed the surveillance service for several decades, is presented. Attention is also paid to the intelligence technology used by the StB Surveillance Administration. The secret locations from which the secret police monitored selected objects are described.

The plenary exhibition was jointly prepared by the Twentieth Century Memorial Museum and Museum Kampa in cooperation with the Security Forces Archive and Prague City Tourism.

The outdoor exhibition is located next to the Lichtenstein Palace on Kampa (opposite the Werich Villa).
Date of the exhibition: 12 September - 6 December 2023.

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European GULAG

Educational material for the international exhibition

Project lesson for history and social science subjects

Throughout the Soviet Union, a system of thousands of forced labour camps existed during the totalitarian era. However, an almost identical system existed in every country that the Communists took over after the Second World War, including Czechoslovakia. In the territory of the present-day European Union and its immediate neighbours, at least 800 camps operated for more than a decade. Nearly 1 500 000 people were imprisoned in them, of whom around 130 000 died. There were 30 camps in the Czech lands and 7 in Slovakia, through which some 21 000 people passed. The most famous were the 18 camps at the uranium mines around Jáchymov, Horní Slavkov and Příbram. The exhibition "European Gulag" commemorates these stories.

The exhibition is located in the Ambit Gallery, Jungmannovo nám. 18, Prague

Exhibition date: 6-30 June 2023

worksheet for the European GULAG project lesson (PDF file)

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Operation Anthropoid

Educational material for the 3rd annual festival of documentary films about the 20th century Unbreakable and Sacrificed

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich. This year's Unbreakable and Sacrificed festival is dedicated to the reflection of Operation Anthropoid and the themes related to it. The programme for schools at the festival (7-12 November 2022 at the Hybernská Campus and the Bio Oko cinema) includes worksheets suitable for project lessons in history or social studies classes. These materials can be used even if the school class did not attend the film screening directly.

worksheet for the project lesson (PDF file)

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Christian Democrat JUDr. Bedřich Hostička (1914-1996)

Educational material for the exhibition

Project lesson for history and social science subjects

Bedřich Hostička was a politician of the Czechoslovak People's Party and one of the victims of communist persecution after the February 1948 coup. In the political monster trial of Milada Horáková and Co. (31 May-8 June 1950), he was sentenced to 28 years of hard labour for fabricated charges of anti-state conspiracy and espionage for the Vatican. His release did not take place until 1963. After the August 1968 occupation, he went into exile in Switzerland with his wife and son, where he became active in the exile movement. He and his family remained in the crosshairs of the State Security.

The exhibition is located in the Ambit Gallery, Jungmannovo nám. 18, Prague

Exhibition date: 7-30 November 2022

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Educational material for the international exhibition The Century of the Martyrs
Project lesson for social science subjects

The history of the 20th century was tragically marked by the rise of totalitarian ideologies and regimes. Communism, fascism and Nazism brought immeasurable suffering to hundreds of thousands of people and claimed countless victims. Among the tens of millions of victims of totalitarianism were Christians of various faiths. Many were murdered simply because of their faith or because they refused to renounce it; others, moreover, because of their nationality, race, class, opinions, political or social activity. Today, these people are considered martyrs. The Century of Martyrs exhibition presents the life stories of twenty-seven martyrs.

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Educational materials for the outdoor exhibition Kings of the Maypole. Student Festivals in Czechoslovakia 1945-1990

Through a series of previously unpublished photographs and documents, the exhibition Kings of the Majales maps, among other things, how student festivals reflected the nature and changes in political conditions, the mood of society and the level of self-confidence of the student movement, which played an important role in many of the turning points of our country.

Worksheets (PDF files) for Czech language and History project lessons. The third worksheet is intended as information for teachers.


Mobile applications

The Twentieth Century Memorial Museum in cooperation with the Czech startup SmartGuide offers free virtual tour February 1948. Visitors will learn about the context of the political crisis in February 1948, which culminated in the communist takeover, through a guided tour in the SmartGuide app. The key events and personal stories of that time are presented by the guide and historian Jan Kalous directly at the places where they took place.

The SmartGuide mobile app with the February 1948 tour route can also be used for engaging, interactive teaching, even in distance learning.
Download it here (https://get.smart-guide.org/mYuA4ZhqWmb).

 


Didactic material

The Twentieth Century Memorial Museum has also prepared a didactic manual for the February 48 programme, in which contemporary archival documents and thematic tasks are printed. It was published in both printed and electronic versions. The creation of the didactic manual was financially supported by the City of Prague.