photo #8910525

German women forced to repave the streets of Prague after WWII, 1945... After liberation of Czechoslovakia in May 1945, tensions between local Czech citizens and the German population reached a breaking point. For years under Nazi occupation, Czech civilians had suffered forced labor, executions, and oppression. When German control finally collapsed, acts of revenge erupted across the country. In Prague, German residents, especially women, were publicly humiliated and conscripted to perform forced labor as retribution for the occupation. The women in this photograph were ordered to repair streets damaged during the Prague Uprising, using the same cobblestones torn up during the city’s final battles. Their faces were often smeared with tar or paint as a mark of shame, and some were beaten or paraded through the streets. Such scenes were not sanctioned by official Allied policy but rather reflected the spontaneous rage and grief of a population emerging from six years of brutal rule. Tens of thousands of ethnic Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia in the following months, part of a larger forced migration that displaced over 12 million Germans across Eastern Europe. While often framed as justice, these expulsions were marked by widespread violence, deprivation, and thousands of deaths, German women forced to repave the streets of Prague after WWII, 1945. After the liberation of Czechoslovakia in May 1945, tensions between local Czech citizens and the German population reached a breaking point. For years under Nazi occupation, Czech civilians had suffered forced labor, executions, and oppression. When German control finally collapsed, acts of revenge erupted across the country. In Prague, German residents, especially women, were publicly humiliated and conscripted to perform forced labor as retribution for the occupation. The women in this photograph were ordered to repair streets damaged during the Prague Uprising, using the same cobblestones torn up during the city’s final battles. Their faces were often smeared with tar or paint as a mark of shame, and some were beaten or paraded through the streets. Such scenes were not sanctioned by official Allied policy but rather reflected the spontaneous rage and grief of a population emerging from six years of brutal rule. Tens of thousands of ethnic Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia in the following months, part of a larger forced migration that displaced over 12 million Germans across Eastern Europe. While often framed as justice, these expulsions were marked by widespread violence, deprivation, and thousands of deaths, a grim mirror of the suffering inflicted during the war itself. The Prague Uprising, which occurred just days before Germany’s surrender, saw Czech resistance fighters and civilians battle German forces street by street. © Historical Photos #archaeohistories