Gold ducat Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia - Stories of the Czech Resistance
Gold ducat Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia - Stories of the Czech Resistance
The product can also be purchased directly in the stores of the Czech Mint
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
One of the darkest periods of Czech history, which is called as period of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia began 80 years ago. Nazi dictatorship was established in our country at that time, and the only purpose was to serve the Third Reich. Even though the the mean people claim to be submitted instead of fighting, it's not true. We did not give up. The four-part miniseries of the Czech Mint dedicated to our domestic resistence demonstrates this. The first gold ducat commemorates its political and armed forces.
The anti-Nazi resistence originated in the very first hours of the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. There were secret assemblies throughout the country, whose participants did not want to reconcile with the aliens. Members of the Scout Club in Domazlice proved their determination to be killed in the fight against invaders by swearing an oath on the cartridge magazine. This spontaneously emerging "bottom-up" resistance soon began to be formed by illegal political organizations. There was a common goal, but the conceptions of liberated Republic looked differently. Some resistance had a leaning towards the First Republic, others demanded a socially rightful society, and others admired the Soviet Union. The World War II confirmed more than ever that not all the battles were fought on the battlefield, but the resistance forces did not go without weapons. The secret underground army built by officers of the Czechoslovak army unfortunately did not get deployed and was scattered. The territory of the Protectorate was not convenient for the armed guerrilla groups known from France, the Soviet Union or Yugoslavia, whose resistance counted 800,000 fighters at the end of the war. The population of our territory was too large, with a dense transport network and a lack of large abandoned areas. The armed resistance in the protectorate was therefore in a different form. It was made up of small conspiratorial groups who carried out intelligence or sabotage. We can not forget even the foreign offshoots of specially trained paratroopers and the May Uprising, when the whole nation armed ...
Whether it was a political or armed resistance, the radio transmitter played a key role. Radio stations enabled domestic resistance a vital communication and coordination with representatives of the exile government and they were therefore the most common goal of the German counter-intelligence and the Gestapo. Sparta and Libuse radio transmitters became legendary. Paratroopers the Protectorate received Libuše transmitter that served to the medal maker Mgr. Petr Horak as an inspiration for the creation of the obverse side of the gold ducat. The reverse side of the mintage was made by the academic sculptor Jan Lukáš, presents a map of the Protectorate shadowed by the Nazi eagle's wings. The composition of the reverse side is supplemented with the years 1939 and 1945 and an inscription PROTECTORATE OF BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA in Czech and German language.
A special packaging is an integral part of the ducat. It contains the essay of historian PhDr. Petr Koura, Ph.D., who specializes in modern Czech history, and contemporary visual materials.