Ploština
Ploština was a pasekar settlement in the Vizovická vrchovina mountains in the Czech Republic . It was located eight kilometers northwest of Valašské Klobouky in Moravian Wallachia and belonged to the municipality of Drnovice . The source of the Vlára is located two kilometers to the northeast .
Today the place in Okres Zlín is a national memorial for a war crime committed by the National Socialists during the Second World War.
history
Ploština arose in a clearing in the Vizovická vrchovina mountains as a settlement for lumberjacks and forest workers. The settlement consisted of ten homesteads.
During the Second World War, Ploština became a hideout for a Ukrainian partisan unit because of its remote location. After the Gestapo succeeded in smuggling the spies Oldřich Baťa from Zlín and František Machů from Zlámanec into the ranks of the partisans in 1945, the informants reported to the Zlín Gestapo office on April 18, 1945 about the exact location of the hiding place and the number of partisans of the Pasekars who support them.
On Thursday, April 19, 1945 , the SS Einsatzkommando Josef , under the command of Werner Tutter , advanced into the mountains together with the traitors Machů and Baťa in two groups from Vizovice . Josef Vařák was shot at Bratřejov and Ladislav Rangl with his wife and a brother-in-law in Újezd . The SS shot František Belha on the Ryliska farm and set his house on fire.
Just under two kilometers north of Drnowitz, both groups met again and surrounded Ploština. By this time the partisans had already received knowledge of the action and fled into the woods below the Klášťov. The Pasekars felt safe because no more partisans could be found in the settlement. However, Machů and Baťa were able to provide precise information on with whom and in which homesteads the partisans had found shelter. After unsuccessful interrogations, torture and searches, the SS looted the settlement and finally set it on fire in retaliation for supporting the partisans. 24 people burned to death. Among the dead were nine residents from Drnovice, seven from Vysoké Pole , five from Tichov and one each from Pozděchov and Lačnov . Only one of the Pasekars managed to escape from his burning house into the forest. The victims were buried in Újezd on April 23, 1945.
On April 23, the SS took another action against the partisans and murdered 18 people in Prlov . Something similar happened on May 2, 1945 when the Pasekarensiedlung Vařákovy Paseky was burned down and four people died.
In 1975 a memorial was established in Ploština, which in 1978 received the status of a national cultural monument . In one of the houses that were not destroyed, an exhibition was created, which is particularly dedicated to the resistance during the occupation in Okres Zlín . A chapel also belongs to the complex. In addition, an exhibition on orienteering was organized in Ploština .
During communist rule, the crime of Ploština was portrayed in a distorted manner and the residents of the settlement were declared brave heroes, for whom the support of the partisans was a matter of the heart. According to more recent findings, however, the granting of shelter was more involuntary and before the encirclement of the place, the Ukrainians fled into the forests and abandoned the residents.
The writer Ladislav Mňačko dealt with the events of April 1945 in his novel "Smrt si říká Engelchen" ( Death is called Angel ) in 1959 . The Czech state television made a documentary film about the actual events and with statements from contemporary witnesses.
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 12 ' N , 17 ° 57' E