Pilgrimage commemorates 1945 expulsion of German speakers from Brno

Around 250 people took part in a 32-kilometre Pilgrimage of Reconciliation from the town of Pohořelice to Brno on Saturday to commemorate the victims of the post-war expulsion of Brno’s German-speaking population. The route followed the one that the expellees must have taken but symbolically went in the opposite direction, organisers said.

The pilgrimage, which began at the site of a May 1945 holding camp for German speakers in Pohořelice, was part of a festival entitled Meeting Brno. The first such commemoration took place in 2006.

Author: Ian Willoughby