Bratislava After World War II
After World War II, the situation in Bratislava was fundamentally
changed. Most of its Jewish population had not returned from the
concentration camps, while the majority of German and Hungarian
ethnicities were also removed from the town after liberation. In this
way Bratislava lost its unique multi-cultural atmosphere.
The Communist coup in February 1948 meant a break in the post-war
development of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia became a constituent part
of the socialist camp and a buffer zone between the West and East.
Europe was divided by the iron curtain. For Bratislava, which was after
the war still connected with Vienna by tram, it meant building closed
borders with the West, and with parts of the city seperated from the
boundry zone by barbed wire. Its citizens had to be ousted. The end of
the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s were borne in the sign of
reconstruction and repeated construction of city areas destroyed by the
war, especially of industrial plants that were nationalised after 1948
. Communist retaliation intervened into the lives of citizens in the
1950s. Many people were arrested, while thousands of citizens, accused
in trumped-up trials, were forcibly ousted from the city.
More than 40 years of communist regime was interrupted by the events of
1968 - 1969. Their symbol became Alexander Dubček. Democratic changes
he instigated were suppressed only through occupation by the armies of
the Warszaw Pact. The subsequent ‘temporary stay’ of the Soviet troops
lasted for more than 20 years. Together with extensive political
persecutions, they acted as a safeguard against possible attempts for
reforms, and against the possible change of social order in
Czechoslovakia.
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