Pocinovice is the largest of the former eleven villages in the “Chodsko” region surrounding Domažlice, and it is also the easternmost, lying 10 km southeast of Kdyně.
Three American tanks with white stars on their sides arrived at the village square in Pocinovice on May 5, 1945, as well as one car with a Czechoslovak flag on its door.
Josef Touš recalls the village’s liberation: “As boys we walked out on the hill above the village and stared out towards Germany, where we watched the Americans’ advance. Not long afterwards we saw a phalanx of black men heading towards our village, where they met up with other units. They then remained in Pocinovice for some time. I remember they liked our eggs, and so we exchanged those for various goods.”
The grave of an unknown victim of the “death transport” in April 1945
Václav Ponocný Sr. says of this event: “This was a train transport; it stayed for a day at the station in Pocinovice, and then it rode on to Klatovy. Many of the prisoners tried to save themselves and jumped out of the wagons as it traveled. This person jumped out between Pocinovice and Úborsko, right in the spot where there was a bridge with a railing; he fell onto it and died. I was told this by my mother, who found him there; we had fields in that spot. People in the area then hid those escaped prisoners…”
These tour routes copy the movements of the US Army during the liberation of West Bohemia in the spring of 1945. Commemoration sites are connected into these tour routes in a way that ensures each site leads into the next. You’ll also find regional and private museums, as well as tourist activities connected with these military memorial sites.
We present to visitors a timeline that follows the advance of the US Army and individual parts of it from the German border to Domažlice and from there on towards Pilsen. The time information in this timeline will gradually gain in scope and detail.
The Paths of Liberation — The Pilsen Region