CZECHOSLOVAKIA COMES BACK

[Music] [Music] one these are the bells of prague their music freedom song their chorus living memories of murdered towns lifeblood of citizens whose comrades hammered back the fascists from normandy and stalingrad to the elder and liberation these are the streets and these the people with whom it once was thought confinement of aggression could be bought in our time on this sun-drenched day of may and 45 the man they honor is a simple farmer's son elected president eduard bench an offering of bread and salt tradition symbol of high welcome for those come home from long too long in exile but souvenirs of generations past do not suffice to greet a man with whom the people face tomorrow they line the ancient route to rachini seat of all bohemia's independent kings today the presidential residence this is the hour to which the nation's hope was set throughout two thousand days of nazi occupation its brilliance dims remembrance of that other hour when a self-style fuhrer blasphemed this house and from it issued what he labeled the statute of protectorate [Music] seven hundred thousand men and women were protected into concentration camps half a million more were protected into germany as slave labor as guinea pigs for pseudoscience and the daughters who were lovely as the source of service for male encampments of the super race the children too were subject to protection 40 000 orphaned without names [Music] the million who survived were helped return to places left as home to find as part of axis legacy a thousand heaps like this in place of villages and see the marks aggression makes in [Music] dying they had their tricks the nazis those final weeks they tried to implement the final nightmare threatened that as and when they fell they tripped the atlas of the world they tried and at first it seemed this final battle might prove theirs like locusts no like nazis they had shredded almost every means of livelihood except for those who knew in desperation how to scratch the soil in some dim hope of future harvest [Music] hill farmers of slovakia had long been synonyms for poverty but from this vantage point of war's finale the hardships of the past were turned to aching memories of comfort and yet somehow the countryside through peasant stubbornness sustained at least the breath of living [Music] but in the cities crowded with the starving homeless there was little left for people seeking refuge and so it was that these were given top priority by agencies whose business is translating into concrete aid concern expressed by neighbors around the world such aid heart sent by private citizens was for a time augmented by the volume of supply which bore the tab of unra agent of democracies whose victory had won beyond survival the chance to help equip construction of the peace support coordinated from all the sources of compassion sustained new health centers transformed from baroque palaces which some months earlier had housed luxuriating nazis and the anguished screams heard echoing their pleasures it is here that routine miracles skillfully converts what help we furnish medicines and foods and needed instruments into progress toward recovery by victims who with tragic happiness were called the living dead many finally gained triumph coveted certificates that they're fit enough at last to take a hand in answering the cry to pratse to work get on with it the job got underway and men too long familiar with the posture of despair leaned into it this is [Music] it was good to greet one's friends and let them see how we had started to erase the insane patterns that had slashed across the [Music] land [Music] late next summer that early faith of farmers in themselves their nation and the earth produced the first real crop of liberation they called for harvest volunteers [Music] the city's thousands answers they joined in reaping long-awaited armament against the lead and foe of manifold disease spawned by those whose occupation manual had listed mass starvation as a simpler tactic under genocide with footnotes on potentials of slave labor on children women and the ages the harvesting was helped by first delivery of farm machinery from north america and by sympathetic words from u.s engineers the throbbing of the combines was a free world's chant memorial to the quarter million battle dead who could not volunteer now with harvest in and rubble heaps patched up enough to do for meantime shelter the really big job could be tacky the nazis knew their lesson well when they centered their last threat against the world upon the railroads of this land which nature formed to be the hub of all east central [Music] europe [Music] the first locomotives to be salvaged were wrecks submerged at dynamited crossings the only steel at hand was what could be reclaimed right then and there the only source of power was that of men who once had spoken of themselves as journalists as carpenters as specialized in crafts all of them merged into a force that still is sweating out the building of tomorrow [Applause] so so [Music] oh [Music] uh [Music] ah [Music] [Applause] will it hold [Music] the causeway for the movement of supplies had been reopened and construction could be clocked to the time beat of ability no longer locked to that oppressive measure of destruction's dirge this sector gained meant most perhaps to those who tried to heal the cruelest wounds of war the scars of children there was much the land could give them fresh air and healing son security of love for those who had to learn the word for parents [Music] pallid faces took some color and deaden spirits did revive [Music] it's not by reading faces one can take the measure of their wounds american relief teams equipped with x-ray trucks find tb bacilli and percent of czechoslovakia children hundred thousands more are found to suffer the insidious effects of malnutrition four out of five have some form of deficiency whose one hope for cure consists in special diets unobtainable in europe [Music] so far the needs been filled in part through umrah aided by american relief which sent a thousand tons of badly needed supplements cocoa powdered milk and eggs today with unrush shipments terminated their need remains as great [Music] it is for them a freedom-building nation asks our help jan masarik the foreign minister transmits to us through lawrence steinhardt our ambassador the latest accurate intelligence [Music] you've seen some of the damage you've seen some of the wounds but many of the wounds are deep and invisible the little girl being x-rayed what does it mean she's got tb and you're helping to cure it the little boy being fed means that you're trying to bring red cheeks to that pale child it's lovely work the dividends he mentioned to cite just one that was last year's christmas party the children speak of it until today the tree the rag dolls and the small toy train the special thing was that what these children got from american relief with things our children and our neighbors get every day day in day out not just on christmas day two of the girls who shared that merry christmas had their last that day we cannot say by patchwork giving lives that bore six years of starvation level feeding we can't write the story of their rehabilitation and compensate for six years loss of childhood time by jotting down a christmas paragraph the balance of their days to come rests on us here in america ours is the decision and now the time to make it if we fail the children of a land that long must serve the world as crossroads we fail the men who died to place the issue in our hands instead of others [Music] the children of czechoslovakia sleep peacefully today can we [Music] you