Sour cherries, Swedish chances in the chaos and Lenka Chalupová – Discover what interests you!

According to historian František Hýbl, director of the Comenius Museum in Přerov, the massacre at Švédské šance was worse than the events in Lidice. Hýbl has been researching this matter for over thirty years. Many people are learning about this horrific incident for the first time through Lenka Chalupová’s book *Sour Cherries*. The story, based on real events at the end of the Second World War, focuses on post-war reprisals against Germans, a subject that is ideologically and politically unacceptable to many.

In the cherry tree avenue on Švédské šance hill near Přerov, a horrific massacre took place during the night of 18–19 June 1945, during which soldiers of the 7th Infantry Regiment from Petržalka in Slovakia brutally murdered 267 innocent people, most of whom were women and children. This incident involved German-speaking inhabitants of Slovakia, and so it was better to forget about it. Not everyone in the Přerov region was aware of this, and those who knew were afraid to speak of it. This was the ideal subject for Lenka Chalupová, a native of Přerov and a writer who works as the town’s spokesperson and writes books, usually with a dark undertone or a detective plot featuring a surprising dénouement.

It was only after the Velvet Revolution that people began to speak openly about similar tragedies from the Second World War, including the destroyed villages of Životice, Zákřov, Ploština and Vařákovy Paseky, as well as Švédské šance. According to historians, the figure of 120 women and 74 children murdered in a single night is absolutely unprecedented when compared to any other massacres committed by the Nazis in Moravia.

It was not until 2018 that a four-metre-high metal cross was erected at Švédské šance, featuring symbolic bullet holes and a crown of thorns. Two years later, the novel *Sour Cherries* was published – we recommend reading it and also visiting this site. Some of the cherry trees growing there may serve as a memorial to the devoted victims of this horrific massacre. On the anniversary, a church service is held beneath these trees, serving as a step towards reconciliation.