BRNO, Czech Republic (AP) — In a rare gesture of reconciliation, hundreds of Czechs have participated in a 20-mile walk to remember some 1,700 ethnic Germans who died 70 years ago during their expulsion from the Czech city of Brno.
When the German World War II occupation ended in 1945, Brno city authorities escorted over 20,000 ethnic Germans on foot out of the country in what has become known as the Brno death march.
They belonged to some 3 million ethnic Germans who had lived in the country for centuries and were expelled from post-war Czechoslovakia as enemies.
Barbara Edith Breindl, a survivor says "It was only revenge."
Saturday's commemoration took place after Brno's government approved a declaration of reconciliation earlier in May in which the city representatives expressed regret about what happened.
