Luděk Navara on how Czech crimes should be viewed

The remains of apparently 15 Germans killed after the end of World War II have been discovered in the Czech village of Dobronin. There have been several reports of such findings in recent times, prompting commentator Luděk Navara to make the following reflections in the liberal daily Mladá fronta Dnes: "Long after the war people joked: 'The only good German is a dead German'. The Germans caused more evil than the Czechs', many would say. But which Germans? And which Czechs? Should there be a subdivision here into good and evil? Were only the Germans bad? And all the Czechs good? ... The dead Germans were probably the victims of a common act of revenge, like their fellow citizens in Brno and Usti. And let us be clear: we're talking about murder. ... It would be good to know how many more such graves there are in the Czech Republic; it's important for all of us. We must become aware of our past, understand it, reconcile with it and learn to live with it. This, too, is a kind of justice. And we owe it to the dead."

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