Hlavní stránka Info portálu ZČU

While the area of the former field hospital is now covered by a sports complex, the remains of the camp that served as a base for the staff from May to September 1945 are well preserved beneath the current ground level of Borský Park in Pilsen. A geophysical survey conducted by experts from the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences identified the entire layout of the camp, and the subsequent excavation carried out by Pilsen archaeologists revealed the locations of individual tents, drainage ditches, and a waste pit.

The hospital was staffed by about 300 members of medical and auxiliary personnel under the command of Colonel George Prazak, of Czech origin, who provided care mainly to civilians in Plzeň after the war. “A silent witness to the immense effort and sacrifice of the nurses in saving lives is a badge of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, found in what was likely the women’s section of the camp,” said the head of the research and chair of the Department of Archaeology at the Faculty of Arts University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Pavel Vařeka. Everyday life in the camp is illustrated by lost and discarded items, mostly personal belongings. “We found a British coin and a medallion from Paris. These items illustrate the journey of the 109th Hospital through Europe alongside General Patton’s 3rd Army,” he added.

Archaeologists obtained precise information about the location of the camp also thanks to cooperation with the West Bohemian Museum, which provided historical photographs taken by Pilsen photographer Vojtěch Houda. “The collection of black-and-white photographs by amateur Plzeň photographer Vojtěch Houda is part of the extensive holdings of the Department of Modern History of the West Bohemian Museum in Plzeň. The museum acquired the photographs in the 1960s by purchasing them directly from the author,” said museum director Jiří Orna. “The West Bohemian Museum in Pilsen is a memory institution, and that’s why it is very beneficial for us to be involved by providing these photographs for a project that maps the recent and somewhat overlooked history of the city of Pilsen,” he noted.

In addition to the team from the Department of Archaeology at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, the research also involves students from the University of Amsterdam with Professor James Symonds and members of the military history club Tommy & Yankee, who assist with identifying the artifacts found and who also reconstructed the hospital’s layout this year as part of the Liberation Festival in the center of Pilsen.

The research in Borský Park in Pilsenis part of a large archaeological project titled Wild Country: Archaeological and Transdisciplinary Research into Resilience Strategies in the 20th Century, co-funded by the European Union through the Jan Amos Komenský Operational Programme. The project involves the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the University of West Bohemia (Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Mechanical Engineering), the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the Center for Theoretical Study of Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Zdivočelá země: archeologický a transdisciplinární výzkum resilienčních strategií ve 20. století, reg. č. CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008705