1945 a Death March and 2025 a March of Forgiveness

Brno Death March 1945 and 2025 a March of Forgiveness. 27,000 Brno Germans expelled, 22,000 survived. Remembering, building bridges and forgiving even Hitler, Beneš, Heydrich, Pokorný, and myself.

On May 31, 2025, I walked 30 kilometers (about 18.6 miles) from Pohořelice to Brno. Not alone, but in community, as part of the Meeting Brno event. It was hard, the sun was burning, sweat was pouring, my muscles were aching, and even today my body still hurts. But I am grateful and happy that I was able to walk this path. The path of remembrance, the path of forgiveness. On May 31, 2025, we mark the 80th anniversary of something almost unimaginable. The so-called Brno Death March.

On May 31, 1945, just a few weeks after the end of the war, around 27,000 German speaking residents of Brno were expelled from their homes. Women, children, elderly people, most of them were not perpetrators, just ordinary civilians.

They were forced to walk south, toward the Austrian border. Without water, without food, without medical care. Many, far too many, died along the way.

Not quite 22,000 people survived the march, many of them deeply scarred in body and soul. When they finally reached the Austrian border, they were stopped. The Austrian authorities refused to let them pass. It was as if there was no place in the world for these people who had become pawns of history.

The magnitude of this hatred is almost incomprehensible.

On May 31, 2025, during the march, we had water, food, even police escort. We knew that friendly people were waiting for us at the finish, that we would arrive safely.

And yet it was hard. 30 kilometers are 30 kilometers (about 18.6 miles). When I think of the fate of those people 80 years ago, I realize how merciless their situation was. How cruel history can be when hatred grows stronger than compassion.

During the march, my mantra was bilingual:

“Odpouštím — Ich vergebe” I forgive and letgo.

I repeated it again and again, step by step, like a quiet prayer. I forgive everyone. I forgive Hitler, I forgive Stalin, I forgive Beneš, I forgive Bedřich Pokorný, I forgive Karl Hermann Frank, I forgive Konrad Henlein, I forgive Reinhard Heydrich. I forgive all those who were caught in this spiral of violence as perpetrators, followers, ideologues, commanders and I forgive myself. For the anger, for the lack of understanding, for the silence that exists even in my own family.

Forgiving does not mean forgetting. Forgiving does not mean undoing guilt. Forgiving means breaking the chains of hatred that would otherwise keep us bound together.

Forgiving means acknowledging the past, and yet looking forward. Building bridges, not walls.

It is not easy for me to write these lines. The pain is real in my body, in my soul. But I also feel gratitude, for having been able to walk. For the fact that there are people on both sides who are ready to forgive. And for the fact that I can walk my own path of forgiveness, step by step, in two languages, with an open heart.

This march is a memorial to what happens when hatred becomes stronger than humanity. It is a chapter that is often forgotten in the Czech Republic, in Austria, in Germany. But we must not forget. Not to assign blame, but to understand and to learn from this history.

On May 31, 2025, we walked in forgiveness. I forgive everyone and I hope that I will also be forgiven.

Original https://www.henryertner.com/1945-ein-todesmarsch-und-2025-ein-marsch-der-vergebung/

English https://medium.com/@henryertner/1945-a-death-march-and-2025-a-march-of-forgiveness-9010efd07141

Česky https://medium.seznam.cz/clanek/henry-ertner-1945-pochod-smrti-a-2025-pochod-odpusteni-154368