Segment from Československý zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel) 1942, issue no. 17, captures the presentation of a gift Ï Ambulance Train no. 751 Ï from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to Adolf Hitler and the German army. The train handover took place at Prague Main Railway Station on 20 April 1942, the birthday of Adolf Hitler. Cars arrive in front of Prague Main Railway Station. Acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich enters the train station. State President Emil Hácha gives a speech in the festively decorated railway hall. In response, Heydrich shakes his hand. The event is witnessed by a delegation of railway workers. The train crew lines up on the station platform. Heydrich enters the train with his entourage and inspects the sleeping cars, the operating carriage, the kitchen, and the sick bay. The inspection of the ambulance train is attended by Protectorate Prime Minister Jaroslav Krejčí and Minister of Education and People´s Enlightenment Emanuel Moravec. According to the voiceover, the train was made in a railway workshop in Prague-Bubny in record time. It consisted of 28 carriages and 20 hospital carriages, was 410 metres long, weighed 545 tons and had capacity for 280 wounded.
Segment from Československý zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel) 1941, issue no. 40, captures events linked to the accession of SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich to the office of Deputy Reich Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on 27 September 1941. Heydrich attends an SS military parade on Hradčanské Square in Prague. Military dignitaries and state officials welcome him in the first quadrangle of Prague Castle. The Nazi flag flies over Prague Castle. Reich Commissioner for the Sudetenland Konrad Henlein and Reich Secretary Karl Hermann Frank are present at the occasion. State President Emil Hácha receives Reinhard Heydrich at Prague Castle.
The segment captures the funeral of Cardinal Karel Kašpar held in Prague on 24 April 1941. The footage begins with archival images of Karel Kašpar. This is followed by an image of the bier with a glass casket in the Chapel of St. John the Baptist in the Archbishop´s Palace. Close-ups of the late Cardinal´s face and his hands holding a rosary. Hans Hermann Völckers, the head of the Reich Protector´s office, attends the funeral ceremony on behalf of Reich Protector Konstantin von Neurath. President Emil Hácha and Prime Minister of the Protectorate Government Alois Eliáš are seen by the coffin. The funeral procession sets out from the Archbishop´s Palace, continues across Hradčany Square to the Gate of Giants and towards St. Vitus Cathedral. The procession includes the Reich Protector´s Envoy Hans Hermann Völckers talking to Alois Eliáš, members of the Protectorate Government, Apostolic Nuncio Cesare Orsenigo, Cardinal of Vienna Theodor Innitzer, clergy and members of religious orders.The funeral ceremony continues in St. Vitus Cathedral, where Cardinal of Vienna Theodor Innitzer celebrates the pontifical requiem. Prime Minister Alois Eliáš is among the people present.
Segment from Československý zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel) 1942, issue no. 28, depicts a public manifestation held on Wenceslas Square in Prague on 3 July 1942, which was to unequivocally condemn the assassination of Acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich. The gathering was attended by 200,000 people. Wenceslas Square is decorated with Protectorate and Nazi flags. Footage of the crowded square and onlookers in the windows and on the roofs of surrounding houses. State President Emil Hácha, Prime Minister of the Protectorate Government Jaroslav Krejčí, Minister of the Interior Rudolf Bienert, and Minister of Education and People´s Enlightenment Emanuel Moravec stand on a grandstand. Krejčí and Moravec deliver speeches on cancelling the state of emergency and the need for active collaboration with the Reich. The manifestation concludes with the Czech anthem and people performing the Nazi salute, among them Minister of Finance Josef Kalfus, Minister of the Interior Rudolf Bienert, Prime Minister Jaroslav Krejčí, and Minister of Transport Jindřich Kamenický.
Segment from Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel 1942, issue no. 24, captures the memorial ceremony for Acting Reich Protector Heydrich held in Prague on 7Ï8 June. The camera follows a night-time funeral procession across Charles Bridge. SS officers carry the coffin draped in the Nazi flag. The procession is illuminated with burning torches. The following footage shows a bier with Heydrich´s coffin in the first quadrangle of Prague Castle. The surroundings are decorated with eternal flames, Nazi flags and SS flags. A view of Heydrich´s military decorations and the guard of honour, made up of SS soldiers. The ceremony at Prague Castle continues with a speech by the newly appointed Acting Reich Protector Daluege (silent). The event is attended by Reichsführer of the SS Himmler, State President Hácha, and members of the Protectorate Government. The funeral procession with the coffin, organised as a military parade, moves along Mostecká Street in Prague´s Lesser Town. The procession includes members of the Protectorate Government and continues across Charles Bridge, along Smetana Quay, National Avenue, and through the Wenceslas Square towards Prague Main Railway Station, where the coffin is loaded onto a train. The segment concludes with the train departing for Berlin.
Segment from Československý zvukový týdeník Aktualita (Czechoslovak Aktualita Sound Newsreel) 1941, issue no. 52, reports on a meeting of the Southeast European Economic Society and German Economic Society in Bohemia and Moravia in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle on 17 December 1941. The gathering is attended by Acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich, State President Emil Hácha, Reich Secretary Karl Hermann Frank, and Prime Minister of the Protectorate Government Jaroslav Krejčí. Speeches are given by Acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich, Hitlerjugend leader Baldur von Schirach, and Reich Minister of Economic Affairs Walter Funk (silent). The latter points out the need to break with the Anglo-Saxon model of colonial economic policy in Eastern Europe. The meeting concludes with paying tribute to the Führer.