Project "Never Forgotten"
The long-term project of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in London named "Never Forgotten" has been finished. The project was launched on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in January 2020 and was officially completed in July 2021. This project was organized under the auspices of the Czech Minister od Foreign Affairs, Mr. Tomáš Petříček, and the Czech Minister of Defence, Mr. Lubomír Metnar.
Within the framework of the project, former Ambassador Libor Sečka gradually visited all the war graves and memorials of Czechoslovak soldiers who perished in the United Kingdom during World War II while performing their service. At each of the places, the Ambassador left a Czech flag and a flower dedicated to the memory of the dead.
Overall, the Ambassador visited 107 cemeteries with 308 graves with the remains of Czechoslovak soldiers and 18 monuments, making it 125 places in total. Out of the 107 cemeteries, 5 of them were Jewish.
Overview of all the visited memorial sites can be found here.
The Ambassador traveled more than 8,300 miles (approximately 13,360 km), of which 1080 miles (approximately 1,740 km) on the plane. The northernmost place he visited was St. Duthus Cemetery in the Scottish town of Tain, about 600 miles from London, the southernmost the Guernsey Island, about 210 miles from London in the English Channel.
Various important Czech personalities living in Great Britain, as well as representatives of the British society from the ranks of local dignitaries, the army and the RAF, politics and social life attended the ceremonies at the memorial sites together with the Ambassador.
Among the most important British personalities involved in the project were, for example, Baron Daniel Finkelstein, a member of the House of Lords, a well-known commentator for The Times, as well as Sir David Amess, Paul Bristow and Greg Hands, members of the House of Commons. Greg Hands also serves as the UK's junior minister responsible for foreign trade and is the only member of Her Majesty's Government who speaks Czech.
Ambassador Sečka recorded the experiences of his travels in his notes, which were then published in 19 chapters on the Embassy's website. You can read the individual chapters below.
Ambassador’s notes will be also published as a book under the title “Britské etapy” (in Czech) and “British Missions” (in English) in Czechia and Great Britain probably in autumn 2021.
The project was also captured on a documentary film by Czech filmmaker Max Škach, which can be viewed here.
