Podcast: STORIES FROM THE EASTERN WEST #33 - PUPPETS

How a Czech puppeteer and his puppets took on Nazi Germany.
In 1938, Hitler's forces marched into Czechoslovakia, a country that had only gained its independence two decades earlier. A puppeteer named Josef Skupa was ready to fight back with the help of Spejbl and Hurvínek - a father-son duo of wooden puppets. Because the Nazi German occupiers didn't seem to take puppets very seriously, Skupa's theatre in Pilsen was able to put on satirical performances that directly referred to the occupation and gave ordinary Czechs hope that one-day things would be better. Eventually, Skupa's luck would run out - the Gestapo even arrested his puppet duo. But all three were destined to become household names in the Czech Republic, a country that takes its puppets seriously....
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Episode credits //
Written & produced by Peter Wolodzko
Edited by Wojtek Oleksiak & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Stories from the Eastern West is a podcast from Culture.pl telling little-known histories from Central & Eastern Europe that changed our world. It was brought to you by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.