Battle reenactments with original guns and vehicles have become a popular attraction for tourists visiting the central Europe.
Reenactments of various battles – especially those from the Second World War – have been quite popular among tourists for some time leading to the foundation of several new historical clubs. People who work or study during the week, dress their period uniforms on weekends and “fight” battles as Nazi or Soviet soldiers or as partisans. Their shows then lure hundreds of viewers from around the region, reported Tyden.cz.
The chairman of one of the Slovak military history clubs Vladimír Vadina explained that in the neighboring country the reenactments have longer tradition: “Czechs were ahead of us in terms of equipment and uniforms; their reenactments were simply better. Of course the tradition is longer there and they also have more military clubs but we are slowly catching up with them.”
According to him, today there are approximately 15 clubs with 200 members in Slovakia that reenact the WW2 battles. Since some of the battles require considerable amount of “soldiers” and “fighters” to participate the clubs of neighboring countries have to often join forces which helps further development and improvement of the show.
Today the soldiers are thus very well equipped; they wear accurate accessories as well as period uniforms. Their guns and weapons are mostly original. Even the vehicles are original and often provided by private collectors.
The whole show thus easily takes the audience – both adults as well as children – back in time portraying not only the battles and strategic moves but also the lives of common soldiers. As such, the reenactments have become quite popular among tourists both in Slovakia as well as Czech Republic.