Following WW II the Sub Carpathian Russia (i.e. Eastern part of Czechoslovakia) was allocated to the then Soviet Union and the new state border drawn by politicians in Moscow was, uncompromisingly, staked by the Red Army. The Czechoslovak village Slemence had the bad luck to stand in the new borderline’s way. Its inhabitants suddenly found themselves divided into two parts – while one remained in Czechoslovakia, and the other one fell to the Soviets. This led to the violent separation of not only families, parents and children, lovers and friends, but also land and even those buried in the cemetery…The history of Velke and Male Slemence, divided by a forced border of barbed wire, with watchtowers and without a crossing point, had begun. An iron curtain in the middle of the communist camp…
