page_title: Matt Konop
section_title: After the fall of the Berlin Wall
hierarchical_section_title: Matt Konop / After the fall of the Berlin Wall
caption_attribution_description: English: The cover of a Domazlice Museum pamphlet published in 1990 features Konop on the shoulders of the townspeople from the day the town was liberated in May 1945
context_page_description: Lieutenant Colonel Matt Konop was a United States Army officer during World War II, noted for his fighting in the Battle of the Bulge and celebrated in the Czech Republic for his role in the liberation of the cities of Domažlice and Pilsen in Czechoslovakia near the end of the war.
  In early May 1945, Konop was made the commander of the 2nd Infantry Division advance party by Second Infantry Division Commanding Officer General Walter M. Robertson, who had learned of Konop's Czech lineage and ability to speak the language. Konop's advance force coincidentally liberated the same Czech villages where his grandparents had lived before they emigrated to America. During the liberation, news spread throughout the region that "one of our own" had returned to free the people from six years of occupation by Nazi Germany.
  Today, a bronze plaque of Konop is mounted on the Hruska building in the main square of Domažlice, in the Czech Republic, where he parked his jeep on May 4, 1945, and received a hero's welcome in the closing days of the war. In 2016, Konop was made an honorary citizen of the town of Domazlice.
context_section_description: After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain in 1989 and the arrival of post-Cold War Europe, the Museum of Domazlice published a pamphlet in 1990 to celebrate the country's newfound freedom, and the American Army's role in the liberation of the area in World War II. The cover of the pamphlet is one of the series of pictures of Col. Konop on the shoulders of the people of Domazlice that day in May 1945.
caption: The cover of a Domazlice Museum pamphlet published in 1990 features Konop on the shoulders of the townspeople from the day the town was liberated in May 1945
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