29th June 1944
Schloss Dimokur

Schloss Dimokur and the 'Siedlungsamt'

(Dymokury Castle)

In late 1931, Himmler established a SS Race and Settlement Office (Rasse- und Siedlungsamt) to evaluate applications of SS men seeking to marry under a new internal 'Marriage Decree'. This 'expertise', developed through maintaining 'racial purity' in the SS, would later be utilised in wartime to determine whether an individual was 'German' or not. Such a determination could, at a minimum, mean a job and better rations for a resident in German-occupied territory during World War II. For a Polish forced labourer in the Reich accused of having had sexual relations with a German woman, this 'racial evaluation' could mean the difference between life and death.

Source: Wikipedia

The 'racial experts' of the Office played a major role in promoting the concept of a reorganisation of Europe on a 'racial' basis. The settlement plans they developed required the decimation/displacement of the local Czech population and resettlement from other areas (e.g. ethnic Germans). They carried out selections that decided on the further life ('Germanisation', resettlement, forced labour) or death of those selected.

Source: arge-ost.de

Schloss Dimokur

In the 14th century, a fortress stood on the site of today's Dymokury Castle , which served as the seat of the lordship. After several changes of ownership, it came into the possession of the Waldstein family in 1573 and then in 1614 to their relative Albrecht Jan Smiřický of Smiřice. He had the fortress converted into a Renaissance castle. In 1660, under Wilhelm Lamboy of Cortesheim, the western wing was added. During the rule of the Colloredo-Wallsee family, two further wings and the castle tower were built. In 1723, the castle chapel of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows was built.

In 1787, Franz Karl von Colloredo-Wallsee had it rebuilt into a three-winged baroque castle. In 1833, the castle and the estate passed to the Czernin von Chudenitz family. In the 1870s, Diepold ( Děpold ) von Czernin had the castle chapel rebuilt in the neo-Gothic style and the castle park expanded.

In 1945, the Czernins were expropriated. The castle became state property and was used for a time by the Ministry of the Interior. After the Velvet Revolution, it was returned to the Czernin family.

FURTHER RESEARCH REQUIRED AS TO THE CASTLES USAGE DURING THE GERMAN OCCUPATION

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