Butterfly 

Effect

Thousands of Czechoslovakians went abroad immediately after the occupation in March 1939 to fight against Nazism, for democracy and the restoration of an independent state. Among the first to distinguish themselves were fighter pilots, first in the battles over France, and then in the ranks of the RAF alongside their British comrades and other allies in the famous aerial Battle of Britain.

A number of these brave men were “rewarded” in the form of incarceration and torture in communist prisons after the war. They received full rehabilitation and satisfaction only after the fall of the second totalitarian regime against which they fought. 359 airplane silhouettes in the pavement symbolize Czechoslovak fighter pilots who fought in the ranks of the RAF.

A small fighter plane with a skillful pilot can ignite the fire of a battle that will eventually sweep away even a large aggressor. The butterfly effect is the theory that the flapping of an insect’s wings can trigger a chain of events that will cause a hurricane on the opposite side of the planet.