Lidice massacre - Czech Republic
By Anco Marinof Director of the Lidice Memorial Museum
(In the context of the events of the 63rd Anniversary of the Kalavryta Holocaust, the Municipality of Kalavryta organized on December 11, 2006 at the historical Hotel "Chelmos" - on the initiative of the then Deputy Mayor Mr. Nikolaos Tzenos – a meeting of representatives of Martyred Regions of Europe on the topic: "Universal memory and Holocausts".
In the context of the events of the 63rd Anniversary of the Kalavryta Holocaust, the Municipality of Kalavryta organized on December 11, 2006 at the historical Hotel "Chelmos" - on the initiative of the then Deputy Mayor Mr. Nikolaos Tzenos – a meeting of representatives of Martyred Regions of Europe on the topic: "Universal memory and Holocausts".
We have singled out and cite on the following pages in the form of articles the testimonies of the Mayor of the city of Oradour in France and the Deputy Mayor of the city of Lidice in the Czech Republic about the destruction of their homeland by the Nazi troops. "Communication" magazine, vol. 16, Dec. 2007).
Until the tragic day of June 10, 1942, Lidice was a small village that enjoyed a carefree daily life for several hundred years. The church of St. Martin since the 14th century played the role of the dominant icon in the center of the village, and since the year 1713, Lidice was proud to have its own first school. The majority of the population of Lidice lived in small neat houses and its inhabitants were very conscientious and hard working people. After hundreds of years of peaceful and happy life, the beginning of the 20th century and the First World War negatively affected the history of the village. 15 men from Lidice were killed in this war. At that time, no one could have imagined that the next war would be written in the History of Lidice in the bloodiest letters.
The Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia had tragic consequences for Lidice. In order to suppress the growing anti-fascist resistance, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich was appointed deputy Reich’s protector in September 1941. The situation in Czechoslovakia became more complicated after the Czechoslovak government in London decided to assassinate Heydrich. The operation conducted by Czechoslovak paratroopers, in which Heydrich was mortally wounded on May 27, 1942 inflicted revenge that shocked the world.
The unspecified content of a letter addressed to a woman working in a factory and which was opened by the factory owner F. PALA aroused the suspicions of the Kladno Gestapo that there was a connection between Heydrich's murder and the Horak family in Lidice who had a son serving in the Czechoslovak army in Great Britain. Despite the fact that the investigation and the search of the house produced no evidence, weapons or any transmitter, the Nazis wanted to complete an act of retaliation for the death of an "AMAZING MAN OF THE GERMAN NATION" and for this reason they chose the population of Lidice.
The tragedy of this small village and its small population of 503 inhabitants began on June 10, 1942 a few hours after midnight. The following orders were given by Adolf Hitler on June 9, 1942:
- to execute all adult men
- to transfer all women to concentration camps for the rest of their lives
- to collect as many children with German characteristics as could be Germanized and to be given to SS families in the Reich and to execute the rest
- to burn and wipe the village off the map.
The Nazis immediately executed this bloody order on my innocent village. On June 10, 1942, 173 men from Lidice were executed in the Horák garden. Then 27 residents including 7 women were executed on June 16, 1942 in Prague-Kompilici. 53 out of 196 women from Lidice who were sent to concentration camps were murdered or tortured to death. Also a very tragic death awaited the children of Lidice, only 17 children out of 105 were found after the war. The remaining 88 had been executed by the Nazis. The lives of 340 people were lost in Lidice by the Nazis in World War II.
Having exterminated the inhabitants of Lidice, the Nazis began to destroy the village, first by burning all the houses, and then by blowing them up. But they didn't stop there. They not only destroyed the church but also the last place of peace...the cemetery. In 1943 what was left was absolute emptiness. Until the end of the war the area was covered with "NO ENTRY" signs.
News of the Lidice disaster spread quickly around the world. But the intentions of the NAZIs to wipe our little village off the face of the Earth did not succeed. Many villages around the world took the name of Lidice in order to honour the martyred village and many women born at that time were named Lidice.
Lidice continued to live on in the memory of people all over the world and after the war the Czechoslovak government's decision to rebuild the village was announced at a peace march on June 10, 1945 in Lidice which was inhabited by women who had escaped the destruction. 340 inhabitants had been executed by the Nazis. 143 women of Lidice returned to the village after the war and after 2 years of research 17 children were returned to their mothers.
In 1947 the foundation stone of the new Lidice was laid 300 meters away from the original site and in May 1948 the construction of the first houses began.
What remained of the old town, including the common grave of the men of Lidice, was preserved as a monument. A memorial and a museum and between it and the new village a park of "peace and friendship" was opened on June 19, 1955 where thousands of rose trees were planted coming from different parts of the world.
In the post-war years, Lidice is happy to cooperate with towns and villages with a similar history to ours. This is why you will always be welcome in Lidice, our friends from Kalavryta. We protect the memory of your people executed by the Nazis in the same way we remember our fathers, mothers and brothers.
Dear friends, I would once again like to greet you and thank you on behalf of the entire population of Lidice for your invitation. We are very happy to be here today to honour and strengthen our friendship.