Lidice
Staff Sergeants Jan Kubiš and Josef Gabcík in London in December 1941 before their flight on Operation ANTHROPOID. The manhunt for the parachutists ended on 18 June 1942, when they courageously fought their final battle in the crypt of the Church of St. Cyril and Methodius, Resslova Street, Prague. The betrayal of one of their comrades from training Karel Curda – the greatest disappointment of the Czechoslovak parachute programme – contributed to their discovery and deaths.
The Handley Page four-engine Halifax Bomber from which groups ANTHROPOID, SILVER A and SILVER B were dropped in December 1941. They took part in the successful assassination of the Acting Reich’s Protector Reinhard Heydrich.
On 10 June 1942 the village of Lidice was burned to the ground as a warning to Czechoslovak resistance – men were murdered; women and children were dragged to concentration camps; the youngest ones were sent for re-education to the Reich.
On 24 June, similar atrocities were committed in the village of Ležáky in the Chrudimsko District. However, these were merely the tips of an iceberg. Yet, the assassination was a clear signal to the world at war that Czechs did not reconcile themselves to the reality of the Protectorate. Thus, it promoted the efforts of Czechoslovak resistance abroad to have the Munich Diktat and consequent developments declared null and void.
View of original Lidice before 1942
School in original Lidice (two-storeyed building built in 1842)
School photo from original Lidic – took 8 days before tragedy 2.6. 1942
Church St.Martin (originally Gothic architecture from r.1352, in 1729 converted in barogue style)
Competition in fly-kite in original Lidice in 1932
“Zabíjačka” in original Lidice at Rákosů (one from 14 agricultural estates)
Podhorův flourmill in original Lidice
Procesion in original Lidice – start from Horakova estate
Harvest near Studničků (one from 14 agricultural estates)
Fire-brigade in original Lidice
Burning Lidice
Nazis photograph in annihilated Lidice
Burned school
Looting of destroyed Lidice (taking away of agriculture equipments)
Recording of devastation of Lidice (Nazis filmed 3 documentary movies in Lidice)
173 Lidice men shot to death in the garden of Horákova estate
173 Lidice men shot to death in the garden of Horákova estate
Burned out Lidice (beyond far – destroyed St.Martin church)
The First Memorial Meeting happened at the place where used to be Lidice village in 1945
The First Memorial Meeting in 1945
The First Memorial Meeting in Lidice (Lidice women in the front the platform in the background)
President Eduard Beneš with his wife Hana took part on The First Memorial Meeting in 1945
Building-up of new Lidice initiated in 1947 (youth construction group)
