Editing Lidice massacre (section)

==Background==

===Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich===
{{Main article|Operation Anthropoid}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1972-039-44, Heydrich-Attentat.jpg|thumb|Heydrich's car at the scene of the attack.]]
From 27 September 1941, [[SS]]-''[[Obergruppenführer]]'' and General of Police Reinhard Heydrich had been acting as ''[[Reichsprotektor]]'' of the [[Nazi]] [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]].<ref name="Kaplan214">Jan Kaplan and Krystyna Nosarzewska, ''Prague: The Turbulent Century'' p. 214</ref> This area of the former state of [[Czechoslovakia]] had been [[Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|occupied by Nazi Germany]] since 5 April 1939.<ref name="Kaplan214"/>

On the morning of 27 May 1942, Heydrich was being driven from his country villa at [[Panenské Břežany]] to his office at [[Prague Castle]]. When he reached the [[Kobylisy]] area of [[Prague]], his car was attacked (on behalf of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile) by the [[Slovakia|Slovak]] and [[Czech Republic|Czech]] soldiers [[Jozef Gabčík]] and [[Jan Kubiš]].<ref name="Kaplan241"/> These men, who had been part of a team trained in Great Britain, had parachuted into [[Bohemia]] in December 1941 as part of Operation Anthropoid.

After Gabčík's [[Sten gun]] jammed, Heydrich ordered his driver, SS-''[[Oberscharführer]]'' Klein, to stop the car. When Heydrich stood up to shoot Gabčík, Kubiš threw a modified [[anti-tank]] grenade at Heydrich's car.<ref>Michel, Wolfgang, ''Britische Spezialwaffen 1939–1945: Ausrüstung für Eliteeinheiten, Geheimdienst und Widerstand'', p. 72 {{ISBN|3-8423-3944-5}}</ref> The resulting explosion wounded both Heydrich and Kubiš.{{sfn|Williams|2003|pp=145–47}} Heydrich sent Klein to chase Gabčík on foot and, in an exchange of fire, Gabčík shot Klein in the leg below the knee. Kubiš and Gabčík managed to escape the scene.{{sfn|Williams|2003|p=147}} A Czech woman went to Heydrich's aid and flagged down a delivery van. He was placed on his stomach in the back of the van and taken to the emergency room at [[Bulovka Hospital]]. A [[splenectomy]] was performed, and the chest wound, left lung, and diaphragm were all [[Debridement|debrided]]. Himmler ordered [[Karl Gebhardt]] to fly to Prague to assume care. Despite a fever, Heydrich's recovery appeared to progress well. Hitler's personal doctor [[Theodor Morell]] suggested the use of the new antibacterial drug [[Sulfonamide (medicine)|sulfonamide]], but Gebhardt thought that Heydrich would recover and declined the suggestion. On 4 June Heydrich died from [[septicaemia]] caused by pieces of horse hair from the upholstery and his clothing entering his body when the bomb exploded.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.army.cz/images/id_7001_8000/7419/assassination-en.pdf |title=Assassination&nbsp;– Operation Arthropoid, 1941–1942 |last=Burian |first=Michal |author2=Aleš |year=2002 |publisher=Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic |access-date=25 September 2011 |archive-date=1 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201030817/http://www.army.cz/images/id_7001_8000/7419/assassination-en.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Reprisals===
Late in the afternoon of 27 May, SS-''[[Gruppenführer]]'' [[Karl Hermann Frank]] proclaimed a state of emergency and placed a curfew in Prague.<ref name="Kaplan239">Jan Kaplan and Krystyna Nosarzewska, ''Prague: The Turbulent Century'' p. 239</ref> Anyone who helped the attackers was to be executed along with their families.<ref name="Kaplan239"/> A search involving 21,000 men began and 36,000 houses were checked.<ref name="Kaplan239"/> By 4 June, 157 people had been executed as a result of the reprisals but the assassins had not been found and no information was forthcoming.<ref name="Kaplan239"/>

The eulogies at Heydrich's funeral in [[Berlin]] were not yet over when, on 9 June, the decision was made to "make up for his death". Frank, Secretary of State for the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, reported from Berlin that the ''[[Führer]]'' had commanded the following concerning any village found to have harbored Heydrich's killers:<ref name="Kaplan246">Jan Kaplan and Krystyna Nosarzewska, ''Prague: The Turbulent Century'' p. 246</ref>

#Execute all men
#Transport all women to a concentration camp
#Gather the children suitable for Germanisation, then place them in SS families in the Reich and bring the rest of the children up in other ways
#Burn down the village and level it entirely