Editing Lidice massacre

{{Short description|1942 Nazi destruction of Czech village}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title            = Lidice massacre
| image            = Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1993-020-26A,_Lidice,_Ort_nach_Zerstörung.jpg
| image_size       = 300
| caption          = Lidice in 1942 after its destruction by the Nazis
| location         = [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]]
| coordinates      = {{coord|50|08|35|N|14|11|25|E|display=inline, title}}
| target           = [[Czechs]]
| date             = 10 June 1942
| type             = Massacre
| fatalities       = 340 including 82 children murdered later after transfer to [[Chełmno extermination camp|Chełmno]]
| perps            = {{flagicon|Nazi Germany}} [[Nazi Germany]]
| motive           = Reprisal attack following the [[assassination of Reinhard Heydrich]]
| weapons          = Firearms
}}
[[File:Lidice Memorial 0088.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Memorial to the murdered children of Lidice]]
[[File:Peter Stehlik 2009.05.12 Lidice 004a.jpg|thumb|Lidice museum]]
The '''Lidice massacre''' ({{langx|cs|Vyhlazení Lidic}}) was the complete destruction of the village of [[Lidice]] in the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]], which is now a part of the [[Czech Republic]], in June 1942 on orders from [[Nazi Party|Nazi leader]] [[Adolf Hitler]] and acting ''[[Reichsprotektor]]'' [[Kurt Daluege]], successor to [[Reinhard Heydrich]]. It has gained historical attention as one of the most documented instances of [[German war crimes#World War II|German war crimes during the Second World War]], particularly given the deliberate [[Child murder|killing of children]].

In reprisal for the [[Operation Anthropoid|assassination of Reich Protector Heydrich]] in the late spring of 1942,{{sfn|Gerwarth|2011|p=280}} all 173 men from the village who were over 15 years of age were killed on 10 June 1942.<ref name=Kaplan241/> A further 11 men from the village who were not present at the time were later arrested and executed soon afterwards, along with several others who were already under arrest.<ref name=Kaplan241/> Out of a total 503 inhabitants, 307 women and children were sent to a makeshift detention center in a [[Kladno]] school. Of these, 184 women and 88 children were deported to concentration camps; 7 children who were considered racially suitable and thus eligible for [[Germanisation]] were handed over to [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] families, and the rest were sent to the [[Chełmno extermination camp]], where they were gassed to death.<ref name=Kaplan241/><ref name="RadioCZ_2021">{{Cite web|url=https://english.radio.cz/memoriam-marie-supikova-one-last-survivors-lidice-massacre-8712796|last=Fraňková|first=Ruth|title=In memoriam: Marie Šupíková, one of the last survivors of the Lidice massacre|date=23 March 2021|publisher=[[Radio Prague International|Radio Prague]]|access-date=18 June 2021|archive-date=24 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200807/https://english.radio.cz/memoriam-marie-supikova-one-last-survivors-lidice-massacre-8712796|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Associated Press]], quoting German radio transmissions which it received in New York, said: "All male grownups of the town were shot, while the women were placed in a [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camp]], and the children were entrusted to appropriate educational institutions."<ref>The New York Times, Nazis Blot Out Czech Village; Kill All Men, Disperse Others, 11 June 1942</ref> Approximately 340 people from Lidice were murdered in the German reprisal (192 men, 60 women and 88 children). After the war ended, only 143 women and 17 children returned.<ref name=Kaplan241>Jan Kaplan and Krystyna Nosarzewska, ''Prague: The Turbulent Century'' p. 241</ref><ref name=NewYorker_1948>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/05/01/the-children-of-lidice|title=The Children of Lidice|last=Wechsberg|first=Joseph|date=1 May 1948|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|page=34|access-date=18 June 2021|archive-date=24 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200515/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/05/01/the-children-of-lidice|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Smithsonian_2018">{{Cite news|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-lidice-massacre-180970242/|title=The Lost Children of the Lidice Massacre|last=Solly|first=Meilan|date=12 September 2018|work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian Magazine]]|access-date=18 June 2021|archive-date=24 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624202205/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-lidice-massacre-180970242/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Guardian_2020">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/lidice-czech-village-razed-by-hitler-truth-history-row|title=Czech village razed by Hitler at heart of row on truth and history|last=Tait|first=Robert|date=14 March 2020|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=18 June 2021|archive-date=24 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624202005/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/lidice-czech-village-razed-by-hitler-truth-history-row|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="PragueMorning_2021">{{Cite news|url=https://praguemorning.cz/the-massacre-of-lidice/|title=Lidice, 79 Years Later|date=9 June 2021|work=Prague Morning|access-date=18 June 2021|archive-date=24 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624195721/https://praguemorning.cz/the-massacre-of-lidice/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Propaganda in Nazi Germany|Nazi propaganda]] openly and proudly announced the events at Lidice in direct contrast to the [[disinformation]] and secrecy involved with other [[War crimes|crimes against civilian populations]], with intense outrage occurring among [[Allied nations in World War II|Allied nations]] and particularly [[Anglosphere]] countries. The history has been depicted in multiple forms of media since the end of the conflict. Examples include the internationally known [[Drama (creative arts)|drama film]] ''[[Operation Daybreak]]'' and the composer [[Bohuslav Martinů]] composed the [[Orchestra|orchestral work]] ''Memorial to Lidice''.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VypvJeSYHZ0 Bohuslav Martinů – Památník Lidicím (Memorial to Lidice) ], Outdoor life performance on the area of the Memorial, 09:05.</ref>

==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

==Massacre==

===Men===
[[Horst Böhme (SS officer)|Horst Böhme]], the [[Sicherheitspolizei|SiPo]] chief for the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]], immediately acted on the orders.{{sfn|Gerwarth|2011|p=280}} Members of the ''[[Ordnungspolizei]]'' and SD (''[[Sicherheitsdienst]]'') surrounded the village of Lidice, blocking all avenues of escape.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.welt.de/kultur/history/article106440451/Nicht-die-SS-Polizisten-mordeten-in-Lidice.html |title=NS-Massaker : Nicht die SS, Polizisten mordeten in Lidice – Nachrichten Kultur – Geschichte |publisher=Welt.de |access-date=2013-03-28 |newspaper=Die Welt |date=2012-06-08 |last1=Kellerhoff |first1=Sven Felix |archive-date=2013-04-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410075114/http://www.welt.de/kultur/history/article106440451/Nicht-die-SS-Polizisten-mordeten-in-Lidice.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The Nazi regime chose this village because its residents were suspected of harbouring local resistance partisans and were associated with aiding Operation Anthropoid team members.<ref>Williamson, Gordon, ''Loyalty is my Honor'' p. 87</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19480624&id=1T4aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FyUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4604,4187475&hl=fr|title=The Love Letter That destroyed Lidice|last=Wechsberg|first=Joseph|date=24 June 1948|work=The Milwaukee Journal|page=20|access-date=25 May 2016|via=Google News Archive}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

[[File:Lidice - pietni akt.jpg|thumb|Post-war memorial ceremony to honour victims]]
All men of the village were rounded up and taken to the farm of the Horák family on the edge of the village. Mattresses were taken from neighbouring houses where they were stood up against the wall of the Horáks' barn to prevent ricochets.<ref name="Kaplan246"/> The shooting of the men commenced at about 7:00&nbsp;am. At first the men were shot in groups of five, but Böhme thought the executions were proceeding too slowly and ordered that ten men be shot at a time. The dead were left lying where they fell. This continued until the afternoon hours when there were 173 dead.<ref name="Kaplan239"/> Another 11 men who were not in the village that day were arrested and murdered soon afterwards as were eight men and seven women already under arrest because they had relations serving with the [[Czechoslovak armies in exile]] in the United Kingdom.<ref name="Kaplan246"/>  Only three male inhabitants of the village survived the massacre, two of whom were in the [[Czechoslovak Air Force]] and stationed in England at the time.<ref name="The Lidice massacre after 65 years">{{Cite web|url = https://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/the-lidice-massacre-after-65-years|title = The Lidice massacre after 65 years|date = 8 June 2007|access-date = 11 July 2019|archive-date = 15 May 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180515235441/http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/the-lidice-massacre-after-65-years|url-status = live}}</ref> The only adult man from Lidice actually in Czechoslovakia who survived this atrocity was František Saidl (1887–1961), the former deputy-mayor of Lidice who had been arrested at the end of 1938 because on 19 December 1938 he accidentally killed his son Eduard Saidl. He was imprisoned for four years and had no idea about this massacre. He found out when he returned home on 23 December 1942.  Upon discovering the massacre, he was so distraught he turned himself in to SS officers in the nearby town of Kladno, confessed to being from Lidice, and even said he approved of the assassination of Heydrich.  Despite confirming his identity, the SS officers simply laughed at him and turned him away, and he went on to survive the war.<ref name="The Lidice massacre after 65 years"/>

===Women and children===
[[File:Maria Doležalová testifies at the RuSHA trial.jpg|thumb|left|Marie Šupíková<!--Q95401481-->, one of the children kidnapped from Lidice, testifies at the [[RuSHA trial]]]]
[[File:Lidice 2009.jpg|thumb|Memorial to the murdered children of Lidice]]

A total of 203 women and 105 children were first taken to Lidice village school, then the nearby town of [[Kladno]] and detained in the grammar school for three days. The children were separated from their mothers and four pregnant women were sent to the same hospital where Heydrich died, forced to undergo abortions and then sent to different concentration camps. On 12 June 1942, 184 women of Lidice were loaded on trucks, driven to Kladno railway station and forced into a special passenger train guarded by an escort. On the morning of 14 June, the train halted on a railway siding at the [[concentration camp]] at [[Ravensbrück]]. The camp authorities tried to keep the Lidice women isolated, but were prevented from doing so by other inmates. The women were forced to work in leather processing, road building, textile and ammunition factories.<ref name="Shilka Publishing">{{cite book|last1=Phillips|first1=Russell|title=A Ray of Light: Reinhard Heydrich, Lidice, and the North Staffordshire Miners|date=2016|publisher=Shilka Publishing|isbn=978-0995513303|url=https://www.shilka.co.uk/heydrich-lidice/|page=69|access-date=2017-01-31|archive-date=2016-08-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816061552/https://www.shilka.co.uk/heydrich-lidice/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Eighty-eight Lidice children were transported to the area of the former textile factory in Gneisenau Street in [[Łódź]]. Their arrival was announced by a telegram from [[Horst Böhme (SS officer)|Horst Böhme]]'s Prague office which ended with: ''the children are only bringing what they wear. No special care is desirable.''<ref>{{cite web | title=The Massacre at Lidice | website=Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team | date=1999-12-24 | url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/lidice.html | access-date=2020-07-19}}</ref> The care was minimal and they suffered from a lack of hygiene and from illnesses. By order of the camp management, no medical care was given to the children. Shortly after their arrival in Łódź, officials from the Central Race and Settlement branch chose seven children for [[Kidnapping of children for forced Germanization by Nazi Germany|Germanisation]].<ref name="Lynn H. Nicholas p 254">Lynn H. Nicholas, ''Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web'' p. 254 {{ISBN|0-679-77663-X}}</ref> The few children considered racially suitable for Germanisation were handed over to SS families.<ref name="Kaplan246"/>

The furor over Lidice caused some hesitation over the fate of the remaining children but in late June [[Adolf Eichmann]] ordered the massacre of the remainder of the children.<ref name="Lynn H. Nicholas p 254"/> However, Eichmann was not convicted of this crime at his trial in Jerusalem, as the judges deemed that "... it has not been proven to us beyond reasonable doubt, according to the evidence before us, that they were murdered."<ref>[[Hannah Arendt|Arendt, Hannah]] 1963 "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" p. 207</ref> On 2 July, all of the remaining 82 Lidice children were handed over to the Łódź [[Gestapo]] office, who sent them to the [[Chełmno extermination camp]] {{convert|70|km|0|abbr=off}} away, where they were gassed to death in [[Magirus]] [[Nazi gas van|gas van]]s.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} Out of the 105 Lidice children, 82 were murdered in Chełmno, six were murdered in the German [[Lebensborn]] orphanages and 17 returned home.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

===Lidice===

The village was set on fire and the remains of the buildings destroyed with explosives. All the animals in the village—pets and [[Working animal|beasts of burden]]—were slaughtered as well. Even those buried in the town cemetery were not spared; their remains were dug up, looted for gold fillings and jewellery, and destroyed.<ref name="Kaplan241"/> A 100-strong German work party was then sent in to remove all visible remains of the village, re-route the stream running through it and the roads in and out. They then covered the entire area the village had occupied with topsoil and planted crops, and set up a barbed-wire fence around the site which had notices reading, in both Czech and German, "Anyone approaching this fence who does not halt when challenged will be shot". A film was made of the process by Franz Treml, a collaborator with German intelligence. Treml had run a [[Carl Zeiss AG|Zeiss-Ikon]] shop in Lucerna Palace in Prague and after the Nazi occupation, he became a film adviser for the [[Nazi Party]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Remains of Lidice in June 1942 |url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn556023 |website=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=5 April 2022 |format=film |archive-date=17 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517053434/https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn556023 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Further reprisals===

The small Czech village of [[Ležáky]] was destroyed two weeks after Lidice, when [[Gestapo]] agents found a radio transmitter there that had belonged to an underground team who parachuted in with Kubiš and Gabčík. All 33 adults (both men and women) from the village were shot.{{sfn|Gerwarth|2011|p=285}} The children were sent to concentration camps or [[Aryanization (Nazism)|"Aryanised"]]. The death toll resulting from the effort to avenge the death of Heydrich is estimated at over 1,300 people.{{sfn|Gerwarth|2011|p=285}} This count includes relatives of the partisans, their supporters, Czech elites suspected of disloyalty and random victims like those from Lidice.

==Commemorations==

===International response===

[[File:Lidice shall live.jpg|thumb|British poster commemorating Lidice]]
[[File:Ben Shahn Lidice poster.jpg|thumb|Poster by [[Ben Shahn]], ''This is Nazi Brutality'', referencing the massacre at Lidice.]]
Nazi propaganda had openly and proudly announced the events in Lidice, unlike other massacres in occupied Europe which were kept secret.<ref name="nuremberg_trial_proceedings_vol_8">[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/02-22-46.asp "Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 8"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810203324/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/02-22-46.asp |date=2011-08-10 }}. 22 February 1946</ref> The information was instantly picked up by Allied media. After the massacre [[Winston Churchill]] proposed destroying three German villages with [[Incendiary device|incendiary bombing]] for every village destroyed in reprisals by the Wehrmacht. [[Anthony Eden]], [[Leo Amery]], and [[Ernest Bevin]] were supportive of the idea, but [[Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso|Archibald Sinclair]], [[Clement Attlee]], [[Herbert Morrison]], and [[Stafford Cripps]] convinced him that it would waste resources and open the risk to similar [[Luftwaffe]] reprisals against British communities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Andrew |url=https://archive.org/details/masterscommander0000robe_g9v1 |title=Masters and Commanders: The Military Geniuses Who Led the West to Victory in World War II  |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-141-02926-9 |edition=|location=London |pages=182–83 |ref=None |via=Archive Foundation}}</ref> In September 1942, coal [[miner]]s in [[Stoke-on-Trent]], [[Staffordshire]], in Great Britain led by [[Barnett Stross]], a doctor, who in 1945 became a local MP, founded the organisation ''Lidice Shall Live'' to raise funds for the rebuilding of the village after the war.<ref name="Shilka Publishing"/>

Soon after the razing of the village, towns and quarters (neighbourhoods) in various countries were renamed, [[San Jerónimo Lídice]] in [[Mexico City]], Barrio Obrero de Lídice<ref>{{cite web |title=Lídice (Caracas) |url=http://wikimapia.org/3400503/es/L%C3%ADdice |website=wikimapia.org |access-date=20 February 2022 |archive-date=20 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220220231918/http://wikimapia.org/3400503/es/L%C3%ADdice |url-status=live }}</ref> (workers quarter of Lidice) and its hospital in [[Caracas]], [[Venezuela]], [[Lídice de Capira]] in Panama and towns in [[Brazil]] so that the name would live on in spite of Hitler's intentions. A neighbourhood in [[Crest Hill, Illinois]], U.S., was renamed from Stern Park to Lidice. There is a shrine at Lidice park on Prairie Avenue in Crest Hill; the original shrine was at the end of Kelly Avenue at Elsie Street. A square in the English city of [[Coventry]], devastated by [[Coventry Blitz|Luftwaffe bombing]], is named after Lidice. An alley in a very crowded area of downtown [[Santiago]], [[Chile]], is named after Lidice and one of the buildings has a small plaque that explains its tragic story. A street in [[Sofia]], [[Bulgaria]], is named to commemorate the massacre and the [[Lidice Memorial]] in [[Phillips, Wisconsin]], U.S., was built in memory of the village.

In the wake of the massacre, [[Humphrey Jennings]] directed ''[[The Silent Village]]'' (1943), using amateur actors from a Welsh mining village, [[Cwmgiedd]], near the small [[South Wales]] town of [[Ystradgynlais]]. An American film was made in 1943 called ''[[Hitler's Madman]]'', but it contained a number of inaccuracies in the story. A more accurate British film, ''[[Operation Daybreak]]'', starring [[Timothy Bottoms]] as Kubiš, [[Martin Shaw]] as Čurda and [[Anthony Andrews]] as Gabčík, was released in 1975.

American poet [[Edna St. Vincent Millay]] wrote a book-length verse play on the massacre, ''The Murder of Lidice'', which was excerpted in the 17 October 1942, edition of ''[[Saturday Review (U.S. magazine)|Saturday Review]]'',<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Edna St. Vincent Millay|author2=Franklin P Adams (intro.)|author-link1=Edna St. Vincent Millay|author-link2=Franklin Pierce Adams|title=The Murder of Lidice|pages=3–5}}</ref> a larger version of which was published in the 19 October 1942 ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine, and published in full as a book later that year by Harper.<ref>Millay, Edna St. Vincent. ''The Murder of Lidice''. New York: Harper: 1942.</ref>

There is a memorial sculpture and small information panel commemorating the Lidice massacre, in Wallanlagen Park in [[Bremen]], Germany.

===Local response and the new Lidice===
Czech composer [[Bohuslav Martinů]] composed his ''Memorial to Lidice'', an 8-minute orchestral work, in 1943, as a response to the massacre. The piece quotes from the Czech ''[[St Wenceslas Chorale]]'' and in the climax of the piece, the opening notes (dot-dot-dot-dash = ''V'' in Morse code) of [[Beethoven's 5th Symphony]].<ref>Mihule J. Liner note to Supraphon CD 11 1931-2 001, which includes the work played by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by [[Karel Ančerl]].</ref>

[[File:Lidice, fontána (1).jpg|thumb|left|Lidice rose garden fountain]]
Women from Lidice who survived imprisonment at Ravensbrück returned after the Second World War and were rehoused in the new village of Lidice that was built overlooking the original site. The first part of the new village was completed in 1949. Two men from Lidice were in the United Kingdom serving in the [[Royal Air Force]] at the time of the massacre. After 1945 [[Pilot Officer]] Josef Horák and [[Flight Lieutenant]] Josef Stříbrný returned to Czechoslovakia to serve in the Czechoslovak Air Force.

After the [[1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état]] the new [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia|Communist Party]] government would not allow them to apply to be housed in the new Lidice, because they had served in the forces of one of the western powers. Horák and his family returned to Britain and the RAF; he died in a flying accident in December 1948.<ref name="czech_hero">David Vaughan. [http://www.radio.cz/en/article/30570 "Josef Horak, a twentieth-century Czech hero"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222221839/http://www.radio.cz/en/article/30570 |date=2008-12-22 }}. ''[http://www.radio.cz Český Rozhlas] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010306221457/http://www.radio.cz/ |date=2001-03-06 }}''. 24 July 2002.</ref>

A sculpture from the 1990s by [[Marie Uchytilová]] overlooks the site of the old village of Lidice. Entitled "[[Memorial to the Children Victims of the War, Lidice|The Memorial to the Children Victims of the War]]" it comprises 82 [[bronze]] statues of children (42 girls and 40 boys) aged 1 to 16, to honour the children who were murdered at [[Chełmno extermination camp|Chełmno]] in the summer of 1942. A cross with a crown of thorns marks the mass grave of the Lidice men. Overlooking the site is a memorial area flanked by a museum and a small exhibition hall.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lidice-memorial.cz/to2000_en.aspx |title=Lidice Memorial: History |publisher=Lidice-memorial.cz |date=10 July 1945 |access-date=2013-03-28 |archive-date=2014-02-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222055628/http://www.lidice-memorial.cz/to2000_en.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref> The memorial area is linked to the new village by an avenue of [[Tilia|linden]] trees. In 1955 a "Rosarium" of 29,000 [[rose]] bushes was created beside the avenue of lindens overlooking the site of the old village. In the 1990s the Rosarium was neglected but after 2001 a new Rosarium with 21,000 bushes was created.<ref name="lidice_memorial">[http://www.lidice-memorial.cz/to2000_en.aspx "The History of Lidice Memorial Before Year 2000"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222072646/http://www.lidice-memorial.cz/to2000_en.aspx |date=2008-12-22 }}. ''[http://www.lidice-memorial.cz Lidice Memorial] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031006073052/http://lidice-memorial.cz/ |date=2003-10-06 }}''.</ref>

In 2024 as the state of the monument was damaged by time and conditions, a public collection started raising funds to restore it. A surprise donation was made by an American donor that boosted the project as it received $165,000. As it turns out the donor was Donald R. Yadesky, a long-time supporter and member of the Friends of History Society.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-11-19 |title=Public collection underway to preserve bronze group sculpture of 82 murdered Lidice children |url=https://english.radio.cz/public-collection-underway-preserve-bronze-group-sculpture-82-murdered-lidice-8835028 |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=[[Czech Radio]]}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Czech Republic|History}}
* ''[[Lidice (film)|Lidice]]'' (also known as ''Fall of the Innocent''), a 2011 Czech drama film

==References==
{{reflist|20em}}

==Books==
* {{cite book | last = Gerwarth | first = Robert | author-link = Robert Gerwarth | year = 2011 | title = Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich | publisher = Yale University Press | location = New Haven, CT | isbn = 978-0-300-11575-8 }}
* Jan Kaplan and Krystyna Nosarzewska, ''Prague: The Turbulent Century'', Koenemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Koeln, (1997) {{ISBN|3-89508-528-6}}
* Joan M. Wolf: ''[[Someone Named Eva]].'' 2007. {{ISBN|0-618-53579-9}}
* [[Eduard Stehlík]]: ''Lidice, The Story of a Czech Village.'' 2004. {{ISBN|80-86758-14-1}}
* Zena Irma Trinka: ''A little village called Lidice: Story of the return of the women and children of Lidice.'' International Book Publishers, Western Office, [[Lidgerwood, North Dakota]], 1947.
* [[Maureen Myant]]: ''The Search.'' Alma Books, 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-84688-103-9}}
* {{cite book | last = Williams | first = Max | year = 2003 | title = Reinhard Heydrich: The Biography, Volume 2 – Enigma | publisher = Ulric Publishing | location = Church Stretton | isbn = 978-0-9537577-6-3 }}
* {{cite book | last = Williamson | first = Gordon | title = Loyalty is my Honor | publisher = Motorbooks International | year = 1995 | isbn = 0-7603-0012-7 }}

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline}}
*{{in lang|en}} [https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn556023/ Remains of Lidice in June 1942] (film at U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
*{{IMDb title|qid=Q3138634|title=Hitler's Madman}} – A fictional account of the death of Reinhard Heydrich and the reprisals against Lidice.
*{{IMDb title|qid=Q7764240|title=The Silent Village}} – The true story of the massacre of a small Czech village by the Nazis is retold as if it happened in Wales.
*Alan Heath: {{YouTube|UTrISV8n6I0|Fate of the children of Lidice}}
*{{in lang|en|cs|de|ru}} [http://www.lidice-memorial.cz/default_en.aspx Lidice Memorial]
*{{in lang|cs}} [http://www.lidice.cz Official Website of Municipality]
*{{in lang|cs}} [http://www.rozhlas.cz/cro6/komentare/_zprava/38712 Recent (since 1990s) search for missing children]
*{{in lang|cs}} [http://zpravy.idnes.cz/foto.asp?c=A070310_105341_domaci_jan&r=domaci&strana=1 Photo series] about destruction of Lidice by [[Reichsarbeitsdienst]]
*{{in lang|cs}} [http://www.filmlidice.cz "Lidice" film Official website], directed by [[Petr Nikolaev]] The first ever Czech-made feature film about the destruction of Lidice, which was available on May 18, 2020, at Amazon Prime under the title "Fall of the Innocent".
*Lidice Commemorative Gathering Fenton 2010 – Pics Video and Listen again [http://www.6towns.co.uk/2011/06/lidice-commemorative-gathering-pics-video-and-listen-again/ Lidice commemorative gathering pics video and listen again] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20161123195300/http://www.6towns.co.uk/2011/06/lidice-commemorative-gathering-pics-video-and-listen-again/ |date=2016-11-23 }}
*[https://www.slideshare.net/Artvenue/lidiceforschools-9523625 Lidice & Stoke-on-Trent for Schools] – a free Powerpoint presentation suitable for teaching the Lidice atrocity in schools
*[https://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/VicCarnall A free copy of Vic Carnall's Opus 17, a piano solo entitled "In Memoriam: the Village of Lidice (Czechoslovakia / June, 1942)".]
*[https://www.facebook.com/%CE%88%CE%BD%CE%B1-%CE%B4%CE%AD%CE%BD%CF%84%CF%81%CE%BF-%CE%B8%CF%85%CE%BC%CE%AC%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%B9-A-tree-remembers-279435205929646/?modal=admin_todo_tour "A tree remembers" (official page)] (2018) – A documentary about the massacre of Lidice, levelled and – literally – eradicated by the Nazis in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.

{{Czechoslovakia in World War II}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1942 in Czechoslovakia]]
[[Category:June 1942 in Europe]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1942]]
[[Category:Arson in the 1940s]]
[[Category:1942 mass shootings in Europe]]
[[Category:Nazi war crimes in Czechoslovakia]]
[[Category:Massacres committed by Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:World War II sites in the Czech Republic]]
[[Category:Cemetery vandalism and desecration]]
[[Category:Operation Anthropoid]]
[[Category:Children killed in World War II by Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Czech Republic]]
[[Category:Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:Spree shootings in Europe]]
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[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in the Czech Republic]]
[[Category:Anti-Czech sentiment]]
[[Category:Nazi looting]]
[[Category:Reprisals]]
[[Category:Attacks on barns]]
[[Category:Residential building bombings in Europe]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in 1942]]