Massacre at Lidice

10th June 1942: The shooting of 192 men and boys is just the opening phase in a programme of murderous savagery by the Nazis in Czechoslovakia

The destruction of Lidice - from a Nazi propaganda film.

On 9th June 1942 the Nazis buried Reinhard Heydrich who had died from wounds inflicted by an assassination team of Czech and Slovak agents, who had parachuted into Czechoslovakia after training in Britain¹. On 10th June 1942, mistakenly believing that the Czech village of Lidice was in some way connected to the assassins, the SS rounded up all the inhabitants. They then shot all the men and boys over 15 and sent most of the women and children to concentration camps - where almost all were also murdered. The village was then raised to the ground. In total 340 men, women and children died as a result of the action.

192 men and boys were shot at the Horak farm in Lidice on the 10th June 1942. Mattresses were placed against the wall of the barn to prevent ricochets during the executions.

Such assaults on innocent civilians were becoming increasingly common on the Eastern Front, but mass ‘reprisals’ were not unusual in any country occupied by the Nazis. Lidice was different in several respects. Hitler was personally involved in demanding ‘retribution’ for the killing of Heydrich. Lidice was just the first in a wave of brutal repercussions for many different groups in Czechoslovakia, which saw thousands murdered in concentration camps. And the Nazis, unusually, made a great fanfare of their savagery - which got worldwide attention as a consequence. German radio announced:

"All male grownups of the town were shot, while the women were placed in a concentration camp, and the children were entrusted to appropriate educational institutions."

Members of the SS posing in Lidice before it was razed to the ground.

Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, a loyal and enthusiastic Nazi. He had a leading role in organising the Holocaust and had overseen brutal repression after becoming Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia - the part of Czechoslovakia absorbed into Germany. Hitler called him "the man with the iron heart".

Heydrich’s open top car was attack by Czechoslovak agents on May 27th 1942 when it slowed down to turn a tight bend. After Gabčík’s Sten gun jammed Kubis threw a modified anti tank grenade which exploded outside the car but seriously wounded Heydrich. He died from the resulting infection on the 4th June.

Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis were senior NCOs in the Czechoslovak Army exiled in Britain. They volunteered for and were trained by the Special Operations Executive - and parachuted into Czechoslovakia on 29th December 1941. They died on the 18th June 1942 in a six hour battle witth SS troops, after being surrounded while hiding in a Prague church.

Himmler leads the funeral procession for Heydrich on the 9th June 1942.

It was on occasions like these that the Nazis revealed their truest beliefs. Himmler spoke at the funeral:

We will have to deal with Christianity in a tougher way than hitherto. We must settle accounts with this Christianity, this greatest of plagues that could have happened to us in our history, which has weakened us in every conflict. If our generation does not do it then it would I think drag on for a long time. We must overcome it within ourselves. Today at Heydrich's funeral I intentionally expressed in my oration from my deepest conviction a belief in God, a belief in fate, in the ancient one as I called him—that is the old Germanic word: Wralda.

Adolf Hitler gives his last salute at the state funeral of assassinated SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich in the Mosaic Chamber of the New Reichschancellery in June 1942.

The remnants of the burnt out village of Lidice are blown up in the days following the massacre. Its name was even removed from maps.

The death of of Heydrich prompted continuing reprisals in Czechoslovakia, where the assassins were hunted down - most committed suicide before they were caught. Anyone even suspected of assisting them was arrested - and they and their families sent to concentration camps.

Václav Král, a member of the Czechoslovak underground, was one of the first to assist in hiding the assassination team when they arrived in December 1941. He was executed with his entire family in Mauthausen on October 24, 1942.

Thousands died as a consequence of the killing of Heydrich. Nevertheless many Czechoslovaks believed that thousands more would have died under his brutal regime had he not been assassinated.

Nazi propaganda about the Lidice massacre revealed ever more clearly the savage intent of their regime - and sparked reactions against them around the world.

This is Nazi Brutality, poster by Ben Shahn, 1943, published by the US Department of War Information.

1. For a comprehensive history see ASSASSINATION, Operation ANTHROPOID 1941–1942 published by the Defence Ministry of the Czech Republic – Military Information and Service Agency.