The Massacre of Lidice
On June 4, 1942, Heydrich died in Bulovka hospital in Prague from an infection. Hitler, enraged, ordered Kurt Daluege, Heydrich's replacement, to wade through blood to find Heydrich's killers. Hitler had always had a high opinion of Heydrich. Some believe that Hitler was grooming Heydrich to succeed him and the Fuehrer said that “he has a heart of iron”. Energetic and efficient, Heydrich brought a reign of terror to Czechoslovakia and his death enraged Hitler. He was frantic with rage and, characteristically, what he called for was not justice but vengeance. He ordered the instant execution of 30,000 Czechs as a reprisal.
The man appointed to take over from Heydrich, Oberstgruppenführer and Generalmajor (Major General) Kurt Daluege, pointed out that the loss of 30,000 would have a severe impact on the Czech labour force. Hitler took this on board and changed the figure to the arrest of 10,000. On the night of May 27th, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, ordered Daluege to shoot 100 “intellectuals” that night. Over the next few days, 3,188 Czechs were arrested of whom 1,357 were executed, while 657 died in police custody. However, none of this satisfied Hitler, though he had recognised the fact that 30,000 executions would have a negative impact on the labour force in Czechoslovakia.
On June 8th, a state funeral was held for Heydrich. On the next day, Daluege received an order from Hitler which stated that a small community near an industrial centre was to be selected and wiped out as punishment. Therefore, there would be no impact on the Czech labour force, but Hitler would have gained his desired for revenge.
Lidice - A Terrible Mix-Up
The reason why Lidice was chosen was that one of the men who assassinated Heydrich had links to Lidice Also the Gestapo had intercepted what they deemed to be a “suspicious” note that contained the name Lidice. In fact, it was another Lidice in Czechoslovakia – but this only came to light afterwards, once the arrangements had been made to wipe out Frank's chosen target - Lidice near Prague.
On June 4th, the day of Heydrich’s death, German troops entered Lidice, the Gestapo questioned people and houses were ransacked. Then they suddenly left left.
On June 9th, they returned in the evening. Most of the villagers had gone to bed. They were woken and made to gather in the village square. Women and children were put on one side and men and boys over 15 were put on the other side of the square. The men and boys were put in farm buildings while the women and children were locked into the local school.
After the villagers had been locked away, military police ransacked the homes once again and took anything of value. All farming tools were taken and cattle were herded up. Anything of the remotest value was taken.
Women and Children to CC Ravensbrück
At 05.00 the next day, the198 women and 98 children were put onto lorries and driven away. They were transferred to Ravensbruck concentration camp. Those children who were considered suitable for ‘Germanisation’ were picked out and given to SS families. Those who were not considered suitable were scheduled to be sent to the camps. The men were brought out of the farm houses and lined up in front of mattresses laid against a wall. The execution squad brought them out in batches of ten. 173 were shot. Those men who lived in Lidice but who were on shift work at the local factories when the arrests were made, were rounded up later – a further 19 were shot. Those men who were in Lidice at the time visiting relatives and friends, but who were not from Lidice, were also shot.
The village was then destroyed. Houses were destroyed, orchards dug up and the graveyard desecrated. Grain was planted over the flattened soil. Even pet dogs were shot. When this was done, pioneer troops were sent in to plough the land flat. Seemingly nothing was left of the village, not even the outline. The whole episode was filmed by the SS. The name was then removed from all German maps.
A small Czech village called Ležáky was also destroyed two weeks after Lidice. Here both men and women were shot, and children were sent to concentration camps or 'Aryanized'.
Hanged in Prague
Kurt Daluege was hanged in Prague on October 24, 1946 after having been found guilty by a Czech court of war crimes in the Czechoslovakian.
On January 2, 2006, Ian Cobain published an article in the British Guardian with the headline: Churchill proposed 'three for one' bombing of German villages in retaliation for massacre of Czech civilians. Recently released wartime cabinet documents revealed that Winston Churchill wanted the RAF to wipe out German villages in retaliation for the massacre of Czech civilians in the village of Lidice.
The plan to attack small villages "on a three-for-one basis" was formed in the summer of 1942 five days after German forces murdered most of the 450 occupants of Lidice, a village north of Prague, in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, deputy leader of the SS.
Churchill abandoned the plan only in the face of opposition from cabinet colleagues, who feared that the lives of aircrews would be placed needlessly at risk. Clement Attlee, the dominions secretary and future Labour prime minister, said he believed it unwise "to enter into competition in frightfulness with the Germans". On June 15 Churchill conceded, saying: "My instinct is strongly the other way ... I submit unwillingly to the view of cabinet against."
The existence of the village raids plan is disclosed in notebooks kept by Sir Norman Brook, the wartime deputy cabinet secretary, who recorded cabinet meetings. His notes now made public by the National Archives at Kew, south-west London, also show that Churchill was determined to execute Hitler. "Contemplate that if Hitler falls into our hands we shall certainly put him to death," Sir Norman recorded the prime minister as saying in December 1942, on one of the few occasions that the cabinet discussed what to do with the Führer. "Not a sovereign who could be said to be in hands of ministers, like Kaiser. This man is the mainspring of evil. Instrument - electric chair, for gangsters, no doubt available on lease-lend." He was referring to the arrangement with the US which helped to fund the British war effort.
