Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Planning Retreat 2016
Friday, August 5, 2016
A Scar on the Czech Soul
During our cultural studies with our summer interns this
year, we visited the memorial to the former Czech village of Lidice. It is like
visiting an open wound.
Reinhard Heydrich |
In September 1941, Adoph
Hitler appointed Reinhard Heydrich Deputy Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and
Moravia, primarily because Hitler believed that the man whom Heydrich would
replace was not being sufficiently harsh toward the Czechs. Heydrich would not
disappoint his Fuhrer.
Heydrich executed
92 people within three days of his arrival in Prague. In February, 1942, he
rounded up between 4,000 and 5,000 Czechs in a crushing blow to the Czech
resistance. Those who weren’t executed were sent to concentration camps.
Heydrich earned the title, “The Butcher of Prague” for his brutality.
Heydrich is best
known for his formulation of the “Final Solution” – the plan to exterminate all
European Jews. Before the invasion of Poland, he had drawn up plans for Einsatzgruppen
to follow the German invasion troops in order to put all Jews in ghettos.
He later formulated the plans for these special troops to follow the invasion
forces into Ukraine and kill Jews wherever they found them. Heydrich created
the concentration camp at Theresienstadt, or Terezín, where more than
30,000 people died. Tens of thousands more were shipped from Terezín to death
camps in other locations.
Jozef Gabčík |
Meanwhile, the Czech government in exile in Great Britain
was under pressure to undertake some kind of operation against the Germans in
their homeland. Two men, Jozef Gabčík and Karel Svoboda, were selected to train
with British Special Operations and to plan for an effort to assassinate
Heydrich. Svoboda was later replaced by Jan Kubiš due to an injury he sustained while training. The men were
airlifted into Czechoslovakia on December 28, 1941. They were helped by several
anti-Nazi organizations and families.
After investigating several options for the assassination,
the men settled on shooting Heydrich as he traveled to his Prague offices from
his country residence. Heydrich had, perhaps, become so confident of his
absolute rule over the Czechs that he was using the same route every day, and
riding in a convertible. The men ambushed him on May 27, 1942, in a very sharp
curve along his normal route. Gabčík attempted to shoot him, but his gun
jammed. Kubiš threw an anti-tank
grenade at the car, but it exploded outside the car. The assassins fled,
believing they had failed. But some of the shrapnel from the grenade had badly
wounded Heydrich.
Jan Kubiš |
Heydrich died in
a Prague hospital three days later, probably from septicemia. Hitler was
furious and demanded retribution for the loss of his dear friend and fellow
Nazi. One of the most tragic reprisals was carried out against the tiny village
of Lidice, which almost certainly had nothing to do with the assassination
plans. On June 10, 1942, 175 men were executed in the village, and 184 women
and 88 children were deported to concentration camps. Four pregnant women were
forced to undergo abortions and then sent to concentration camps. The village
was razed to the ground; even the graves were dug up and the bodies removed. The
Allies were outraged when they learned of this horror, but there was little
they could do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)