Lidice is erased

2020

Memorial to the Child Victims of War by Marie Uchytilová, Lidice. Eighty-two bronze figures, one for each child of Lidice murdered at Chełmno. Place: Lidice, 20 km west of Prague Figures: 173 men shot at the Horák farm · 184 women deported to Ravensbrück · 82 children gassed at Chełmno · Karl Hermann Frank, ordering · the SS Schutzpolizei of Kladno, executing The investigation of Heydrich's killing produces no suspects in Lidice. A letter intercepted by the Gestapo, between a worker in the Slaný steelworks and a girlfriend, mentions a man going abroad; the trail leads to two Lidice families, the Horáks and the Stříbrných, whose sons are in fact in the Czechoslovak forces in Britain. There is no connection to the assassination. The pretext is enough. On the night of June 9, the village is sealed by SS units from Kladno. The men are gathered in the barn of the Horák family. The women and children are taken to the school. The subject dates from 1942; this photograph was taken in 2020.