82: Lidice

82 years ago today (June 10, 1942) the Lidice Massacre occurred.

(Germans in Lidice shortly after destroying it and its Residents.)

Lidice was a small Czech town located 12 miles (20 km) from Prague in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. 

The Germans razed the town to the ground and murdered or deported its Residents. The annihilation of Lidice was an act of revenge for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, a prominent Nazi Official.

Out of a total 503 inhabitants of Lidice: all 173 Men from the Village who were over 15 years of age were executed on June 10, 1942.

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.

All 307 Women and Children were sent to a makeshift Detention Center in nearby Kladno. 4 Pregnant Women were sent to the same hospital where Heydrich died, forced to undergo abortions and then sent to different Concentration Camps.

On June 12, 1942, 184 Women were sent to the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp in Germany. The Women were forced to work in leather processing, road building, textile and ammunition factories. 124 lived until the war ended and returned to Czechoslovakia.

88 Children were deported to Łódź in German-Occupied Poland. 7 children who were considered racially suitable and thus eligible for Germanisation were handed over to SS families, and the rest (82 Children) were sent to the Chełmno Extermination Camp, where they were gassed.

Of the 105 Lidice Children, 82 were murdered at Chełmno, 6 were murdered in the German Lebensborn Orphanages and 17 returned home after the war.

The Allies announced the Lidice Massacre almost immediately after it happened and signs of Solidarity with the Czechs occurred and continue to happen today.