Lidice’s crying children (Czechia)
Just a bit outside Prague is Lidice, another town that is a tragic tale from WWII.
The Town
Lidice was a small town. It came to Hitler’s attention because of a note that some thought was related to the assassination of a local Nazi leader was traced to a family in the town. The family was investigated but not found to have any link to the attack. However, Hitler decided to literally wipe the town off the map anyway to dissuade further resistance.
The Resident’s Fates
In June 1942, SS men came to the town and rounded up all the residents. After sending the men aged 15 and older out to the farm of the family that was investigated, they shot them all. The women and children were sent to a local school. The Germanic looking children who were young enough were sent to live with Nazi families, the rest were sent off to camps. They had some workers imported from the nearby Terezin ghetto to dig a mass grave for the dead.
The Town’s Fate
But that wasn’t nearly enough. The town needed to be erased. So they killed all the livestock and pets. They burned down the buildings and flattened the town. The SS dug up the cemetery and took the gold teeth and other valuables. Further, they hunted down the men from the village who were out working or otherwise away that day and killed them. They bulldozed the trees and orchards, diverted the stream that ran through town, and filled in the lake. Next, they put down new roads, then covered the rest of the land with plants and surrounded the area with barbed wire.
The town was as gone as a town could be. Nothing was left to even show it was there.
The town was rebuilt and a memorial is there with an amazing sculpture of 82 kids who died. It was raining the day we were there. Which seemed fitting, like they were crying.
And the Nazis were so proud of this they made films and announced on the radio what they had done. Although they said the children were sent off to “educational institutions”, so I guess what they did to them was worth hiding. They wanted to show what they were willing to do. And the world heard, and we know what happened.
