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Current AffairsA new book tells the human stories behind the Lidice massacre
A new book has gone on sale in both a Czech and an English version, that
tells the deeply moving story of the little village of Lidice, just
outside Prague. Over the years a great deal has been written about the
village, which the Nazis singled out in June 1942 to wipe off the map in
revenge for the assassination of the man they had put in charge of
occupied Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich. But this new book is
unusual.
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Current AffairsThe Battle of the Airwaves: the extraordinary story of Czechoslovak Radio and the 1945 Prague Uprising
Welcome to a special programme to mark the 58th anniversary of the end of
the Second World War, a national holiday in the Czech Republic. The
anniversary has a special significance in Prague, because it was here that
some of the last shots of the war in Europe were fired, long after most
European cities had been freed. The liberation of Prague by the Red Army
on the 9th May 1945 was preceded by three days of fierce fighting in the
streets of the city, and over 3000 people lost their lives fighting for
Prague's freedom. In the uprising, the radio and the very building from
which we are now broadcasting, was right at the heart of events.
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Czechs in HistoryJosef Horak, a twentieth century Czech hero
I was recently involved in making a film about Lidice, the Czech village that the Nazis wiped off the map in June 1942. In the course of my research I met many people from and connected with the village, including relatives of Josef Horak, one of only two men from Lidice to survive the Nazi massacre. The following programme tells his story.
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Current AffairsVeterans remember brave last stand by Heydrich assassins
A military band plays a slow march as Czechoslovak veterans lay wreaths outside the Church of Cyril and Methodius in Prague's Resslova street. Sixty years ago today, on June 18th 1942, hundreds of SS and Gestapo units surrounded the building. They were there to track down a group of British-trained Czechoslovak parachutists, who were hiding in the crypt of the church. Among them were Sergeant Jan Kubis and Sergeant Josef Gabcik, who three weeks earlier had assassinated the Nazi governor of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhardt Heydrich. For six hours, Nazi troops tried unsuccessfully to force their way into the crypt, using grenades, tear gas and even the fire brigade to try and drown the parachutists. But they never surrendered, choosing instead to take their own lives. Among the veterans attending Tuesday's ceremony was Frank Kaplan, who served with the Czechoslovak forces during the war and later settled in Britain. Rob Cameron asked him whether he thought Heydrich's assassination was justified, given the terrible reprisals that followed.
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Current AffairsMemories and messages of Lidice
Saturday witnessed a sad commemoration on the site of the village of Lidice, wiped off the map by the Nazis sixty years ago this month. Half the Czech government, as well as ambassadors and other guests from across the world joined survivors of the Lidice tragedy, to remember the 173 men and 82 children from the village who were murdered by the Nazis in revenge for the assassination of the man they had put in charge of the occupied Czech Lands, Reinhard Heydrich. Lidice has become one of the symbols of Czech resistance to Nazism. David Vaughan attended the ceremony.
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Current AffairsCommemoration in Lidice to mark 60th anniversary of Nazi massacre
Half the Czech government, as well as cultural figures and ambassadors from as far afield as Japan and Venezuela, attended a memorial ceremony and ecumenical mass on Saturday morning on the site of Lidice, the Czech village that the Nazis razed to the ground 60 years ago this week. On June 10th 1942, 173 men were shot and the women and children were transported to concentration camps. Of the children only seventeen survived. The only two Lidice men to survive were airmen who were fighting at the time in Britain's Royal Air Force. The English widow of one of the two men, Wynne Horak, told Radio Prague of her feelings on attending the event.
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WitnessThe Lidice massacre - atrocity and courage
Sixty years ago this week, the Nazis wiped the Czech village of Lidice from the map. All the men were shot. Apart from a few who were adopted in Germany all the children were sent to the gas chambers, and the women to the Ravensbruck concentration camp. But two men from Lidice, Josef Horak and Josef Stribrny, survived. They were in Britain, fighting in the Royal Air Force. The Nazis treated their relatives back home with particular cruelty. All their family members were shot, with the sole exception of Josef Horak's sister Anicka, who was pregnant. Anicka survived, but was immediately separated from her newborn daughter. In England Josef - or Pepik - Horak had recently married a young Englishwoman, Wynne. Here Wynne remembers how she and her husband heard the news of the Lidice tragedy at the barracks where they were stationed in Norfolk.
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Current Affairs Holocaust survivors gather in Kolin to remember "special transport"
The brutal reprisals for the assassination 60 years ago of the Nazi governor of Bohemia and Moravia - Reinhardt Heydrich - are well known. Two villages - Lidice and Lezaky - were razed to the ground, their inhabitants shot or sent to concentration camps. But almost unknown is the fact that 1,000 Jews from the town of Kolin were rounded up and transported to the camps, never to be seen again. A handful were spared that "special" transport, among them the writer Hana Greenfield, who was later sent to Terezin, Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. This weekend she will join a group of 40 Jews from six congregations around the world, who will gather in Kolin to remember the dead.
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ArtsThe Silent Village and The Second Life of Lidice
June 10th, this year marks the 60th anniversary of the horrific massacre of the men of Lidice - a village west of Prague that was wiped off the map by the Nazis during WWII. The men were shot, the women sent to concentration camps, and the children were taken away to never return. In this week's Arts, Dita Asiedu looks at two documentaries - The Silent Village and The Second Life of Lidice - that re-live the horrors of the tragic event sixty years ago... More
Current AffairsRusty unfinished memorial in Lidice to be replaced by a park
On June 10, 1942, the village of Lidice West of Prague was razed to the ground by the Nazis in revenge for the assassination of the German Reich's protector Reinhardt Heidrich in the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. To remember this horrific event from WW II, the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia decided to erect a memorial in Lidice at the end of the 1970s. Giant iron-and-concrete construction started in the mid 1980s, and some 30 million crowns were invested. After 1989, the construction of the memorial, strongly marked by Communist ideology, was stopped, but its ruins have been spoiling Lidice's appearance ever since. Now the Ministry of Culture has given the green light to finally pull down the rusty construction and replace it with a park. Jan Velinger spoke to Radio Prague's David Vaughan, who has done extensive research on Lidice and its tragic history.
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