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From the ArchivesA Christmas message from the survivors of Lidice in 1945
With Christmas just round the corner, we break our chronological journey
through the archives this week to go back to Christmas 1945. We’re in
Kročehlavy, a suburb of the industrial town of Kladno near Prague. This
was home to the survivors of one of the horrors of the wartime occupation,
the murder in June 1942 of all the men and most of the children from the
nearby village of Lidice. Only one Lidice family had survived the massacre
intact: Josef Horák was one of two young pilots from the village who had
fled at the beginning of the occupation, and he spent the war serving in
Britain’s Royal Air Force. After the liberation he moved straight back to
Czechoslovakia with his English wife Wynne and their two small children.
The family was a symbol of a new life for Lidice, and over Christmas 1945
Czechoslovak Radio arranged a radio bridge to Britain from a Christmas
party in the Horáks’ living room. Here is a slightly edited version of
that broadcast. More
From the ArchivesWill Lawther and J. B. Priestley: the British left and post-war Czechoslovakia
During World War II, the political left in Britain and the United States
had come to identify itself strongly with the fate of the Czech nation.
This was partly a reaction to the shame of Munich in 1938, when
Czechoslovakia had been abandoned by her allies, and it was reinforced by
the role played by the British miners in launching the Lidice Shall Live
movement. This had followed the Nazis’ destruction of the Czech mining
village of Lidice in June 1942. In this spirit the president of the British
Miners’ Federation Will Lawther, came at the end of 1945 to lay a wreath
at the grave of the men of Lidice. More
Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 9
We have reached the ninth and final part of our serialized reading of “If
I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” by Jaroslava Skleničková.
The war is over, and Jaroslava’s account takes us from the traumas of her
return to the present day, and her life with her husband Mirek in the new
Lidice. But first, David Vaughan sums up the story so far. More
Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 8
In the last few weeks Veronika Hyks has been reading from the memoirs of
Jaroslava Skleničková, an extraordinary story of survival in war. We have
now reached May 1945. After nearly three years in Ravensbrück, the women
of Lidice are now free, although they still face the trauma of returning
home to find that the village has been wiped off the map and that all their
menfolk and nearly all their children are dead. David Vaughan introduces
the eighth episode. More
Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 7
Over the last few weeks, the actress Veronika Hyks has been bringing us
extracts from Jaroslava Skleničková’s memoirs, “If I had been a boy,
I would have been shot…”. The book tells the moving story of how
Jaroslava was sent with the other women from her home village of Lidice to
the Ravensbrück concentration camp near Berlin, after the Nazis razed the
entire village to the ground in June 1942. The men of the village were shot
in cold blood, and nearly all the children were gassed in Poland, but
throughout their stay in Ravensbrück, the women had no idea of their fate.
As the end of the war drew close, Jaroslava, together with her mother and
sister, were marched out of the camp, together with hundreds of other
women. David Vaughan brings the story up to date. More
Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 6
We have now reached the sixth part in our serialized reading of “If I had
been a boy, I would have been shot…”, the memoirs of Jaroslava
Skleničková. Veronika Hyks has been reading the story of Jaroslava’s
childhood in Lidice, brought to a violent end in June 1942, when the Nazis
decide to wipe away any trace of the village. Jaroslava – or Jaří –
is the youngest of the women of Lidice to be sent to the Ravensbrück
concentration camp, and she is there with her mother and sister, Míla.
Nobody dares to think about what might have happened to the men and the
children of the village. David Vaughan brings us the story so far. More
Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 5
In Czech Books we hear the fifth part of Jaroslava Skleničková’s moving
memoirs, “If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…”, read by the
Czech-British actress, Veronika Hyks. After the assassination of the Nazi
Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, the “Butcher of Prague”,
Reinhard Heydrich, the Czech village of Lidice was chosen for complete
destruction on the night from 9-10 June 1942. Jaroslava – or Jaří –
was among 184 women from the village sent to the Ravensbrück concentration
camp. David Vaughan gives us the story so far. More
Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 4
We continue with the fourth episode of “If I had been a boy, I would have
been shot…” by Jaroslava Skleničková, in which she tells the
extraordinary story of her life following the destruction of her home
village of Lidice at the height of the Nazi occupation in June 1942. David
Vaughan gives us the story so far. More
Czech Books“If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…” Part 3
Veronika Hyks continues her serialized reading of “If I had been a boy, I
would have been shot…” by Jaroslava Skleničková, a power and true
story of survival in wartime. David Vaughan introduces the third episode. More
From the ArchivesReinhard Heydrich: the Butcher of Prague
At the end of September 1941, Hitler appointed Reinhard Heydrich as acting
Reichsprotektor of occupied Bohemia and Moravia. The radio reported on his
inauguration at Prague Castle, and the sound of the SS military band
hammering out the German national anthem followed by the Horst Wessel song
still sends a shiver down the spine. More
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