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Czechs in HistoryNewly released documents offer insights into Churchill's plans to avenge a German atrocity against Czechs
Today we look at fascinating wartime documents that reveal Churchill's
plans to destroy German villages in revenge for the Nazi massacre in the
Czech village of Lidice. We see behind the scenes into Churchill's war
cabinet, and witness how the shockwaves from the Lidice massacre reached
as far as the corridors of power in London.
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Current AffairsCzech WWII resistance fighters' remains may still be in use at German medical faculties
The corpses of some of Czechoslovakia's most celebrated war heroes may be
serving as models in anatomy classes in Germany and Austria to this day.
Thousands of political prisoners were murdered at the Ploetzensee
detention and execution centre outside Berlin during WWII. Among them were
nearly seven hundred Czech and Slovak resistance fighters, whose bodies
were immediately sent on to medical universities and institutions within
the Third Reich. More
Current AffairsUK rock band release single in Czech about 1942 assassination of Heydrich
This Thursday the English rock band British Sea Power - who have an
affection for all things Czech - are playing a concert at the Roxy club in
Prague at which they will be launching a new single that will only be
available in the Czech Republic. The song "A Lovely Day
Tomorrow/Zitra Bude Krasny Den" appears in both English and Czech on
the limited edition release, with both versions sung by Katerina Winterova
of the Czech band Ecstasy of St Theresa. More
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 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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Current AffairsExhibitions mark 60th anniversary of assassination of Nazi governor Heydrich
The assassination by two Czechoslovak soldiers of the
Nazi governor of occupied Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich,
on May 27, 1942 was one of the most daring missions of World War II.
Heydrich had ruled the Czechs with unsurpassed brutality and was one
of the masterminds of the genocide of European Jews. The impact of the
killing of Heydrich on the Czech nation was immense, and the legacy
of those events 60 years ago has remained controversial to this day.
On Monday two exhibitions marking the assassination opened
in Prague. More
