THE DESTROYING OF AN INNOCENT CZECH

HOW THE TERROR BEGAN

• On an early May morning in Germany, two Czechoslovakian parachutists were sent from London to assassinate the "heartless leader," Reinhard Heydrich. The two Czechoslovakian resistant members successfully rolled a grenade underneath his vehicle. He later died from a blood infection on June 4th. After Reinhard's funeral, SS Army troops were then sent to a Czech Village, called Lidice, with orders to completely demolish the town.

THESIS

• After Reinhard's funeral, SS Army troops were then sent to a Czech Village, called Lidice, with orders to completely demolish the town.

HEYDRICH'S KILLERS

• The two parachutist that assassinated Reinhard Heydrich were members of the Czech resistance, who were sent from London by the Czechoslovakian government. After the successful assassination, over one hundred Czechoslovakian resistance members took refugee in the Karl Borromaeus Greek Orthodox Church in Prague.They made a plan to escape to the Moravian Mountains, where they would be then evacuated to England.

HEYDRICH'S KILLERS

• After many days of searching for Heydrich's killer, the SS found evidence as to where the group was hidden. The SS army later found the group before they could successfully get away with Heydrich's assassination.

HEYDRICH'S KILLERS

• Every last Czechoslovakian resistance member was immediately killed in the Karl Borromaeus Greek Orthodox Church.

REINHARD HEYDRICH

• Reinhard Heydrich became a very powerful leader in the SS Army. Reinhard set up the first Jewish ghetto, which was named Piotrków; and he also was the head leader of all concentration camps. His goal was to carry out the Final Solution and kill every last Jew.

REINHARD HEYDRICH

• Heinrich Himmler gave him the formal title of "Chief of the Security Police and the SD." He specialized in signals and communication reading during WWII. Until the day he was assassinated, he was highly looked upon by other SS members.

THE NEXT STEP

• On June 10, 1942 at 5:12 a.m, the residents of Lidice were taken from their homes. Men were placed outside the barn, that was owned by the Horak family, and were split up into groups of ten. Each group was blindfolded, placed against the wall, and then they were shot. A total of 192 men were murdered.

THE NEXT STEP

• Some women fought back against the SS Army, the ones that did were shot immediately. A total of 71 women were killed. Some children and the surviving women were sent to Ravensbrück and Chelmno, which were death camps. As soon as the children arrived at Chelmno, they were gassed.

THE NEXT STEP

• The remaining of the village were burned to ashes. After, the rest of the city was plowed to ground level. Adolf Hitler wanted no evidence of what occurred in the city.

THE NEXT STEP

• Many of the SS Army troops believed that the destruction of the city was used to threaten the Czechs.

WHY LIDICE?

• Many people are still curious as to why Lidice was chosen out of all of the Czechoslovakian cities. One popular theory is: A love letter was sent between a local Lidice villager, who was Anna Horak, and another man.

WHY LIDICE?

• The letter was later intercepted by her employer, he turned it into the Gestapo because he discovered something suspicious about Heydrich's assassination.

DEATH CAMPS

• After all the men were murdered, the women were loaded on to buses and sent to Ravensbrück. Only a few women survived the camp. Children were later organized by their appearances, if they appeared to be Aryan they would be sent to live with German families. The remaining children were sent to Chelmno, none of the children survived.

DEATH CAMPS

• Ravensbrück was a camp particularly for women, which was located fifty miles north of Berlin. In the year the disaster of Lidice occurred, over 10,000 women were in the camp. About three percent of Czechoslovakia's population was at the camp.

DEATH CAMPS

• In 1942, many medical experiments were conducted by the SS doctors such as: transplanting bones, amputations, and treating wounds with numerous chemicals.

DEATH CAMPS

• Chelmno was a camp designated for children. Chelmno was the first extermination camp established by the Germans.

DEATH CAMPS

• The children were forced to give away their belongings, then they boarded a van whose exhaust pipe was connected to the interior of the vehicle. The SS Army called these vehicles "gas vans."

THE AFTERMATH

• Only a total of sixteen were traced that survived. The city of Lidice was later rebuilt, without a trace of the Nazis. But what happened in the city will never be forgotten.