Czech Travel Guide - Pragap Tour, s.r.o.

Lidice Memorial (Památník Lidice)

This village, Lidice, the name of which became a symbol of Fascist despotism in World War II, lies 20 km west of Prague and eight km from Kladno. Lidice is first mentioned in chronicles of the Zbraslav abbot, Petr Zitavsky, as being „held“ by a rich Prague citizen, Pavlík, around the year l300. The oldest public building was St. Martin's church (1352). It was destroyed in the Hussite wars, but Utraquist priests were preaching here as late as in the 16th century. It was again destroyed during the Thirty years' War, and Grand Duchess Marie Anna of Tuscany had a new, Baroque church built which was restyled several times in the following years.

World War II

The tragedy of this little village and its 503 inhabitants began on June 10, 1942 a few hours after midnight. The events of that summer day are recorded in a documentary, filmed by those who actually carried out that brutal crime against innocent people. Although a silent film, it can be understood by all people, irrespective of their colour or tongue. This film served as document No. 379 at the Nuremberg trials of the Nazi German leaders in 1945. Parts of the film are shown on a video recording at the Lidice museum.

At the orders of K. H. Frank 173 Lidice men were shot on that fateful day in the garden of the Horak farm. The women and children were taken to the gymnasium of Kladno grammar school. Three days later the children were taken from their mothers and, except for those selected for re-education in German families and babies less than one year of age, were poisoned by exhaust gas in specially adapted vehicles in the Nazi extermination camp at Chełmno upon Nerr in Poland. The women were sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp which usually meant quick or lingering death for the inmates.

Having rid the village of its inhabitants, the Nazis began to destroy the village itself, first setting the houses on fire and then razing them to the ground with plastic explosives. They did not stop at that but proceeded to destroy the church and even the last place of rest – the cemetery. ln 1943 all that remained was an empty space. Until the end of the war the sight was marked by notices forbidding entry.

The news of the destruction of Lidice spread rapidly around the world. But the Nazi intention to wipe the little Czech village off the face of the Earth did not succeed. Several villages throughout the world took over the name of Lidice in memory of that village, and many women born at that time and given the name of Lidice still bear it today. Lidice continued to live in the minds of people all over the world, and after the war the Czechoslovak government's decision to build it again was declared at a peace demonstration on June 10, 1945 at Lidice which was attended by Lidice women who had survived. 340 Lidice citizens were murdered by the Nazis, 143 Lidice women returned home after the war ended, and after a two-year search 17 children were restored to their mothers.

Museum

The museum is located in the neighbourhood of the eastern wing of the colonnade, approximately 100 metres from the main road Prague – Kladno. In its close neighbourhood there spreads the reverent area and the Rose Garden. (The Lidice Gallery is placed in the middle of the new Lidice, in the distance of approximately 500 metres from the museum). The museum was built in 1962 according to a project of an architect František Marek.

In 2005 a major reconstruction and extension of the whole property started. A year later on the occasion of reverent act held on the 64th anniversary of Lidice village extermination by German Nazis the newly reconstructed museum with its new multimedia audiovisual exposition called „And Those Innocent Were Guilty…“ was opened. The exposition informs the visitors about the life and destiny of the village inhabitants, about its destruction and renewal on the background of the key events that occurred at that time.

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