On June 10, 1942, in a small Czech village of Lidice, one of the worst things of all happened. The Nazi leaders were infuriated by the fact that they had lost someone of great importance in the Nazi named Reinhard Heydrich who had been assassinated by a resistance group.
Later the Nazis chose to annihilate Lidice. They put all men over 15, 173 in number, in a field and shot them. Afterwards still other 11 men not present on that day also as well as many others already in jail were likewise killed.
Nazis took all about 500 women and children in the village. The women were sent to the Ravensbrck concentration camp. There, most of them were starved to death, or died of diseases or by cruelty. The children also were affected. Only a few babies and a few children that were deemed as racially suitable were spared. They all were transported by gas vans into the Chelnmo extermination camp except 82 who survived. A total of 143 women and 17 children of Lidice who survived the war had to survive.
Nazis also burnt down the houses of Lidice, killed off all the animals and then blew up the wreckage so it could be difficult to notice that some village existed before.
On June 24, 1942, only two weeks after the event the Nazis did the same to nearby village of Lezaky. They killed all the adults after they discovered a radio transmitter there. The 13 children were brought and two of them were taken out to be Germanized, whereas the other eleven were killed. Lezaky, also, was totally devastated.
In modern times Lidice has been reconstituted. Its center is a haunting memorial that consists of 82 bronze statues of children: the silent, but very poignant reminder of the innocent victims of that horror and the reason they must never be erased.