Lidice

A Brief History
of Lidice

General View of Lidice before Destruction. Taken from: https://www.lidice-memorial.cz/en/memorial/memorial-and-reverent-area/history-of-the-village-lidice/

Lidice is a small village in modern day Czech Republic. In the early 1940s, it was home to approximately 500 people and located about 2 miles from the mining town of Kladno, and about 7 miles NE of Prague. This unknown small agricultural town was suddenly thrust to the forefront of world recognition in June 9, 1942.

During WW II, the resistance movement was heavily concentrated in Czechoslovakia. Czech & Slovak speaking parachutists were often tortured and killed by the Nazi Regime as they carried important information back to London. On Dec 28, 1941, three parachutists were dropped in Czechoslovakia with the mission of assassinating Reinhard Heydrich, the SS Obergruppenfuhrer and General of the Police, also known as the "Protector" of Bohemia & Moravia. This mission was executed May 27, 1942 as Heydrich was on his way to Prague. He was shot by Jozef Gabcik and his car grenaded by Jan Kubis. He died eight days later. The Germans falsely claimed these two men (or others in the resistance) were from Lidice, and the decision was made to destroy & annihilate Lidice as an example to quell further resistance and take revenge for Heydrich's death.

On June 9, 1942, an order was sent out to destroy Lidice:
1) All men were to be executed by shooting.
2) All women sent to concentration camps.
3) All children capable of being Germanized were to be sent to live with SS families in Germany. The rest to go "elsewhere".
4) The village was to be burnt and levelled to the ground.

By Ashley Pomeroy - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Memorial to the Children Victims of War - Lidice

Lidice was surrounded on June 9th, and all valuables confiscated & property seized. On June 10th, all men ages 16 and older were herded to the Horak farm. Systematically, 10 in a row at a time, they were taken to the orchard and shot. The women and children were taken by truck to Kladno, where they were separated. The women were sent either to Ravensbruck or Terezin Concentration Camps. About 80 children were sent to a childrens' camp at Gneisenau and disappeared without a trace. Only a few children actually survived the war. The city was burned and razed. The stream that had run through the center of town was even diverted and trees planted so that no one would even know a town had been there. The German Regime even filmed this happening as propoganda. A stunned world heard the news. The slogan "LIDICE SHALL LIVE" began to be circulated worldwide as the ripple effect of this tragic event became known. Towns in Illinois, cuba, Brazil, Africa, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela and Colombia were renamed Lidice. Streets across the world were called Lidice. Monuments were built. Many newborn girls were given the name Lidice. All part of the effort to keep Lidice alive. Lidice became a symbol for all other towns that were obliterated across Europe.

Since the War, Lidice has rebuilt, starting with the declaration by the Czechoslovakian Government June 10, 1945. The ruins became a museum, cemetery, and a rose garden memorial site (of which Phillips has contributed rose bushes). In the end, 143 women and 17 children survived the war, many returning to Lidice to rebuild their lives as well as their town. All dedicated to keeping their story alive.

The Lidice Memorial Monument

The Lidice Memorial Monument in Sokol Park, Phillips, WI is in memory of the Village of Lidice, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). The sculpture was designed and constructed in response to the destruction of the village, and the murder and relocation of people who lived there. The name LIDICE is forged in bronze and iron across the top of it. The tall, round, red stone pillar represents the United Nations. The three iron rods to the left represent the Czechs, Slovaks and Moravians leaning on the United Nations. The evergreen spray depicts everlasting life and is symbolic that Czechoslovakia and Lidice, too, will rise again. The large half circle at the upper right hand corner indicates the rising sun, repeating faith that the people of Czechoslovakia and Lidice will rise again. The monument is one of two monuments in the United States (the other is in Crest Hill, IL), and less than ten worldwide (including Uruguay, Venezuela, & Great Britain). In 2006, the monument was listed on both the National & State Registers of Historical Places.

In the summer of 1943, a temporary monument was erected on the Sokol Hall grounds. It resembled a triangular shield, with a circular top. Above that was a cross and a flaming torch. In front of it sat a casket-styled piece, covered with grass and flowers. A flagpole was temporarily set to the left of the monument. Construction & blacksmith work on both temporary and permanent monuments was done by Carl Novy and Joseph Skomaroske. Both were designed by Vaclav Hajny, a Czech immigrant and professional commercial artist whose father had once lived in Lidice. Members of the Phillips Sokol and Z.C.B.J. assisted with manpower. It was the first memorial erected by citizens of Czech and Slovak origins in the United States of America.

Lidice Memorial Service

Members of the Miss Czech-Slovak WI State Queen Pageant Jr. Royalty present a memorial wreath.

The first Lidice memorial service was held in 1943, along with an initial temporary monument created until a permanent, lasting monument could be made. They remembered people whose last names were identical to their own: Dolezal, Dvorak, Fojtik, Horak, Novotny, Novy, Podhora, Pospisil, Rames, Straka, Suchyk Urban, Vokoun, and Zeman. You may recognize variations of those names, even now. This first service took place in Phillips, outside the Sokol Hall, at the future site of the permanent Lidice Memorial Monument. This somber ceremony mourned the atrocity and loss of life.

During the Phillips Czech-Slovak Community Festival, a Friday evening memorial service is held to remember the people of Lidice. Wreaths are presented (and later placed at the monument) by the Phillips Czech-Slovak Community Festival Committee, the Czech Consulate General in Chicago, and by the Friends of Barnett Stross, Stoke-on-Trent, England. Stross, a Polish Jew who moved to England when he was 3, greatly led the "Lidice Shall Live" campaign. Each year, a presentation on some aspect of Lidice is given. Recent years include the Rose Garden, The Children of Lidice, and The Tragedy of Lidice. A Color Guard is present to present arms, give a gun salute at the monument, and play taps in memory of Lidice. The Czech, Slovak, and American Anthems are sung, just as they were at the very first memorial service.

Lidice Memorial Vault

After WWII Maria Kucaba and Anton Brendel, local Czech immigrants, traveled back to the land of their birth and visited what was once Lidice and brought back soil. The soil from the Village of Lidice and a list of names of those who contributed money and manpower to build the local monument was placed in a small vault and buried. This small vault was placed in a recessed concrete-lined crypt at the base of the monument as part of the annual memorial service. Repair work to the monument became necessary after it sustained damage during the 1977 windstorm (downburst). In 1983, when the repair work was finally finished and about to be rededicated, that some children noticed the exposed vault. The vault was removed. In 1990, a new vault with items of interest to the Czechs and Slovaks in Phillips was buried at the base of the monument. In 2009, the orignal vault containing soil from the old village of Lidice was enclosed in an oak glass display case and placed on exhibit at the Phillips Public Library. In 2010, Lidice's Mayor sent soil from the new village of Lidice and arrived just in time for the annual memorial service. It was presented by the great-granddaughters of the two Czech immigrants who brought the first soil.

Sokol Park

Sokol ideology begun in 1862 in Europe includes the sustaining of healthy minds and bodies into old age.These followed the immigrants to the new world, including those who settled in Phillips, WI. In 1927, Phillips Sokol members found a permanent home in an old school. It became a home-away-from-home where Czech-Slovaks met for gymnastics, exhibitions, cards, theatrical performances, and dances. In 1930, this property was given by the Gymnastic Association (Sokol) of Phillips to the Czecho-Slovak Hall Association and simply became known as Sokol Hall in what we now call Sokol Park (bordered by Ash, Fifield, and Victoria Streets) in Phillips. In 1974, The Czecho-Slovak Hall Association by resolution turned over ownership of the Sokol Hall grounds and the monument to the City of Phillips, who agreed to be responsible for maintainance, preservation, and protection of both. A stipulation was added that this would be for public use. Since the Sokol Hall was by that point in great disrepair, it was tore down and a neighborhood park was planned. Today you can see the monument along with children's playground equipment in Sokol Park.

Learn more:

Lidice by Toni Brendel (Phillips, WI). Available on Amazon.

Information for this page taken from Toni Brendel's book (as seen above) and from the books written and published by the Phillips Czech-Slovak Community Festival (available for sale at the Festival).