At daybreak on June 10, all the inhabitants of Lidice, a village in Czechoslovakia, were taken from their homes. All 192 men and 71 women residents of the village were murdered. Another 190 women were deported to the womenΓÇÖs camp at Ravensbrueck; 143 of them returned at the end of the war. Ninety-eight children were abducted and turned over to "education institutions"; only 15 of them survived.
Then, in the presence of photographers, Hans Frank and Ernst KaltenbrunnerΓÇöHeydrichΓÇÖs successorΓÇöLidice was razed to the ground. The Germans explained the premeditated massacre by arguing, falsely, that the villagers had aided HeydrichΓÇÖs assassins.
Lidice was rebuilt after the war and became a symbol of the Nazi reign of terror and the valor of the Czech resistance.
