The Lidice Massacre

This film (drama)Also known asLidice，is aCzech Republic, SlovakiaProducerwomen sex，At2011Released in year 。The dialogue language isCzech, German，Current Douban rating7.6(For reference only)。

On May 27, 1942, after Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated by Czech agents in Prague, Hitler was furious. At Heydrich's funeral, he raged that he would take retaliatory action, proclaiming that millions of people would pay with their blood for the murder of Heydrich. About 3,000 Jews living in the "special residence zone" of Terezin were sent to death camps, and the number of others remains unknown. The SS in Prague were terrified. They knew that if the operation to capture Heydrich's assassins resulted in no concrete outcomes, it would undoubtedly incite Hitler's murderous rage toward those responsible for the failure. Arthur Nebe, under the orders of the Reich Central Security Office, urgently commissioned a large number of special editions of the German criminal police report, which contained telegrams sent to police departments and local administrators, instructing them to "implement special surveillance at all train stations, on trains, and all means of transportation; to register and check all foreigners staying in workers' lodgings; and to ensure that no suspects cross the border." The Gestapo set a meticulous trap for the assassin. For Hitler, the death of Reinhard Heydrich required a far greater cost than that of the Jews. The most brutal act of reprisal against the Czech people would forever be remembered as a massacre. The target of this retaliation was a small mining village named Lidice, located in the Koladino region, northwest of Prague. Lidice was a beautiful place, nestled in a low valley, with its village church surrounded by patches of grass, picturesque scenery, and vibrant colors. The village was dotted with various farms and orchards, and the villagers lived very peaceful lives, self-sufficient and uninterested in politics. On June 4, the day Heydrich died, Lidice was searched for the first time. Eyewitnesses vividly remember how a detachment of SS and Gestapo from Prague drove up the main road, brazenly entered the village, and lined up the residents for identity checks. The questioning was conducted by the SS and Gestapo, filled with threats and intimidation, yet overall, the residents of Lidice did not suffer greatly. Perhaps for amusement, perhaps out of anger for finding no weapons and no evidence of guilt, the Wehrmacht and police detachment ransacked the villagers' neat homes, either looting or smashing their furniture, throwing it into the streets. Clearly, for the Gestapo, "evidence" could be fabricated. The trucks of the German army roared back to Prague. No formal connection was found between the village of Lidice and the murder of Heydrich. The excuse for choosing this village as a target was that two families living there—the Hlavko family and the Striperni family—had sons who were members of the Czech resistance in Britain. Additionally, the Germans claimed that machine guns were hidden in the village and that British and Czech paratroopers had landed in the area. However, survivors of the subsequent massacre still absolutely deny these accusations. In the end, both the Hlavko and Striperni families were arrested, yet no traces of parachutes were found. The second critical invasion of Lidice occurred on the night of June 9. Following the “initiative” of Karl Baum, he called Heinrich Himmler in Berlin on the day of Heydrich's funeral to inform him that there was sufficient "evidence" to indict the village and suggested taking retaliatory action. Baum reported: Target: Lidice village in the Koladino region. At 19:45 on June 9, 1942, SS regional leader Karl Frank called from Berlin with verbal instructions: According to the Führer's orders, the following measures should be taken against Lidice village today: 1. Execute all adult male residents; 2. Detain all female residents in concentration camps; 3. Gather the children together; those deemed suitable would be sent to the Reichs-SS for Germanization education; the remaining children unfit for Germanization would receive other forms of education; 4. Use the fire department to completely burn the place to the ground. Baum set off for Koladino to personally command the operation, accompanied by Dr. Otto Giskov, head of the Gestapo in Prague, and Weissmann, the head of the Gestapo in the Koladino region. Regular police had encircled the village, allowing only one entrance for the residents. Then a team of security police, led by SS squad leader Max Rostock, entered Lidice. Subsequently, the Gestapo reported: During this operation, 199 male villagers were executed, and 195 female villagers were arrested. A special execution team dispatched from Prague erected a row of mattresses around the barn walls to prevent ricochet. They singled out adult men and boys, executing ten at a time, while women, young boys, and children were sent to transit camps; the women were eventually sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, with nine out of 95 children deemed eligible for Germanization education; most of the children vanished, and after World War II, only 16 were found. The selected nine children would be handed over to a childcare organization—one favored by Himmler, focused on motherhood and providing welfare for children whose fathers were in the SS. However, the entire village was set ablaze, leveled to the ground, and rubble was cleared away. Livestock and pets were shot, and graves were dug up. Besides a plain that would soon become overgrown with weeds, all traces of the village’s existence disappeared. The next day, a pre-prepared script was broadcast: "In the process of hunting down the assassins of SS General Heydrich, sufficient facts indicate that the residents of this village supported and assisted the assassins. Besides aiding the assassins, these residents also participated in other actions hostile to Germany, such as hoarding ammunition and weapons, illegally possessing radio equipment, and stockpiling special state-controlled materials... All buildings in the village have now been demolished, and the village's name has been erased." However, in a sense, the village of Lidice did not disappear. The Germans themselves bore responsibility for this oversight. Many details about the massacre were captured on old film by the Reich Film Company. The film documenting the Lidice massacre became irrefutable evidence and facts used during the Nuremberg Trials against Nazi war criminals. What remains preserved is merely the final moments of this village: the houses of Lidice ablaze, patrolling troops and police moving through the streets, and of course, the heaps of corpses on the Horak family's farm. The corpse of a dog, chained in a kennel, was also captured on film; then the camera panned to a German officer through binoculars as the church tower in the village collapsed after being bombed three times; this officer appeared visibly angry; the pastor had already been killed, and the film also recorded the “image” of the destroyers themselves: they seemed to be making a home movie, laughing at the camera and joking with each other. To leave no traces, the Gestapo captured a large number of laborers from the Jewish residence area near Terezin and forced them to build a railway in Lidice to transport away all debris, with large amounts of rubble being sent out daily; when the work was nearly complete, some of the laborers were sent to concentration camps and death camps, while others were executed on the spot; after the executions, their bodies were burned and buried in situ. What infuriated the Gestapo was that the climate of terror purposely created in Lidice and other places did not flush out the assassins. The reports that had been adopted and sanctioned also became worthless. Heinz von Panwitz, head of the Gestapo's anti-subversion department in Prague, suggested to Frank that an amnesty be issued for anyone willing to come forward within a specified time. Heinz eventually persuaded Frank to set a five-day limit, and an amnesty announcement was issued on June 13. On June 18, the Gestapo discovered seven assassins in the basement of the Karl Broméjský Church; after a shootout, none of the seven operatives survived. Two committed suicide by poison, and the others ended their lives with their own guns. Finally, the Gestapo severed the head of Jan Kubis, a Czech lieutenant involved in the assassination, and showed it to his family, causing his elderly mother to faint on the spot. The case of the assassination of Heydrich thus came to an end, and the village of Lidice disappeared from maps; however, after World War II, the Czechs began to rebuild Lidice. When the original residents returned to what had been their home, they found only a desolate grassland. Workers excavating revealed an ancient village marker from Lidice, which still stands to this day. Destruction and Rebirth The act of the Gestapo leveling Lidice to the ground and attempting to erase it from the earth ignited anger among people around the world. On June 12, as news of the Lidice tragedy spread, a small town in Illinois, USA, announced it would change its name to Lidice. A month later, a village near Mexico City also renamed itself Lidice, which has since developed into a city with a population of two million. Shortly after, villages in Brazil, Venezuela, Israel, and South Africa, as well as squares, streets, and even girls' names in other places, began to be called Lidice. People around the world, though strangers to one another, united in solidarity with the Czech people suffering under fascism. Starting in 1948, volunteers from around the world began to reconstruct the new village of Lidice beside the ruins. A beautiful rose garden was planted as a bridge of happiness between the old and new villages. The seeds for these roses were gifted by peace-loving people from around the world, including blessings from China. The ruins of the old village have long been covered by vast green lawns, dotted with lush trees and golden ponds across the gently rolling hills, creating an appearance as if one is in a paradise on earth. This is not only deeply moving; it affirms that only peace can create such a beautiful world, and with peace, humanity has hope.