Skip to main content
Distressing reminder of the Lidice massacre

ON JUNE 10, 1942 nazi police units murdered 173 adult men and 52 women in the hamlet of Lidice.

It was a barbaric reprisal for the execution by British-trained Czech commandos of Reinhard Heydrich, SS supremo for the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

The choice of victims wasn’t random. The Gestapo mistakenly believed that there was a connection between one of Heydrich’s executioners and a family in Lidice whose son was serving in the Czechoslovak army in Britain.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Vietnamese civilians at My Lai
War / 19 March 2026
19 March 2026

PATRICK CHURA reflects on the mass murder of civilians in wartime and his own visit, 10 years ago, to My Lai where US soldiers slaughtered over 500 men, women, children and infants

Shoes at Auschwitz during commemorations in Poland to mark 80 years since the liberation of the concentration camp on 27th January 1945, January 27, 2025
Holocaust Memorial Day 2026 / 27 January 2026
27 January 2026

On May 16 1944, Romani families in Auschwitz-Birkenau armed themselves with stones, tools, and sheer collective will, forcing the SS to retreat – leaving a legacy of defiance that speaks directly to the fascisms of today, says VICTORIA HOLMES

FOTW
Film of the week / 21 August 2025
21 August 2025

Despite an over-sentimental narrative, MICHAL BONCZA applauds an ambitious drama about the Chinese rescue of British POWs in WWII

WON’T BE SILENCED: Petra Proksanova, head of the Youth Committee of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) and leader of the Stacilo (anti-capitalist and anti-cuts) movement in the upcoming elections
Features / 5 July 2025
5 July 2025

As the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia rebuilds support through anti-cuts campaigns, the government seeks to silence it before October’s parliamentary elections through liberal totalitarianism, reports JOHN CALLOW