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Lidice (; ) is a municipality and village in
Kladno District Kladno District () is a Okres, district in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the city of Kladno. Administrative division Kladno District is divided into two Districts of the Czech Republic#Municipalities with extend ...
in the
Central Bohemian Region The Central Bohemian Region ( ; ) is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the central part of its historical region of Bohemia. Its administrative centre is in the Czech capital Prague, which lies in the centre of the regio ...
of the
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
. It has about 600 inhabitants. Lidice is built near the site of the previous village, which was completely destroyed on 10 June 1942 on orders from
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
and acting '' Reichsprotektor'' Kurt Daluege in reprisal for the assassination of Reich Protector
Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( , ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a German high-ranking SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He held the rank of SS-. Many historians regard Heydrich ...
.


Etymology

The name is derived from the personal name Lída (in old Czech written as Ľúda), meaning "the village of Lída's people". The personal name is a shortened form of the female name Ludmila/Lidmila, but it also became a surname.


Geography

Lidice is located about east of
Kladno Kladno (; ) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 70,000 inhabitants. It is the largest city in the region and has a rich industrial history. Administrative division Kladno consists of six municipal parts ...
and northwest of
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
. It lies in a flat agricultural landscape in the
Prague Plateau The Prague Plateau () is a plateau and a geomorphological mesoregion of the Czech Republic. It is located in the area of Prague and in the Central Bohemian Region. Geomorphology The Prague Plateau is a mesoregion of the Brdy Macroregion within ...
.


History

The first written mention of Lidice is from 1318, in a chronicle written by Peter of Zittau. For centuries, Lidice was an agricultural village, which belonged to the Buštěhrad estate and shared its owners. After the industrialisation of the area in the second half of the 19th century, many of the inhabitants of Lidice worked in mines and steelworks in neighbouring
Kladno Kladno (; ) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 70,000 inhabitants. It is the largest city in the region and has a rich industrial history. Administrative division Kladno consists of six municipal parts ...
and Slaný. Lidice was chosen as a target for reprisals in the wake of the assassination of
Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( , ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a German high-ranking SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He held the rank of SS-. Many historians regard Heydrich ...
, because its residents were suspected of harbouring local resistance partisans, and were falsely associated with aiding team members of Operation Anthropoid. On 9 June 1942, 172 boys and men between age 14 to 84 were shot. Altogether, about 340 people from Lidice were murdered in the German reprisal (192 men, 60 women and 88 children). The village was set on fire and the remains of the buildings destroyed with explosives. After the war ended, only 153 women and 17 children returned. They were rehoused in a new village of Lidice that was built overlooking the original site, using money raised by the Lidice Shall Live campaign, initiated by Sir Barnett Stross and based in north
Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...
in the United Kingdom. The new village was built in 1947–1949. Evidence of the massacre, including Nazi propaganda videos, was shown at the Nuremberg Trials as a demonstration of the Nazi regime's violence. This included testimony from two of the surviving children, who were forcibly re-housed as part of the adoption process of Germanization.


Demographics


Transport

The I/61 road that connects
Kladno Kladno (; ) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 70,000 inhabitants. It is the largest city in the region and has a rich industrial history. Administrative division Kladno consists of six municipal parts ...
with the D7 motorway runs along the northern municipal border.


Culture

An art gallery, which displays permanent and temporary exhibitions, is in the new village from the museum. The annual children's art competition attracts entries from around the world.


Sights

The most important monument is the Lidice Memorial. It was built in 1946–1962 by a collective of architects led by František Marek. It is an architecturally modified landscape in the area of the original village of Lidice with the fragments of burnt buildings, a gloriette, several monuments, a cemetery and the Rose Garden. In the eastern part of the memorial is a building that houses a museum. The area is protected as a national cultural monument.


In culture

In 1942, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay published "The Murder of Lidice," a dramatic poem commissioned by the Writers' War Board in the United States. In 1943, the Czech composer
Bohuslav Martinů Bohuslav Jan Martinů (; December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphony, symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber music, chamber, vocal and ins ...
wrote the musical work '. In 1943, the British author Gerald Kersh lightly fictionalized the massacre in the short novel ''The Dead Look On''. In 2017, to mark the 75th anniversary of the tragedy, the English composer Vic Carnall wrote his Opus 17, In Memoriam: the Village of Lidice (Czechoslovakia / June, 1942), a work for solo piano. In recent years numerous films have highlighted the events of the village's razing in 1942. The films '' Operation Daybreak'' (1975), '' Lidice'' (2011), and '' Anthropoid'' (2015) all detail the assassination of
Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( , ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a German high-ranking SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He held the rank of SS-. Many historians regard Heydrich ...
and the subsequent massacre and razing of the village.


Legacy

In remembrance of the Lidice massacre, many neighborhoods adopted the name Lidice in the years after the tragedy, and memorials were built. Notable examples include Lídice in Panama, San Jerónimo Lídice in Mexico, Lídice neighbourhood in La Pastora Parish of Caracas, Venezuela, Nova Lídice settlement in Medeiros Neto, Brazil, Lidice Memorial in Phillips, Wisconsin, Lidice Memorial Park in Crest Hill, Illinois, Plazuela Lidice town square in
Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
, Uruguay, Lidic street in
Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...
, Chile, Liditse street in Aşağı Ağcakənd, Azerbaijan, Lidice Way in
Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...
, England, and others.


Twin towns – sister cities

Lidice is twinned with: *
Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...
, England, United Kingdom. A pedestrianised shopping area in Coventry is named Lidice Place. * Marzabotto, Italy. There is the Marzabottská street in Lidice.


References


External links

*
Lidice Memorial
{{Authority control Razed cities Villages in Kladno District