Following the successful assassination of Gestapo official Reinhard Heydrich, a
devastating revenge was taken on the town of Lidice, where suspected assassins supposedly
received "aid and assistance through circles connected with the attack on Heydrich." (NY Times,
June 1, pg. 7) Through examination of articles in North America and Europe around the time of
the Lidice massacre, this essay will briefly discuss the events which took place surrounding and
including the massacre, what people knew and why according to their news sources, and how
people reacted to this event (which also depended on the quality and substance of the news
On May 27, 1942 at approximately 10:30 am, two Czech patriots, Jan Kubis and Josef
Gabcik, parachuted from Britain into Prague. They ambushed Heydrich's Mercedes and threw a
bomb into the front seat. Heydrich received a splinter in his back and was seriously wounded, and
was then taken to the Bulkova hospital. He remained in critical condition for days until he died on
On June 9, five days after Heydrich died, an army of the Security Police surrounded the
village of Lidice, prohibiting anyone from leaving. 172 men and boys over 16 years old were
rounded up and locked in a barn, and were shot in groups the next day. Some women were taken
to Prague and shot, and the 195 women who were left were sent to Ravensbrueck concentration
camp in Germany. Most of them there died from the gassing and harsh treatment. The 90
children were taken to a concentration camp at Gneisenau, where they were given German names
and distributed to German families. The village was entirely demolished; burned, dynamited and
bulldozed. A symbol of Nazi barbarism, the entire innocent Czech village of Lidice was
destroyed to avenge the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.
The Times of London had headlines which read, "25 MORE MURDERED IN
CZECHOSLOVAKIA," and "A CZE...