Lidice Massacre

Nazi reprisals following Heydrich’s death were swift and severe. Prague Radio aired broadcasts announcing a reward of ten million crowns for the capture of the men while also offering grim threats to anyone with information. Anyone even remotely associated to the murder or withholding information on the identity of the assassins was subject to immediate execution, including their entire family. The death of Heydrich was akin to losing a battle for Hitler and his response was to make an example that the world would not soon forget. This example took shape in the Lidice Massacre. Lidice is a village near Prague that was ordered to be completely razed to the ground and erased from all maps. This village was chosen due to a fabricated that a family may have provided help to the paratroopers yet there was no connection to the murder. Nazi SS troops entered the village on June 9^th of 1942 and proceeded to gather all 170+ men in the village and shot every single man. The women and children were not spared a quick death and were sent to concentration camps. The entire building was then razed to the ground, using explosives for large buildings and ultimately removing all the rubble until there was no trace of a village. As the manhunt continued, the Gestapo became more aggressive in their search but failed to produce any results. In the end the information leading to the assassins’ hideout was provided by a fellow parachutist named Karel Curda, who betrayed Kubis and Gabcik in an attempt to spare his family.