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Product Description : Vintage Lidice Czech Village World War 2 Remembrance Thorns Shield Pin Badge - The pin features red roses of remembrance and a thorny L.
The badge face is 2cm high, is made from a gold coloured metal and has a long stick pin style fastener to the rear. Historical Significance Under the codename 'Operation Anthropoid' two Czechoslovak commandos, having been trained in Britain, were parachuted into Czechoslovakia on a mission to assasinate Reinhard Heydrich, leader of the Gestapo and a valued political ally, advisor and friend to Hitler. Heydrich had also played a large part in the 'final solution' to deal with the 'Jewish Problem'
Heydrich was travelling in an open topped car, unescorted and in broad daylight when Czech commando Gabcik attempted to shoot Heydrich only to discover the sten gun he was carrying had failed, his partner, Kubis threw a grenade at Heydrich's car and Heydrich was fatally injured by the explosion and later died in Hospital.
Hitler was beside himself with rage and ordered Kurt Daluege, Heydrich's replacement, to 'wade through blood' to find Heydrich's killers. The Germans began a massive and bloody unprecedented retaliation campaign targeted against the entire Czech population.
On June 9, 1942 the decision was made to "make up for his death" by obliterating the village Lidice and its inhabitants. There was seemingly no logic behind the choice of Lidice, only that they were thought to have harboured resistance fighters in the past. Lidice was to serve as an example to the rest of the population the price of resistance.
Members of German SS security police surrounded the village of Lidice, blocking all avenues of escape. The women and children were rounded up and sent to Ravensbruck death camp and 173 men and boys were lined up against the wall of Horal farm, without blindfold and executed by firing squad five at a time.
The village of Lidice was set alight and the remains of the buildings were bulldozed and every last remaining piece of evidence of the town was destroyed. Even those buried in the town cemetery were not spared. Their remains were dug up and destroyed.
Horrifyingly the entire process was filmed and would be used by the Nazis as a warning to anyone that might resist German rule, that reprisals would be swift and without mercy. The Czech population were angered and dismayed at this tragedy and to further emphasise the point the village of Lezaky met with an identical fate only two weeks later.
As the news of the towns' destruction reached England, Churchill demanded that in retaliation a German village of equal size should be be subject to obliteration by bomber command, but the logistics as well as the questionable revenge motive meant that the motion was overruled by the war office. I have found an interesting web site with photographs of Lidice prior to its destruction.
There is also an excellent film Lidice released in 2011 that received very favourable reviews.
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