Timeline of Events
- 1942
- January 16
- January 20
- March 1
- March 21
- May 27
- June 9
- June 28
- July 15
- July 23
- August 25
- September 5
- October 26
- December 17
- 1943
- February 1
- February 2
- March 13
- April 19
- August 3
- September 20
- October 14
- October 19
- November 3
- December 28
- 1944
- January 16
- January 22
- March 19
- May 15
- May 15
- June 6
- June 18
- July 9
- July 11
- July 20
- July 23
- August 1
- August 2
- August 9
- October 7
- November 25
- November 25
- December 11
- 1945
- January 17
- January 27
- February 4
- February 13
- February 13
- March 7
- April 2
- April 4
- April 11
- April 11
- April 11
- April 12
- April 13
- April 15
- April 17
- April 20
- April 23
- April 25
- April 27
- April 29
- April 30
- April 30
- May 4
- May 4
- May 5
- May 7
- June 4
- August 15
- September 2
- November 20
- November 21
- November 29
- December 1
- December 11
- December 22
Germans Destroy Lidice
Destruction of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, Summer 1942. This footage shows destroyed homes and German officials inspecting the remains of the village. —Narodni Filmovy Archiv
June 9, 1942
German forces destroy the Czech village of Lidice.
Adolf Hitler personally ordered the destruction of Lidice in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. In May 1942, Czech agents had assassinated Heydrich, the highest-ranking Nazi official in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. After the attack, the Germans unleashed a wave of terror against the Czechs. The village of Lidice was set on fire and the remains of the buildings destroyed. German units shot all the men in the village over the age of 16 and deported most of the women and children to camps in Germany. The destruction of Lidice became a symbol of the barbarity of German occupation policies and a rallying cry for opponents of the Nazi regime.
The village was rebuilt after the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Fifteen-year-old Maria Dolezalova is sworn in as a prosecution witness at the RuSHA Trial. Dolezalova was among the children kidnapped by German forces after they destroyed the town of Lidice, Czechoslovakia. Nuremberg, October 30, 1947. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Related Topics
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