Prague Memorial
The Church of SS Cyril and Methodius

National Memorial to the Victims of Post Heydrich Terror

Reinhardt Heydrich, nicknamed the butcher of Prague, was the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia under the brutal eye of Hitler. He was attacked by Czech born British trained assassins in Prague on May 27 1942. The assassination proved successful, as Heydrich died one week later in a nearby hospital. The Nazi retaliation was atrocious, as approximately 13,000 people were tortured, arrested, killed or imprisoned. The villages of Lidice and Lezaky were literally wiped off the map, as the towns were completely leveled (even gravesites and human remains were destroyed) and burned. All of the village males were killed and children were shipped off to Germany where the majority of them died in gas chambers, while a few suitable children were chosen for germanization. Why those specific villages? It has been said that the paratroopers responsible for the assassination had family there. For three weeks the assassins of Heydrich hid in the crypt of the Church of SS Cyril and Methodius, awaiting their fate; a fellow countryman betrayed them. The Germans smoked out the church and followed by flooding the crypt. Four of the paratroopers took their own lives, while the other three fought to the end. The crypt is a national memorial to the brave men who carried out the assassination of the monster Heydrich, where you will find a moving exhibition and video about Czech persecution. Inside the crypt you can see the bullet holes and scars on the walls, indicating the men were trying to dig a tunnel to the nearby sewer.

Resslova 9, Praha 2, +420-224-920-686. Open April through October.

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