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    A Little Village Called Lidice
    A Little Village Called Lidice
    A Little Village Called Lidice
    Ebook87 pages1 hour

    A Little Village Called Lidice

    By Zdena Trinka

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A Little Village Called Lidice, first published in 1947, is an impassioned account of the World War II atrocity committed by the Nazis in Lidice, Czechoslovakia. The reprisal was ordered by Hitler following the assassination of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich on May 27, 1942 outside of Prague. On June 9, 1942, Gestapo and other German forces entered the small village of Lidice (chosen apparently at random by the Nazis), rounded up all men and male teenagers 15 and over, and executed them by firing squad (173 in all). Their bodies were placed in a common grave. Some women were also executed, with most transported to concentration camps. A handful of the approximately 100 village children were removed from their mothers to be raised by German families, but over 80 were sent to their death in the extermination camp at Chelmo, where they were placed in sealed trucks and gassed. Following the executions, the village was razed by fire, leveled by explosives, then bulldozed into rubble. The village's famous cherry orchards were also uprooted and destroyed, a small lake was filled-in, and a stream diverted. Grass was planted so that the village was, in effect, obliterated. At war's end, only a few women and 17 Lidice children survived to return to the village. Following the war, houses for a new Lidice were built near the site of the original village, and a memorial erected in honor of those who were killed.

    Author Zdena Trinka (1892-1967) was a native of North Dakota who wrote a number of additional books, mostly concerning the history of North Dakota. She escaped the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia while on a visit.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEumenes Publishing
    Release dateDec 6, 2019
    ISBN9781839741074
    A Little Village Called Lidice

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    • 4/5
      this book was written very poetically, perhaps by an actual poet. since I am a poet myself, maybe that's the reason for that aspect of the book being my favorite. it's not contrived either, the poetry occurs naturally. bravo.

    Book preview

    A Little Village Called Lidice - Zdena Trinka

    © EUMENES Publishing 2019, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

    Publisher’s Note

    Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

    We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

    A LITTLE VILLAGE CALLED LIDICE

    Story of the Return of the Women and Children of Lidice

    By

    ZDENA TRINKA

    With a Foreword by JOSEPH AUSLANDER, Noted Poet

    A Little Village Called Lidice was originally published in 1947 by International Book Publishers, Lidgerwood, North Dakota.

    Other Books by the Author: Jenik and Marenka, Medora, Home Sweet Home, Ave Maria

    * * *

    LIDICE

    "On June 10th, 1942, the German Government announced the murder of a word — LIDICE. That little village in Czechoslovakia not only was destroyed but its men were murdered. Its women and children were scattered, imprisoned and killed.

    "The name of Lidice was to be erased from time, blotted out of history, forever forgotten.

    Instead—the name of LIDICE becomes an everlasting reminder to us that Nazi force could not destroy either the love of human freedom or the courage to maintain it.

    —FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

    * * *

    To

    The Memory of

    THE LITTLE VILLAGE OF LIDICE

    and to a

    SORELY-TRIED CZECH PEOPLE

    Who Were Nailed to the Cross at Munich

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    Contents

    TABLE OF CONTENTS 5

    PREFACE 6

    FOREWORD 8

    CONTENTS 10

    I. THE WOMAN IN THE ROAD 11

    II. THE MEETING AT BUSTEHRAD 14

    III. THE ACCOUNTS OF WITNESSES 18

    IV. THIS WAS LIDICE 23

    V. THEY CAME IN THE NIGHT 33

    VI. LET THEM REMEMBER 38

    VII. THE CHILDREN OF LIDICE 42

    EPILOGUE 46

    THE MEN OF LIDICE SPEAK 46

    NOTE ON THE CHILDREN OF LIDICE 48

    MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 50

    REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 55

    PREFACE

    This is the story of the return of Marie (Mah-ree-yeh) and the women and children of Lidice. Of the Czech people in general. It is their story. Uncolored by any addition, any attempt on part of the writer to interpose something that is apart from their thinking. Free of any attempt at editing what goes on in their minds.

    In a free world—men and women conscious of their human dignity, may speak freely, unafraid. The Atlantic Charter with its four freedoms, for which men laid down their lives in the just-ended World War II, gives them this right. This a prerogative of free men and women the world over.

    This then is the story of what I saw and learned as a guest in their land, and what transpired later. A guest at a garden party on proud Hradcany as well as in the homes of the people. Speaking their language, I lived with them something of the tense days before Munich. I stood with them on the street corners of their towns and cities, listening to the voice of President Eduard Benes coming in radio broadcasts over the loud speakers of the land — asking them — "as they loved their country," to do nothing that would give Hitler — Germany — an excuse for moving in. To hold on to their nerves...

    I saw them with the tears in their eyes in the days when they believed themselves betrayed by the great powers — their twenty years of life as a Republic — twenty years of back-bending labor — of such self-denial to give to others, as few nations know — their struggle and pride in furthering the principles of democracy — in keeping the Flag of Freedom flying in Central Europe — counted as nothing!

    I saw them with the look in their eyes of men and women stood up to a wall — when their country was being handed over their heads to the enemy without anyone asking their consent; without a single Czech being present to the sellout! At the Munich meeting where the sellout was consummated, the Czech Ambassador to Germany, Vojtech Mastny, was left cooling his heels outside the door behind which Germany and three great powers of Europe were deciding his country’s fate. The door opened only to hand him the ready-made ultimatum, then was closed in his face again.

    The world of 1938 was treated to the spectacle of the corrupt Tory-Fascist ruling faction of a great European country conniving with the enemy — and when the enemy turned on them — trying to save themselves behind the skirts of a small country that trusted them — and to whom they were indebted for many a service (like that of averting war in the offing over the Persian oil wells, and arranging matters on a basis of mutual satisfaction to both that country — and Persia -— now Iran).

    It was cheaper to hand over the little country and its people — than to hand back former German African colonies as demanded by Germany at the Berchtesgaden meeting as an alternative. Doubly cheap because it didn’t cost them anything.

    Their colonial possessions safe; enhanced by the German promise that the secret clause of the Western Pact of 1934 between that country and Germany would soon be walking off its blueprint, thus insuring them their pots of gold and landed estates until the end of time and eternity; and believing their homes and children safe too — the Mighty went to sleep with a Peace for our time. Their sleep untroubled by the cries of terror of Czech children...the stark despair of Czech men and women...that reverberated out of a German shambles of beatings, torture, executions...as the first 60,000 of the flower of the nation were being dragged off into German Concentration

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