A new permanent exhibition to the memory of those who participated in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942 has opened. The small, but very in depth display maps the Czechoslovak resistance movement against the Nazis and includes photographs and memorabilia from the time. There are also films showing on TV screens and backgrounds into the seven paratroopers who participated in the mission. Read below for more information on the history of this event and its violent and tragic aftermath.

Where? The National Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror - A Place of Reconciliation. The Orthodox Cathedral of Ss. Cyril and Methodus, Praha 2, Resslova / Na Zderaze, 224 91 61 00, www.pravoslavnacirkev.cz

“Never before in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few,” may have been said by Churchill about the airmen of the Battle of Britain, but it has been aptly used for the case of the Czech resistance fighters who parachuted into their occupied homeland and killed the Butcher of Prague, Reinhard Heydrich in the summer of 1942. 4 June is the anniversary of the death of Heydrich following the assassination attempt in Prague on 27 May, 1942, but the overriding memory of this event was the subsequent treachery of one Czech soldier and the Nazi retaliation perpetrated on Czech citizenry. Despite, or perhaps because of, Heydrich’s dishonourable discharge from the German Navy, he rose quickly through Nazi ranks to become Acting Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia and more importantly, to have Hitler’s ear and thus be earmarked as his heir. In Jan 1942, Heydrich chaired the Wannsee Conference, where the Final Solution was ironed out. Beneš was head of the exiled Czechoslovak government in Britain where, in conjunction with British Special Operations and the Royal Air Force, Czech soldiers were trained then parachuted into Czechoslovakia at the end of Dec 1941.

The plan for Operation Anthropoid was to assassinate Heydrich as his open top vehicle slowed for a hairpin bend on V Holešovičkách in Libeň. Jan Kubiš and Josef Gabčík were the volunteers for this mission. Josef Valčik signalled the approach of Heydrich’s car and, although it had been decided to kill Heydrich or die trying, when Gabčík’s tommy gun jammed he exchanged pistol fire with Heydrich before escaping while Kubiš threw a grenade, was injured then also fled. Luckily, Heydrich succumbed to the wounds inflicted by the grenade and the mission was deemed a success.

However, Kurt Daluege who assumed the office of Acting Reich Protector, instigated what became known as The Heydrich Terror as the Nazis tried to quash national resistance spreading and discover the whereabouts of the assassins. On 9 June, 1942 the day of Heydrich’s funeral in Berlin, the village of Lidice twenty miles from Prague was razed to the ground and 340 inhabitants were either shot on the spot, executed later in Prague or shipped off to concentration camps.

Meanwhile, the seven parachutists including Kubiš and Gabčík were hidden in the crypt of Prague’s Orthodox cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Karel Čurda, another of the Czech parachutists caved in the face of the daily retaliatory executions and informed the Nazis of his compatriots’ whereabouts. At 04:10 in the morning of 18 June, 1942 800 men, including Gestapo and SS soldiers, were deployed against the seven. The Nazis attempted to storm the church, to smoke them out and to flood them out, but the seven men held out until 07:00 when Kubiš and two others died defending the nave. The remaining four fought from the crypt and finally used their remaining bullets on themselves.4 Sept, 1942 saw the trial of the representatives of the Czech Orthodox Church that culminated in the immediate executions of Bishop Gorazd and three others. In all, some 5,000 Czechs died for the single death of Heydrich, as the result of a mission designed (to fail, some conspiracy theorists say) to ensure the Czech nation didn’t get into bed with their Nazi occupiers. The anniversary sees many wreaths lain in front of and inside the bullet scarred crypt with emotional thanks from people across the globe to acknowledge this, the first blow from a subjugated nation against the choking grip of Nazi Germany. 

The village of Lidice has been reinvented as a memorial and place of reconciliation. It now holds a museum with 20-minute documentary and a park of peace and friendship with thousands of roses. To get there, twice hourly or more buses leave Dejvická , Zličín and the airport for the 20 to 40 minute journey. The end station is Kladno and the time and price (about 20Kč) depend on the route taken. Some buses have handicapped facilities – see www.idos.cz for further information.