Lidice massacre

The Lidice massacre (Czech: Vyhlazení Lidic) was the complete destruction of the village of Lidice in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which is now a part of the Czech Republic, in June 1942 on orders from Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and acting Reichsprotektor Kurt Daluege, successor to Reinhard Heydrich. It has gained historical attention as one of the most documented instances of German war crimes during the Second World War, particularly given the deliberate killing of children.

In reprisal for the assassination of Reich Protector Heydrich in the late spring of 1942, all 173 men from the village who were 15 years of age or older were killed on 10 June 1942. A further 9 men from the village who were not present at the time were arrested and executed soon afterwards, along with 8 men and 7 women who were already under arrest, and two boys who had recently turned 15. Most of the 203 women and 105 children were sent to a makeshift detention center in a Kladno school, after which the women were deported to concentration camps. 9 children who were considered racially suitable and thus eligible for Germanisation were handed over to German families, and 82 (excluding 14 children either under a year old or born after the massacre) were sent to the Chełmno extermination camp where they were gassed to death.

The Associated Press, quoting German radio transmissions which it received in New York, said: "All male grownups of the town were shot, while the women were placed in a concentration camp, and the children were entrusted to appropriate educational institutions." Approximately 340 people from Lidice were murdered in the German reprisal (192 men, 60 women and 88 children). After the war ended, only 143 women and 17 children returned.

Nazi propaganda openly and proudly announced the events at Lidice in direct contrast to the disinformation and secrecy involved with other crimes against civilian populations, with intense outrage occurring among Allied nations and particularly Anglosphere countries. The history has been depicted in multiple forms of media since the end of the conflict. Examples include the internationally known drama film Operation Daybreak and the composer Bohuslav Martinů composed the orchestral work Memorial to Lidice.