Before leaving on this trip my grandma walked me through a few photo albums of Prague that she had taken back in 1995 when she visited. She was telling what to expect, what to see, and what to eat. But then she started telling me about the village of Lidice 20 minutes outside of Prague. Apparently her mother was from this village and she fled just as WWII broke out. A year after she had left, Hitler gave orders to level the entire city and make sure that nothing survived. The reason he did this was because 5 paratroopers from the village were responsible for the death of Reinhard Heydrich who was one of Hitler's lieutenants. When Hitler found out where the paratroopers were from, he issued orders to send all of the women to concentration camps, send the children to the Chelmo, and kill each man individually so the pile slowly stacked up. After that he dug up all the Graves of past Lidice citizens and then bombed everything.
My great grandma was the only one from her family that left, so knowing that I have family who were killed in this tragedy really hit me hard. Annalise and I decided that on our free day, we would go and see it for ourselves. They had a wonderful museum which highlighted how beautiful the village was and how brutally they were treated by the Nazis. There were a few survivors and they all had videos of their experiences in concentration camps. Those videos were almost impossible to watch because you felt connected to their lives. To feel even just a fraction of their sorrow was overwhelming and I truly cannot imagine what they went through. There were such horrific stories that they told but I do not believe it would be appropriate to post on this blog.
Outside the museum, it had been snowing all night so the field wasunfouched, white, and gorgeous. There were markers that told you where the church, school, and barn used to be. There were monuments that were dedicated to the 82 children taken from their families and put into the Chelmo, and a monument showing where the pile of a 180 men were that were shot. Knowing that I was walking over my family was really tough and I don't think I could've gone to Lidice by myself. It's also scary to think that event happened only 70 years ago. The day was quiet and the mood was down for Annalise and I but I'm so glad I went and experienced it for myself.
Thank you, Collin for your heartfelt tribute. A bit of editing: My photos were from my visits behind the Iron Curtain in 1989 and after its fall in 1990. The evocative statue of the villagers had not been erected yet. My mother, your great-grandmother, was born there in 1910. Her father brought her, her mother and two brothers to America in 1914. They never returned to Czechoslovakia. All their other relatives remained there until Hitler's invasion--after no one disclosed the identities of the 2 paratroopers. Your great-grandmother adored your father and aunt until she passed away in Tacoma at age 71. She would have been so proud of you for taking time from your music celebrations to learn about this painful piece of history.
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