Lidice will be a memorial forever!

3. Juni 2017

75 years ago the village was destroyed by the Wehrmacht and SS

The International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) – Association of anti – fascists commemorates the 75th anniversary of the crimes of the German occupation troops against the Czech civilian population.

75 years ago, on 10 June 1942 German troops murdered in Czechoslovakia in the village of Lidice about 20 kilometers northwest of Prague the whole male population, the women were deported in concentration camps and most children were killed in CC Chelmno. Two weeks later German troops murdered more than 30 men in Lezaky, about a hundred kilometers east of Prague.

As a justification for these massacres, the Fascist occupation troops called the successful bombing of Reinhard Heydrich, the planning commissioner for the “final solution” of the Jewish question and the highest NS functionary in Bohemia and Moravia. In fact, at the end of May 1942, a small group of Czechoslovak resistance fighters trained in the UK managed to kill this responsible for numerous crimes against the Czechoslovak population.

For revenge and as intimidation, the village of Lidice was destroyed and the men of Lezarky were shot. But this terror could not suppress the illegal resistance struggle in CSR. Czechoslovak antifascists contributed to the liberation of their country from fascism.

The International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) reminds the fighters against Fascism, who have kept their courage and struggle despite terror and persecution. But we also recall the broad solidarity of the anti-fascists around the world, which contributed to the fact that Lidice could never be forgotten.

We welcome the fact that the Czech government is organizing this Memorial Day in dignified form. As a special appreciation, we see the decision of the Slovakian government to honor one of the resistance fighters posthumously with high honors. These are important signals against all attempts of falsifying history:

The anti-fascist resistance was not responsible for this massacre but the fascist occupation policy. We will not allow the relativization of fascist crimes and the rehabilitation of fascist collaborators!