Blogs from Lidice, Central Bohemian Region, Czech Republic, Europe

The Rest of the Story In another entry on Lidice we talked about the destruction of the village and what happened to the men and women. That is only one part of this sad story. What about the children of Lidice? What happened to them? Were they spared? Did any survive? Read on ................. The Memorial to the Children The memorial to the children is one of the most moving pieces of artwork we have seen. Eighty-two bronze statues of the children, 42 girls and 40 boys, stand looking out over the meadow toward the place where the village stood. The looks on the faces of the older children show they are aware that a tragedy is unfolding before their eyes. The children and their mothers were gathered together and removed to another village so they ... read more

Hello all.. Sorry I've been pretty bad with updating lately. Very busy! The other day we had our big memorial service in which MANY MANY folks attended. Hopefully photos will be on the website soon, as I didn't have a chance to take any (ok, I forgot my camera across town, but I still didn't have time lol). Ceremony went well--rain held out for the majority of it. Met the US ambassador, among many others. It was kinda amusing--he was exactly as I pictured he would be..In a good way of course. Was very friendly for a diplomat in my opinion..asked where in the states I was from, etc etc. Anyways, that went well. Unfortunatelyyy my friend who was going to visit me this past weekend when he was in Prague had major internet difficulties, thus ... read more

So I promised I'd post photos of the crazy huge rose gardens we have here.. I just went out and took a handful of photos, however was unfortuantely interrupted by a nice violent thunderstorm! Thus, there is not too too many at the moment, but I'll take more when the skies clear. This week is when its all in peak bloom I guess so It looks mighty nice. the photos don't even do justice to the size of this thing.. 29 thousand bushes, 213 varieties from 32 countries. HUGE! The gardens are set up in a basic format like three roses (if you look at it from an aerial view thats what you'll see..sortof). The center rose in the biggest--its dark red flowers and meant to represent the 192 men of Lidice that were murdered. The ... read more

Went around taking some photos today as its my day off..sorta. I intended to do my heap of laundry today, however just realized that apparently nobody here thinks weekends are good times to do laundry, thus the laundromat is not open on weekends. Horrible planning in my opinion, but they think we're the crazy Americans who are busy/do things "non-stop". I think I kinda like it that way though.. lol Whatever. So, Pretty photos!! (wish I had used higher resolution because some would make great computer backgrounds lol) The exhibit isnt technically in the museum, but across from the museum there is another smaller gallery for traveling/temporary exhibits that we use. behind the room shown there is another room for visiting classes and whatnot to use.. Its a pretty space..and now it smells awesome cause of ... read more

About a half hour drive out of Prague is Lidice. Lidice is a village that was entirely destroyed by Nazi soldiers in 1942 in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich by members of the Czech Resistance. In the summer of 1942 two Czech soldiers who had been trained in Britain parachuted into Bohemia which was at the time occupied by the Nazis. These two men attacked and killed Reinhard Heydrich as he was being driven to his office in Prague. They escaped capture for several weeks before finally being discovered hiding in the catacombs beneath a church in Prague. Beneath the church they fought Nazi soldiers for hours before eventually committing suicide when it was apparent they would not escape. In the meantime Hitler decided he would try and send a message to the Czech ... read more