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Published: September 30th 2011
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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 would not know their fathers, husbands, brothers and all males over 15 years of age were being slaughtered in Lidice. For a while they were spared but not for long. All one hundred and four children were taken from their mothers arms as their mothers screamed and wept. With rare exception none would see
each other again. The children were transported by bus to Lovosice located in the area of the former textile factory in Gneisenaustreet of Lodz on June 13, 1942. All the children were examined. A number of the children were selected to be "Germanized", that is taught German and given to childless German families to be raised as German. They were selected because their appearance was judged to be Ayran, the
the master race.
Adolph Eichmann gave the order on July 1st that all the other children should be executed. No special treatment was to be given to them. On July 2nd 81 of the children were turned over to the Lodz Gestapo. The Gestapo transported them to the extermination camp at Chełmno. The next day, July 2nd, 1942 these eighty-one children were loaded into specifically designed trucks and were gassed as the trucks drove around.
The Germanized Children
Extensive searches were made after the war but only 16 of the children who had been sent to Germany were found. A few were reunited with their mothers who had survived the concentration camps. In a film in the Lidice museum one woman said that she had
forgotten she was Czech, had forgotten the language but remembered her mother when she saw her. Sadly her mother died a few months later.
Another woman was reunited with her mother who was in the hospital in Prague. Her mother recognized her immediately but her daughter could only speak to her through an interpreter because she did not remember any of the Czech language. This was a bitter sweet meeting since her mother died the next day.
One man we saw in the film said the only reason he was not executed was his sister insisted that he stay with her when they were being removed from their mothers. For some unknown reason the Nazi soldiers allowed him to remain with her. After being examined he was selected to be "Germanized" and survived. His sister was not selected and did not survive.
Perhaps there is a sadder story than that of Lidice but it is surely the saddest anyone would ever want to hear. The story and the name of Lidice will endure as long as time on earth endures.
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