European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1947, Darmstadt, Hesse Five years after the a czech officer who was involved in the killing that led to the nazi revenge revisits the town where he was born by Gene Levin pm major Josef standing beside the of the victims of the j is now living in Prague but his mail addressed to it i Saij it Heyl like me 11 Over the want As he family in is time Levelis Lidice was razed in a Cloud of As this captured German photo on june the first Stone was Laid for the new to children plat on this desolate spot where the Village school behind tourists is the ancient desecrated by 1 Lidice the Gray haired czech air i Force major looked Over at his youngsters walking on a scrubby Knoll in the a Knoll that want there seven years a building had been there then and the Lump in the Earth had been a Flat ice hockey Lidice did not look the Wayne had left it when he fled the German occupation in now it was the Barren Meadow vengeful germans had left just five years turning from the major Josef Horak faced the Large Cross marking the mass grave of the 173 Lidice men who had been shot by the nazis in Blind retribution for the assassination of Reinhardt Gestapo chief for Bohemia and the men who Are there were not strangers to he had grown up with wonted with knew them but the bodies of his parents and family Are not there the Gestapo had shot them a week before the Lidice blaming major Horak for the grenade killing of Horak was Twenty four when the nazi legions crossed into Bohemia from the he his country and was determined to fight for with Josef a Friend with whom he had grown up in he escaped through Syria and into Egypt where both joined the their escape was taken by the Gestapo As an excuse for the first House House search in Lidice on june the Day Hangman Heydrich died after he was ambushed while driving on a Road outside of Prague in the latter part of both Horak and Stribrny were in England at the time of the carried out by eight czechs who had been parachuted into the country by the the Gestapo was determined to find those responsible and offered a Reward of Tea Mil lion crowns to anyone who would help capture the As it a few weeks after Lidice two of the parachutists betrayed the rest of their still hiding in a Prague who put up a fight to the finish with German but in Early june the nazis wanted Quick results and they wanted to set an according to major on june at Heydrich funeral service in Berlin and a few hours before the Lidice atrocity was to become a Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler promised to avenge his to pursue his work and without mercy or weakness to fight the enemies of the the germans had turned their attention toward Lidice during the1 first week in june and framed a letter in an Effort pin Heydrich slaying on Horak and major Horak said in i telling the Story of How Lidice made responsible for Heydrich one of the cd Utiss looked like but they had no they wanted to set Art and they on 4 the Gestapo made a House House search of our they arrested All the members of my family and my friends Only my sister the Ger Jans took seventeen in including seven to Prague and shot i still dont know what has happened to their my sister said the nazis had a letter which they showed my saying i wrote the handwriting was not mine and when my insisted it the Gestapo said they it seems the letter had been addressed to a girl in a nearby Plank and f attend Fate Audij to jews trat to 16
