Lidice tragedy
Lidice u Kladna were burned down on June 10th, 1942. The pretext of this massacre became a letter addressed to Anna Marušcáov, an employee of Palaba company, which was retained by her director Jaroslavem Pála. The letter could have looked like written by one of the parachutists who assassinated the Acting Reich Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. This was later disregarded. In reality, the real reason for writing the letter was an attempt of Václav Riha to end his marital infidelity. Because of the nature of the letter, the owner of the factory Jaroslav Pála decided to report it to the Gestapo.
An investigation ensued and since it came to light that the writer of the letter sent regards via Anna to the family of Josef Horák from Lidice, who was serving with the RAF, the village was burned down, men older than fifteen years were executed, women were taken to concentration camps (sixty of them did not survive by the end of the war), some children were sent to Germany to be germanized and eighty two others were probably murdered in the Nazi extermination camp in Chelmno nad Nerem in Poland.
In reaction to this tragedy, the Lidice Shall Live movement was established in Great Britain. The movement was started by a member of the municipal council in Stoke-on-Trent Barnett Stross, who, together with miners from the entire world, proposed that Lidice should be rebuilt. He contributed very significantly to this objective, and not only financially. Lidice resident Josef Horák was also active in this movement.
Once Czechoslovakia was liberated, the Society for Rebuilding Lidice was founded. Its members were the Lidice women and children who survived the war. This society was founded by Act No. 187/1946 Coll. The second paragraph of Paragraph 1 explicitly states: “The main purpose of the Society is to build Lidice, to give a new home to Lidice women, who came back from concentration camps, and their children within the borders of this community…” Despite the fact that Lidice natives Josef Horák and Josef Stríbrný, RAF pilots, were already back in the country, the act did not mention them. That is why Josef Horák and Josef Stríbrný desired to become members of the society. Both of them asked to be granted the same rights that the act granted to all current residents of Lidice. While they were accepted as members of the society, the same rights were not granted to them because of the above mentioned act. A telling illustration of the situation after communist coup in 1948 can be demonstrated by the minutes from a meeting of the Society for Rebuilding Lidice committee from 16th June 1948. The minutes include a speech of a Lidice woman, survivor from Ravensbrück and the first Chairman of the Local People’s Committee in Lidice Helena Leflerová: “Since … Josef Horák, who has recently escaped abroad, abuses his position in the Society for Rebuilding Lidice for subversive activities in England, the Society has published … declaration…” This declaration is placed in a different section of the panel.
Josef Horák and Josef Stríbrný were devastated by the Lidice tragedy and by the death of their relatives, about which they learned from the radio in Great Britain. Josef Horák has never recovered from this tragedy and blamed himself for the burning of Lidice. His return home was not made easier for him even by some Lidice women who, under the impression of the tragedy of their families and their own, unjustly blamed him for that as well.
Burned remains of Lidice.
F/Lt Josef Horák
Born on 24th June 1915, Hrebec, Kladno District, Central Bohemian Region
Died on 18th January 1949, Chipping Sudbury, Gloucestershire, Great Britain.
One of the Lidice men who could not and must not have returned back.
Josef Horák from the HORÁK family of Lidice was born in Hrebec by accident, his mother was in the late stages of pregnancy when she went to see a fair there. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia and demobilization, he was assigned to an office where he met another Lidice native Josef Stríbrný, and also Václav Študent, from the nearby village of Hostivice, all of them together eventually left for abroad. At RAF, he would serve with of 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron as an air gunner. He completed his first two hundred flying operation hours. For the second term, he was re−trained to be a pilot. After completing his operation activities, he studied and graduated from the Military Academy, after which he became a liaison officer. After the war, he remained with the Air Force, but, because of the political development, left to exile in April 1949. He died in a plane crash.
All members of his family were murdered during World War II after the village of Lidice had been burned down.
Since 1992, one of the Lidice streets bears his name.
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| Declaration of the Society for the Restoration of Lidice issued after Josef Horák emigrated from the communist Czechoslovakia: “The Society for the Restoration of Lidice and the Lidice Municipal Authorities declare that former major Josef Horák, member of the British Royal Air Force during the war, has nothing to do with this Society and the Municipal Authorities. Josef Horák has no right to speak abroad on behalf of Lidice. After the liberation, he did not find the right way and was not interested about the needs of the Lidice people. As a member of the Lidice Municipal Authorities, he was completely passive and had to be thus removed from this body for his often absences and incompetence. He … obstructing the resurrection of Lidice by intentionally withholding financial resource with the objective to cause discontent among the Lidice women and the public. By doing so, he was following the crooked interests of the National Socialist Party …. He completed his destructive and subversive activities by illegally emigrating to England with his English wife, not considering the fact that he is committing desertion and breaching his military oath, which he took to his home country. The Society for the Restoration of Lidice and the Lidice women condemn with outrage the actions and escape of major Josef Horák as an deterrent example of an arrogant man who has lost contact with and relations to his people, from whom he had arose, and who joined the capitalist reactionaries, sumptuous lifestyle of whom has blinded him. His acts and especially his last one cannot be characterized in any other way than a treason against the holy memory of Lidice and against the nation.” It is not necessary to add that nothing is further from the truth than this allegation. State Regional Archive Kladno, fund Spolecnost pro obnovu Lidic a Ležáku (NAD 810), in. c. 11, karton c. 3, Zápis ze schuze správního výboru z 25. 5. 1948. |
Photograph of the grave of Josef HORÁK from the |
F/Lt Josef Stríbrný
Born on 28th July 1915 in Lidice, Kladno District, Central Bohemian Region
Died on 12th November 1976 in Písek, Písek District, South Bohemian Region
Josef STRÍBRNÝ from Lidice, a village burned down by the Nazis. He was not allowed to return to the rebuilt village.
He left the occupied motherland together with another Lidice native Josef Horák. Once in Great Britain, he would first serve with the Czechoslovak Independent Brigade, where he underwent a parachuting course. Later, he became a navigator with 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron. His mother and younger brother were executed in Prague − Kobylisy during the so-called “Heydrichiáda”, a period of repression following the assassination of Nazi Protector Reinhard Heydrich. Josef remained an air force pilot even after the war, but was kicked out and jailed for some time after the February putsch in 1948. He was released from the prison thanks to the help of several women from Lidice. He spent the rest of his life in Písek, sick and always haunted by the Lidice tragedy.
Since 1992, one of the Lidice streets bears his name.
cházka living history group 276th Sqdn. (reenacted) RAF