The Children of Lidice - picture heavy

[sheshe2]

On 2 July 1942, most of the children of Lidice, a small village in what was then #Czechoslovakia, were handed over to the Łódź Gestapo office. Those 82 #children were then transported to the extermination camp at Chełmno 70 kilometers away. There they were gassed to death. This remarkable sculpture by by Marie Uchytilová commemorates them.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=584731611569239&set=a.204542062921531.45848.184599864915751&type=1&theater

THE HISTORY OF THE WAR CHILDREN’S VICTIMS MONUMENT

The destiny of Lidice children is the saddest part of the Lidice tragedy. The children were separated from their mothers in the gymnasium of the Grammar school in Kladno. The children were moved by train to Lodz where they had lived for 3 weeks in a collection camp.

The youngest child was only 1 year and six days old the oldest boys were under the age of 15, girls were under the age of 16. On June 2 their destiny was decided. Few children had secretly received correspondence lists so that they could write to their relatives. Afterwards there was a command for their movement to the extermination camp in Chelmn.

The victims were taken to a castle and were told that they would continue their journey. They had to undress; they only could keep underwear, a towel and a soap so that they could take a shower before the journey. Afterwards they were taken to a truck that was specifically modified for 80-90 people, where they were killed by exhaust gas in 8 minutes. This is where the trace of Lidice children ends.
MORE.
http://www.lidice-memorial.cz/mchild_history_en.aspx

Massacre

All men of the village were rounded up and taken to the farm of the Horák family on the edge of the village. Mattresses were taken from neighbouring houses where they were stood up against the wall of the Horáks' barn. The shooting of the men commenced at about 7.00 am. At first the men were shot in groups of five, but Böhme thought the executions were proceeding too slowly and ordered that ten men be shot at a time. The dead were left lying where they fell. This continued until the afternoon hours when there were 173 dead. Another 11 men who were not in the village that day were arrested and executed soon afterwards as were eight men and seven women already under arrest because they had relations serving with the Czech army in exile in the United Kingdom.

A total of 203 women and 105 children were first taken to Lidice village school. They were then taken to the nearby town of Kladno and detained in the grammar school for three days. The children were separated from their mothers. Four women were pregnant and were sent to the same hospital where Heydrich died. Their fetuses were forcibly aborted and the women sent to different concentration camps. On 12 June 1942, 184 women of Lidice were loaded on trucks, driven to Kladno railway station and forced into a special passenger train guarded by an escort. On the morning of 14 June 1942, the train halted on a railway siding at the concentration camp at Ravensbrück. On their arrival the Lidice women were first isolated in a special block. The women were forced to work in leather processing, road building, textile and ammunition factories.

Eighty-eight Lidice children were transported to the area of the former textile factory in Gneisenau Street in Łódź. Their arrival was announced by a telegram from Horst Böhme's Prague office which ended with: the children are only bringing what they wear. No special care is desirable. The care was minimal. They suffered from a lack of hygiene and from illnesses. By order of the camp management, no medical care was given to the children. Shortly after their arrival in Łódź, officials from the Central Race and Settlement branch chose seven children at random for Germanisation. The few children considered racially suitable for Germanisation were handed over to SS families.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice


















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Hauntingly Beautiful

[shenmue]

1. ...

[sheshe2]

2. Yes.

Shenmue.

[Ilsa]

3. Frequently, the stories of the extermination of people

Other than the Jews goes unspoken. We cannot forget so many millions of others who wore a triangle or even no designation. I hope the perpetrators are roasting in Hell.

Haunting artwork indeed. Thank you for posting.

[irisblue]

4. .

[octoberlib]

5. Omg.This is heart-wrenching.

[DK504]

6. I've never even heard of this.

I am stunned beyond belief.

"We must never forget" isn't just a saying. This something that needs to be taught from a very early age.

[lastlib]

14. I remember reading about it in fifth grade......

My teacher handed me a book about Adolf Hitler's rise, and it told a little bit about Lidice (since the book was aimed at a school-age audience, it was probably greatly sanitized.)

You are right--it needs to be taught to our youth early. Those who don't know history cannot learn its lessons. I would be surprised if more than a couple other students in my age got the chance to learn this. I got the chance because I was far ahead of the rest of my class and my teacher had to give me something more challenging to keep me engaged.

[Archae]

7. Reminds me of that first scene in "The World At War"

That entire town in ruins, it's people massacred.

[mobeau69]

8. Thank you, sheshe

No words can describe this horror, only art can try.

[sheshe2]

12. Thanks mobeau.

Art can be painful in it's beauty and truth.

[sheshe2]

9. Two decades

To create eighty-two statues of children in an above-life-size height took her two decades. The atelier where the monument was created was meanwhile visited by tens of thousands of people from the whole world. They started collecting money spontaneously so that the monument could be realized as it already touched everyone who had seen it.

In March 1989 the author finished her art work in plaster however she never saw any money from the collected donations. Therefore she cast in bronze the first three statues from her own savings. Unfortunately in autumn 1989 she unexpectedly died. She could only see her whole life work placed in Lidice in her imagination.

Her husband J. V. Hampl continued in the work since 1990 on his own. In spring 1995 there was a concrete rest cased by marble blocks made on the marked place. Afterwards the moment that was awaited for long time came. 30 children in bronze shape returns to their mothers in Lidice. Since summer 1996 more statues were installed with a different time in between each installation. The last seven were uncovered in 2000. Currently there are 42 girls and 40 boys murdered in 1942 looking at the valley.

Look at their faces and body language. Babies knowing they are going to die. The despair and resigned look of the small ones. The hands clutched with a sibling or friend, holding ones chest in pain and resignation. Look at the pictures, look at them it hurts my soul. Look at their eyes.

See the whispers, the despair, the defeat the suffering and see their death.

Now before you all decide to heap on me and tell me we do it to, please don't. This memorial is for the ages, all of them. Anytime a death of child happened in war it is wrong, yet we did not lead them to a gas chamber. They were suppose to be our future...our kids everywhere are our future, let's stop killing them, I AM NOT JUST TALKING WAR HERE!

[classof56]

10. Sheshe, I appreciate you posting this.

I first heard of Lidice when I was in high school (yes, ions ago), when a fellow student presented an essay about the horrible event that happened in that town. As with all the hideous accounts of what went on during WWII in Europe, I listened to the moving story about Lidice and I wept. The movie about Heydrich's assassination brought the story to the forefront once more, and yes, I weep again. What a wonderful tribute these statues are. I commend the artist, and you, as always, for this post. Who said, The price of freedom is eternal vigilance? Let us be vigilant in the face of what is ahead of us after January 20, 2017. I shudder to contemplate what our fate might be.

Blessings to you, as always.

[sheshe2]

11. I never knew of it before a few years ago.

The tribute is heartbreaking. There is raw emotion there. It hurts coming from ones so young. They were scared and alone.They died.

Yes, we need to be vigilant. Dark times coming.

Love you.

[niyad]

13. heartbroken k and r for the horror of which humans are capable, and for the love and compassion

of others. I had not seen the monument before.

[Scurrilous]

15. K & R

[kairos12]

16. Thank you. I learned this story while in the 8th grade and have never forgotten it.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. .