Lidice Memorial Site

The empty meadow where the village stood until 10 June 1942 is the heart of the memorial. The Nazis killed all 173 men over fifteen, deported the women to Ravensbrück, sent the children to either German foster homes or the Chełmno gas chambers, then dynamited every building, ploughed the rubble flat, and changed the course of the stream so that nothing of the village remained.

A grassy outline traces where the houses, the church, and the school once stood. A cross marks the mass grave of the murdered men. The roof beam of the original church and a few salvaged stones are mounted as fragments. The site is open all year, free, and unfenced — you walk straight onto the grass where the village stood.

things to do sight
A story
The order to destroy Lidice came from Hitler himself on 9 June 1942. The men were shot in groups of ten against the wall of the Horák family's farm, which the Nazis filmed for propaganda. The village was then dynamited, the ruins burned, the bricks bulldozed, the bodies covered, and the stream diverted — a deliberate attempt to erase the village from the map. They even disinterred the cemetery and broke open the graves.

Other places in Things to Do