Lidice, Central Bohemia, June 13 (CTK) – People should take a lesson from history and not yield to the evil, Czech Senate deputy chairman Premysl Sobotka (ODS) said on the act commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the obliteration of the village of Lidice by the Nazi regime Saturday.
The act was attended by several hundred people, including contemporaries, military representatives and Scouts.
Wreaths were laid at the mass grave of Lidice men by Culture Minister Daniel Herman (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL), the Chamber of Deputies deputy chairman Vojtech Filip (Communists, KSCM) and Human Rights Minister Jiri Dienstbier (CSSD).
Sobotka said there was a question of whether people were ready and willing to take a lesson from history at present.
“The evil has only changed its forms in history, changing its stress, sometimes on class or racial and religious difference,” Sobotka said.
Yielding to the present-day fanatic criminals or even creating the starting steps for possible elimination of freedom and civilisation is as absurd and devoid of sense as the policy pursued by Western politicians Neville Chamberlain and Walter Runciman in 1938, he added.
Sobotka said they had naively believed that they were doing something for peace and against war, but their approach eventually brought about World War Two, the tragedy of Lidice and millions of deaths across the world.
The commemorative act was preceded by a mass served by Bishop Vaclav Maly.
Lidice, central Bohemia, was obliterated on June 10. In Lidice, all 173 men were executed, women and children were sent to concentration camps, while some of the children were selected for re-education in Germany. After the war, only 143 women and 17 children returned to the country.
The village was razed to the ground in retaliation for the killing of Deputy Reich-Protector of Bohemia and Moravia Reinhard Heydrich by Czechoslovak paratroopers in May 1942.
