Lezaky, East Bohemia, June 25 (CTK) – The need for passing information about the obliteration of Lezaky by the Nazis in 1942 on the young generations was stressed at an event marking the tragedy in which thousands of people took part.
Lezaky was burnt down on June 24, 1942, in retaliation for the assassination of Bohemia and Moravia Acting Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich in Prague, two weeks after the Nazis razed Lidice, central Bohemia, to the ground. Fifty-two Lezaky inhabitants were murdered.
“It is important that they (the young generations) known that there may be moments when they will have to make a choice. Either they will decide like (Karel) Curda did and will become traitors, or they will decide like the Lezaky inhabitants and will pursue the path of freedom and courage even at the paramount cost,” Jan Bartosek (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL), Chamber of Deputies deputy chairman, said.
Dozens of wreaths were laid at the monument called The Book of Victims. Afterwards, the names of the murdered Lezaky inhabitants were read. Four paratroopers made a jump.
The commemorative event was attended by the Stulik sisters, the only survivors of the obliteration of Lezaky.
The Nazis obliterated Lezaky after they found out that the Czech paratroopers who were trained in England and who assassinated Heydrich, maintained connection between the domestic and foreign resistance via a radio transmitter.
The Nazis received the first information about the resistance in the region from paratrooper Curda.
They executed 34 adults from Lezaky in Pardubice on June 24, 1942, and they shot dead another seven people from Lezaky and more than 40 collaborators of the paratroopers on June 25 and July 2, 1942. Thirteen Lezaky children were transported from Lezaky. Eleven of them were gassed in Chelmno, Poland, on July 25.
Today, the site of the former stonemasons’ village is a national heritage sight. Granite gravestones with carved crosses have been put up on the ground plans of nine houses.
