Lezaky, East Bohemia, June 21 (CTK) – The obliteration of the Lezaky village by the Nazis was a fatal failure of civilisation, humanism and conscience, Czech lower house head Jan Hamacek said at a meeting marking the tragedy’s 73rd anniversary, attended by hundreds of Czech and foreign guests.
The meeting annually takes place at the memorial on the site where Lezaky used to stand before the Nazi razed it to the ground and killed its 52 inhabitants.
The tragedy of Lezaky remains a symbol of the pure, unlimited evil of Nazism and it must not be forgotten, Hamacek (Social Democrats, CSSD) said.
“It was a horrible act of wanton revenge and inadmissible application of the collective guilt principle,” he added.
“Like the Jihad fanaticism, Nazism was a would-be religious violent ideology that sought control of the world and wanted to dominate not only the society but also people’s hearts,” Hamacek said.
The meeting was attended by the Stulik sisters, the only two inhabitants of Lezaky who survived the massacre. The Nazis dragged both, aged one and 2.5 years, respectively, away to Germany and placed them in a German family.
Marie Jerabkova, born Stulikova, told CTK that it is important to tell young people what happened in Lezaky.
She mentioned the heroism of her father, who, aware of his inevitable execution, reported to the police in order to avert the Nazi threat to burn down the neighbouring village, Vcelakov.
“I can’t imagine being capable of this myself,” Jerabkova said.
Her sister Jarmila said she plans to issue a book about Lezaky.
The Nazis burned down Lezaky on June 24, 1942 within their reprisals for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, deputy Reichsprotector of Bohemia and Moravia, by Czechoslovak paratroopers trained in Britain.
The Gestapo found out that the paratroopers used a transmitter in Lezaky to ensure contact between the domestic and foreign anti-Nazi resistance movements.
On June 24, the Nazis executed 34 adult inhabitants of Lezaky. They shot dead another seven people from Lezaky and over 40 other aides of the paratroopers on June 25 and July 2.
Out of the 13 children who were dragged away from Lezaky, 11 perished in gas chamber in the Nazi extermination camp in Chelmno, Poland, on July 25, 1942.
