A stunning monument to children - victims of the Nazis in Lidice (Czech Republic). Bronze children Lidice Monument to 82 children destroyed in life size

This must be remembered ...

This sculpture by Mari Yuchitilova was created in memory of them. On June 10, 1942, SS troops surrounded Lidice; the entire male population over 16 years old (172 people) was shot ...

This sculpture by Mari Yuchitilova was created in memory of them. On June 10, 1942, SS troops surrounded Lidice; the entire male population over 16 years old (172 people) was shot. Lidice women (172 people) were sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp (60 of them died in the camp). Of the children (105 people), children under one year old and children suitable for Germanization were left behind.

The rest (82 people) were destroyed in the death camp near Chelmno, 6 more children died. All buildings in the village were burned down and razed to the ground. By the morning of June 11, the village of Lidice was nothing but bare ashes. The children died, but their memory will remain in the form of a monument near the village of Lidice. 82 bronze statues, 40 boys and 42 girls, look at us and remind us of the Nazi massacre ...

The crime committed against the children of Lidice deeply shocked the sculptor Professor Mari Yuchitilova. In 1969, she decided to create a bronze sculpture of Lidice children, which should also be regarded as a monument to the war victims.

It took her two decades to create eighty-two statues of children in larger life size. The atelier where the monument was created, meanwhile, was visited by tens of thousands of people around the world. Spontaneously, they began to collect funds to create a sculpture, which even then shocked everyone who saw it.

In March 1989, the author finished the work in plaster, but received nothing from the collected funds. The first three sculptures were thus cast in bronze with their own savings. Unfortunately, in the fall of 1989, the sculptor unexpectedly dies. She could imagine her work of her entire life located in Lidice only in her own imagination.

Since 1990, he continued to work, but already alone, her husband J.V. Gampl, her daughter Sylvia Klanova, Anna Neshporova from Lidice and the organizations in Prague and Plze created for this purpose. In the spring of 1995, a concrete pedestal lined with granite slabs was made on the designated site, after which that long-awaited minute came. 30 children in bronze images are returning to their mothers in Lidice.

Since 1996, the rest of the sculptures have been installed at various times. The last 7 were opened in 2000. Today 42 girls and 40 boys killed in 1942 are watching the valley.

The words of the author of the monument, sculptor Mari Yucitilova were fulfilled in this way:

“On behalf of the world, I return 82 children of the nation to their native land as an instructive symbol of the millions of children killed in the senseless wars of humanity.
In addition to the statues, I send a message to the nations:
Above the common grave of children, the house is reconciled with the house ... ".

In November 2010, a bronze statue of a little girl, about 1 meter high, was stolen from the sculpture, which was located on the right in the foreground. Taking into account the significant public interest, they began to successfully raise public funds. On this basis, it was possible to cast the bronze statue again, based on the original model, and put it in place.

Candles are always burning here. Toys and flowers are brought here. In memory of the innocent children killed by the Nazis during the war, a unique bronze monument was erected in the Czech village of Lidice ...

82 children lined up in anticipation of a terrible fate. 40 boys and 42 girls: among them are teenagers and very little ones. Someone talks, someone looks away, the younger ones hide behind the older ones. Everyone is confused and scared. This is how the sculptural group installed in the Czech Lidice looks like. The monument reminds of the tragic events that took place in June 1942 ...

The mining village of Lidice, located near Prague and Kladno, was razed to the ground by the Nazis during World War II. The reason for the repression was the assassination of SS Obergruppenführer, protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich, by Czechoslovak partisans.

Suspicion of involvement in the death of "an outstanding citizen of the German people" for unclear reasons fell on one of the families of the village of Lidice, and the Nazi command ordered an immediate punitive operation.

On the night of June 10, 1942, the SS "Prince Johen" under the command of Haupsurmführer Max Rostock surrounded Lidice. All men over 15 years old - 172 or 173 people (depending on the source) - were shot on the outskirts of the village.

The women and children were driven to the village school and held for several days. There mothers saw their children for the last time ... Soon the women - 203 people - were taken to Germany, to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, and their children - to Poland to decide their future fate. The village itself, including the church and the cemetery, was burned and razed to the ground, leaving bare ashes.

The German newspaper Neue Tag wrote about the atrocities in Lidice: “During the search for the killers of the SS Obergruppenfuehrer, it was established that the population of the village of Lidice near Kladno helped the criminals and cooperated with them. (...) All the men of the village were shot, the women were sent to concentration camps, and the children were sent to the appropriate institutions for re-education. "

The message in the newspaper did not say the main thing. From 105 boys and girls "for re-education" only 23 were selected, they were sent to Nazi families. The rest of the children, whom the Nazis considered unsuitable for Germanization, were sent to the Chelmno concentration camp.

There, in the gas chamber, there were no more 82 children.

After the war, a new village was built on the site of the Lidice settlement. The memorial land was landscaped together with the mass grave of the Lidice men, a memorial and a museum were built. Between the memorial land and the new village today is the Garden of Peace and Friendship, where thousands of rose bushes from all over the world have been planted.

The monument to the Lidice children - the work of the sculptor Maria Ukhitilova - has been erected for more than a decade.

Year after year, since 1995, the sculptural group has been complemented by individual bronze figurines.

In 1942, an attempt was made on the life of Reinhard Heydrich, protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Nazi protege. There were three of those who attempted the murder, but they could not find a single one. And so, one letter seemed strange to the post office employee looking through the letters. "Goodbye! On this great day, I could not do otherwise," a man wrote to some girl. The addressee was found, interrogated, she told everything she knew. Met some man. The name is fictitious. As it turned out later, he was married. The girl was a passion with which he tried to part beautifully. They began to dig further. The girl remembered that he came to her on a bicycle. And one day, through her relative from Lidice, he asked to send a message to this mining village. "Your son is alive" - ​​to some woman. This son, of course, has not been in the village for a long time. And who he was is not known ... But here Heydrich dies. The Nazi leadership orders not to let the Czechs unleash arbitrariness. And the poor village of Lidice has to pay with its own blood for harboring patriots who may never have been there. Men (over 15 years old) are shot, women are sent to a concentration camp. All buildings are burned, leveled to the ground, even the cemetery is not spared. There were 105 children in the village. Babies under one year old and with Aryan appearance are given to German families. The rest - eighty-two children - are sent to the death camp. Many women later returned to Lidice. None of the children. In memory of them, Maria Ukhitilova conceived a Monument to 82 murdered children, which was already finished by her husband J.V. Gumple. Ukhitilova began work back in 1969, over twenty years she created 28 enlarged children's figures in plaster. In 1995, six years after the death of the sculptor, work began on the installation of the monument. The first 30 sculptures were installed that year. The last seven are in 2000.

We drove to Lidice on a warm August evening. From Kladno - a few minutes drive. We walked along the main street of a neat, quiet village, strolled through the rose garden. And then - an amazingly beautiful view of the fields. And the monument in the lowland - many bronze backs. We go down to them - persons, tense, expectant. 40 boys and 42 girls, children, toddlers, teenagers. And touching offerings at their feet ...

Peace Garden - a rose garden of flowers from 32 countries of the world was also created in memory of the tragedy in Lidice. It opened in 1955.

The path runs through the fields. The landscape is so idyllic that the tragedy that took place here seems incredible.

The same flowers and trees grow here as we have.

In 1948 the village was rebuilt. Modern Lidice demonstrates calmness, contentment with life, prosperity.

If only never again.

Candles are burning. There are toys and candies. Newlyweds, tourists and locals come here. Always fresh flowers. When viewed from afar, it is easy to confuse bronze children with living ones. They are standing...

Candles are burning. There are toys and candies. Newlyweds, tourists and locals come here. Always fresh flowers.

When viewed from afar, it is easy to confuse bronze children with living ones. They stand in the field. Grass, trees, shrubs bloom all around. And 82 children huddled together in anticipation of death. 40 boys and 42 girls.

Teenagers and very young children. They whisper, hide behind their backs, do not raise their heads. Frightened, confused, with open eyes, they are waiting for our help. In a field near the village of Lidice, near Prague, there is a bronze sculpture group.

The world is shaken by the tragedy of Lidice. The village was razed to the ground on June 10, 1942. The murder of a high-ranking fascist by Czech partisans angered Hitler himself. He ordered to destroy everyone.

In the morning, the SS troops entered the village, and all the men of the village over fifteen years old were shot in the evening on the outskirts. The women were herded into the barn, and in the evening they were taken to the camp. Many died there from overwork. More than a hundred children are gathered in the central square. Newborns and infants were executed.

Of the remaining children, the Germans scrupulously left those fit for "re-education." The rest were to be destroyed. There were eighty-two of them. Most of them died in special vehicles from exhaust gases. The next day there was a bare field here.

The entire territory of the village was burned down and the land was plowed with bulldozers. Even the local cemetery was destroyed by the Nazis. The graves were dug up, and the ashes were blown up. All animals were destroyed indiscriminately - cows, cats, dogs, chickens, sheep. For several years, birds have not settled in the vicinity of the village.

At this place, many years later, in 69, the sculptor Maria Yuchitilova, shocked by the massacre of fascist geeks, decides to create more than just a sculpture. Maria will return all the victims home, to their native land, with a portrait resemblance of the dead children.

She worked for twenty years on the creation of the monument. Many who visited the memorial tried to help the talented sculptor by providing financial support. But as often happens, the money did not reach the master. In 1989, in the spring, Maria completed the work in a cast.

Already in a cast, the work was stunning in its tragedy. Having managed to cast only three figures, the author dies. The heart could not stand it. Her work was continued by her husband, sculptor, and daughter, with the help of the social movement in Prague.

Six years later, the next thirty children in bronze were able to return to their homeland. And then, in different years, the murdered children began to return to their mothers. The last children returned to their own doorstep in 2000.

Tourists from all over the world see them standing in a field, on the site of an old village, before they become adults. A symbol of a senseless bloody massacre, a reminder to the living of the dead children of the war.

Elderly people are crying. Men are sternly silent. People of all nationalities are standing next to the dead. Non-healing wound of the Czech Republic - children of Lidice. None of them returned alive. There are bronze children on the outskirts of the new village.