Praha - Libeň, Curve in Libeň
V Holešovičkách 43, 182 00 Prague 8, Czech Republic
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The Assassination of Heydrich

Available in: English | Česky

Reinhard Heydrich, the Deputy Reich-Protector is sitting in the front seat of his Mercedes on May 27 1942 at 10.35 a.m. and is heading for his office. His trained bodyguard Johanes Klein is driving the car. Parachutists Josef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš are waiting for him on the pavement at the bend of the road. At that moment there is traffic chaos at the junction, Heydrich’s convertible is manoeuvring among three trams. For an instant the car during one of its manoeuvres – driving around a tram from the left – vanishes from the soldiers’ sight. Suddenly it shows up next to Gabčík who is a mere distance of 120 centimetres from Heydrich. This is why he does not manage to shoot from his machine gun, or perhaps the weapon has a technical failure, according to some experts. Klein shouts: “Look out, assassinators!” Heydrich orders: “Stop! Stop immediately!” Kubiš throws a bomb. A massive detonation. The explosion destroys one side of the car, tears the back tyre and damages the door. The glass windows of a passing tram are shattered. Some of the passengers are mildly injured. Gabčík is running away up the hill, Heydrich shoots at him twice, then Klein chases him, Gabčík disables him by shooting him twice in the leg and then disappears. Kubiš is running away across the street to a bicycle, some passengers from the tram want to stop him. “Move away, grandpa, or I’ll shoot you!” he shouts apparently at a present policeman and lets out a warning shot. He also manages to get away.

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What followed the assassination

What followed the assassination

Superintendent Heinz Pannwitz is named chief of the investigative committee. He has one hundred and twenty specialists from the entire Protectorate and Reich at his disposal. Around two hundred members of the Gestapo, SD, thousands of soldiers of Waffen-SS, the Wehrmacht, German and Czech police forces which are in phalanxes searching forests and colonies of cottages. Five thousand towns and villages are being searched one flat after another from the cellar to the attic. Without result. The Protectorate wireless is broadcasting threats: Those helping the assassinators or those who know something and do not report it will be shot together with their entire family. Only 309 reports are sent in. None of the reports lead anywhere. Not even an offer of a high financial reward works on anyone. The Germans burn down the village of Lidice. Later they choose a different method. They commission the minister of propaganda Emanuel Moravec to declare an amnesty for everyone, including the assassinators, if they own up in the period from the 12th to June 18th. Two thousand reports arrive at the police. The parachutist Karel Čurda enters the Gestapo headquarters in Petschek Palace on June 16th. It is he who leads the Gestapo on the right track, reveals the names and addresses of those harbouring and cooperating with the resistance fighters. Some of them cannot stand the torture and give away the parachutists who are hidden in the Prague church of St. Cyril and Methodius in Resslova Street. This is where a massive police operation takes place on June 18th 1942. Around 750 men attack the seven hidden soldiers. After about 6 hours all of the parachutists are dead. Hitler is raging after the assassination of Heydrich; nothing like it has happened before. He craves revenge. At first he wants to execute every tenth Czech citizen as a warning. This Slavic nation is to be definitively exterminated, Germanized and displaced. This does not happen. After the assassination, the Nazis torture hundreds of resistance fighters in the Petschek Palace, they wipe out the villages Lidice and Ležáky, they carry out endless executions in the Kobylisy Shooting Range, in October 1942 a total of 264 resistance fighters or their family members die in Mauthausen. Almost 15,000 thousand people are affected in some way: imprisoned, executed or deported to concentration camps.

Praha - Libeň, Curve in Libeň

Available in: English | Česky

On May 27, 1942 the Reich protector-in-charge Reinhard Heydrich went through this place. He was heading to his office in the Prague Castle. Punctually at 10.35 two Czechoslovak parachutes from England attacked him. They wounded him mortally, but managed to escape from this place.

Praha - Libeň, Curve in Libeň

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The Assassination of Heydrich

The Assassination of Heydrich

What followed the…
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