The Memory of Priest Štemberk from Lidice

Emílie Chválová lived with her relatives in the village of Lidice before its annihilation by the Nazis. She attended school there and recalls priest Štemberk who taught catechism in the local school: “He would, for example, sit on a desk while he narrated stories, and as he was talking we would pin down his habit. When he got up he would fly into temper: ‘Who did it?!’ We did not really mind him though. He would give us slaps, but they were gentle, we called them ‘peanuts’.” Yet the memories of these common children’s mischiefs also bring back traumatic memories for this woman. They remind her of her old village that was annihilated by the Nazis on June 10, 1942, and also of her schoolmates who were murdered by them. Just as they remind her of the maybe overly kind, yet also very brave priest, who accompanied his parishioners even on their last journey.