A stirring memorial to Nazi resistance

There's a grandiose Baroque church right down the road from us, and while it looks quite normal from the outside...

The stately Ss. Cyril and Methodius

...when you look a bit closer, you'll notice a section of wall riddled with bullet holes.

We'd passed by Ss. Cyril and Methodius numerous times (and I briefly mentioned it in posts HERE and HERE), but we saved a trip inside for when we had guests. With BW's brother here, we finally visited.

Below the church is the National Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror, and it explains the bullet holes - as well as the vile Nazi persecution of the Czechs and Slovaks.

In May of 1942, seven exiled Czechoslovak paratroopers as part of Operation Anthropoid attempted to assassinate Reichprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, aka the Prague Butcher, the head Nazi in Bohemia and Moravia. After training and preparing in the UK, the paratroopers sneaked into Czechoslovakia via parachute, hid out in allies' homes for months, and then bombarded Heydrich's car with grenades as he was being driven to his office. He died 8 days later - from sepsis from his wounds being infected by the horsehair in his car seat.

A paratrooper's clothing and weapons

Hitler was so enraged by the assassination that he went on a murder spree, ordering the small mining town of Lidice, where one of the assassins was rumored to have hidden, to be completely exterminated and razed. The men and boys were shot and the women and girls were sent to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp.

The Nazis threatened to slaughter more people if the assassins didn't give themselves up, but the many Czechs who had aided the paratroopers remained silent. The tactic that finally worked was promising a reward of a million marks as a reward for information - and one of the paratroopers stepped forward and gave everyone in the anti-Nazi movement up. Thousands of people were jailed, tortured and sent to concentration camps.

Sewing by a female inmate

Through torture, it was revealed that the paratroopers had been hiding out in the crypt of Ss. Cyril and Methodius Church in Prague for three weeks. It's possible to enter the crypt through the memorial museum.

Over three hours, the Gestapo tried to shoot, smoke and flood the resistance fighters out of the crypt. The paratroopers shot back and attempted to dig a hole to a nearby sewer to escape, no no avail. Two died by gunshot wound and four committed suicide. The cathedral's bishop and other church leaders were sent to the firing squad for hiding the men.

The memorial is a moving tribute to these brave soldiers and their allies, and we learned a lot about the Nazi occupation - and the many people who resisted it. 

If you go to Ss. Cyril and Methodius Church and the National Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror:

Address: 

Resslova 9a, Prague 2

Opening hours:

March - October

Tuesday - Sunday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

November - February

Tuesday - Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Website

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