Wednesday marks 78th anniversary of Nazi atrocity at Ležáky

Wednesday is the 78th anniversary of the Nazi annihilation of the Czech village of Ležáky. On June 24, 1942 the Nazis killed all 33 of the village’s adults, both men and women, as part of reprisals for the assassination of Nazi governor Reinhard Heydrich the previous month. The Gestapo had discovered that the paratroopers sent to kill Heydrich had a kept a radio transmitter there.

Two of Ležáky’s 13 children were taken away for Germanisation, but were located and returned after the war, while the rest were gassed at a concentration camp later in summer 1942.