Have you heard of Lidice? Probably not, and yet if you have there is no way of truly knowing the tragedy that these small town people actually went through. Yesterday I became just a litttle closer to understanding what Jaroslava Sklenickova went through on that day in June 10, 1942. Through her words we all became closer to understanding her experience at Lidice.
Lidice was a small town on the outskirts of Prague, where Jaroslava lived. Jaroslava was a 16 year old girl who lived with her mother, father, and sister. On the night of June 9, 1942 Hitler sent orders to completley destroy her village in response to the assassination of Heidrich, Hitler's third in command. The Nazi forces surrounded the town, shot all of the men in the village, and sent the women and children to concentration camps. The Nazi blew up every building and even dug up the graves as to completely destroy any memory of Lidice.
Jaroslava managed to survive and when she was 80 years old she decided to write a book about her life entitled, "If I had been a boy, I would have been shot..." She talked with us and read excerpts from her book for about two hours. This was probably the most amazing experience that I have ever had. To actually meet a survivor of the Holocaust and get to hear her story was something that I will never forget. I bought a copy of her book and she even signed it for me, which is an amazing honor and something that I will cherish for the rest of my life.
Jaroslava is a hero and you don't meet true heroes every day.
I know about Lidice! I read the first couple of sentences and kinda laughed when you said that we probably hadn't heard of it. Actually read about in a newspaper my grandparents get every week from Vestnik, it's a Czech paper from SPJST (Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas). Yep, if you haven't guessed by now, my family's got loads of Czech in it!
ReplyDeleteAnyways, have fun in Prague, you don't know how jealous I am!