2011 Lidice Movie 1-Disc Box Set for Gift Collection Blu-ray

Plot Summary

On May 27, 1942, after Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated by Czech agents in Prague, Hitler felt very angry. At Heydrich's funeral, Hitler roared and threatened to take retaliatory action, clamoring to use the blood of millions of people to repay the price of Heydrich's murder. About 3000 Jews living in the "Special Settlement Area" in Trekingstadt were sent to death camps, and the exact number is unknown. The SS in Prague were all terrified. They were well aware that if the operation to apprehend and assassinate Heydrich yielded no results, it would undoubtedly trigger Hitler's desire to kill the person responsible for the failure of the operation. Arthur Neuber, in the name of the Imperial Central Security Service, ordered the urgent printing of a large number of special issues of the German Criminal Police newspaper, which contained telegrams sent to local police stations and administrative officials, instructing: "Special surveillance should be carried out at all stations, trains, and all transportation vehicles; all foreigners living in workers' hotels should be registered and checked; no suspects should be allowed to cross the border." The Gestapo laid a ruthless and efficient trap for assassins. For Hitler, the death of Reinhard Heydrich required a much greater cost than the death of the Jews. The most brutal retaliatory action, a massacre that the Czech people will never forget. The target of this retaliation is a small mining village called Lidize located in the Koladino area of northwest Prague. Lidize is a beautiful place, located in a low canyon, surrounded by small village churches dotted with patches of grassland, with beautiful scenery and colorful hues. The village is surrounded by pastures and orchards of all sizes, and the villagers lead a very peaceful and self-sufficient life, with little interest in politics. On June 4th, the day Heydrich died, Lidize was subjected to the first search. However, eyewitnesses still vividly remember how a group of SS and Gestapo stationed in Prague drove over from the main road, how they recklessly broke into the village, and how they lined up to check and prove the identities of the residents one by one. Interrogation will be conducted by the SS and Gestapo. Throughout, there were threats and intimidation, but overall, the residents of Lidize did not suffer too much harm. Perhaps for the sake of amusement, or perhaps greatly annoyed by the lack of any weapons, equipment, or evidence of guilt, the national defense forces and police detachments broke into the tidy and unique homes of residents, looted items, or smashed furniture and furnishings into pieces and threw them onto the streets. It is obvious that for the Gestapo, "evidence" can be forged. The German Defense Forces truck finally roared back to Prague. No formal connection was found between the village of Lidize and the murder of Heydrich. One excuse for choosing this village as a target is that two families living in the secondary area - the Hokola family and the Striberni family - have sons in England who are members of the Czech underground resistance organization. In addition, the Germans also claimed to have machine guns hidden in this village, and British paratroopers had landed in this area. However, to this day, those who survived the subsequent massacre still absolutely deny these accusations. Finally, the families of Hokola and Striberney were arrested, but no trace of the parachute was found. The second critical invasion of Lidize occurred on the night of June 9th. On the day of Heydrich's funeral, Karl Bohm called Himmler in Berlin to inform him of sufficient "evidence" to accuse the village and suggested retaliatory action. The Bom report states: Target: Lidize Village in the Colladino region. At 19:45 on June 9, 1942, Karl Frank, the regional commander of the SS, called from Berlin and verbally instructed: Today, in accordance with the orders of the F ü hrer, the following measures should be taken against the village of Lidize: first, to execute all adult male residents; Secondly, imprison all female residents in concentration camps; Thirdly, gather children together and send qualified ones to the homes of the Imperial SS for German education; The remaining children who are not suitable for German education should receive other forms of education; Fourthly, it is necessary to rely on the fire brigade to burn down the entire area and level it to the ground. Bohm set off for Koladino to personally command the operation, accompanied by Dr. Otto Geszck, the Gestapo leader from Prague, and Weisman, the Gestapo leader from the Koladino region. The regular police in the Koladino area have surrounded the village tightly, leaving only one entrance for residents to enter. Then, a team of security police led by SS squad leader Max Rostock entered Lidize. Afterwards, the Gestapo reported that 199 male villagers were executed and 195 female villagers were arrested during this operation. The special execution team transferred from Prague erected a row of mattresses on the walls around the barn to prevent stray bullets from bouncing back. They selected adult men and boys and executed 10 at once, while women, young boys, and children were sent to transit camps; The women were eventually sent to Ravensburg concentration camp, and out of 95 children, 9 were deemed worthy of German education; And most of the children disappeared as dealers, with only 16 of them found after World War II. The 9 selected children will be handed over to a parenting organization - a system favored by Himmler, which focuses on maternal families and provides benefits to children fathered by the SS. However, the entire village was set on fire, those that needed to be bombed were blown up, those that needed to be shoveled were leveled by bulldozers, and the debris was also transported away. Poultry and pets were shot, and graves were dug up. Outside a plain that would soon be overgrown with weeds, the traces of this village's existence disappeared completely. The next day, a pre drafted script was broadcasted on the radio: "In the process of searching for the murderer of SS General Heydrich, there is ample evidence to prove that the residents of the village supported and provided assistance to these killers. In addition to helping the killers, these residents also participated in other hostile actions against Germany. For example, they secretly hid ammunition and weapons, illegally possessed transmitters, and hoarded a large amount of special state controlled materials... All buildings in the village have now been demolished, and the name of the village has been erased." However, in a sense, Lidize Village has not disappeared. Germans themselves are responsible for this oversight. A large number of details describing this massacre have been incorporated into old-fashioned footage by the Imperial Film Company. The film footage documenting the Lidize Village massacre became ironclad facts and evidence for the trial of Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg Military Tribunal. What has been permanently preserved are only the last moments of this village: the burning houses of Lidiza village, the patrolling army and police shuttling through the streets, and of course, the pile of corpses on the Horak family ranch. The body of a dog chained up in a kennel was also captured on camera; Then the camera shook through binoculars towards a German officer: in the camera, the tower of the village church was bombed three times before collapsing; Obviously, the officer was very annoyed; The pastor had already been killed, and the film also recorded the "image" of the destroyer himself: they seemed to be making a family movie, laughing at the camera and joking with each other. In order to leave no trace, the Gestapo captured a large number of laborers from the Jewish settlement near Trekin and forced them to build a special railway in the village of Lidize, which was used to transport all the rubble from Lidize. Every day, a large number of waste bricks and tiles were transported out of Lidize. When the work was almost completed, some of those laborers were sent to concentration camps and death camps, and a group of people were executed on the spot. After the execution, the bodies were burned and buried on the spot. To the great anger of the Gestapo, the White Terror deliberately created in Lidize Village and other places failed to startle the assassins. The relevant reports that have already been adopted and reviewed have become worthless. Heinz von Panvitz, the head of the Gestapo Anti Subversion Department in Prague, suggested to Frank to grant amnesty to anyone who is prepared to confess and surrender within a specified period of time. Heinz ultimately convinced Frank to limit it to 5 days and issued a pardon notice on June 13th. On June 18th, the Gestapo discovered seven assassins in the basement of the Kalell Bromejesky Church. After a gunfight, none of the seven agents survived. Two of them committed suicide by taking poison, while the rest ended their lives with their own guns. Finally, the Gestapo cut off the head of the assassin, Czech warrant officer Jan Kubis, and showed it to his family. His elderly mother fainted on the spot. The assassination of Heydrich came to an end, and the village of Lidize disappeared from the map. However, after World War II, the Czechs began to rebuild Lidize village, and when the original residents returned to their original place, they only saw a barren grassland. During the excavation project, the workers discovered an ancient village emblem of Lidize Village, which still stands as a symbol of Lidize Village today. The destruction and rebirth of the Gestapo, which razed the entire village of Lidice to the ground and attempted to eliminate it from the earth, has aroused the anger of people from all over the world. On June 12th, as soon as the news of the Lidice tragedy spread, a small town in Illinois, USA announced its name change to Lidice. A month later, San Jeronimo near the Mexican capital was also renamed Lidice, and now it has developed into a big city with a population of 2 million. Subsequently, villages in Brazil, Venezuela, Israel, South Africa, as well as squares, streets, and even girls' names in other places began to be called Lidice. Although people from all corners of the world do not know each other, they have all gathered together to support the suffering Czech people in order to fight against fascism. Since 1948, volunteers from around the world have been building the brand new village of Lidice next to this ruins. A beautiful rose garden has built a bridge of happiness between the old and new villages. These rose seeds were gifted by peace loving people from all over the world, along with blessings from China. The ruins of the old village have long been covered by large green lawns, dotted with lush green trees and golden ponds on the undulating slopes, making people feel like they are in a paradise on earth. This is not only deeply moving, but only peace can bring such a beautiful world, and with peace, humanity has hope.