In the footsteps of Operation Anthropoid – the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

During the German occupation from 1939-1945, the Czech Republic was a strategically important area, and in September 1941 the brutal SS officer Reinhard Heydrich was chosen to lead the German troops in the country. Heydrich, who was the brain behind the awful term "Endlösung", the final annihilation of the Jews, put the country in an iron grip and was nicknamed "The Butcher Of Prague". Adolf Hitler referred to Reinhard Heydrich as "The Man With The Iron Heart".

In May 1942, Czech paratroopers, trained in England, succeeded in carrying out an assault on him, and this became the beginning of an unimaginable human hunt, the destruction of an entire village and eventually the death of the assailants, who were betrayed by one of their own and were shot or committed suicide in a crypt under a church in Prague.

This tour, which can be organized on all days by appointment, follows in the footsteps of the dramatic events. The stories will be rolled up for guests to know the background and events - and we shall visit several of the key places, where everything took place.

Firstly we'll go into the very crypt, where the assailants hid and eventually lost their lives.

Then we drive to the place in Prague, where the assassination took place - and from here we follow Heydrich's route to the little castle he had seized and used as a private residence for himself and his family. Then we drive to the town of Kladno, where we find a nice restaurant for lunch (not included), and from there we continue to the moving memorial over the village of Lidice, which was completely wiped out by the SS in 1942 - in fact it was done so thoroughly that new maps were also printed, where the village no longer existed. We are going to see a short film at the museum and also the school photographer's fine photos of the children, who two weeks later suffered a tragic fate and were gassed in Poland. There is not much left of the village, but we can see the place of execution, the foundations of the school and the church, and last but not least the moving work of art, where all 82 murdered children are standing, looking at the area which was once their home.

It is a moving and exciting day, where we have the opportunity to delve into historical facts that not all visitors of Prague know about. We are getting close to the actual events, and the guests who have previously been on this tour, have been deeply moved by it. This is a tough day, and before we return to Prague, we tend to have a refreshment at a cafe in the new village, Lidice, which is now quite close to the memorial. Because in the Czech Republic and in several other countries in the world, it has been decided that the name Lidice for a town must never disappear, but has to be preserved and respected after the terror of a brutal regime in 1942.