Children's Day is just around the corner, so I wish children all over the world a happy holiday. Many of us celebrate Children's Day with our friends when we are young, spend time with our children after starting a family, and celebrate with grandchildren and grandchildren after they are old, it can be said that Children's Day is not less, but do you know the origin of Children's Day?
Who would have thought that behind this joyous holiday is a cruel history, June 1 Children's Day originated from hitler's "Lidice Massacre" in the Czech Republic during World War II, which was caused by the assassination of The Gestapo leader Heydrich in the Czech Republic.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Heydrich</h1>
Reinhard Heydrich, the second-in-command of the German Nazi SS, was second only to Himmler, and even Himmler was jealous of his power and talents.
He joined the Nazi Party and SS in June 1931, took over the SS security service in July 1932, headed the "Security Police" from 1936, became director of the General Directorate of State Security in 1939, and became Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the SS in 1941.
Heydrich nicknamed many nicknames, most of which were "Nazi decapitations", "followers of death", "Nazi demon kings", "black prince of the Third Reich" and other horror titles. These titles all derive from his frenzied slaughter of Jews.
Legend has it that Heydrich's Germanic ancestry was not pure, and his grandmother was Jewish, which means that a quarter of his body was of Jewish descent. But Heydrich denied such allegations and won the case in three charges against him of Jewish ancestry. He also sent for the destruction of all material related to his origins, including the tombstone of his grandmother, Sarah Heydrich.
Perhaps to dispel doubts about his pedigree, he was an extreme anti-Semite who spared no effort in the eyes of his superiors, colleagues, and subordinates. In the eyes of the Jews, he was the frightening executioner, the "Nazi devil" who killed people without blinking.
In 1941, Heydrich formed four special operations units dedicated to the massacre of Soviet Jews, killing nearly a million Soviet Jews, most of them women, children and the elderly, over the course of more than a year.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Czech governor</h1>
In September 1941, Heydrich came to the Czech Republic.
At this time, the Czech Republic had been renamed the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia" by Hitler, and although the president was still Czech, the real power was in the hands of the German governor.
Heydrich's arrival was tasked with suppressing the Czech resistance and restoring order to production.
The night he arrived in Prague, martial law began for three months in many Czech cities. Three weeks later, 404 Czechs were executed on charges of "opposing the Germans, smuggling, participating in strikes, demagogizing propaganda, and insulting the Fuehrer," earning Heydrich the title of "Butcher of Prague."
After initially containing the Czech revolt, he began the policy of Huaijue, as he still had the task of resuming the improvement of Czech industrial and agricultural production.
To this end, he not only repealed many laws of the occupation authorities that reduced Czechs to second-class citizens, increased the supply of oil and fat for the workers, and requisitioned luxury hotels in the famous bohemian health resorts as workers' holidays. He even reformed the Czech social insurance system, which lagged far behind Germany, and together with his wife, Lena, he received one Czech social representative after another.
Heydrich's combined tactics began to bear fruit, Czech industrial production began to pick up, and the domestic resistance movement fell into a trough. This caused uneasiness in the Czech government-in-exile, which came to the conclusion that Heydrich must be eliminated. Only by killing him could the Germans retaliate, which in turn could lead to a revival of the resistance.
The intelligence agencies of the government-in-exile developed an action plan to assassinate Heydrich, code-named Apes.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > ape action</h1>
After a few months of rule over the Czech Republic, Heydrich was somewhat fluttering, and in his opinion, he had conquered the country, and the Czech people had only reverence and affection for him. From the spring of 1942 he moved into a luxury villa 25 kilometres north of Prague, where he travelled daily in an open-top sedan between his residence and Prague. In order to establish his image of being close to the people, he did not even bring a guard except for a driver. It should be said that this journey is full of dangers, but Heydrich enjoys it.
On May 27, 1942, four members of the "Apes" action group had already ambushed the Hanadle Bend in the Ribben district, the only way to Prague. This was determined by the Apes action team to be the best place to assassinate after months of stepping on and reconnaissance.
Usually at around 9:30, Heydrich passed by in his Mercedes Convertible. But Heydrich was late that day, and at about 10:30 heydrich's car reached the Hanadell bend.
As the car slowed down and turned, Gabsikh, who was lurking by the road, held up a British-made Stern submachine gun and pulled the trigger on Heydrich. Unexpectedly, the submachine gun was stuck at this time. Seeing that the assassination operation was about to fail, the target of the assassination made an unexpected move. Heydrich not only did not let the driver speed up and escape the danger, but instead ordered the driver to slow down and stop.
It is reasonable to say that Heydrich has always been in charge of security work and should know the number of assassination routes. Usually, he is also known for his superior intelligence and outstanding ability. Somehow hot-headed, I have to deal with the ambushers with my own hands.
As soon as the car stopped, Heydrich raised his pistol and fired, Kubis of the action team pulled out the grenade hidden in his purse and threw it. The grenade exploded at the right rear wheel baffle of the Mercedes, shattering the glass of the tram that was driving by. Shrapnel and body fragments from grenades burrowed through the backrest of the car into Heydrich's back, causing him serious internal injuries.
Heydrich's blown-up convertible car
The wounded Heydrich still rushed out of the car and opened fire on the Assassins, but there were no bullets in the pistols, and the members of the operations team took advantage of the chaos and followed the planned route to evacuate.
Heydrich was carried to the hospital by Czech police and onlookers who arrived later in a passing truck.
Heydrich underwent surgery by a German doctor in the hospital, which was successful and his spleen was removed. Soon, Himmler sent the best surgeons from Germany and the SS to consult, and even Hitler's personal physician, Morrel, joined the consultation.
On 31 May, Himmler arrived in Prague to visit Heydrich. At noon on June 3, Heydrich, who had been in a better condition, suddenly fell unconscious. On the morning of 4 June, Heydrich died in Brovka Hospital.
Operation Apes was successfully decapitated.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the Lidice massacre</h1>
Hitler was shocked by Heydrich's death because he intended to make Heydrich his heir. Germany held a grand state funeral ceremony for Heydrich, which Hitler personally presided over. At the funeral, Hitler was emotional, and he described Heydrich as "a man of iron will", but after saying only a few words, he left in disgrace.
As envisioned by the Czech government-in-exile, Hitler soon retaliated.
Using a letter of unknown origin, they insisted that villagers in the village of Lidice on the outskirts of Prague had covered up the members of the assassination squad.
On 10 June, German troops massacred 173 male villagers over the age of 15, while women were sent to concentration camps where 88 children were gassed by Germans. About 340 people were killed in the massacre. The Nazis also set fire to entire villages and razed them to the ground, including churches, schools, and even graves. They wanted Lidice to disappear from the map and from the ground, in retaliation and to cover up their indiscriminate killing of innocents.
In November 1949, the International Federation of Democratic Women held a council meeting in Moscow to commemorate the Lidice massacre and all the children who died in the war around the world, to oppose the abuse and poisoning of children, and to safeguard the rights of the child, and to designate the first of June as International Children's Day.