Lidice
Lidice is a village in the Czech Republic just northwest of Prague.
This tiny village became a part of the tragic history of World War II. Adolf Hitler ordered Lidice to be razed to the ground as a lesson to the Czechs and a representation of what would happen to anyone who opposed his rule. The act was a retaliation for the assassination of the Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich by Czech patriots. On the night of June 9, 1942, a Gestapo unit entered Lidice. The entire adult male population was shot, nearly 200 men; about the same number of women was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. The children were either sent to Germany to be "Aryanized" or accompanied the women to the death camp. By June 10 the entire village was completely wiped out.
The news of the destruction of Lidice spread rapidly around the world.
Several villages throughout the world took over the name of Lidice in memory of that village, and many women born at that time and given the name of Lidice still bear it today. Lidice continued to live in the minds of people all over the world, and after the war the Czechoslovak government's decision to build it again was declared at a peace demonstration on June 10, 1945 at Lidice which was attended by Lidice women who had survived.
The name Lidice soon became an example around the world of what the Nazis were capable of. A group of English miners from Birmingham took up the cause and formed "Lidice Must Live," an initiative to build a new village of Lidice.
May 1948 work began on building the first houses. A modern village of 150 houses gradually arose with the enormous help of volunteers from all over the Republic as well as from abroad. The present council house, post office, house of culture and shopping centre were built at the same time. The old site was preserved as a memorial including the common grave of the Lidice men, a monument and museum, and between it and the new village a "Park of Peace and Friendship" was opened on June 19, 1955 where thousands of rose-bushes from various parts of the world were planted.
International Children’s Exhibition of Fine Arts
The International Children’s Exhibition of Fine Arts Lidice (ICEFA Lidice) was established in 1967 to commemorate the child victims from the Czech village of Lidice murdered by German Nazis, as well as all other children who have died in wars.
Until 1972 it had been a national competition then it changed its statute and became an international exhibition. It is pleasant that the exhibition is mentioned in renowned quarterly "Child Art" (The Magazine of the International Child Art Foundation), that is edited by ICAF (International Child Art Foundation) seated in Washington, as one of the most significant exhibitions together with those in Israel, France, Ireland, USA and others.