The Nazi Massacre of Lidice

Happened 68 years ago, yet the stories and impact will never be forgotten. It is about human courage ,sacrifice, but also about senseless cruelty and mass murder.

One of the victims was the local priest JOSEF STEMBERKA (1869-1942). On that fateful day in June, 1942 he was visiting Kladno. In spite of being secretly warned not to return to Lidice because "there is some trouble here", he felt it to be his duty to return to his parishioners to give support and help. When he arrived in Lidice he was immediately questioned by the local Nazi SS-"Fuhrer" Max Heinrich Rostock and given the option to leave this village and to settle elsewhere in the Czech lands, because he was a priest and even the Nazis were occasionally reluctant to kill clergymen.

But Father Stemberka again refused and decided to stay with the rest of the men to be executed on June 10, 1942.