Czech Senate president commemorates 81st anniversary of the Nazi annihilation of Ležáky
Speaking to journalists while attending the commemorative ceremony in the Chrudim district for the 81st anniversary of the Nazi annihilation of the Ležáky settlement, president of the Czech Senate Miloš Vystrčil (Civic Democratic Party - ODS) said the task of humanity is to "light the flame of hope", and that it is up to each of us whether the principles of our commonality and our humanity will prevail over the desire to rule over everything. It was his first visit to the ceremony as a political representative.
The last living survivors of the 1942 tragedy laid 11 white roses at the memorial symbolizing the 11 children who were murdered. One of them, Jarmila Doležalová, née Šťulíková, will be 84 this year.
“It was a profound, strong experience because Mrs. Doležalová, who experienced these events, was here today. The situation in Ukraine amplifies the experience of how horrible it is when a monstrous regime takes power and all that can happen as a result,” Vystrčil said, who also spoke with Doležalová for a few moments on Sunday.
Doležalová regularly attends the commemorative gathering, where she has an opportunity to meet up with acquaintances and family members. “This year there are a lot of people here, it’s nice they’re coming to take a look and pay their respects to the memorial,” she told journalists.
The commemorative ceremony regularly includes a morning mass, after which those attending lay wreaths at the Kniha obětí (Book of Victims) memorial; the national anthem is then played, and a recording of the names of the inhabitants of Ležáky who were murdered is also heard. The ceremony closes with paratroopers from Chrudim landing near the mound on which the memorial is located.
Hundreds of people watched the ceremony on 25 June. In 1942, Nazi German forces annihilated Ležáky as part of their terror campaign to avenge the assassination of Acting Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich by Czechoslovak paratroopers.
On 10 June the Nazis annihilated Lidice in the Kladno area and then the Ležáky settlement on 24 June. The Gestapo discovered that the parachutists had maintained a radio connection there between the domestic resistance and the resistance abroad.
After Ležáky was razed to the ground, 33 persons arrested there were sent to the chateau (Zámeček) in Pardubice, where an execution ground was installed during this time of revenge. All of the adults were immediately shot dead without interrogation or trial.
Other people were executed later as well. The Chełmno Extermination Camp became the destination of 11 children from Ležáky who were murdered in the gas chambers there.
Jarmila Šťulíková and her sister Marie were the only survivors – since they were still very young children, they were sent to Germany to be Germanicized. The settlement was never rebuilt.
The space has been a memorial since 1945. Granite cubes mark the foundations of nine houses and granite monuments, called grave houses, stand there in memory of their inhabitants.
A Memorial to the Victims of Fascism (Památník obětí fašismu) with a memorial hall was built in the center of the former community. Since 1978 the grounds of the former village of Ležáky have been a National Cultural Heritage Monument.
