City to mark 80 years of Lidice link
Events commemorate anniversary of support following Nazi atrocity
A SERIES of commemorative events will celebrate Stoke-on-trent’s links to Lidice – on the 80th anniversary of the Czech village’s destruction during the Second World War.
On June 10, 1942, Nazis carried out a brutal attack on Lidice, on the orders of Adolf Hitler, as a reprisal for the assassination of high-ranking German official Reinhard Heydrich.
All 173 men were shot dead, while 184 women and 88 children were deported to concentration camps, many of whom were later gassed, and the village itself was razed to the ground. Some 340 villagers were killed in total, with only 160 returning after the war.
In response to the massacre, the people of Stoke-on-trent launched the Lidice Shall Live campaign, led by doctor and future MP Barnett Stross and backed by the North Staffordshire Miners’ Federation.
The campaign raised £32,000 – about £1 million today – which was used to rebuild Lidice after the war.
Stoke-on-trent has maintained close ties with Lidice to this day, and the Lidice Lives organisation is planning to mark the 80th anniversary of the atrocity next June.
City councillors have now unanimously backed proposals for the authority to mark the anniversary as well. Plans include illuminating Stoke Town Hall in red and yellow – the colours of Lidice – and hosting a ‘civic and friendship’ event on June 10.
There are plans to fly the Czech flag above Stoke Town Hall on three days each year: June 10, September 6 – the anniversary of the launch of Lidice Shall Live – and October 28, which is Czech Independence Day.
Fenton West and Mount Pleasant councillor Cheryl Gerrard, who runs Lidice Lives with her husband Alan, submitted a motion calling for the council’s support, alongside Labour’s Andy Platt.
She said: “We have a very unique and special friendship, not only with Lidice but around the world, with other places that suffered similar atrocities, and places that organised similar acts of solidarity and commemoration, as a result of the Lidice Shall Live campaign that began in this city.
“The working group has met two or three times now, and the idea is to organise various events and projects leading up to the anniversary year. This will include an awareness programme for schoolchildren, and moving forward with the international peace and friendship garden in Hanley.”
Mrs Gerrard said there were plans to invite every city councillor to visit schools in their ward to tell the story of Lidice.
Previous commemorations of the atrocity have included civic visits to the Czech Republic and the planting of a pear tree sapling – taken from a tree which survived the destruction of the village – in Hanley. Mr Platt, councillor for Boothen and Oakhill, welcomed how awareness of Lidice and the Potteriesborn campaign to rebuild the village had increased.
He added: “It was the proudest day in the city’s history when those people stood up, when their sons and husbands were away in the war, and raised that money for people a thousand miles away.
“There was no internet in those days, and very few flights, so it would have been an unseen world. It’s so important that we remember, and continue to do things to commemorate what happened.”
Conservative councillor Ross Irving also backed the motion. He said: “The atrocities committed throughout the Second World War were horrendous, and this one was more horrendous than most.
“I was privileged during my first term as Lord Mayor to visit Lidice on the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the atrocity.
“The link between ourselves and Lidice is strong, and so may it continue to grow. It must never be forgotten what happened on that day in Lidice in 1942, and the part played by Stoke-on-trent in rebuilding that village.”