Memorial service for town of Lidice.

Memorial service for town of Lidice. More than 100.000 persons gathered for a memorial service June 10th 1945, on the site of what once was the village of Lidice. Completely obliterated by the Germans in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard (known as 'The Hangman') Heydrich, June 10, 1942. Benes was present and reviewed Russian and Czech troops in the barren area. Germans systematically erased the town of 662 inhabitants from existance, they lined all the men up in groups of 10 and shot them, shipped the women to concentration camps and the children to unknown destinations. The town was burned and dynamited, then Jewish prisoners from a concentration camp were forced to remove all traces of the village and bury the Lidice men. After the task was done, the Jews were shot. The land was then farmed to further cover all traces of the town. On the site of razed Lidice, the men of the new Czechoslovakian Army present arms as President Benes walks down the line during a review after the Lidice memorial ceremony.