We went to the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius to visit the National Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror.
I want to start by saying that I have always known that the Nazis were pure evil - as evil as it is possible to be. But then I learn more about them, and I find out they were even worse than I thought, if that is possible. I know what the Nazis did to the Jews was orders of magnitude worse than what happened to the Czechs, but it is still disturbing to hear this story.
Here is the short version.
The Nazis took over the Czech nation in 1939. Heydrich, a Nazi officer, was brutal and calculating. It was Heydrich who came up with the idea of concentration camps.
Heydrich was placed in charge of the Czech territory and became know as the Butcher of Prague. His mission was to erase the Czech nation. His methods were drastic - forced Germanization, resettlement, murder. Within 24 hours of his arrival in Prague, his men started rounding up and executing dozens of Czech leaders who potentially threatened his absolute control.
The Czech resistance group in England formed a plan to assassinate Heydrich. Two young soldiers were trained for the mission. They were air-dropped into Czech territory, and, with help from locals, they managed to carry out their mission.
The German retribution was immediate, vicious, and terrible. The Germans (incorrectly) believed that the assassains had been helped by villagers in two nearby towns. Everyone in the towns - men, women and children - was executed or sent to concentration camps, and the towns were destroyed. Over the next months, more than 5,000 people were executed by the Nazis in an effort to locate the assassains, to punish their collaborators, and to get rid of anyone else the Nazis didn't want to have around. Not only did they kill the people they suspected of being in the resistance, they also killed the families of those people.
Ultimately, the heroes were betrayed by a fellow paratrooper. The two men and five other soldiers had been hiding in the crypt of the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius. The Nazis surrounded the building. A shootout ensued. The 7 either died from injuries or took their own lives.
The Nazis continued the terror. They exterminated more family members. They executed four clergy members who had a role in providing sanctuary.
Today there is an exhibit in the crypt of the Cathedral commemmorating this gruesome chapter of WWII history and honoring all the victims of the terror.
The Czechs suffered during WWII (and they continued to suffer afterward under the Communists) and to the Czechs this story represents their refusal to give up without a fight.
A few blocks away one can find the Dancing House. This is an office building designed by Frank Gehry. It is somewhat out of character for Prague, but it is a fun piece of architecture.
For dinner we went to a place called Kolkovna Celnice. I was expecting an authentic Czech meal. I'm not sure that's what we got. It turned out to be part of a chain and I didn't like my food all that much. I ordered goulash. It wasn't like Hungarian goulash. It wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't get it again.
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