Motto:
People, stop and listen to the
message of children killed by war!
Hurry up to tell all that everything
is dependant on a spider's thread!
I know it! But I cannot do anything
else but these statues of children - to the best
of my skills ....
(From the poem "Whist there is still
an open door in the world"
of the academic sculptor Marie Uchytilova 1987)
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14)7) The transported statues are still on board of the truck.
8) Some of the statues are so heavy, that an A-frame has to be used
in order to position them.
9) J.V.Hampl (on the left) with the metal founders from Moravia
(in the middle) and Mr. Ing. Flexa (on the right)
10) The lifting of the statues is very difficult.
11) The setting of a statue into a concrete foundation.
12) Detail of a sad girl.
13) Even two strong man are nearly not enough to lift one bronze
statue.
14) Detail of the smallest boy standing at the front of the memorial.
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18)15) And the work is finished. The dream of Mrs. Marie Uchytilova
has been realised in bronze only after her death, by her husband, Mr. J.V.
Hampl.
16) Sculptor Marie Uchytilova (17.1.1924 - 16.11.1989)
17) A bronze medal created by Marie Uchytilova with a motif of a
newborn baby and a broken rose bud as a sign of a wasted life. (5cm)
18) Another bronze medal with a relief of Lidice's cross on the
obverse side, where there are engraved names of murdered Lidice's children.
(6cm)
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20)19) Pavla Nesporova washing the "Memorial of child victims of the
war".
20) Washing the plinthof fine sand which remained here from Wednesday’s
assembly of the final statues.
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25)22) Those who brought the toys for the children surely gave from
the heart.
23) "A girl with a little monkey"
24) The children's statues with toys, how eloquent and yet a paradox!
25) A girl has a marble in her palm, we found it whilst washing
the statues.
A bronze memorial plaque, added to the memorial on the same day of its finishing, carries a note:
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35)26) A hand of a child holding its mother's skirt.
27) Lidice's mother, a symbol of grief and suffering.
28) A statue of a mother hugging her baby which was ripped away
from her.
29) An imprint of a child's head in its mother's lap.
30) Behind the fence in the courtyard, to the shame of history,
a Lidice mother is remembering the last moments with her children ....
31) A negative of sad child's eyes.
32) Through this gate the Lidice women with their children entered,
but left only with empty arms.
33) A plaster plaque 21cm in diameter with a personal dedication
by the designer on the reverse side to Mrs. Anna Nesporova. (1981)
34) A plaque with heads of the children (79mm)
35) Reverse side of the plaque with children's names (79mm)
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Anna Nesporova, (nee Horakova) from Lidice (married as Kohlickova during the tragedy), tells the story about the children.
In the old village of Lidice lived 98 children by 10th June 1942. After separating the children from their mothers in the great hall of Kladno's Grammar School, the 7 children under one were selected and transported to a hospital in Krc in Prague. From these seven children, only six returned after the war.
91 children older than one year were transported to Lodz in Poland. Once there a 9 were selected for re-education in German families. All the nine children returned.
The 82 remaining children were murdered during the transport from Lodz to Chelmno in Poland by exhaust gases in two lorries converted to be gas chambers.
Those children never reached Chelmno.
After the Lidice tragedy another 6 children were born in Prague, 20 Dykova street, where the pregnant woman from Lidice were taken. From these 6 children born after 10th June 1942 only 2 returned.
My daughter Venuska was borned in Dykova street. I gave her name after my husband Vaclav Kohlicek, but I could never christen her as I was shortly deported to concentration camp Ravensbruck in Germany.
Venuska never came back.
There was another baby boy born in the concentration camp, but he was killed instantly by an SS guard and his mum, Mrs. Hronikova was viciously beaten up. It is that child that is depicted on the plaques of Mrs. Uchytilova, without a Christian name. He was the last born child from the old village Lidice.
From the whole tragedy survived only 17 children out of 105.
Lidice 28th June 2000
All that Mrs. Nesporova has left of her daughter
is her death certificate, a thin yellowish copy paper, signed by District
Court in Kladno.
Under no. R1 2483/28 - III. 17.IV.50.
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36)36) 20 Dykova street, where the pregnant women from Lidice were taken.
37) A memorial plaque on 20 Dykova street. Now in use as a youth
hostel.
Under the memorial plaque is added English translation by Mr. Ing.
Jiri Vondracek.
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As a mayor of community of Lidice and on behalf of all citizens of this small village near Prague, I would like to thank you for your broad-minded financial gift with which you have contributed to finish sculpture children of Lidice.
This work of art is testimony of people evil and
lawlessness which German nazi caused on innocent Lidice's children during
the second world war. To finish the 82 figures from bronze was needed to
collect a considerable amount of money. On this collection took a
part also you and many other candidates from other different
countries. This event has become a symbol of international solidarity
and is an important proposition that the world is not staying indifferent
to the humans tragedies.
Yours truly
Vaclav Zelenka
The Mayor of Lidice
Lidice 25th july 2000