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The Germans announce over the wireless that as the inhabitants of a Czech village called Lidice [...] were guilty of harbouring the assassins of Heydrich, they

The Germans announce over the wireless that as the inhabitants of a Czech village called Lidice [...] were guilty of harbouring the assassins of Heydrich, they have shot all the males in the village, sent all the women to concentration camps, sent all the children to be “re-educated”, razed the whole village to the ground and changed its name. [...] It does not particularly surprise me that people do this kind of thing, nor even that they announce that they are doing them. What does impress me, however, is that other people’s reaction to such happenings is governed solely by the political fashion of the moment. [...] In a little while you will be jeered at if you suggest that the story of Lidice could possibly be true. And yet there the facts are, announced by the Germans themselves and recorded on gramophone discs In our age of social media, that phenomenon is no longer surprising.

gleenn 1y ago
Screwing the other side is far easier to sell than having things be good for the average person. Some pretty gross displays of greed and hypocrisy.
- mc32 1y ago
  Sometimes it’s just ideology ploughing through as in the cases that happened in Ukraine before WWII but after Lenin died.
  - throwawayoldie 1y ago
    "Ploughing through". I see what you did there.
  - Joker_vD 1y ago
    Do... you refer to the "korenizatsiya" [0] effort during which the Russian language/culture/tradition was heavily penalized and the local ethnic languages/cultures/traditions elevated to the official and mandatory status? There are enough of open letters from the local Russian-descended population to the central papers that complained about such policy, and even more articles in those papers as the response that declare that yes, the Party absolutely wants to stamp out the Russian cultural influences from the national republics because otherwise there is no chance to build the socialism, so if the not quite politically correct workers would please stop complaining so much and keep in with the Party line, thank you — or else. Thankfully, until the mid-30s that "or else" was mostly sacking from the current place of work and expulsion from the Party. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korenizatsiia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korenizatsiia
    - the_why_of_y 1y ago
      ... and in typical fashion of Stalin, first he substantially created this policy, and then he completely reversed it in 1938, so that Russian became mandatory to teach in all schools and the local nationals in leadership positions were purged.
thomassmith65 1y ago
This entry piqued my curiosity, and I did a cursory search for the original broadcast; what wording does a government use to position an announcement like this? I didn't find a recording, but I did find a related article from June 12, 1942 https://nytimes.com/1942/06/12/archives/nazis-kill-34-more-intio-czech-cities-follow-up-the-lidice-massacre.html https://nytimes.com/1942/06/12/archives/nazis-kill-34-more-i... ...and a newsreel statement from Czechoslovakian President-in-exile Beneš from June 29, 1942 https://youtu.be/QFMJYhJNmeQ https://youtu.be/QFMJYhJNmeQ
- n4r9 1y ago
  I was also curious as I haven't heard of this before. There's a Wikipedia page about the massacre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice_massacre It links to a Wikimedia page including photos of written announcements of the massacre in German: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lidice_massacre#/media/File:Prag_11.6.42.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lidice_massacre#... Wikipedia also links to Nurembourg Trial proceedings where apparently footage of the anihilation was presented. See sections 120-121 of https://archive.is/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/02-22-46.asp https://archive.is/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/02-22-46.a... And footage of the immediate aftermath, kept in a secret German archive: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn556023/ https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn556023/
  - thomassmith65 1y ago
    I wasn't familiar with the incident either. At first, I assumed it was Oradour-sur-Glane, which was a similar case but in France. I have seen drone footage of current-day Oradour-sur-Glane on Youtube. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre

gleenn 1y ago

Screwing the other side is far easier to sell than having things be good for the average person. Some pretty gross displays of greed and hypocrisy.

mc32 1y ago
Sometimes it’s just ideology ploughing through as in the cases that happened in Ukraine before WWII but after Lenin died.
- throwawayoldie 1y ago
  "Ploughing through". I see what you did there.
- Joker_vD 1y ago
  Do... you refer to the "korenizatsiya" [0] effort during which the Russian language/culture/tradition was heavily penalized and the local ethnic languages/cultures/traditions elevated to the official and mandatory status? There are enough of open letters from the local Russian-descended population to the central papers that complained about such policy, and even more articles in those papers as the response that declare that yes, the Party absolutely wants to stamp out the Russian cultural influences from the national republics because otherwise there is no chance to build the socialism, so if the not quite politically correct workers would please stop complaining so much and keep in with the Party line, thank you — or else. Thankfully, until the mid-30s that "or else" was mostly sacking from the current place of work and expulsion from the Party. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korenizatsiia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korenizatsiia
  - the_why_of_y 1y ago
    ... and in typical fashion of Stalin, first he substantially created this policy, and then he completely reversed it in 1938, so that Russian became mandatory to teach in all schools and the local nationals in leadership positions were purged.

thomassmith65 1y ago

This entry piqued my curiosity, and I did a cursory search for the original broadcast; what wording does a government use to position an announcement like this? I didn't find a recording, but I did find a related article from June 12, 1942 https://nytimes.com/1942/06/12/archives/nazis-kill-34-more-intio-czech-cities-follow-up-the-lidice-massacre.html https://nytimes.com/1942/06/12/archives/nazis-kill-34-more-i... ...and a newsreel statement from Czechoslovakian President-in-exile Beneš from June 29, 1942 https://youtu.be/QFMJYhJNmeQ https://youtu.be/QFMJYhJNmeQ

n4r9 1y ago
I was also curious as I haven't heard of this before. There's a Wikipedia page about the massacre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice_massacre It links to a Wikimedia page including photos of written announcements of the massacre in German: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lidice_massacre#/media/File:Prag_11.6.42.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lidice_massacre#... Wikipedia also links to Nurembourg Trial proceedings where apparently footage of the anihilation was presented. See sections 120-121 of https://archive.is/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/02-22-46.asp https://archive.is/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/02-22-46.a... And footage of the immediate aftermath, kept in a secret German archive: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn556023/ https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn556023/
- thomassmith65 1y ago
  I wasn't familiar with the incident either. At first, I assumed it was Oradour-sur-Glane, which was a similar case but in France. I have seen drone footage of current-day Oradour-sur-Glane on Youtube. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre