Recent Vestry Notes
Vestry Notes
Vestry Notes (week of 11/09/25)
Every time we travel this globe, Pat and I make a point of visiting historical sites, many of which are beautiful, many of which bring us wonder and some of which remind us of the horrors that have happened across this globe. We have been to Holocaust Museums across Scandinavia that document their efforts in the resistance as well as the Holocaust Museums in Washington DC and Israel. We have walked through the gates of Auschwitz and entered the gas chambers there. We have visited Treblinka, Terezin and more. Each has left an imprint on our souls.
On a recent trip to the Czech Republic, we experienced their story of resistance. It was here that we learned the story of Lidice Czechoslovakia, a population we pray for every year as we process in during the Holocaust Remembrance Service. A favorite of Hitler, Reinhard Heydrich was the leading Nazi in German-occupied Czechoslovakia where his brutal regime earned him the nickname the ‘Butcher of Prague’. He became known as the “Architect of Death” because he was the one who designed the “Final Solution” and organized the deportation of Jews. Forced emigration was the first ‘solution’ to Hitler’s ‘Jewish problem’. The second was confinement of those who remained through the formation of ghettos in cities. It was Heydrich’s idea that Jews, whom he described as “subhuman” should wear a yellow Star of David badge for ease of identification and as a humiliation. By mid-1941, the ‘final solution’ was decided: execute Jews en masse. Heydrich communicated this change of policy to his police staff in January 1942, boasting he would see that 11 million Jews were eliminated. For this terrible purpose, Heydrich ordered the conversion of concentration camps into death camps, Auschwitz becoming the most infamous. The scheme was called “Operation Reinhard”.
In an operation code-named Anthropoid, a group of British trained Czech resistance fighters parachuted into Czechoslovakia in December of 1941 to study Heydrich’s movements to determine the best time and place to make an attempt on his life. The task was made easy since Heydrich foolishly followed exactly the same routines, such as using the same route to travel between his headquarters in Prague Castle and his villa 6 miles to the north of the capital. Hitting Heydrich while in his Mercedes car was immediately identified as the best opportunity of killing the Nazi, especially as he usually had no escort and always sat prominently in the front seat of his convertible with the top down. The place of the attack was chosen: a tight corner in the suburbs where the driver would have to slow down.
The site of Heydrich’s assassination
On 27 May 1942, as Heydrich’s car slowed, one of the assassins attempted to fire but his weapon malfunctioned. The Germans in the car fired at the assailant, hitting him but his team stepped in and threw a grenade at the car. The grenade hit the back door and exploded, punching a hole through the car. Heydrich staggered out and fell on the road. The team escaped the scene. Heydrich was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for a wound in his side which was deep, but his life was not considered in danger. He refused to have a Czech doctor treat him and by the time the German physician showed up 4 days later, he had died of blood poisoning.
Heydrich was replaced by Karl Hermann Frank, who offered a huge cash reward for information about the assassins. The seven agents directly involved in the plot were betrayed by a man who had trained at their side. They had gone into hiding in the crypt of Saints Cyril and Methodius Church in Prague. After a relentless siege, it was clear the crypt could not be breached, and the SS began flooding the chamber with water. Rather than surrender, the men took their own lives. Four churchmen were then executed for helping the agents, as were over 250 more Czechs suspected of having given aid to the operation.
St Cyril and Methodius Church
The Bullet holes
On June 9, the day of Heydrich’s state funeral in Berlin, Hitler ordered the annihilation of Lidice. This choice was somewhat arbitrary. The town had been named in a letter found during the first days of the SS investigations into the attack on Heydrich. Desperate for leads, the Germans singled out Lidice as the site of retaliation. However, there was no real evidence connecting the people of the town with the assassins. But the Nazis used even the smallest pretext to take revenge for Heydrich’s death. All 500 residents of the town were rounded up, 199 men and boys were shot on the spot, 11 women were imprisoned, 198 women were deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp north of Berlin, and 98 children were taken to Germany for adoption, although 81 of these were later executed on “racial grounds”. The village itself was razed, and the ruins blown up using dynamite; the whole process was filmed. That film was later shown at the Nuremburg Trials where two of the young girls who survived testified. The name Lidice was adopted by many towns across the world as a memorial to the depravity of the Nazi regime.
Now, you know why we include Lidice Czechoslovakia in our opening procession. May we never forget! I close with a prayer written by young British students after their visit to Auschwitz:
We say together
Let us seek a more peaceful world,
Where all are valued and none are excluded,
Where justice and mercy flow like rivers
Where relationships are built on love and acceptance, not fear and intolerance
And where we all recognize our part in bringing that peace. Amen
May it be so,
Colleen Hintz for the Vestry
Vestry Members: Brian Malcolm, Paulette Bellew, Wardens, Melissa Allman, Paul Cecala, Jennifer Corrieri, Agnes Clyne, Leslie Harden, Colleen Hintz, Chuck Johnson, and Barbara Shannon.
