Zelenka was born on September 9, 1938 in Kladno. “In old Lidice he lived with his parents in house no. 87. Václav’s father, who worked in the Kladno ironworks, was shot dead by the Germans at Horák’s farm on June 10, 1942. Žofie’s mother survived the hardships of the Ravensbrück concentration camp,” Chourová Plachá described.

On the day of the extermination of the village, the four-year-old Zelenka, together with other children and women from Lidice, was taken to the Kladno grammar school, where the Nazis, together with Hana Špotová and Dagmar Vesela, chose her to Germanize.

“From the children’s Puščikovo, where he lived until 1944, he was transferred to the Oberweis children’s home in Oberdonau, where he stayed until February 1945. Eventually, they went to the Wagner family in Lohs, where he lived under the name Rolf Wagner,” said Chourová Plachá. He was found in May 1947 and then was repatriated back to Czechoslovakia, where he met his mother again.

He moved with her to the newly built Lidice. From 1999 to 2006, he was their mayor and lived here until his death. He was married and had three sons.

This year, the Lidice witness Marie Šupíková, who was born in Lidice on August 22, 1932, her birth name was Doležalová, also died in March this year. She was also among several children from Lidice selected for re-education. The last woman from Lidice, Jaroslava Skleničková, who is 95 years old, and several children from Lidice now live.

The Nazis exterminated Lidice in June 1942. Of the approximately 500 inhabitants of the village, 160 survived the war. 53 Lidice women did not survive their stay in the concentration camps. In the deportation camp, 82 children from Lidice were strangled in a gas car. After the liberation, 143 Lidice women and 17 children gradually returned to Lidice.