The paratroopers are jumping down in Prague again, reminiscent of the heroes of the assassination of Heydrich
A pieta will follow in Václavská Street at the Memorial Stones. These are laid in the pavement at the place where the dead bodies of the paratroopers were laid in 1942.
The event is organized by the Ministry of Defense, Prague 2 and the Military History Institute. Jana Černochová, the Ministry of Defense, is also due to take part, and the mayor of the second district of Prague 2, Alexandra Udženija (both ODS), will also arrive.
The paratroopers, led by Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík, carried out a successful assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich, the Reich’s Protector of the Reich in Bohemia and Moravia, on 27 May 1942. Heydrich, who wanted to suppress the Czech resistance and also resolve the “Jewish question”, died after being injured on June 4.
Based on the contacts of the domestic resistance, the paratroopers hid in the church in Resslova Street in the days after the assassination.
Back in mid-June, it seemed that the main core of the collaborators and paratroopers would be able to continue the resistance activities. But then came the betrayal of Karel Čurda, whose report of June 16 led to the revelation of the paratroopers’ hideout. The Gestapo began arresting, and those who had given them refuge had entered the prisons.
After four o’clock in the morning on June 18, 1942, the Orthodox Church in Prague’s Resslova Street was surrounded by 800 German soldiers. The brave resistance of the heroes with 6.35 and 7.65 millimeter pistols against multiple superiority armed with submachine guns and hand grenades lasted about seven hours.
Jan Hrubý, Jaroslav Švarc, Josef Valčík, Jozef Gabčík, Adolf Opálka, Jan Kubiš and Josef Bublík died in the church.