known architect of the final solution and third most important man of the Reich after Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. Heidrich’s brutality and ruthlessness, gave him the title of the ‘butcher of Prague’. He introduced martial law to the country as soon as he arrived in Prague on the 27th of September 1941 and ordered the arrest of prime minister and minister of traffic Alois Eliáš and Jiří Havelka. For several reasons, the Czech government in exile, with the assistance of the allies orchestrated what came to be known as operation anthropoid. The main mission was the assassination of Reinhard Heidrich, which was planned by Special Group D of the ministry of defense (responsible for the training of Czechoslovak soldiers, in intelligence and sabotage …show more content…
Himmler, ordered the arrest of the entire Czech intelligentsia, where the first 100 most important members were to be shot. A massive search operation was also conducted, where 21,000 men searched 36,000 houses. The highlight of the reprisal operations, was the destruction of the villages known as Lidice and Ležáky. Both places were erroneously linked to the parachutists and the resistance and annihilated as a result. The SS troops arrested and executed the men of the village, whilst sending the women to concentration camps/Some of the children were adopted by SS families, in order to be Germanized. Lidice is viewed as a national tragedy by the Czechs and contributed even more to the anti-German sentiment that was harbored by the locals during the WWII. This anti-German sentiment and the efforts of the Czech resistance to free their occupied homeland, would play in favor of the Soviets and the communists. Still, it was what followed afterwards, that made the population even more open to Soviet influence. Due to the Munich betrayal, Czech and Slovakian civilians were rather distrustful of the western