The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 161

Sun June 4 1972 THE MIAMI HERALD 3- WORLD WAR MOST SHAMEFUL EPISODE 30 Years Later Lidice Still Reminds Next Saturday will mark the 30th anniversary of the terrible savagery that gave wings to the name of Lidice a small mining town in Czechoslovakia Nino lo Bello tells the story with hitherto utireporled details from once-secret Czech files By NINO Lo BELLO Special it Tin Herild LIDICE Czechoslovakia have nothing to be proud of only our misfortune" said Miloslava Zizko-va Mrs Zizkova is one of the few survivors of the tragedy of Lidice the Czech village which became a legend 30 years ago to the day and a one-word slogan against all that was evil in Nazi Germany Notwithstanding the 29000 rose bushes here that are kept under loving care in the full bloom of life Lidice reminds you of death It reminds you of what is perhaps the most shameful episode of World War II It reminds you of the day June 10 1942 when this tiny mining town was tom off the map as a reprisal for the assassination of Man with the Iron All over the earth Lidice both in name and in fact stands today as a memory unto itself Many people who remember Lidice may have perhaps forgotten however the details of that June day when on the personal order of Adolf Hitler the small coal -mining village was erased like a chalk mark from a blackboard THE PEOPLE of Czechoslovakia have spent nearly $15 million to set up a memorial on the very spot where every male adult of Barbed Wire Cross at Lidice Gen Reinhard Heydrich Right marks spot of executions shortly before assassination Jackson Muskie Wistfully Hopeful paign to raise funds Shall was given wings in a world-wide wave of sentimentality Nations now began to adopt Lidice So did a town in Illinois Venezuela built a new suburb and called it Lidice And countries like Peru Ecuador Cuba Chile Uruguay Egypt and India erected monuments and named streets in honor of the little hamlet TODAY martyred Lidice has been reconstructed A new village of model homes that houses some 450 people it is a quiet residential zone consisting of neat one-family houses laid out against a gentle rolling landscape The young trees lined along the grassy center strip of the main street are of the same height and serve as a kind of picturesque corridor leading a visitor to the House of Culture at the far end Mrs Zizkova who was taken from Lidice as a child in arms supervises the House of Culture which serves as a sort of school She explained that Lidice has no real school because there are not enough children are still missing one she said Since the Czech government with the help of contributions from nearly every nation in the world built the massive stone memorial and museum over the common grave of the 192 executed men nearly 300000 tourists visit Lidice every year At the very spot where the firing squad victims were shot the Czechs have erected a crude wooden cross with a hoop of the original barbed wire behind which the Nazis herded their hostages that tragic day The 29000 rose bushes donated by 35 countries cover a square half-mile of land As the largest rose garden in all Europe it has every variety of rose known The garden stands between the grandiose stone memorial (which the village people per sonally dislike) and the new model town Mrs Zizkova explained that the huge cement structure is not viewed with favor by her fellow villagers because no pompous monument is needed to keep the terrible savagery alive in the minds of the Czech people deed remains" she said "It will remain for all job the name of Lidice was removed from all maps land-registers and documents MEANWHILE what had happened to the two assassins? With five other parachutists they had hidden themselves in the 18th Century Church of St Cyril in Prague But one of the parachutists frightened by the slaughter of Lidice and fearful that his own family wmuld come to harm turned himself in and told the Gestapo where his cohorts were hidden More than a thousand S3 troops surrounded the church one morning at dawn The six trapped Czechs put up a gallant fight killing many Nazis that morning until their ammunition almost ran out Then they committed suicide with their last remaining shots WHATEVER personal satisfactions Hitler may have derived from the erasure of Lidice his personal act of revenge resulted in what many consider the biggest propaganda blunder of the Second World War For Lidice did not die As details of what had happened in Czechoslovakia became known to the outside in the months that followed a horrified world shuddered The name of Lidice spread out across the globe From country to country a slogan made up by the miners in England who organized a cam knew what was happening With the roundup complete the men were separated from the women and children As the latter filed into the school building all the males between the ages of 15 and 84 were herded into the cellar of the Horak Farm AT DAWN the 173 men were lined up ten at a time against Farmer barn and shot by an execution squad As the rest of male residents came home from the night shift at the nearby Kladno coal mines they also were taken one by one and put to death In all 192 men died that morning The women and children were forthwith transported to the concentration camps at Ravensbruck and Auschwitz The pretty ones under 25 were assigned to brothels while the others were eventually liquidated in gas chambers Eighty-two of the 91 children were destroyed The remaining nine having passed a were placed in German families They became among the few survivors of the Lidice atrocity But the Nazis did not stop there They trucked away all the belongings of the townspeople drove the cattle off filled in the village pond diverted a brook in another direction and burned down every house In moved bulldozers and ground the ruins to powder Finally the bare flat plain was planted over with barley To complete the that Heydrich would recover despite a temperature that persisted at 102 degrees Although the wound was discharging freely blood poisoning had begun to set in The only thing that probably could have saved Heydrich was penicillin but since all of the penicillin then in existence was in British hands Heydrich eventually succumbed So the botched-up assassination plot was a success Less than 24 hours after Gen death on June 4 Hitler who later flew in all the way from Russia to attend the funeral in Berlin authorized a reprisal action Vergeltungsak-tion to teach the Czechs a lesson once and for all In revenge the town of Lidice was chosen at random for annihilation A few minutes after midnight in the early morning hours of June 10th German Security Police under the command of Capt Max Rostock surrounded the village Lidice 20 miles northwest cf Prague had had no connection with murder nor had it sheltered his assailants or given them any assistance Its selection was nothing more than fate coming from a spontaneous choice in Gestapo headquarters in the Hradcany Castle one Czech village being as good as another to carry out order Every villager was dragged from his bed and made to assemble in the square No one While the Democratic hopefuls were cutting each other up Nixcn was scoring points in Moscow Even Wallace sidelined by the assassination attempt on his life may have benefited more from the debates than Humphrey or McGovern TOUCHING BASES: be surprised if fireworks develop Wednesday night when the Dade Democratic Committee meets in the courthouse to hear House Speaker Richard Pettigrew A good head of steam is building up within the committee over Chairman Ted decision to run for the Legislature Sentiment especially among some of the Young Democrats is that Cohen should have stepped down from party office when he decided to run Mayor Chuck Hall City Manager Clifford and Miami Beach councilmen are in a position of being damned if they do or in providing facilities to handle the influx of thousands of hippies yippies and zippies for the political conventions There is a strong feeling among taxpayers that no tax monies should be spent to make things easier or more comfortable for the would-be demonstrators On the other hand if violence erupts the officials will be castigated for having failed to take needed precautions Look for State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ervin to make an unusual move when he announces for reelection shortly The former Florida attorney general now 67 faces mandatory retirement in 1975 when he reaches age 70 So in fairness to would-be successors and voters he will announce his intention to retire Jan 1 1975 thus putting the office up for election in the 1974 balloting If he stayed until actually reaching forced retirement the governor in office in 1975 would make the appointment and the voters have no part in the selection Former Metro County Manager Irving McNayr is city manager in Fairfax Va after a stint in the Middle East Another ex-county manager (Hump) Campbell is retiring as vice chancellor of the University of California In the I-hope-you- are-right category Councilman Herbert Magnes and Mayor Chuck Hall are convinced that forecasts of disorders here during the conventions this summer are exaggerated By JOHN McDERMOTT Herald Political Writer Sens Henry (Scoop) Jackson and Edmund Muskie plan to be in the off-stage at the Miami Beach Democratic Convention still hopeful that lightning may strike and they will be nominated fop President As of this reading they apparently are going to have a long and probably fruitless wait If Sen George expansive welfare stand wreck his chances of victory in the California Primary then he is virtually assured of coming to Miami Beach the frontrunner winner-take-all primary with 271 California delegate votes at stake could propel him into a lead too large for Sen Hubert Humphrey to overcome McGovern already has 4664 delegates Gov George Wallace of Alabama has 323 and Humphrey trails both with 275 y2 Both Muskie and Jackson will have a series of command posts operating here during the July 10-13 convention Either will be ready to move into high gear if a deadlock develops and the party leaders are forced to turn from McGovern Humphrey and Wallace to a compromise selection Muskie will be headquartered at the Americana Hotel and Jackson at the Mon-temartre with several other sub-headquarters around the Beach to keep communications lines open to delegates who may switch Both Jackson and Muskie leaders plan to place their names in nomination Each has more than the required minimum of 50 votes from at least three states there is a deadlock and the convention moves more toward a centerist candidate be a Jackson strategist in Washington observed wistfully IN THE TELEVISED McGovern-Hum-phrey debates McGovern scored best with his unceasing opposition to the war in Vietnam His welfare program which would cost more billions than he was able to estimate may have won him votes from people who want government to take care of everybody But overall it damaged his cause so severely as to nullify his chances for becoming President The overall prime beneficiary of the debates it would seem is President Nixon IhIiihIIuII! iii iiiiiiiiill iiiimii 1 1 1 1 rrin'iTTiii Lidice was cut down by the hails of lead from a Nazi firing squad This was to pay for the assassination of S3 Gen Reinhard Heydrich Reich protector of Bohemia and Moravia killed by two Czech underground fighters who had been parachuted in by the British Variously described by historians as most evil Heydrich had been deputy chief of the Gestapo and head of the SD (the secret police within the secret police) when at the age of 38 he won the appointment as the German overlord of Czechoslovakia making him one of the four key men of the Third Reich Based on hitherto secret records in archives the details of assassination have now been made known by the Historical Division of the Czech Academy of Sciences through the office of Prof Vaclav Krai According to Prof Krai everything went awry with the careful plans of the Free Czechs to kill Heydrich On the morning of May 27 a sunny day Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik the two Czech Resistance commandos who had completed a special course in Britain and who had been parachuted into environs by the RAF took their posts at a hairpin turn on the road at Holesovice a suburb of Prague It was about 10:30 am and they were waiting for Hangman Heydrich (as he had become known in the occupied lands) to come along in his green Mercedes from his country residence on his way to Gestapo headquarters DRESSED in blue worker-jeans Gabcik was armed with a British Army Sten gun and Kubis with a hand bomb to be used in case bullets missed Heydrich That Heydrich who unlike other Nazi big shots never traveled with bodyguards would be an easy target to the two assassins was a foregone conclusion As the car approached the tricky turn at high speed the chauffeur slowed down Stepping forward Gabcik dropped the raincoat that had concealed his automatic weapon raised the gun to his shoulder took good aim and squeezed the trigger Nothing happened He squeezed the trigger again The Sten gun had jammed The long-nosed Nazi elegant in his black SS Ober-gruppenfuehrer uniform in the front seat spotted Gabcik out of the corner of his eye Shouting to his chauffeur to stop the car he freed the revolver from the holster on his belt When gun would not fire sidekick Kubis quickly lobbed his grenade towards the car There ensued a loud explosion The hand bomb ripped away the back tire cut a large chunk out of the rear door and destroyed the seat cushions With a leap from his seat Heydrich started to fire at Kubis who had begun to flee downhill to where he had parked a bicycle for his getaway Gabcik still flabbergasted that the Sten had not worked came to sudden life when one of shots whistled past his face Now he took to his heels BOTH HEYDRICH and the chauffeur gave chase to Gabcik In a scene that could have come out of an oldtime cops -and-robbers movie Gabcik weaved in and out of the crowd that had begun to form At one point he tried to hide himself behind a telephone pole and as he pulled a small pistol from his pocket he saw Heydrich discard his gun in disgust because he had run out of ammunition Gabcik fired away and one of his bullets hit chauffeur in the shoulder Then the Czech made his es cape Neither Gabcik or Kubis knew at the time that Heydrich had suffered a serious wound from the blast After the unsuccessful counter-attack Heydrich turned ash white Clutching a hand to his right hip in extreme pain he staggered as best he could towards his car and just about made it before he collapsed A tell-tale red spot spread across his back Two Czech policemen who had appeared on the scene now stopped a truck and ordered the driver to take Heydrich to the Bulovka Hospital Examination at the Bulovka Hospital showed that Heydrich had been badly hurt Bits of metal and leather from the upholstery had entered his body at the base of the spine Some of them mostly steel fragments had entered the spleen An emergency operation was performed by two of leading specialists but they were unable to remove all the particles FOR A TIME it appeared COLORFUL PRESIDENTIAL PHRASES Who Coined Majority? sfcvS: bA 'i- She Scooped World On Arrival TEDDY WOODROW ROOSEVELT WILSON cartoon material and a target for attack After New Frontier and Great Society it was felt another promissory slogan would have been met with some scorn Safire says SAFIRE SAYS that the hardest section of the book to write was on Strict Construction do not have a strict construction of Strict he said And his biggest surprise was to discover the author of Founding Fathers Sen Warren Harding used it first on George birthday in 1918 when addressing the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution Harding liked it so much he repeated it in his 1920 campaign for the presidency and used it again in his inaugural address: must utter my belief in the divine inspiration of the Founding Future and the lexicon Delights in Disaster landslides prairie fires tidal waves and avalanches are the goals of Whirlwind Campaigns Politicians pray that Lightning May Strike If TR was the most colorful and Lincoln the most poetic Franklin Roosevelt who was on stage longer than any other has the most entries in the book: Forgotten Man Economic Royalist Rendezvous With Destiny Four Freedoms Day of Infamy Arsenal of Democracy Iffy Question Martin Barton Fish The incumbent President decided not to tag his administration with a New Deal or Square Deal type slogan but he was tempted by Safire reports The President probably rejected it for the same reason LBJ toyed with and then rejected Either would have been wonderful strong imagery with Woodrow best-known phrases: Watchful Waiting Open Covenants Peace Without Victory War to End Wars Too Proud to Fight New Freedom and Little Group of Willful Men Only the last one is graphic and biting in the tradition BEST of the phrases in Safire writes word pictures: You can see The Man on the Wedding Cake You can al most feel The Wave of the OFFICE SPACE SIZES AND SQUARE FEET TO SUIT By CARROLL KILPATRICK Miami Herald-Washington Post Wire WASHINGTON Like Theodore White whose lifetime occupation is writing Making of the every four years William Safire can revise his New Language of every quadrennium first published in 1968 and now revised in 1972 Despite the general absence of phrasemakers in the Nixon Administration it has produced some new ones and revived or inspired others: Silent Majority Southern Strategy Benign Neglect Vietnamization Radic-Lib" Effete Snobs Nattering Nabobs of Negativism Old Wine in New Bottles Linkage and Nixon Doctrine Safire a presidential speech-writer who must constantly be trying to give birth to a catch-phrase that will win votes and be useful in his next book insists that President Nixon alone wrote the phrase that may be his most durable contribution to the lexicon of politics: Silent Majority It has incidentally a Democratic underpinning Former Sen Paul Douglas used the phrase Silent Center in a 1967 speech But as Safire notes usage of any famous phrase can be Harpers New Monthly Magazine carried an article entitled Silent in September 1874 BUT THE the article referred to could not vote it populated the cemeteries join the great is an ancient euphemism for dying The Majority" is alive and well He did not coin the phrase but he has made it a part of the political language In an interview the other day Safire said that Theodore Roosevelt was the most colorful of all the presidential phrase makers: Lunatic Fringe Hat in the Ring Bully Pulpit Stand at Armageddon Big Stick Malefactors of Great Wealth Pussyfooting Weasel Words Mollycoddle Muckraker Parlor Pink Square Deal jSafire likes to contrast I Kj By NIXON SMILEY Herald Staff Writer The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were living in Bermuda in August 1940 when Britain announced appointment as governor of the Bahamas Only because Britain was at war did the duke get this appointment The pair living in exile in France had fled as the Germans over-ran that country in 1940 Britain did not want the former king yet could not ignore him For one thing there was a fear that the Nazis might kidnap the duke and set him and the duchess up as the king and queen of the British Empire in exile To prevent such a possible embarrassment Edward was given the rank of major general and appointed governor and military commander of the Bahamas where kidnaping would be less of a possibility When the Windsors disembarked from a camouflaged ship in Nassau on Aug 17 1940 a Miami Herald reporter Jeanne Bellamy was among the horde of American and British journalists sent to the Bahamas to cover the festivities and ceremonies that were to follow LIKE MOST of the other reporters Miss Bellamy arrived several days ahead of time Nassau was dull in wartime and the reporters found little to do Moreover the weather was hot and there was no airconditioning So the reporters spent most of the days and evenings in bars sipping cool rum drinks One of the first things Miss Bellamy did upon arrival was to check on facilities for sending her story of the arrival to The Herald She concluded that her chances would be nil for the pressure of more than a score of writers on the meager communications system would be overwhelming So while the other reporters sipped their cool drinks Miss Bellamy took her notebook and in a worrying mood strode to the government center on Bay Street to take a look at preparations ror the arrival of the new governor and the new first lady of the Bahamas She found people putting up decorations for a gala event and as she studied the numerous activities she realized that the parts to be played by the honor guard band public officials police leading citizens lackeys and even the public were being rehearsed to perfection including the timing The Windsors were to disembark at 9 am to be greeted by a band playing Save the and as they walked down the gangplank the cheers of thousands of Bahamians would be added from a background of festively bedecked docks buildings and streets The Windsors would walk through flag-decorated Rawson Square through a courtyard dominated by the state of great-grandmother Queen Victoria and wind up in the Legislative Council Chamber where the oath of allegiance would be administered by the chief justice WITH EVERY detail in her notebook Miss Bellamy went to her hotel room and got busy on her portable typewriter When through she had virtually a complete story of the Saturday event from beginning to end She sent the story1 to The Herald together with a note advising that she wolud fill in some detail and make any necessary corrections after the arrival of the Windsors On Saturday morning Miss Bellamy joined the other reporters but found herself making few of the notes they were taking down Instead she noted how the pair was dressed he in the uniform of a major general the duchess in a stylish print dress As soon as the event was over Miss Bellamy went to a telephone while the other reporters rushed to their typewriters Knowing her time was limited and that she could be cut off at any moment by any one with higher priority under wartime regulations she hurriedly dictated her notes to a Herald rewrite man Not one correction in the early copy she had sent was necessary for one of the most colorful events in the history of the Bahamas had come off exactly as Miss Bellamy had written in advance By the time the other reporters had typed their stories Miss account was on its way to the composing room By this time overseas telephone and cable facilities virtually idle during the ceremonies were jammed by official use Jeanne Bellamy had beaten the world and on Sunday morning Aug 18 1940 The Miami Herald was the only newspaper anywhere outside of Nassau to carry a full eyewitness account of the ceremonies marking the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and his inauguration as governor of the Bahamas I I i 1 i Kl'LL1 fc A i i 1 J- CONSIDER 3510 BISCAYNE BOULEVARD Our new office building will provide maximum exposure to the most significant local traffic in all of South Florida An office here can put you within easy reach of the nerve center of South Florida's most business community Two blocks from 1-95 and expressways to Miami Beach the International Airport and Broward County five minutes from downtown within walking distance of a number of restaurant and bus connections to all Dade County June Occupancy RENTAL INFORMATION CALL: 757-3412 KISWNF PAY i.