Note: this article is about a hidden highlight that you will not find in the standard travel guides. You don't see the normal tourist here. This is therefore a very exclusive item. I got to know this place myself during a bicycle tour that was once made.
The Church of St. Cyril and Methodius in Czech: Kostel sv. Cyrila a Metoděje is an Eastern Orthodox church in the Czech capital Prague. The church is located on Resslova Street (Resslova, near Karlovo Namesti Metro Station) in Prague's Nove Mesto district.
The church was built between 1730 and 1736 to a design by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer. The church was originally Roman Catholic in origin and was dedicated to Saint Charles Borromeo, but was closed in 1783. In the 1930s, the building became the property of the Czech Orthodox Church. During the occupation by the Nazis, from 1939 to 1945, the church was again called Sint Carolus Borromeus.
In 1942, during World War II, Jozef Gabčík, Jan Kubiš and Josef Valčík hid with four other Czechoslovak resistance fighters in the crypt at the bottom of St. Cyril and Methodius Church, after they attempted to assassinate Reinhard on May 27 Heydrich, the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. The German occupiers could not find them until Karel Čurda committed treason for a bounty of 1 million Reichsmarks. On June 18, 1942, eight hundred SS men stormed the church. The resistance fighters managed to hold out for almost eight hours, but in the end they were forced to commit suicide to avoid arrest.
The bullet holes of the German machine guns can still be seen under the commemorative plaque on the facade. The crypt now houses a museum about the attack on Heydrich.
On August 26, 2021, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as the first German president, visited the Heydrichiade Memorial. On Resslova Street in Prague, he honored the memory of the Czechoslovak paratroopers who died fighting the Nazis after the assassination of the acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich.
Joseph Gabcik
Jozef Gabčík (8 April 1912 in Poluvsie – 18 June 1942 in Prague) was a Slovak man who, as a Czechoslovak soldier, was involved in Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of the leader of Nazi Germany: Reinhard Heydrich.
Gabčík was a Slovak paracommando/sergeant. At the end of 1941 he landed as a parachutist together with Jan Kubiš in the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, with the specific assignment to assassinate the German Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich. The attack on 27 May 1942 seriously injured Heydrich, who died a few days later in a hospital. Nazi authorities conducted a manhunt for the two men in the following weeks. After the betrayal of Karel Čurda, they were found together with five other paratroopers in the Church of St. Cyril and Methodius in Prague.
The village of Gabčíkovo in southern Slovakia is named after him, as is one of the largest dams on the Danube near the village. A street in Prague near the site of the Heydrich assassination attempt is also named after Gabčík.
Jan Kubis
Jan Kubiš Dolni Vilemovice, June 24, 1913 - Prague, June 18, 1942 was a Czech who was trained as a Czechoslovak paratrooper by Great Britain together with Jozef Gabčík and Josef Valčík with a view to committing an assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich. This under the name Operation Anthropoid. It was an anti-tank grenade fired by Jan Kubiš that fatally wounded Heydrich, which ultimately also killed Heydrich because he did not survive the subsequent illness.
At the end of 1941, Jan Kubiš landed as a parachutist together with Jozef Gabčík in the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. A street in Prague near the site of the Heydrich attack is named after Kubiš. Josef Valcik
Josef Valčík Valašské Klobouky, November 2, 1914 - Prague, June 18, 1942 was a Czechoslovak sergeant who was involved in Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of one of the most important leaders of Nazi Germany: Reinhard Heydrich.
At the end of 1941, Josef Valčík and some other paratroopers landed in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, he was instructed to place a secret transmitter in the German-occupied area, which would allow contact between the resistance and the Allies. However, Valčík got rid of the other members of the group and he finally decided to go to Prague. Here he came into contact with Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, who, as paratroopers, had been on the same British plane as he had been assigned to assassinate Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich. On May 27, 1942, the day of the attack, Valčík was on the lookout to warn the others when Heydrich would arrive in his open car. Shortly after Valčík had given the signal, Jan Kubiš threw an anti-tank grenade at the car and seriously wounded Heydrich, who died a few days later in a hospital. The Nazi authorities conducted a manhunt for the men in the following weeks. A street in Prague near the site of the Heydrich assassination attempt is named after Valčík.
Karel Čurda
Karel Čurda 10 October 1911 — Prague, 29 April 1947 was a Czech who served as a Czechoslovakian soldier during World War II.
He was parachuted into occupied Bohemia in 1941 as a member of the "out of range" sabotage group. He became known as a traitor to the perpetrators of Operation Anthropoid, the assassination attempt on Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. As a reward for this betrayal, he was given 1 million Reichsmarks and a new German name, "Karl Jerhot". He later married a German woman. In 1947 he was hanged for high treason.
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