The guests were welcomed by Deputy Ambassador Michal Strouhal, followed by a lecture on the historical and political significance of the Lidice massacre prepared by Dr Thomas Lorman of the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies at the prestigious University College London. The audience then had the opportunity to watch the 2011 film "Lidice" by Czech director Petr Nikolaev.

The fate of the village of Lidice, located in the Kladno region, is one of the most tragic events in Czech history. After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich on 27 May 1942, the Gestapo searched for the perpetrators for a long time. The Nazis were convinced that they had to at least send a warning message to the Czech nation. Lidice was chosen for this purpose under the pretext of a suspicious letter that was supposed to point to the connection of the Horák family from Lidice with the assassination, although no evidence was found during the investigation. On the night of 9-10 June, the Nazis broke into the houses in Lidice, shot the men, selected the children for Germanization, and took the women to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Both fire and explosives were used to exterminate the village. A similar fate awaited Ležáky, a village in the Chrudim region, a few weeks later.

The burning of Lidice also had its response abroad. Worth mentioning is the ‘Lidice Shall Live’ movement, founded by Sir Barnett Stross in British town Stoke-on-Trent in September of that year. This launched an international campaign to prevent the village from disappearing from the map and being forgotten by the world. As a result, quite a large amount of money was raised for the rebuilding of Lidice. This important act of solidarity is still commemorated by the Pink Orchard of Peace and Friendship still flourishing between the old and new Lidice, also founded by Sir Stross in the 1950s.