You can apply for the position of Director of the Lidice Memorial until February 14th.

Lidice - Until February 14, those interested in the position of director of the Lidice Memorial can apply for the competition announced by Culture Minister Lubomír Zaorálek (ČSSD). Applicants must have a university education and the ability to communicate, as stated in the conditions of the selection procedure. Until recently, the memorial was led by Martina Lehmannová, who resigned last week due to a dispute with the Lidice survivors. The Lidice Memorial also oversees the Ležáky Memorial.

Among the requirements of the competition are, for example, a completed university education of at least a master's degree, at least three years of experience in managing teams, and documented active knowledge of the English language. The ministry also requires the ability to communicate with the public and the media. "The organizer reserves the right to cancel the selection procedure at any time during its course without stating reasons," the ministry states in the conditions of the competition. On Monday, Zaorálek told journalists that the new leadership of the memorial should be selected by the end of February.

Some people who survived the annihilation of Lidice, including Marie Šupíková, accused the director last year of distorting facts. This was a reaction to a television report about an alleged report by a Lidice resident who notified the police about her Jewish tenant. Lehmannová rejected the accusations. According to her, the employees of the memorial always held all Lidice survivors in the highest respect. Jaroslava Skleničková, who also survived the Lidice tragedy, stood up for the former director.

President Miloš Zeman sent a letter to Šupíková expressing his support. "Believe that there is no reason to internally torment yourself because of a few people who have stone hearts. They cannot win, although they are given ample space in some media," reads the letter published on the Twitter of the presidential spokesperson Jiří Ovčáček.

The Lidice Memorial commemorates the annihilation of Lidice on June 10, 1942. The Nazis used the alleged connection of the village to the assassination of the Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich as a pretext. Out of 500 inhabitants of Lidice, 160 survived the war. Directly in Lidice, the Nazis executed 173 Lidice men on June 10, 1942, and subsequently killed another 26 citizens of Lidice in Prague-Kobylisy on June 16, 1942. Fifty-three Lidice women did not survive concentration camps. Eighty-two Lidice children were suffocated in a gas van at the deportation camp. After liberation, 143 Lidice women and 17 children gradually returned to Lidice.

Jewish woman Štěpánka Mikešová, who lived as a tenant with one of the Lidice families, was deported to Auschwitz at the beginning of June 1942, where she died.