The Ministry of Culture will allocate nine million crowns for the repair of the memorial to the Lidice children

Prague – The Ministry of Culture will contribute to the restoration of the monument to the 82 children of Lidice. Today, Minister of Culture Oto Klempíř (for the Motorists) agreed on this with the director of the Lidice Memorial, Eduard Stehlík, the Czech News Agency was informed. According to Stehlík, the memorial will receive approximately nine million Czech crowns from the state. The public collection for the monument of the Lidice children by Marie Uchytilová has so far raised about 5.1 million crowns.

Klempíř stated that the condition of the memorial troubles the ministry and they want to rectify it. He pointed to negative reports about the state of the sculpture in the media. "The Ministry of Culture and the minister said that it deserves to have the financial resources secured for this very important project," Stehlík said.

The memorial will use the proceeds from the public collection for necessary work. "The Ministry of Culture would cover the remaining amount; we are talking about approximately nine million crowns here," Stehlík added. According to him, the memorial will prepare a detailed error-free request for the ministry so that the office can meet it as soon as possible.

"We want to start the work as quickly as possible so that this monument, remarkable even on a global scale, is in the state it deserves," Stehlík said.

The necessity to restore and completely repair the Memorial to the Child Victims of War has been discussed for several years. The work is expected to take about three years and will cost approximately 13 to 15 million crowns.

The memorial, created by sculptor Marie Uchytilová, consists of 82 statues. They have been in place for approximately 25 to 30 years. They have damaged patina due to age and long-term exposure to weather and other influences. The memorial consists of granite paving on a reinforced concrete base and bronze statues. Earlier surveys leaned towards the option of dismantling the sculpture and restoring it in a workshop.

Uchytilová decided to create the sculpture in 1969. When she unexpectedly passed away in the autumn of 1989, three statues had been cast. Her husband Jiří V. Hampl, her daughter Sylvia Klánová, Anna Nešporová from Lidice, and associations in Prague and Plzeň helped ensure the casting of the others. The gradual installation of the statues continued until the year 2000.

According to Stehlík, the monument particularly reminds us of the fact that 82 Lidice children were murdered. They were not sent for re-education, as was previously mistakenly stated. Nazis shot 173 men in Lidice on June 10, 1942. The children and women were taken to the gymnasium. They spent three days in the premises of the current gymnasium, after which they were forcibly separated.

In addition to children selected for Germanization and children under one year old, the Nazis poisoned children with exhaust gases in specially modified vehicles at the extermination camp in Chelmno, Poland. Women were transported to the concentration camp in Ravensbrück. A total of 340 Lidice residents became victims of the Nazis. 143 women and 17 children returned. The entire village was destroyed.