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young jerry

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by youngjerry (U7266788) on Thursday, 20th May 2010

  The asassination of Reinhard Heinrich in 1942 is an interesting study.
  It was carried out by two Chech heroes who were very brave men.
  Unfortunately they were eventually betrayed by one of the asassination group. A man named Karel Curda.
  Anyone on this board know what became or happened to him?

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Triceratops (U3420301) on Thursday, 20th May 2010

  Youngjerry,
  
  Karel Curda was executed for treason at Pankrac Prison on the 29th April 1947.
  
  The operatives of Operation Anthropoid made a last stand at St Cyrils church in Prague.The last of them committing suicide in the crypt as it was being flooded.
  
  
  
  The German retaliation for Heydrich's assassination was the destruction of Lidice.
  
  There was a film made about Heydrich's assassination back in the 70's called Operation Daybreak.

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• Message 3

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  Posted by LairigGhru (U14051689) on Sunday, 23rd May 2010

  Would it be true to say that in reality they had very little chance of making an escape and that what they had undertaken was virtually a suicide mission?
  
  This is over and above the betrayal.

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• Message 4

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  Posted by Mike Alexander (U1706714) on Monday, 24th May 2010

  That's certainly the impression I got from a TV documentary I watched back in the 90s. If memory serves, the intention was to shoot him, however when the agent stepped out in front of the car at the hairpin bend, his sten gun jammed and they had to resort to Plan B, which was to lob a suitcase full of explosives into the vehicle.

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• Message 5

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  Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Thursday, 27th May 2010

  There was a film made about Heydrich's assassination back in the 70's called Operation Daybreak.Β 
  
  Good film. It starred Martin Shaw (pre 'The Professionals') and Anthony Andrews (pre 'Brideshead Revisited').
  
  I haven't seen it for about 20 years or more but I seem to remember that all the Czech characters spoke in English while all the German characters spoke in German. Something to do with creating empathy/antipathy I suppose. It's a pity that it doesn't get shown more often but the subtitles (during the German dialogue) could be a reason for this. Dumming down broadcasters don't like foreign languages or subtitles.

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• Message 6

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  Posted by an ex-nordmann - it has ceased to exist (U3472955) on Thursday, 27th May 2010

  Shaw was the lad who grassed on the rest of them, wasn't he? An earlier Czech film "The Assassination" had portrayed Curda as a right piece of filth but Shaw's portrayal in "Operation Daybreak" (why did they change it from Anthropoid?) was much more sensitive - a man who was genuinely shocked and disturbed by the horrific German reprisals which seemed bound to continue as long as the Gestapo were clueless.
  
  I visited Lidice some years ago as a guest of a local. Apparently back in the 50s the Czech communist authorities, in the manner of a defiant gesture, had mooted the notion of rebuilding Lidice exactly as it was, but the few surviving locals wouldn't hear of it. Besides the trauma and surrealness it would engender, they argued, it would also allow Germans to put that particular example of inhumanity behind them. That, they argued, would be potentially as great an atrocity as the one visited upon them in 1942. The neo-nazi graffiti which occasionally has to be washed off their memorial there would seem to support this sentiment.

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• Message 7

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  Posted by Triceratops (U3420301) on Saturday, 29th May 2010

  I would regard it as an extremely hazardous mission rather than a suicide mission.Gabcik and Kubis had been at large in occupied territory for five months prior to the assassination and probably felt they could get away with it.
  
  I've been trying to find out more about this but the books I've looked at give no more information than wiki. Though when it came to Lidice, one did mention a previous incident about the Norwegian village of Televaag, without giving any details. A quick check found this;
  
  
  which took place a few weeks before the Heydrich assassination.I have to admit,this is the first time I've heard about this.
  
  "Operation Daybreak" have'nt seen it in years. The only bit I can remember is at the end where they're in the church.

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• Message 8

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  Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Saturday, 29th May 2010

  Another memorable scene from 'Operation Daybreak' is (as Nordmann points out) after a young conspirator has been tortured by the gestapo. He mumbles to Curda (Martin Shaw) that he "didn't tell them anything". Curda (as a seemingly comforting deliverer crouched next to him) reassures him but then the camera pans back to reveal the gestapo still in the room. The shocked viewers then suddenly appreciate what has happened.

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