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A Ray of Light: Reinhard Heydrich, Lidice, and the North Staffordshire Miners
This is the inspiring true story of what happens when ordinary people unite to make a stand against evil.
Lidice was a peaceful and vibrant community in Czechoslovakia with a rich mining heritage. But an act of Nazi revenge saw this village wiped from existence in a horrifying chapter of European history.
Disaster struck for Lidice in 1942 when the prominent Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated. Described by Hitler as "the man with an iron heart", Heydrich was one of the key architects of the Holocaust.
His death, after an attack by members of the Czech resistance, left Hitler furious and desperate for vengeance. Looking for a scapegoat to blame for Heydrich's death, he settled on the village of Lidice, which had been falsely linked to the assassination.
In a brutal act which shocked the world, Lidice was completely destroyed. The men were shot while the women and children were rounded up and sent to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps.
Hitler was determined that by the time he had finished, no one would even remember Lidice, let alone live there. What he hadn't reckoned on was the efforts of a group of campaigners in Britain, who resolved to make sure Lidice would never be forgotten.
A Ray of Light tells the tale of Lidice's downfall and what happened next. Would the village simply be allowed to become a footnote in history, or would it rise from the ashes and forge a new future?
This book is a compelling testament to the power of friendship and solidarity, and how empathy and compassion can help rebuild the world.
Lidice was a peaceful and vibrant community in Czechoslovakia with a rich mining heritage. But an act of Nazi revenge saw this village wiped from existence in a horrifying chapter of European history.
Disaster struck for Lidice in 1942 when the prominent Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated. Described by Hitler as "the man with an iron heart", Heydrich was one of the key architects of the Holocaust.
His death, after an attack by members of the Czech resistance, left Hitler furious and desperate for vengeance. Looking for a scapegoat to blame for Heydrich's death, he settled on the village of Lidice, which had been falsely linked to the assassination.
In a brutal act which shocked the world, Lidice was completely destroyed. The men were shot while the women and children were rounded up and sent to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps.
Hitler was determined that by the time he had finished, no one would even remember Lidice, let alone live there. What he hadn't reckoned on was the efforts of a group of campaigners in Britain, who resolved to make sure Lidice would never be forgotten.
A Ray of Light tells the tale of Lidice's downfall and what happened next. Would the village simply be allowed to become a footnote in history, or would it rise from the ashes and forge a new future?
This book is a compelling testament to the power of friendship and solidarity, and how empathy and compassion can help rebuild the world.
92 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2016
10 people are currently reading
429 people want to read
About the author
Russell Phillips
53 books40 followersRussell Phillips writes military history and RPG books. Born and brought up in a mining village in South Yorkshire, they have lived and worked in South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cumbria and Staffordshire. Russell has always had a deep interest in history and conflicts all over the world, and enjoys sharing their knowledge with others through clear, factual accounts which shine a light on events of the past.
Their articles have been published in Miniature Wargames, Wargames Illustrated, The Wargames Website, and the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers' Journal. They have been interviewed on WW2TV, BBC Radio Stoke, The WW2 Podcast, and Cold War Conversations. They currently live in Stoke-on-Trent with their wife and two children.
Their articles have been published in Miniature Wargames, Wargames Illustrated, The Wargames Website, and the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers' Journal. They have been interviewed on WW2TV, BBC Radio Stoke, The WW2 Podcast, and Cold War Conversations. They currently live in Stoke-on-Trent with their wife and two children.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 3, 2016
Disclaimer: A free copy of this audio book was provided by the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.
The massacre of the village of Lidice is perhaps one of the most infamous and least known massacres of World War II. Infamous because Hitler ordered the destruction of village to avenge/punish the Czechs for the death of Heydrich due to Operation Anthropoid, though there was no connection between the men involved in the assassination and the town. The men of the town were killed, the women and children evicted, some of the children even being placed into Nazi families. There is a movie, Anthropoid, that deals with the build up to the assassination and the aftermath. It is hardly surprising that this book is released at the same time.
Phillips book not only details the plot and the immediate aftermath, but also focuses on the connection between Lidice and Stoke-on-Trent and other Stratffordshire. It seems that after news of the massacre reached Stoke on Trent, the miners decided to help another mining town.
Phillips’ book seems to come out of his discovery of the story along with a desire to make sections of the story more well known. He includes the basic events leading up to the assassination as well as the massacre at Lidice itself. Then he looks at what prompted the miners to raise funds to rebuild the town. He considers the impact of the Cold War on the relationship between the two towns as well as more recent efforts to broaden knowledge of the massacre.
The book is short, but packed with detail, including where to go for more information. Perhaps the weakest part of the audio is the narrator who at times seems to be lisping, though this could have been a recording issue.
The massacre of the village of Lidice is perhaps one of the most infamous and least known massacres of World War II. Infamous because Hitler ordered the destruction of village to avenge/punish the Czechs for the death of Heydrich due to Operation Anthropoid, though there was no connection between the men involved in the assassination and the town. The men of the town were killed, the women and children evicted, some of the children even being placed into Nazi families. There is a movie, Anthropoid, that deals with the build up to the assassination and the aftermath. It is hardly surprising that this book is released at the same time.
Phillips book not only details the plot and the immediate aftermath, but also focuses on the connection between Lidice and Stoke-on-Trent and other Stratffordshire. It seems that after news of the massacre reached Stoke on Trent, the miners decided to help another mining town.
Phillips’ book seems to come out of his discovery of the story along with a desire to make sections of the story more well known. He includes the basic events leading up to the assassination as well as the massacre at Lidice itself. Then he looks at what prompted the miners to raise funds to rebuild the town. He considers the impact of the Cold War on the relationship between the two towns as well as more recent efforts to broaden knowledge of the massacre.
The book is short, but packed with detail, including where to go for more information. Perhaps the weakest part of the audio is the narrator who at times seems to be lisping, though this could have been a recording issue.
October 8, 2016
I got a free copy of the audible version this short story.
This is an amazing story that shows the best and the worst side of humanity, and I can't understand why I hadn't heard it before. It is the story of how and why the Nazi's tried to remove a small village in czechoslovakia from history. Thankfully they failed, in no small past due to a group of staffordshire miners.
This is a must read/listen for all history buffs.
This is an amazing story that shows the best and the worst side of humanity, and I can't understand why I hadn't heard it before. It is the story of how and why the Nazi's tried to remove a small village in czechoslovakia from history. Thankfully they failed, in no small past due to a group of staffordshire miners.
This is a must read/listen for all history buffs.
December 7, 2017
[Note: This book was provided free of charge by the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]
One of the unfortunate aspects about the horrors of the Third Reich is that its evils can scarcely be exaggerated [1]. Whether it is the destruction of property, looting and murder on a mass scale, or acts of detailed and specific cruelty, there is little evil that could not be ascribed to Hitler's wicked regime. This book is an unusual one, at least to date, in the author's body of work, but it fits along with the author's interest in obscure historical military incidents that involve special forces [2], and so it is not too far outside of the author's normal area of expertise. At its heart is a story about the fragility of civilization in the face of the World War, the desire of tyrants to instill fear in conquered population, and the tendency of the Czechs in the face of oppression to bow uneasily rather than to rise up in continual revolt. It is also the story of uncommon generosity in difficult times that was downplayed due to Cold War politics.
This book is a short one, less than 100 pages, but it manages to fulfill its purposes nicely. The book begins with a short biographical sketch of one Reinhard Heydrich, who was (falsely) thought to be part-Jewish, a rumor which led him to have a great deal of trouble in Weimer Republic Germany and which may have helped encourage him to overcompensate by developing a particularly harsh anti-Semitic attitude in response. After a discussion of Heydrich's early troubles, his marriage, and his rise in the SS to the point where he was named as the German ruler over the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during World War II, the author then gives some attention to various resistance operations that sought to discomfit the Germans and show them to be vulnerable. A detailed discussion of the assassination of Heydrich and its bloody aftermath follows, including a discussion of how it was that the little village of Lidice managed to get caught up in the mess and how it was destroyed with all of the men killed and the women and children subjected to harsh reprisals as well. The generosity of some North Staffordshire miners led to the reconstruction of Lidice after World War II and to the knighthood of the leader of the efforts at rebuilding in the United Kingdom.
For the most part, this book shares the qualities of much of the work of the author as a whole. The author seeks to tell stories that have either been deliberately hidden that have facets that can be brought to light, or that are obscure but tellingly important, and this story has both elements to it. In addition to this, the book also has the quality of being told in a largely dispassionate and matter-of-fact attitude, which makes the deliberate courting of Heydrich in order not to show fear that made him vulnerable in an atmosphere of violence and oppression as well as the horrors suffered by the Czechs in response to the assassination all the more harrowing by their being told in such a direct and unadorned manner. If you are a reader with an interest in World War II and the aftermath of successful assassinations--hint, they usually don't end well for the assassins--and have an interest in both British generosity and Czech struggles with tyranny, there is much to appreciate here. This may not be a book to enjoy, but it is certainly a book to appreciate and a story well worth becoming familiar with.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
[2] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
One of the unfortunate aspects about the horrors of the Third Reich is that its evils can scarcely be exaggerated [1]. Whether it is the destruction of property, looting and murder on a mass scale, or acts of detailed and specific cruelty, there is little evil that could not be ascribed to Hitler's wicked regime. This book is an unusual one, at least to date, in the author's body of work, but it fits along with the author's interest in obscure historical military incidents that involve special forces [2], and so it is not too far outside of the author's normal area of expertise. At its heart is a story about the fragility of civilization in the face of the World War, the desire of tyrants to instill fear in conquered population, and the tendency of the Czechs in the face of oppression to bow uneasily rather than to rise up in continual revolt. It is also the story of uncommon generosity in difficult times that was downplayed due to Cold War politics.
This book is a short one, less than 100 pages, but it manages to fulfill its purposes nicely. The book begins with a short biographical sketch of one Reinhard Heydrich, who was (falsely) thought to be part-Jewish, a rumor which led him to have a great deal of trouble in Weimer Republic Germany and which may have helped encourage him to overcompensate by developing a particularly harsh anti-Semitic attitude in response. After a discussion of Heydrich's early troubles, his marriage, and his rise in the SS to the point where he was named as the German ruler over the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during World War II, the author then gives some attention to various resistance operations that sought to discomfit the Germans and show them to be vulnerable. A detailed discussion of the assassination of Heydrich and its bloody aftermath follows, including a discussion of how it was that the little village of Lidice managed to get caught up in the mess and how it was destroyed with all of the men killed and the women and children subjected to harsh reprisals as well. The generosity of some North Staffordshire miners led to the reconstruction of Lidice after World War II and to the knighthood of the leader of the efforts at rebuilding in the United Kingdom.
For the most part, this book shares the qualities of much of the work of the author as a whole. The author seeks to tell stories that have either been deliberately hidden that have facets that can be brought to light, or that are obscure but tellingly important, and this story has both elements to it. In addition to this, the book also has the quality of being told in a largely dispassionate and matter-of-fact attitude, which makes the deliberate courting of Heydrich in order not to show fear that made him vulnerable in an atmosphere of violence and oppression as well as the horrors suffered by the Czechs in response to the assassination all the more harrowing by their being told in such a direct and unadorned manner. If you are a reader with an interest in World War II and the aftermath of successful assassinations--hint, they usually don't end well for the assassins--and have an interest in both British generosity and Czech struggles with tyranny, there is much to appreciate here. This may not be a book to enjoy, but it is certainly a book to appreciate and a story well worth becoming familiar with.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
[2] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
October 6, 2016
My rating: 4.5 stars
Audiobook narrator Anthony Howard rating: 4 stars
Sometimes I feel like an ignorant American when I learn about so many little stories involving major conflicts and different parts of Europe. I know that many things have happened and it’s hard to know of everything that has happened, but for a story like this, I would have hoped that I learned of it before. Either way, I am very glad that I now know of this story.
It sounds like some sort of weird one-off WWII tangent-type story about some remote village you may or may not have ever heard of involving some German-Nazi dude. No, this is a very significant story that had made ripples across the world.
The cost of war is awful – especially when it involved parties like Nazis and Hitler. This is a story that will change your outlook on potentially-small-insignificant-towns in the middle of Europe during WWII. I don’t want to go into too much detail in this review since the story is quite short and you will learn a ton in just over an hour (on audio).
I really enjoyed this short story and think it would make for an interesting movie (a sad one, like most war movies, but still interesting) and would help bring light to places like Lidice. I kind of wished the story was longer! Also, I wish I could give 4.5 stars in Goodreads (why don’t we have this ability……).
The narrator did a good job narrating this book.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Audiobook narrator Anthony Howard rating: 4 stars
Sometimes I feel like an ignorant American when I learn about so many little stories involving major conflicts and different parts of Europe. I know that many things have happened and it’s hard to know of everything that has happened, but for a story like this, I would have hoped that I learned of it before. Either way, I am very glad that I now know of this story.
It sounds like some sort of weird one-off WWII tangent-type story about some remote village you may or may not have ever heard of involving some German-Nazi dude. No, this is a very significant story that had made ripples across the world.
The cost of war is awful – especially when it involved parties like Nazis and Hitler. This is a story that will change your outlook on potentially-small-insignificant-towns in the middle of Europe during WWII. I don’t want to go into too much detail in this review since the story is quite short and you will learn a ton in just over an hour (on audio).
I really enjoyed this short story and think it would make for an interesting movie (a sad one, like most war movies, but still interesting) and would help bring light to places like Lidice. I kind of wished the story was longer! Also, I wish I could give 4.5 stars in Goodreads (why don’t we have this ability……).
The narrator did a good job narrating this book.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
October 27, 2016
This is an excellent short, easy read that details an event in history that is little known outside the immediate circle involved. For me, living not tremendously far from the people in the UK who highlighted the destruction of the village of Lidic during WW2 on the order of Hitler after the assassination of Heydrich, this book was absolutely fascinating. Not only did I learn of the mass execution of the men of Lidic and the deportation to the death camps of the women and children, the complete destruction of the village so that nothing is left to show there used to be a community there, but also how the community of Stoke-on-Trent in the UK came together during the war to raise the funds to enable Lidic to be rebuilt once the war was over. The village of Lidic was chosen for no other reason than a confession given by a woman under torture had named two men from the village as being in the UK to train for undercover operations against the Nazis.
For me, this is the type of story that should always be remembered so that atrocities of this nature never happens again anywhere in the world. I definitely recommend this book to everyone,
This is a Goodreads First Read
For me, this is the type of story that should always be remembered so that atrocities of this nature never happens again anywhere in the world. I definitely recommend this book to everyone,
This is a Goodreads First Read
October 6, 2016
( Format : audio )
""Blond Moses""
A brief but information packed account of events leading to, and following, the destruction of Ludice including an excellent outline sketch of the life and career of Heydrich,, whose death precipitated the retaliation perpetrated on the Czech village. Without skimping on telling the facts, it does not dwell on the individual horrors, nor on emotions, giving the basic framework and allowing for interested parties to continue to research later. As such, this book provides an excellent starting point. The narration is similarly a reading, not a performance, as fits the subject matter, and is clear throughout although slightly marred by brief hesitations.
Overall, an excellent memoir of an atrocity which should not be forgotten, of the evils that people can inflict on each other, and the power and generosity of others to attempt to make amends.
My thanks for the complimentary copy of A Ray of Light, which I received, via Audiobook Boom, in exchange for an unbiased review
""Blond Moses""
A brief but information packed account of events leading to, and following, the destruction of Ludice including an excellent outline sketch of the life and career of Heydrich,, whose death precipitated the retaliation perpetrated on the Czech village. Without skimping on telling the facts, it does not dwell on the individual horrors, nor on emotions, giving the basic framework and allowing for interested parties to continue to research later. As such, this book provides an excellent starting point. The narration is similarly a reading, not a performance, as fits the subject matter, and is clear throughout although slightly marred by brief hesitations.
Overall, an excellent memoir of an atrocity which should not be forgotten, of the evils that people can inflict on each other, and the power and generosity of others to attempt to make amends.
My thanks for the complimentary copy of A Ray of Light, which I received, via Audiobook Boom, in exchange for an unbiased review
August 27, 2016
Russell Phillips' A Ray of Light, short but informative, recounts the mass massacre of innocent people by Nazi Germany in the small Czech village of Lidice for reprisals in the wake of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in June 1942. Salute to the two Czech and Slovak patriots who sacrificed their lives to bring the cold-blooded killer to justice, and to The Lidice Shall Live Campaign for their post-war rebuilding efforts. Let us remember Nazi's barbaric acts during WWII and not forget the history.
December 13, 2016
I received this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review. It's a short book, but it was very interesting story from WWII that I had never read about before. It was well-written & very interesting.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews