Czechoslovakia was the first country to be occupied by the Germans before WW2 started. The Germans partly occupied it in 1938 and fully annexed all provinces into the “German Reich” in March 1939, six months before the official starting date of September 3, 1939. The Czechs thus had the longest history of Resistance against the Germans. On the reverse side of that coin, the Germans gained that much more expertise to crush Resistance in many of their occupied countries.
In the dark days of WW2, there seemed no light at all for the suffering populace of Nazi-occupied Europe. Any actions – even a minor protest – were treated with ruthless behavior. Strike for better conditions? Shoot ten strikers. Passive protest against wages? Send ten protesters to jail or, worse, concentration camps. The defeated populace, starved of daily necessities, struggled to survive. Resistance was the last thought on their minds.
In 1941, to assert themselves and to show that all was not lost, the Czech Government, in exile in London, decided on a drastic operation. To assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, the “Reich Protector” of Czechoslovakia. The code name? Operation Anthropoid. The result? Heydrich was attacked in May 1942 and died a couple of weeks later. The consequence? Two villages Lidice and Lezaky which had ABSOLUTELY NO CONNECTION with the men who carried out the ambush were razed to the ground. All the men were shot, and the women and children were sent to Germany for “re-education”. Czech Resistance was decimated and was minimal to nil till 1945.
This story, with its tragic consequences, has been told many times.
The first and the most surprising version is Hangmen also Die (1943), the hangman being a reference to Heydrich, the Hangman of Prague. Released when the war’s end was still unknown, the film was somewhat fictional in its storytelling, with only Heydrich’s death being confirmed. At the same time, all the other onscreen characters were largely fictitious. Directed by Fritz Lang , one of the pioneers of cinema, the film is free on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqmv1a4i9hE
Hitler’s Madman (1943) was yet another version released the same year. Directed by Douglas Sirk , the film ends with the Lidice massacre. In a “filmi” ending, the men sing the Czech anthem while the Germans machine gun them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JRyfo8T8Yc
Atentat (1964) is a black-and-white Czech version that faithfully depicts the assassination’s “before and after”. The black and white visuals enhance the semi-documentary feeling of the film since most WW2 documentaries are in Black and White. A quick view through the film shows the history reasonably accurate. Unfortunately, there are no subtitles for the Czech and German dialogues, though there is a brief section with English dialogues when the soldiers train in England.
I saw Operation Daybreak (1975) in 1977 on its release in Regal cinema in Mumbai – first with some schoolmates and then twice solo.
I still have the PAN-BALLANTINE WW2 ILLUSTRATED SERIES book Lidice which deals with the entire story. (Don’t even try to google the prices on Amazon !!!) The photos in that book and the on-film locales match stunningly since the film was shot in Prague in actual locations. The DVD is extremely difficult to get, and I have a two VCD set where the German dialogues have English subtitles.
Jan Kubis (Timothy Bottoms) and Josef Gabciek (Anthony Andrews), along with Karel Curda ( Martin Shaw), are assigned the task of contacting the Czech Resistance in Prague and carrying out the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (Anton Diffring, who chillingly resembles Heydrich).
After a false start trying to kill him in a moving train (below left) – total fiction but great cinema – they decide on a suicidal face-to-face attack. Gabciek’s Sten jams and Kubis’s grenade proves fatal to Heydrich. His funeral is taken thru Prague (below right). The Germans go on a rampage, and soon, the price of the attack outweighs its benefits.
This version has a lot of unnecessary masala that reduces the impact of the story. Mostly it is a silly romance between Kubis and a resistance fighter Anna (Nicola Pagett). The initial story about the duo being dropped 200 miles from Prague and killing two German soldiers, also sounds ridiculous and is probably to add zing to the story. The story is dramatic and could have dispensed with the unnecessary masala elements. However, once the attempt is over, everything that follows is shown faithfully. The final standoff in the Church is brilliantly executed. The Church where the fighters were holed up still has the scars and bullet marks of the fighting.
Director Lewis Gilbert was no stranger to war films as he had already made Sink the Bismarck, Reach for the Sky, and Carve her name with pride all of which were based on true stories. However “daybreak” wasn’t as successful since it was a “small” movie, with no big stars, and suffered. (Gilbert would go on to great heights with the Bond franchise). Unfortunately, the film is unavailable on DVD but is available on Amazon USA (and not Amazon India). This is the clip of the assassination attempt, shown faithfully as it happened in real life. (No official will ever outrun his escort – more masala there)
Overall rating – 3.8 out of 5
Anthropoid (2016) is a more recent, much more accurate, dark update of the story. There are quite a few differences between Daybreak and this version. Now both heroes have a girlfriend – meaning now, more masala? Not necessarily! However, the ladies’ part in the story is minimal. Cillian Murphy is Gabcik, Jamie Dornan is Kubis, and Jiri Simek is Curda.
This film, too, was shot in Prague in real-life locations. How the Nazis carried out their post-assassination roundups and tortures is portrayed more graphically (unlike the 1975 version). However, in the grand finale, there is a stupid romantic element as Gabcik sees his dead girlfriend calling to him – just that silliness reduces the overall gripping feel of the film. The film is on Amazon USA. It is also on YouTube though the print isn’t that great and is with Czech subtitles.
Overall rating – 3.8 out of 5
The reputation of the Czech Government in exile went up among the Allies. They had scored a “respectable hit”. No one knew the consequences of the operation. The Czech Resistance had been decimated and would only emerge in May 1945 for the “Prague Uprising” – with the Russians lending a hand while the defeated Germans still fought with fanatic vigor. Makes you wonder about actions, reactions, and consequences.
Lidice Village – preserved (below left) and the memorial (below right)
Last but not least. Heydrich was No.3 after Hitler and the ONLY German Government Official who was DIRECTLY targeted by a Government in Exile. No other Government in Exile – such as France, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Poland, etc. – targeted the German “head” of their respective occupied country. Perhaps this operation served as a warning as to what devastating consequences would follow.
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