Ležáky and the link to London

spring–June 1942

Ležáky mill concealed SILVER A’s Libuše radio. After exposing the network, the Nazis destroyed the hamlet and murdered most inhabitants.

Ležáky was a small hamlet with a mill and quarry-working families. SILVER A had a different mission from ANTHROPOID: intelligence and radio contact with London. Its Libuše station was installed in Ležáky mill from April 1942, having previously transmitted from Hluboká quarry.

The investigation following Čurda’s testimony gradually exposed the Pardubice network. Libuše left Ležáky on 18 June, but its earlier presence and residents’ assistance had already endangered the settlement. Ležáky was not a direct operational base for Gabčík and Kubiš.

On 24 June the Nazis removed the inhabitants and burned the hamlet. The Ležáky Memorial records 33 adults shot at Pardubice’s Zámeček that evening, with others murdered later. Eleven children were murdered at Chełmno; sisters Jarmila and Marie Šťulíková survived. The hamlet was not rebuilt as a residential settlement after the war.

Places

• Ležáky — a hamlet connected to the Libuše radio

  The hamlet connected with Libuše; now memorial grounds.

Destroyed villages were not the only form of violence. The next chapter returns to Prague’s execution site at Kobylisy.