Terror Breathed in the Face

"Terror Breathed in the Face" is a new book about the second martial law after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in East Bohemia in June 1942. The book presents the life stories of 194 victims who were murdered in the shooting range of the Nazi riot police in the barracks near Villa Zámeček on the outskirts of Pardubice. The life paths of hundred of men, women and children who were arrested by the Gestapo in connection with the activities of the Silver A paratroopers were still known. They were members of resistance groups from Pardubice, Ležáky and Červený Kostelec-Bohdašín. The other hundred persons were brought to the execution site from a wide area, from Nymburk, through Havlíčkův, formerly Německý Brod, to Česká Třebová. The reasons for their arrests are surprising, as they were mostly connected with the resentment of their neighbours, acquaintances or enemies, and the Gestapo merely took advantage of them. A special chapter is the search for the culprits not only immediately after the war, but also the capture of several others in the early 1970s. Both the commander of the firing squad and the head of the Cologne Gestapo stood trial in the GDR and were never released from prison for their crimes. The book is supplemented by hundreds of contemporary photographs and documents from Czech and German archives, which allow the original records to be read. Extensive research has been supplemented by the newly created Memorial Zámeček, which opened in 2021 on the site of the former execution ground.