The Memorial to the Child Victims of War is a deeply moving bronze sculpture located at the Lidice Memorial in Lidice, Czech Republic. Created by academic sculptor Marie Uchytilová, it serves as a universal monument to all innocent child casualties of global conflicts while specifically commemorating the 82 local children murdered by Nazi forces at the Chełmno extermination camp in the summer of 1942.
In June 1942, Nazi forces completely destroyed the village of Lidice as a brutal act of retaliation for the assassination of SS General Reinhard Heydrich. The village was burned to the ground, the adult men were executed, and the women were sent to concentration camps.
Among the village children, 82 were deemed “unsuitable for Germanization,” transported to Chełmno, and murdered in mobile gas vans. They consisted of 42 girls and 40 boys ranging from 1 to 16 years old. Only 9 children from the village survived by being placed with German families.
Deeply moved by the tragedy, sculptor Marie Uchytilová dedicated two decades of her life, starting in 1969, to crafting the installation. To give each child a distinct identity, Uchytilová meticulously studied surviving photographs of the victims to capture their unique personalities, sizes, and expressions.
Working without financial support from the state, she spent her own savings to cast the first three statues in bronze. She completed the plaster molds in the spring of 1989 but unexpectedly passed away in November of that year, never seeing the finished product. Her husband, Jiří Václav Hampl, took over the monumental task in 1990. The first batch of 30 bronze statues was unveiled in 1995, and the final statues were safely installed in the year 2000.
The final monument comprises 82 life-sized bronze statues positioned on a hillside overlooking the site of the razed village. The figures stand together looking out into space, frozen in expressions of confusion, sadness, and innocence, creating a profound and chilling impression on visitors. The installation directly adjoins the “Garden of Peace and Friendship” on the expansive grounds of the Lidice Memorial Park.
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