The Tree of Life by Elisa Boxer

It was winter in the ghetto called Terezin. There were many children in the ghetto, scared and lonely. One woman, Irma Lauscher, was secretly teaching the children to read and write, and also to celebrate Jewish holidays. She asked one of the prisoners who left the ghetto each day on work detail to smuggle in a tree sapling. He agreed even though this meant risking his life if he were caught.

When the sapling arrived, it was a comfort to the children who planted it in a pot. Eventually, the children planted the sapling in the ground within the ghetto. To keep the sapling alive, the children each shared a few drops of their precious water each day. The tree grew taller and was known as Etz Chaim, the Tree of Life.

Meanwhile, many of the children were removed from the ghetto and sent by train somewhere even worse. But those children who remained continued to water the tree. After the war and the prisoners were released, the tree was now five feet tall. Before the children left the ghetto they gave the tree one more drink and placed a sign by it that read, "As the branches of this tree, so the branches of our people." 

Over the years the tree continued to grow, a mature, silent witness to what had happened in the ghetto. Irma survived the war and send seeds from the tree all over the world. In 2007, after a flood, the tree finally succumbed. But six hundred saplings were now living throughout the world!

In 2021, a fifteen foot descendent of the tree of life was planted in New York City. There children will come to care for it and learn more about the past, the ghetto, and the teacher and the children who had hope for a better future.

Discussion

The Tree of Life is the touching story of Jewish children creating a memorial of hope in the darkest of times, when most of them would have no future.

In January, 1943, Irma Lauscher and a group of Jewish children gathered in Theresienstadt concentration camp to plant a tree. This was to celebrate the Jewish holiday called Tu B'Shvat which is called "The New Year of The Trees".

Theresienstadt, also known as Terezin, was a Nazi concentration camp and ghetto located thirty miles north of Prague in the Czech Republic. Theresienstadt was originally a fortress created in the late 18th century by Emperor Joseph II of Austria. Terezin was located within the fortress. However, during World War II, with the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Nazis converted Terezin into a Jewish ghetto and concentration camp. The ghetto held over fifteen thousand Jewish children, of which only one hundred fifty would survive. Most of these children and the Jewish adults as well, were sent to their deaths at the extermination camps of Treblinka and Auschwitz.

Unlike many other camps, Terezin prisoners were scholars, philosophers, scientists, musicians and artists. The camp was used as a propaganda tool to prove to the world that the Nazis were treated the Jewish people well. In 1943, the camp was beautified in response to a request by King Christian X of Denmark to inspect it. Named Operation Embellishment by the Nazis, the camp was cleaned, fakes shops and cafes were created and thousands deported to Auschwitz to alleviate overcrowding. When the inspection was done in June of 1944 by Danish officials they saw freshly painted rooms holding no more than three Danish Jews per room. The officials did not ask to see areas of the camp that were not part of the official tour and any questions they asked of residents were not answered. Rafael Schachter, a Czech composer, along with other Jews, was forced by the Nazis to give a repeat performance of Verdi's Requiem. He was deported to Auschwitz in October 1944  and gassed the next day. In September 1944, the Nazi's made a propaganda film titled Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet  or, Terezin: A Documentary Film of the Jewish Resettlement. 

Despite this, the children of Terezin were educated, even though it was apparent most of them would not survive. This was a ploy by the Nazis to hide the camp's true purpose. Irma Lauscher was one of the teachers. She was born in Hermanuv Mestec in 1904 and went on to earn a teaching degree from Chales University in Prague. In 1932 she married Jiri Lauscher. They had a daughter, Michaela in 1936.  Irma continued teaching even after they were deported to Terezin in 1942, helping the Jewish children learn about Jewish history and traditions.

The seeds for the tree were smuggled in by an unknown prisoner who worked outside the camp. In the spring of 1943 the tree was planted in one of the Terezin yards. Another version has Irma bribing a Czech guard who smuggled in a sapling of a silver maple. The tree survived the war by being watered by the children of Terezin, most of whom did not survive. Irma and her family also survived. 

After the war, Irma often visited the tree at Terezin, who grew into a stout sixty foot silver maple. Unfortunately, the tree was destroyed by a flood in 2003. But by that time many saplings of the original tree grew in the United States and Israel.

Elisa Boxer tells the story of the Tree of Life in this lovely picture book with digitally created artwork by Alianna Rozentsveig. It is a gentle retelling that focuses on the sacrifice of the Jewish children, to create a symbol of hope and peace, for a future they would never have. This symbol was spread throughout the world, in the form of saplings planted in different cities. Each tree is  a reminder to children of all peoples and faiths, of the lives lost and offers a reminder to fight hatred in all its forms.

The artwork portraying life in Terezin is dark and conveys a sense of foreboding with shades of beige, brown and black while the children are shown in brighter colours. The train taking the Jewish children to their deaths in Auschwitz, belches black smoke against an ominous dark sky. In the postwar images, the background is light, conveying a sense of hope.

There is an Author's Note at the back as well as a Selected Sources section which offers readers the opportunity to explore more in-depth the story told in the book.

Book Details:

The Tree of Life. How a Holocaust Sapling Inspired the World by Elisa Boxer

New York: Rocky Pond Books    2024

Stars of the Night by Caren Stelson

Stars of the Night relates the incredible story of Nicholas Winton and the Czech kindertransport.

In 1938 Czechoslovakia, life for young children in the old city of Prague was good. There were picnics in the park with dark bread with cheese and slices of their mother's sweet honey cake. In the winter, skating on the rivers was followed by a trip to the local coffeehouses for hot cocoa with whipped cream. The children, who were Jewish and eight, nine and ten years old played with friends who were mostly not Jewish. This didn't matter to them. They attended school. Prague was a peaceful city.

But in November of that year, things began to change. Tent camps were set up outside the city, filled with people, who the children were told, were refugees. In Germany, the stores and synagogues of Jews were vandalized and burned. The people in the tents were seeking safety. Soon the Jewish children of Prague found they were being yelled at too. Their parents began to worry, but were too busy to explain. Soon they decided they had to meet the man who was offering to make arrangements. But what man were they meeting in Prague?

In March 1939, the German army entered Prague, with their leader Hitler standing in a car, his arm straight out in front of him. Everywhere the red flags with the black zigzag were hung.

When the childrens' fathers received replies to their letters, the packing of suitcases began. The children were told they were taking a trip to England. And they were told, "There will be times when you'll feel lonely and homesick. Let the stars of the night and the sun of the day be the messenger of our thoughts and love."

The childrens' journey beganat Prague's Wilson Railway Station. The train station was filled with mostly Jewish families who were saying tearful goodbyes to their children as they boarded the trains. At the German border, the children alone, on their train without their parents were afraid of the gruff German police who checked travel documents and searched suitcases. From Germany they travelled through the Netherlands to the English Channel where they boarded boats. After another train ride in England, the children arrived in London where they were welcomed by the English families who would care for them. The children didn't know that the man their parents had written to was a man in London who had made this all possible. 

In England, they soon learned that war had broken out and as the years passed they saw pictures of people being made to wear yellow stars, and being forced into cattle cars on trains and sent to terrible places. Were their parents safe at home in Prague? They didn't know. When the war ended, many of the children were much older, seventeen and eighteen and were able to travel back to Prague to search for their parents. They soon realized that their parents were gone, that they were some of the people put on the cattle cars and sent away.  Many years passed, the children grew up, married and had their own children.

Then one day a scrap book was found with the names and photographs of children, their passports and letters and a plan of escape. In the scrapbook was also the name of the man who organized all this - Nicholas Winton. The children, now older adults, finally met him to thank him.

Discussion

Stars of the Night tells the story from the perspective of  669  brave children, who made the journey from Czechoslovakia to Great Britain just as Hitler began his rampage across Europe. As children, at the time, they didn't really know what was happening in their communities, and in the world at large. They were told they were being sent away, but they couldn't possibly understand what that really meant. These children were part of the larger kindertransport - an attempt to save the children of Jewish parents from inevitable death. One person determined to do that was Nicholas Winton. 

Nicholas Winton was born in 1909 in West Hampstead to parents of German Jewish ancestry. He worked as a stockbroker. In 1938, Winton's life was about to change forever. Germany had taken over areas of Czechoslovakia that were predominantly German-speaking, called the Sudetenland. This was allowed by the Munich Agreement. After this, in November, the Nazis conducted an organized attack on Jewish citizens in Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland in what became known as Kristallnacht. As a result, Jewish refugees from these areas began to arrive in Czechoslovakia, on the outskirts of Prague.

Due to this attack, the British government decided to allow children under the age of seventeen from Germany and other areas annexed by Germany, to enter Great Britain. The requirements were that they have a foster family willing to take them in and that there were certain financial commitments made.

It was at this time in December, 1938 that Nicholas Winton's friend, Martin Blake asked him to visit Czechoslovakia instead of travelling to Switzerland for a ski trip. Winton arrived in Czechoslovakia as an associate of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia, an organization created in response to the refugee crisis in Prague. There he met Doreen Wariner who arranged for him to visit refugee camps filled with Jews and political opponents of the Nazis.

Winton knew of the Kindertransport to rescue Jewish children from Germany and Austria, and he decided to organize a similar operation for Czech Jewish children. He first began organizing from his Prague hotel room and then in an office. Winton soon had thousands of distraught parents attempting to apply. He returned to England to raise money for the transport of Jewish children to England.

The first kindertransport organized by Winton from Czechoslovakia left Prague on March 14, 1939. Seven more transports would follow, these by train and ship, as portrayed in Stars of the Night. When Germany invaded Poland, and Great Britain declared war on Germany, the transports ended. Nicholas Winton's remarkable efforts remained hidden until his wife Grete discovered a scrapbook with the names and photographs of the children he saved. In 1988, the year the scrapbook was discovered, the children, now adults, were finally able to meet the man who saved them, on a British TV show.

Author Caren Stelson, who is Jewish, focused on five children from the Kindertransport in her story, giving each a different colour that is consistent throughout. Sisters Eva and Vera Diamantova wear orange and red respectively. Eva and Vera were ten and fifteen-years-old when they left their parents on July 20, 1939 and boarded the Czech Kindertransport to England. Vera would use the diary her father gave her, to write about her experiences and to write down the words her mother told her, about the stars of the night and the sun of the day being the messenger of their thoughts and love for her. Vera remained in England becoming a writer while Eva moved to New Zealand and became a nurse.

Brothers Josef and Ernest Schlesinger are portrayed wearing dark blue and light blue respectively.  Josef was eleven and Ernest, nine-years-old when they left Bratislava to travel to England. Sadly, Josef and Ernest's parents did not survive the Holocaust. Canadians will know Joe Schlesinger as a famous foreign correspondent for CBC. Renata Polgar wears green in Stars of the Night. She was only eight-years-old when she left her parents in her hometown of Brno to live with the Daniels family in Britain. She remembered happy times with this family. Renata was one of only five children whose parents both survived the Holocaust.

The illustrations in Stars of the Night were created by artist Selina Alko with acrylic paint, colored pencil and collage. 

Stars of the Night is a picture book that introduces the Czech kindertransport to younger readers in a simple manner, allowing for further exploration and learning about this event and the remarkable Nicholas Winton who orchestrated one aspect of it. His story demonstrates how one person can make a significant difference in the lives of many. As Joe Schlesinger remarked about Nicholas Winton, "This is the man who gave me the rest of my life."

Book Details:

Stars of the Night by Caren Stelson
Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books 2023

When The World Was Ours by Liz Kessler

Three best friends forever linked by a moment in time, experience the horrors of the Holocaust. Leo Grunberg, Max Fischer and Elsa Bauer spend Leo's ninth birthday riding on Vienna's famous Ferris wheel, the Riesenrad. It's 1936 and the three are spending the day at the fairgrounds, afterwards eating sachertorte for Leo's birthday. During the Ferris wheel ride, Leo's papa takes a picture of all three friends in the carriage at the top. 

When Papa begins chasing and tickling the three, Leo trips over a lady's outstretched foot. His papa makes Leo apologize, but the lady tells them in broken German that it is nothing to worry about. They learn that couple, Aileen and Eric Stewart are from England. When the ride ends, Papa is still in conversation with the English couple and he offers to pay for another ride. Leo's father learns that Eric Stewart is a dentist who is now late for his conference talk, so he invites the Stewarts to his home for Leo's birthday dinner.

A few weeks later, Max's father takes the three friends swimming at the Amalienbad. When Leo's father comes to the car to say hello, Mr. Fischer is not friendly. Max met Leo and Elsa when they started Volksschule together a few years ago. At that time, Leo's parents had invited the Fischers for dinner hoping to become friends, but that friendship had never really materialized. Despite Max's father's rudeness towards Leo's papa, the boys have fun swimming and diving.

After the swim, Max overhears his parents talking about Leo's father, "Shows you what they're all like, all of them. Making out they're one thing while underneath, they're another thing completely. Liars, the lot of them. Sneaky, nasty, dirty, rotten -- ..." Max doesn't understand why his father would think this of Leo's father whom everyone loves. When he tells his father he's going out to play with Leo and Elsa, his father becomes angry but is stopped by Max's mother from saying anything more. This leaves Max wondering what is so wrong with Leo and Elsa.

One spring day in 1937, Elsa learns from her father Vati and her mother Mutti that they are leaving Vienna and moving to Czechoslovakia. This stunning development shocks Elsa who cannot understand why it is no longer safe for them to remain in Vienna. At the park that day, a tearful Elsa explains to Max that the country is no longer safe for Jews. But Max refuses to believe that being Jewish is dangerous. This news upsets Max terribly and tries not to cry. Instead, he gives Elsa a kiss as he realizes this will be the last time he sees her. When he returns home, Max tells his father that's he's spent time with Leo and Elsa. His father angrily forbids him from seeing them again, telling Max he's not to spend time with Jews.

In early 1938, Elsa and her family have settled into life in Prague, Czechoslovakia. She misses Max and Leo but Vati is working and Mutti seems happy. Then Vati announces that he is joining the army to fight off the Germans who are invading Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, in Vienna, Mr. Schmidt,  the headmaster at Max and Leo's school, informs the students that mornings will now begin with the "Heil Hitler" greeting. He also tells the students whom he's just named and whom are all Jewish, that they will "...be treated like the lesser race you are! You will sit separately in lessons and assembly, at the back of the room."  

Max and the other students are told they are not to interact with the Jewish students because they are "dirty and  inferior" and that they must "...pretend they do not even exist". Max doesn't understand because he knows Leo is not dirty however, he instinctively moves away from his friend. This shocks Leo, who finds himself not allowed into class later on. Even worse, on his way home, Leo comes across his father and several other Jewish men being forced to scrub the pavement by Max's father who is now wearing a uniform with the Nazi swastika on his arm. Leo's father tells him to leave when he moves to help his father who is being kicked by Mr. Fischer. When Max arrives home, he learns that they are moving to Munich where his father is to be a senior SS officer. Although reluctant to leave, Max is hopeful that life in a new city will offer him a chance to start over. But what he doesn't know is that he will change in a way he never thought possible.

As the Nazis invade more countries and war consumes Europe, Max becomes increasingly drawn into the life of a young Nazi and taught to hate Jews. His rise through the Hitler Youth sees him sent to Auschwitz where he is forced to make a fateful choice. Meanwhile, Elsa and her family experience the occupation of Czechoslovakia and eventually are sent to the Jewish ghetto. As their rights and property are gradually stripped away, it isn't long before they are sent to Theresienstadt. Eventually their family is sent to Auschwitz. For Leo and his mother, the chance encounter four years earlier on the Ferris wheel will end up saving their lives. War has separated the three friends but fate will bring two of them together in a tragic way.

Discussion

When The World Was Ours is historical fiction novel about the Holocaust, told from the perspective of three childhood friends, Leo, Elsa and Max who live in Vienna, Austria as Hitler is in power in Germany. The story is crafted around an experience author Liz Kessler's father Harry Kessler had when he was eight years old. As told in her note at the front of the novel, Kessler's father Harry "had nearly scuffed " the dress of a British woman. As in the novel with Leo's family, this moment led to a day together with the British couple, a thank you letter, and ultimately led to a way to escape the ever-tightening noose of the Holocaust. Elsa's story portrays what might have happened had Kessler's father not escaped while Max's narrative explores "...how so many ordinary people could have become part of such a brutal, evil, and horrific regime."

In many ways it is Max's story that is the most tragic because it is a story of a young boy who is taught to hate. Kessler chronicles how a young boy, desperate for fatherly attention and affirmation, is transformed into a diligent Nazi. Max's childhood had been unhappy with memories of his parents arguing over money. He is visible only to his father when he finds something to criticize him for. An outcast at school due to his poverty, his friendship with Leo and Elsa becomes a stabilizing factor in his life. In particular, it is Leo's father, a happy, kind man, who helps Max. So when he hears his father blame the Jews for his own problems, and when the headmaster singles out the Jews at school, Max experiences shame and confusion.

When his family moves to Munich, Max becomes part of the Nazi culture. He strives to do what his father advises, "Don't stand out. Don't speak out. Do exactly what your teachers tell you and copy the other boys if you are unsure." Soon Max not only belongs, but he is a leader. When he's told things that make him uncomfortable, he doesn't question or speak out. "When their teachers told them how important it was to rid themselves of the scourge of the Jewish enemy, how the Jews were filthy, inferior, disgusting creatures, Max kept his face as still and impassive as he possibly could. He didn't tell them his old friends were Jewish."

Despite this, Max remembers the happy times with Elsa and Leo, looks at the photograph  that he has kept hidden. "And then the questions would come. Were Leo and Elsa really the enemy? Were they the people he had to hate? Could there be a mistake of some sort?" Life in Munich is good, but when Max hears things about Jews, he isn't convinced they are true. Soon he begins to doubt that Leo and Elsa were Jews.

Max is able to bury deep inside himself, the memories of that wonderful day in Vienna. When he hears things that he knows to be lies, he stops registering that this might be wrong. But when Max looks at the photograph of that wonderful day so long ago in Vienna he realizes what his current life in the Hitler Youth truly is. "In an instant, nothing of his current life was real. He saw it for what it was: a vain, superficial attempt to fit in. To be loved. To be praised by his father, by his leaders, by Hitler. None of it was a fraction as real as his friendships with Leo and Elsa had been. The only two people who had ever really loved him for himself, with no expectations or demands." But when he destroys the photograph and the letters from Leo that his father has hidden, Max shuts his heart against these thoughts. 

Eventually, Max is forced to confront what he has become, when he is taken to kill his first Jew at Auschwitz, where his father now works. That Jew does what Max couldn't do for himself. She reminds him of who he once was and that it is love, not work that sets you free. But can Max accept that as an answer to the conflict he is experiencing or is this merely just another test to prove he's a good Nazi? Does Max have the courage to stand up for what he knows is the truth: that Jews are not the enemy, that hating and murdering your fellow human beings is wrong and doesn't solve any world problems? Does he have the strength to face the truth of what his life has been?

It's probably unlikely in the real world of the 1930s and 1940s, that a young Max, thoroughly indoctrinated in Nazi ideology, would have given a second thought to what he had been taught and questioned what he was asked to do. Beginning in 1933, the education system in Germany was purged of Jewish teachers and professors and anyone who opposed the Nazi regime. The German education system which had produced a wealth of brilliant scientists, artists, writers and poets, now focused on indoctrinating young people in Nazi ideology including racism, antisemitism, obedience to the state, and devotion to Hitler. According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, "The Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls were the primary tools that the Nazis used to shape the beliefs, thinking and actions of German youth." Resistance was almost impossible and not tolerated, as members of the White Rose resistance group, a small group of university students would quickly learn.

Nevertheless, When The World Was Ours is a well written novel that encourages young readers to consider these kinds of questions in a world where social media now entices others to ridicule, cancel, dox and hate others for their different beliefs, attitudes, customs and skin colour. By portraying the transformation of Max, Kessler encourages her readers to consider what leads people to hate and how such hate can be countered, so that events like the Holocaust might never again happen.

Book Details:

When The World Was Ours by Liz Kessler
New York: Aladdin   2021
337 pp.

DVD: Anthropoid

Set in Czechoslovakia in 1941, Anthropoid tells the heartwrenching story of the exiled Czech government's operation to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, the brutal commander in charge of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia.

The movie opens by presenting the background story for viewers. In September of 1938, a conference was held in Munich between Adolf Hitler and the leaders of France, Italy and Great Britain. Hitler threatened to start a war unless Germany was allowed to annex Czechoslovakia. Britain agrees and the Czech army is told to stand down, allowing Germany to invade the country without a shot being fired. A year later, Germany invades Poland and World War II begins. Germany needs the Czech factories to make their armaments but Czech resistance is strong and hindering production. As a result Hitler sends his third-in-command, Reinhard Heydrich to crush any resistance. He soon earns the name the Butcher of Prague.

The setting now moves to April 1942 Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik parachute into a forest overnight. Josef has injured his ankle, so they decide to lay low. They are found by a local farmer who takes them to his house. Although he appears to be friendly, they catch him contacting the authorities. Josef shoots him while Jan chases another man who escapes. The two men flee the farm in a truck to meet their contact, Oldrich Novak in Prague.

When they arrive at the safe house, they are told that Oldrich Novak is not there but are directed to the local veterinarian, Dr. Eduard who is a "good man". Dr. Eduard quickly surmises their situation and tells them that Heydrich has succeeded in crushing the Czech resistance and that the miller, Bretislav may be able to help them. He takes them to an abandoned building where they are questioned by Ladislav Vanek and Uncle Hajsky to determine if they are legitimate resistance. Both men are the head of the Jindra Organization - the Czech resistance. Vanek tells them almost all the resistance has been taken out and that Oldrich Novak was taken away several months ago. Jindra has lost contact with the exiled government in London because their radio is broken. They hoped that Jan and Josef had brought a new crystal for the radio.But when asked what their mission is, Josef tells them, Operation Anthropoid. - there are to assassinate SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich.

Vanek tells them it is madness to attempt this because Hitler will destroy Prague. When he suggests they choose a lower ranking officer, Josef disagrees, telling them their orders are from the Czech government in London.Vanek takes them to then home of Auntie Moravec who is very welcoming and provides the two men with a room. They will stay out of sight until they get the papers they need to move about. The two men are also introduced to Mrs. Kovarnikova's daughter, Marie who is paid to help at the home. Jan is immediately drawn to her, but the more practical Josef decides that if they can get another girl to be his partner, they will look less conspicuous.Marie brings in a friend named Lenka Fafkova. The two girls invite Jan and Josef to a dance but when they show up at the club well dressed and wearing bright red lipstick, Josef becomes angry and forces Lenka to fake a scene and leave. He tells her she has to fit in, not wear bright red lipstick to attract attention.

At a meeting at Cafe Morov, Jan and Josef meet other members of the resistance where they plan how to

Reinhard Heydrich
Jewish Virtual Library

assassinate Heydrich. They know his basic routine: every day Heydrich returns to his family along Paneske Brezany, but he is heavily guarded. Once a month he travels to Berlin and it is possible to know exactly when as his personal cars are prepared in advance. However, the train and the station are also heavily guarded. Uncle Hajsky tells them he has a contact who works at the chateau who may be able to help them discover Heydrich's routine, but he warns them that they are the last of the resistance and that if they are captured they will have no hope. They will be tortured to extract information on those involved and then executed. To protect those involved Hajsky gives everyone cyanide capsules.

Marie tries to talk Jan out of the assassination, especially as the two of them fall in love and eventually announce that they are planning to marry. Lenka however tells Josef her father, who was a captain in the army was arrested in 1939 and shot along with 5000 other prisoners when Heydrich took over.

The Czech resistance, especially Vanek are increasingly against the assassination and insist that Josef and Jan allow them to contact London for further confirmation. Jan and Josef receive confirmation to go ahead but they learn from a source inside the chateau that Heydrich will be recalled to Berlin and then posted to Paris. This means that if the assassination is to go ahead it has to be done immediately.
However, Vanek tells them he has received a message telling Jindra to stand down and that there be no
action against the German Reich at this time. Josef refuses to accept this. Uncle Hajsky sides with Josef and gives him the go ahead.

The plan is set in motion and although the assassination is successful, the German Reich retaliates with
unimaginable ferocity. Heydrich's death brings about the deaths of thousands of innocent people and the traitorous actions of one of the resistance members results in the deaths of most of the remaining Czech resistance.

Discussion

Anthropoid is a stark, gripping film which realistically portrays the terrible evil experienced by the Czech people under the occupation of Nazi Germany. Betrayed by Europe and Britain, the Sudetenland was given to HItler in an effort to appease his threat of war. With the loss of the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia was unable to resist Hitler's invasion of the remainder of the country in March of 1939. Hitler set up the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and he chose as his Reich Protector, the cruel and completely immoral Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich's mandate was to regain control of the Czech population which had resisted by killing Reich officers and sabotaging factory production so necessary to the Nazi war machine. He began to eliminate the Czech intelligentsia and brutally crush the Czech resistance. The Czech government in exile in Britain realized that they needed to do something and a plan was conceived to murder Heydrich. Initially Warrant Officer Josef Gabcik and Staff Sergeant Karel Svoboda were chosen to undertake the mission. However, Svoboda received a head injury during training and was replaced by Jan Kubis. Before leaving Britain on December 28, 1941, both men made out their last will and testament in what would likely be a suicide mission.

Anthropoid portrays their mission in a somewhat simplistic manner but does capture the essence of how dangerous the operation was in a country under the iron grip of Heydrich and the ruthless retaliation of the Nazis as they systematically hunt down those responsible for his murder. In this regard the last part of the movie following the attack on Heydrich becomes increasingly violent, showing the torture of young Ata Moravec and the final bloody battle in the Church of St. Cyril and Methodius. The movie's final scene is horrific, portraying the brutal deaths of all the resistance members. Viewers are left aghast and feeling like they have some sense of the savagery of the Nazis, now mostly forgotten, two generations away from events like this. We need to remember the truth about what happened during this era.

Cillian Murphy is cast as the determined Josef Gabcik, Jamie Dornan portrayed a quiet, suave Jan Kubis who struggled with killing another human being, and Toby Miller played Uncle Hajsky as cautious and wise.  The film doesn't touch too deeply on the morality of killing Heydrich who was known as the Butcher of Prague and who was the architect of Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" - the extermination of all Jews in Europe. But viewers aren't really given a sense of WHY this man was so horrible. Instead we are told this in the opening panels which provide the background for the movie.

Anthropoid is well worth viewing, if only to learn more about Operation Anthropoid and the heroes of the Czech resistance, Josef Gabcik, Jan Kubis, Adolf Opalka, Josef Bublik and Josef Valcik.