Birmingham, the largest city within the Warwickshire Miners’ Federation Coalfield, was the first to accept the invitation to join the national Lidice Shall Live campaign.
Formal negotiations on the renouncement of the Munich Agreement began at the end of January 1942. At a luncheon given by Anthony Eden on January the 21st.
It was Thursday, the 10th of July, and the audience with Marshal Stalin had been arranged for 9.30am. Jan Masaryk and Dr Drtina met half an hour earlier in one of the rooms of the State residence put at their disposal, but Gottwald was late.
It was announced in late 1943 that Coventry was to join the Lidice Shall Live movement. The decision was made at a meeting at the Council House on Wednesday the 1st of December, attended by representatives of the churches, Civil Defence force, social and other organisations.
UNRRA was a United States led initiative under the auspices of the United Nations. Set up in Washington D.C. on the 9th of November 1943 at the White House, it was signed off by Franklin D Roosevelt along with 44 signatories representing nations throughout the world (this was later extended to 48).
The campaign was realised when The Exhibition of Czecho-Slovakian Friendship opened at the Prudential Buildings on Monday the 9th of October 1944 by a Czechoslovak Army Captain, in the presence of Dr Victor Fischl, the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, an associate of Jan Masaryk, and a company of Czech infantry from nearby Cholmondeley Castle.
When the formation of the committee was formally announced on September the 21st, 1942 in Washington D.C., the Lidice Lives Committee declared its ambition to create
“a village named Lidice in each Allied country, reaching a number of 30 to 36 Lidices all over the world by the end of the war.”
A committee of activists, all heavily involved in the Lidice Shall Live project and led by Dr Barnett Stross – met to discuss arrangements for the launch at the Victoria Hall on the 6th of September.
In August 1942, having received consent from the President of the Mineworkers’ Federation of Great Britain, Will Lawther, at their Conference in July, the British Crown Film Unit began scanning the country’s coalfields looking for a location to create a propaganda film based on the Lidice atrocity.
Formal negotiations on the renouncement of the Munich Agreement began at the end of January 1942. At a luncheon given by Anthony Eden on January 21st and attended by Dr Beneš; Ambassador to Czecho-Slovakia, Philip Nichols; and Hubert Ripka, Czechoslovak Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.