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Saturday 1 November 2014

Pay Attention, Americans

Learn your history.

This is about to repeat itself in the States.

Family Memories

Two of the stories my grandmother, who died in her nineties, would tell me were the horrific massacres of Lidice and  Ležáky. Those who know the history of the Third Reich will recognize the name of Reihard Heydrich, one of the most egotistic and violent of all theSS-Obergruppenführers.

He had been appointed Reichsprotektor over Bohemia and Moravia, from where some of my ancestors came. I know we shall these times again, when tyrannies try to exterminate target groups.

I shall let Wiki tell the rest of the stories.

On the morning of 27 May 1942, Heydrich was being driven from his country villa atPanenské Břežany to his office at Prague Castle. When he reached the Kobylisy area of Prague, his car was attacked (on behalf of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile) by the Slovak and Czech soldiers Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš.[2] These men, who had been part of a team trained in Great Britain, parachuted into Bohemia in December 1941 as part of Operation Anthropoid. After Gabčík's Sten gun jammed, Heydrich ordered his driver, SS-Oberscharführer Klein, to stop the car. When Heydrich stood up to shoot Gabčík, Kubiš threw a modified anti-tank grenade at Heydrich's car.[4] The explosion wounded Heydrich and Kubiš.[5] Heydrich sent his driver, Klein, to chase Gabčík on foot. In the ensuing firefight, Gabčík shot Klein in the leg, below the knee. Both Kubiš and Gabčík managed to escape the scene.[6] On 4 June Heydrich died in Bulovka Hospital in Prague from septicaemia caused by pieces of upholstery entering his body when the bomb exploded.[7]
Late in the afternoon of 27 May, SS-Gruppenführer Karl Hermann Frank proclaimed a state of emergency and a curfew in Prague.[8] Anyone who helped the attackers was to be executed along with their entire family.[8] A massive search involving 21,000 men began. A total of 36,000 houses were checked.[8] By 4 June 157 people had been executed as a result of the reprisals, but the assassins had not been found and no information was forthcoming.[8]
The mourning speeches at Heydrich's funeral in Berlin were not yet over, when on 9 June, the decision was made to "make up for his death". Karl Hermann Frank, Secretary of State for the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, reported from Berlin that the Führer had commanded the following concerning any village found to have harboured Heydrich's killers:[9]
  1. Execute all adult men
  2. Transport all women to a concentration camp
  3. Gather the children suitable for Germanisation, then place them in SS families in the Reich and bring the rest of the children up in other ways
  4. Burn down the village and level it entirely

Horst Böhme, the SiPo chief for the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia, immediately acted on the orders.[1] Members of the Ordnungspolizei[10] and SD (Sicherheitsdienst) surrounded the village of Lidice, blocking all avenues of escape. The Nazi regime chose this village because its residents were suspected of harbouring local resistance partisans and were falsely associated with aiding "Operation Anthropoid" team members.[11]

Post-war memorial ceremony to honour victims
All men of the village were rounded up and taken to the farm of the Horák family on the edge of the village. Mattresses were taken from neighbouring houses where they were stood up against the wall of the Horáks' barn.[9] The shooting of the men commenced at about 7.00 am. At first the men were shot in groups of five, but Böhme thought the executions were proceeding too slowly and ordered that ten men be shot at a time. The dead were left lying where they fell. This continued until the afternoon hours when there were 173 dead.[8] Another 11 men who were not in the village that day were arrested and murdered soon afterwards as were eight men and seven women already under arrest because they had relations serving with the Czech army in exile in the United Kingdom.[9]
A total of 203 women and 105 children were first taken to Lidice village school. They were then taken to the nearby town of Kladno and detained in the grammar school for three days. The children were separated from their mothers. Four women were pregnant and were sent to the same hospital where Heydrich died. They were forced to undergo abortions and then sent to different concentration camps. On 12 June 1942, 184 women of Lidice were loaded on trucks, driven to Kladno railway station and forced into a special passenger train guarded by an escort. On the morning of 14 June 1942, the train halted on a railway siding at the concentration camp atRavensbrück. On their arrival the Lidice women were first isolated in a special block. The women were forced to work in leather processing, road building, textile and ammunition factories.
Eighty-eight Lidice children were transported to the area of the former textile factory in Gneisenau Street in Łódź. Their arrival was announced by a telegram from Horst Böhme's Prague office which ended with: the children are only bringing what they wear. No special care is desirable.[citation needed] The care was minimal. They suffered from a lack of hygiene and from illnesses. By order of the camp management, no medical care was given to the children. Shortly after their arrival in Łódź, officials from the Central Race and Settlement branch chose seven children for Germanisation.[12] The few children considered racially suitable for Germanisation were handed over to SS families.[9]
The furore over Lidice caused some hesitation over the fate of the remaining children.[12] However, in late June Adolf Eichmann ordered the massacre of the remainder of the children. On 2 July 1942, all of the remaining 81 Lidice children were handed over to the Łódź Gestapo office, who in turn had them transported to the extermination camp atChełmno 70 kilometres (43 miles) away, where they were gassed to death in Magirus gas vans. Out of the 105 Lidice children, 82 died in Chełmno, six died in the GermanLebensborn orphanages and 17 returned home.

Destruction of Lidice
The village of Lidice was set on fire and the remains of the buildings destroyed with explosives. Even those buried in the town cemetery were not spared. Their remains were dug up and destroyed.[2] A film was made of the entire process by Franz Treml. A collaborator with German intelligence, Treml had run a Zeiss-Ikon shop in Lucerna Palace in Prague. After the Nazi occupation he became a filming adviser for the Nazi Party.
All together, about 340 people from Lidice died because of the German reprisal (192 men, 60 women and 88 children). Only 153 women and 17 children returned after the war.[8] All the animals in the village—pets and beasts of burden—were slaughtered as well.
The small Czech village of Ležáky was also destroyed two weeks after Lidice. Gestapo agents found a radio transmitter there of an underground team who parachuted in with Kubiš and Gabčík.[13] There both men and women of the village were shot, and the children were sent to concentration camps or 'Aryanised'. The death toll resulting from the effort to avenge the death of Heydrich is estimated at over 1,300.[13] This count includes relatives of the partisans, their supporters, Czech elites suspected of disloyalty and random victims like those from Lidice.

British poster commemorating Lidice
Nazi propaganda had openly, and proudly, announced the events in Lidice, unlike other massacres in occupied Europe which were kept secret. The information was instantly picked up by Allied media.
I never asked my grandmother why she told me the stories of Lidice and Lezaky. It is possible we lost family there, or in the revenge killings.

Her father was part of the government in exile.
He is mentioned in the wiki article on the Pittsburg Agreement-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Agreement

Hynek Dostál (1871 - 1943)

Dostál was the editor of the Hlas newspaper of St. Louis and the editor of the journal of the Saint John Nepomuk Chapel, the first Czech Catholic newspaper in the United States.

(Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first president, originally had a plan for a federal government involving staying in the Austro-Hungarian empire, but when it became clear the empire was breaking up permanently, he supported independence.)

I say what my Grandmother Ludmilla would say, "Do not forget Lidice."

This bronze plaque has my Great-Grandfather's signature, as it is a copy of the first Czech constitution. http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsbursk%C3%A1_dohoda

If you have not watched this, do



And, have your home schooled teens watch it...

Becoming worse, but read these...


16 Jul 2013
This time, He will not come as man in the flesh. Found here. OOPs our friends at the Warning have contradicted Catholic Teaching yet again. When Christ returns, He, of course, will come as the Incarnate God.
26 Aug 2013
This time, He will not come as man in the flesh. Found here. OOPs our friends at the Warning have contradicted Catholic Teaching yet again. When Christ returns, He, of course, will come as the Incarnate God.
23 Apr 2013
More against the Warning-from another source not me and GOOD. Posted by Supertradmum · http://blog.newadvent.org/2013/03/a-closer-look-at-false-prophecies-of.html · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to ...

31 Aug 2012
A Warning on False Seers Again--Oh, Foolish Galatians. Posted by Supertradmum. The errors spilling forth from some websites already mentioned on this blog are leading Catholics astray. A reader has brought to my ...

04 Mar 2013
Catechist Kev said... Readng through the comments kind of tells the story for me, SuperT. The way some of those who say they are devoted to MDM attack Mr. Akin (sometimes with vehement vitriol)is all this Catholic needs to ...

Shock of The Day

I attended the big smell and bells NO Mass this morning in St. John's Co-Cathedral, about ten priests con-celebrating with the acting apostolic administrator, His Lordship Mgr Charles J. Scicluna, Titular Bishop of San Leone, several deacons, who I assume are seminarians, and the full, fantastic formal choir.

This was the diocesan celebration for All Saints' Day.

How many people in the congregation? About 47, shocking.

So goes the Catholicism of Malta, falling into ennui and neglect.

The choir was superb. Here is what they sound like. Not today, of course, but in a concert.



Sad days for Malta.

What A Jerk Journalist!

War is not honorable always, but willing human sacrifice for others is always honorable.

This guy could be living under communism or nazism.

My dad used up his youth in trenches in France and fighting in and from the Battle of the Bulge to Berlin.


We must always be thankful for what the military has done, regardless of the justification of wars.

WWI was not justified, but WWII was.

What a spoiled brat article!

I taught war poetry, as it is one of my specialties, working on David Jones for years for my unfinished doctoral thesis. We need greater minds, like we had in the early 20th Century. Sadly, there is a crisis of soul in England.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/oct/28/tower-of-london-poppies-ukip-remembrance-day

From In Parenthesis:

t’s difficult with the weight of the rifle.
Leave it–under the oak.
Leave it for a salvage-bloke
let it lie bruised for a monument
dispense the authenticated fragments to the faithful.
It’s the thunder-besom for us
it’s the bright bough borne
it’s the tensioned yew for a Genoese jammed arbalest and a
scarlet square for a mounted mareschal, it’s that county-mob
back to back. Majuba mountain and Mons Cherubim and
spreaded mats for Sydney Street East, and come to Bisley
for a Silver Dish. It’s R.S.M. O’Grady says, it’s the soldier’s
best friend if you care for the working parts and let us be ‘av-
ing those springs released smartly in Company billets on wet
forenoons and clickerty-click and one up the spout and you
men must really cultivate the habit of treating this weapon with
the very greatest care and there should be a healthy rivalry
among you–it should be a matter of very proper pride and
Marry it man! Marry it!
Cherish her, she’s your very own.
Coax it man coax it–it’s delicately and ingeniously made
–it’s an instrument of precision–it costs us tax-payers,
money–I want you men to remember that.
Fondle it like a granny–talk to it–consider it as you would
a friend–and when you ground these arms she’s not a rooky’s
gas-pipe for greenhorns to tarnish.
You’ve known her hot and cold.
You would choose her from among many.
You know her by her bias, and by her exact error at 300, and
by the deep scar at the small, by the fair flaw in the grain,
above the lower sling-swivel–
but leave it under the oak.
Slung so, it swings its full weight. With you going blindly on
all paws, it slews its whole length, to hang at your bowed neck
like the Mariner’s white oblation.
You drag past the four bright stones at the turn of Wood
Support.
It is not to be broken on the brown stone under the gracious
tree.
It is not to be hidden under your failing body.
Slung so, it troubles your painful crawling like a fugitive’s
irons
.

Persecution Watch Big Time in GB WHY????

End of religious freedom of speech, end of academic freedom...what is going on and why in GB?
Catholics will be targeted, of course................especially on the issue of "gay rights".
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Rievaulx_Abbey_ruins_14.jpg and thanks to wikicommons for photo below as well
Has the government lost all discernment and common sense? Or is this a planned war against Christianity and academic freedom?
Anyone who criticises Sharia law or gay marriage could be branded an “extremist” under sweeping new powers planned by the Conservatives to combat terrorism, an alliance of leading atheists and Christians fear.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, unveiled plans last month for so-called Extremism Disruption Orders, which would allow judges to ban people deemed extremists from broadcasting, protesting in certain places or even posting messages on Facebook or Twitter without permission.
Mrs May outlined the proposal in a speech at the Tory party conference in which she spoke about the threat from the so-called Islamic State – also known as Isis and Isil – and the Nigerian Islamist movement Boko Haram.
But George Osborne, the Chancellor, has made clear in a letter to constituents that the aim of the orders would be to “eliminate extremism in all its forms” and that they would be used to curtail the activities of those who “spread hate but do not break laws”.
He explained that that the new orders, which will be in the Conservative election manifesto, would extend to any activities that “justify hatred” against people on the grounds of religion, sexual orientation, gender or disability.
......He also disclosed that anyone seeking to challenge such an order would have to go the High Court, appealing on a point of law rather than fact.
The National Secular Society and the Christian institute – two organisations with often diametrically opposing interests – said they shared fears that the broad scope of extremism could represent a major threat to free speech.
Keith Porteous Wood, director of the NSS, said secularists might have to think twice before criticising Christianity or Islam. He said secularists risk being Islamophobic and racist because of their high profile campaigns against the advance of Sharia law in the UK.
“The Government should have every tool possible to tackle extremism and terrorism, but there is a huge arsenal of laws already in place and a much better case needs to be made for introducing draconian measures such as Extremism Disruption Orders, which are almost unchallengeable and deprive individuals of their liberties,” he said.
“Without precise legislative definitions, deciding what are ‘harmful activities of extremist individuals who spread hate’ is subjective and therefore open to abuse now or by any future authoritarian government.”
A Conservative spokesman said: “Freedom of expression and freedom of speech are a vital part of a democratic society….

More here
“Sharia law or gay marriage critics would be branded ‘extremists’ under Tory plans, atheists and Christians warn,” by John Bingham, the Telegraph, October 31, 2014:

Can you imagine them doing this with a Muslim?

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/candidate-in-washington-state-attacked-for-his-catholic-faith-61653/

Anti-Catholicism, the last acceptable prejudice...

Follow Up on Earlier Post Today on Saints

Look here for the first part of some thoughts today, All Saints' Day.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/11/it-is-not-our-feast-day-folks.html

I want to add a few thoughts to this distinction between the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant.

First, a review of teaching on the three branches of the Church:

EWTN has a great, short reference from Father William Most, from which I use a selection here.

The Church, the Mystical Body, exists on this earth, and is called the Church militant, because its members struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil. The Church suffering means the souls in Purgatory. The Church triumphant is the Church in heaven. The unity and cooperation of the members of the Church on earth, in Purgatory, in Heaven is also called the Communion of Saints. When St. Paul uses the word "Saints" in opening an Epistle, he does not mean they are morally perfect. He has in mind Hebrew qadosh, which means set aside for God, or coming under the covenant. Being such means of course they are called to moral perfection. But of course, not all have reached it in this world.

Taken from The Basic Catholic Catechism
PART FIVE: The Apostles' Creed IX-XII
Ninth Article: "The Holy Catholic Church; the Communion of Saints"

By William G. Most. (c) Copyright 1990 by William G. Most 
http://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/chura1.htm

Now, I want to highlight that we are the Church Militant, as I noted in the last posting, not the Church Triumphant. Fr. Most refers to St. Paul's use of the word "qadosh", which is incorrectly translated as saint in the sense of one who is canonized. Qadosh is explained further here by Jeff A. Brenner.

When we use the word holy, as in a holy person, we usually associate this with a righteous or pious person. If we use this concept when interpreting the word holy in the Hebrew Bible then we are misreading the text as this is not the meaning of the Hebrew word qadosh. Qadosh literally means "to be set apart for a special purpose"....Israel was qadosh because they were separated from the other nations as servants of God. The furnishings in the tabernacle were qadosh as they were not to be used for anything except for the work in the tabernacle. While we may not think of ourselves as "holy" we are in fact set apart from the world to be God's servants and representatives. 
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/27_holy.html





 Here we see that the word "consecrated" would be a better application to the Church Militant.

We are, or should be seen, as set apart for God's work in the world. We have a purpose in the world to be signs of contradiction to evil, to worldliness.

Second, although we are called to perfection, and some in the Church are in union with God while on earth, and those usually become recognized after death as canonized saints, the road to perfection takes time and processes, explained in the long series on Garrigou-Lagrange.

No one can claim to be a saint. God allows the Church to declare someone in the Church Triumphant and that declaration is part of the infallibility of the Pope.

Third, one must not forget the Church Suffering, those souls in purgatory for whom we should pray daily and, this year, especially on Sunday or Monday, depending on which Mass you attend, in which diocese.




More Repostings for Today

Sunday, 3 August 2014


Saints of The Knights of Malta Part Three

Blessed Gerard had an entire website to himself.  The pictures and photographs are worth seeing. 
You may read his story here.



Blessed Gerard has been noted on this blog before today.