Today is a happy day!  

    Eventually today, the 7th of August 2007,  the communal pear tree from old  Lidice has been pronounced as a protected tree.

    Today is the day which we have been waiting for but which Anna Peková nor my mum Anna Nešporová unfortunately did not get to live for. It would have made them happy!

      I put forward an application to Kladno’s Magistrates’ environmental department to pronounce the communal pear tree from old village Lidice as a protected tree. It is one of the few fruit trees which survived the wipe out of Lidice.
 

    There was “a lot” written about the pear tree, it was even mentioned in a TV serial about protected trees in which you could also see a picture of Lidice’s church by which I have measured where the pear tree was.
 

      From today the pear tree is a protected tree just like  the Oak of prince Oldřich in Peruc, or  Saint Wenceslav's oak in Stochov, or Žižka's lime tree in Krčín by Nové Město nad Metují.
  
    Though it is not as old as the named trees, its existence has  great importance for our society.
     

In spite of the senseless atrocious destruction by the German fascists, they did not manage to destroy all the fruit trees in Lidice.          Let the pear tree live for the future generations of Lidice’s pilgrims and give  its heritage of life strength whilst blooming in the spring.                Pronouncing the pear tree a protected tree will remind us of all Lidice’s habitants who were crossing the little bridge from one half of the village to the other day by day, and who the common pear tree has also “known”.     If only it could talk!

	Mrs. Anna Peková, neé Stříbrná lived in house number 100. She returned from a concentration camp after the war but lost her husband Josef     and eight year old son Antonín, who was killed in Chelmno.    Mrs. Peková used to call her son “Tóďa”    She remarried and had more children after the war and lived in number 37.
	Mr. Vaclav Vandrle was born in Lidice and lived in number 60 until 10th of June 1942, when he was shot together with the rest of the men in     Horák’s farm.    From 1932 he was the village policeman. He was married and had two sons, the eldest was  Vaclav and  Josef was the youngest. Vaclav was     shot with the rest of the men from the village  and Josef did not return after the war, he was killed in Chelmno as well as the other children from     Lidice.    Mrs. Josefa Vandrlová, wife of Mr. Vaclav Vandrle returned from the concentration camp. She lived in new Lidice in number 24.

    Click here for map positioning.
    Written for Zpravodaj 7.8.2007 Antonn Nešpor photography  and repro photography archive.