The explanation is historical: the residents of the original Lidice, in the Czech Republic, were suspected of harboring the assassins of Hitler's general, SS commander Reinhard Heydrich, who was killed in an assassination attempt on Prague in 1942. The Nazi leader, among other acts of revenge against the Czech civilian population, ordered the execution of all men over the age of 15 in the town, sent the women to the Ravensbruck concentration camp, and the children to reformatory schools. Not content with this, he changed the course of the river and filled in the town, which disappeared from the map.