Jozef Gabčík

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Bullet-scarred window of the Church of St. Cyril and St. Methodious in Prague where Gabčík and his compatriots were cornered.
Bullet-scarred window of the Church of St. Cyril and St. Methodious in Prague where Gabčík and his compatriots were cornered.

Jozef Gabčík (8 April 1912 in Poluvsie, today part of Rajecké Teplice in Slovakia - 18 June 1942 in Prague) was a Slovak soldier involved in Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (one of the most important men in Nazi Germany). Gabčík was a Slovak paratrooper of a rotmistr (approx. UK Staff Sergeant) rank. At the end of 1941, he and Jan Kubiš secretly landed in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to plan the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, which they carried out on May 27, 1942. Heydrich was mortally wounded and died in hospital several days later. The Nazi officials in the Protectorate carried out an extensive search for the two men in the subsequent days. Eventually, they found them together with other paratroopers in an Orthodox Church in Prague. However, after a six hour battle, in which the Germans lost at least 14 killed and 21 wounded, Gabčík and the others, with the exception of Kubiš who was seriously wounded by a grenade, committed suicide before the Nazis could reach them in the Church catacombs.[1] Kubiš was wounded in the battle and died shortly after arrival at the hospital.[2]

The village of Gabčíkovo in southern Slovakia is named after him, and one of the biggest dams on the Danube next to the village is named after the village. Jozef Gabčík also gave name to the "5th special forces regiment of Jozef Gabčík" of the Slovak Army, based in Žilina.

With the aim to commemorate the heroes of the Czech and Slovak Resistance, the Slovak National Museum in May 2007 opened an exhibition presenting one of the most important resistance actions in the whole Nazi-occupied Europe.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Ray R. Cowdery with Peter Vodenka: Reinhard Heydrich: Assassination. Victory WW2 Publishing Ltd. (1994) Lakeville, MN, USA
  2. ^ McDonald, Callum: The Killing of Reinhard Heydrich: The SS “Butcher of Prague”. ISBN 0-306-80860-9

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[edit] External links

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