Operation Anthropoid Mural as a Comic Strip

Operation Anthropoid, code name for the plan to assassinate SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, is depicted as a comic strip on a wall in the Liben district. Operation Anthropoid refers to the assassination attack on Reinhard Heydrich, Reich Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, now the Czech Republic. Known as ‘the butcher of Prague’, Heydrich was one of the main architects of the Holocaust. The assassination attempt was partially successful; Heydrich died of his injuries only a few days after the assassination attempt.

Mural Operation Anthropoid

The mural along Zenklova Street combines comic strip art and graffiti and tells the story of Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík, the two Czech officers who carried out the attack on 27 May 1942. The story unfolds against an ochre background.

Operation Anthropoid Background

With the help of British special operations, supported by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, the officers Gabčík and Kubiš were the main players in the preparation and execution of Heydrich’s assassination. They were airlifted from Britain to Czechoslovakia in December 1941, along with seven other Czech soldiers, they found shelter with resistance fighters and carried out their mission five months later.

Following the assassination, resistance fighters hid in the Cyril and Methodius Church in Prague and, after a long struggle, were killed in a firefight there.
Operation Anthropoid was the only government-approved assassination of a high-ranking Nazi leader during World War II. Heydrich’s death sparked a wave of reprisals by Waffe-SS troops, including the destruction of villages, including Lidice, and the mass murder of civilians.

Operation Anthropoid Memorial

Near the mural on Zenklova Street is another memorial to Operation Anthropoid. Three resistance fighters with outstretched arms stand on a triangular plinth that symbolizes the Czech flag. The rusted appearance of the monument represents the country’s fragility.

Reward

On 30 May 1942, the Germans offered a reward for anyone who would lead the authorities on the trail of the assassins.

Getting there

Metro to Invalidovna then tram 24 to the Vychovatelna stop
or
Metro to Karlovo namesti then tram 3 to the Vychovatelna stop

Walk through the tunnel under the tram tracks and Zenklova street, and via a small park to v Holesovickach street. The Anthropoid Operation Memorial is located at the intersection of a number of busy roads.

Further reading
Operation Anthropoid and the assassination of Heydrich

Photos: Marianne Crone