CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

EDUCATION – LIDICE MASSACRE - 30 January 2012

EDUCATION – LIDICE MASSACRE - 30 January 2012

Dr Julian Lewis: I thank the Minister for giving me an opportunity not only to express my admiration for the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Robert Flello) for raising this subject, but to mention that I was at school myself when I read a remarkable book called “Seven Men at Daybreak” by Alan Burgess. It told the story of the seven Czech and Slovak parachutists who assassinated Heydrich, and, at the end, what happened to Lidice afterwards. I do not know what the copyright position is now, given that the book was written so long ago, but I think that, in the context of the educational project that both the hon. Gentleman and the Minister have in mind, a reprint of that book would probably have as profound an effect on the schoolchildren of the 21st century as it had on me some 40 or 50 years ago.

[The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb): I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing his own personal history, and that book, to the attention of the House. I shall look into what he has said. ...]