Kobylisy Shooting Range
Encyclopedia
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
Kobyliská střelnice) is a former military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
shooting range
Shooting range
A shooting range or firing range is a specialized facility designed for firearms practice. Each facility is typically overseen by one or more supervisory personnel, called variously a range master or "RSO – Range Safety Officer" in the United States or a range conducting officer or "RCO" in the UK...
located in Kobylisy
Kobylisy
Kobylisy is a Prague Metro station on Line C.- External links :* http://www.angrenost.cz/metro/c/kb.php Gallery and information...
, a northern suburb of Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
.
The shooting range was established in 1889-1891, on a site that was at the time far outside the city, as a training facility for the Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
(and, later, Czechoslovak
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
) army. During the Nazi occupation
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
German occupation of Czechoslovakia began with the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's northern and western border regions, known collectively as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's pretext for this effort was the alleged privations suffered by...
it was used for mass executions
Execution by firing squad
Execution by firing squad, sometimes called fusillading , is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war.Execution by shooting is a fairly old practice...
as part of retaliatory measures against the Czech people
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Operation Anthropoid
Operation Anthropoid was the code name for the targeted killing of top German SS leader Reinhard Heydrich. He was the chief of the Reich Main Security Office , the acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, and a chief planner of the Final Solution, the Nazi German programme for the genocide of the...
in 1942. About 550 Czech patriots of every social rank lost their lives here, most of them between May 30 and July 3, 1942, when executions took place almost every day. The bodies of the executed were subsequently incinerated
Incineration
Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in waste materials. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are described as "thermal treatment". Incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash, flue gas, and...
in Strašnice crematorium.
A list of people shot at Kobylisy includes:
- Jan Auerhan, director of the State Bureau of Statistics
- Gen.GeneralA general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Alois EliášAlois EliášAlois Eliáš was a Czechoslovak general and politician. He served as Prime Minister of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from April 27, 1939 to September 28, 1941.- Career in 1939-1942 :...
, prime minister - Lt. Col.Lieutenant colonelLieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
Josef Mašín soldier, member of the Three Kings resistance groupThree Kings (Czech antinazi rezistance)Three Kings was the nickname of a famous Czech anti-nazi resistance group from 1939-1942. Its members were Josef Mašín , Václav Morávek , and Josef Balabán .... - Matěj Pavlík-Gorazd, bishop of the Czechoslovak Orthodox ChurchCzech and Slovak Orthodox ChurchThe Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia is a self-governing body of the Eastern Orthodox Church that territorially covers the countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia...
, later canonised as saint Gorazd - Františka Plamínková, senator, feminist
- Evžen RošickýEvžen RošickýEvžen Rošický was a Czech runner and journalist. Stadion Evžena Rošického is a Czech stadium named after him. During World War II, he and his father Jaroslav Rošický were part of the anti-Nazi resistance group Captain Nemo...
, journalist, athlete - Vladislav VančuraVladislav VancuraVladislav Vančura was one of the most important Bohemian writers of the 20th century...
, physician, writer and film director - 26 citizens of LidiceLidiceLidice is a village in the Czech Republic just northwest of Prague. It is built on the site of a previous village of the same name which, as part of the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, was on orders from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, completely destroyed by German forces in reprisal...
(members of the Horák and Stříbrný families arrested before the extermination of the village, and men who were away at work that night)
The site was converted to a memorial after WWII
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and its current dimensions date to the 1970s when the large panelák
Panelák
is a colloquial term in Czech and Slovak for a panel building constructed of pre-fabricated, pre-stressed concrete, such as those extant in Czech Republic and elsewhere in the former Soviet bloc...
s (Communist-era tower blocks) of a new housing estate
Housing estate
A housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance...
encroached upon it. Kobylisy Shooting Range has had the status of national cultural monument since 1978. Today it is freely accessible and is within ten minutes' walk of the Kobylisy or Ládví metro stations.