The Nazi occupiers of our country unleashed an inhuman terror that culminated in the complete liquidation of two innocent villages in retaliation for the assassination committed on Reinhard Heydrich in 1942. Their names - Lidice and Ležáky - resonate even after 75 years and their tragic story is commemorated by the quarter-ounce commemorative coin made of pure gold by the Czech Mint.

Hundreds of Lidice men and children were killed and women were sent to death in concentration camps. Only few children survived the massacre and were relocated to Germany. The Nazis flattened the village to the ground - the buildings were burned, their burned remains were blown up, the dead resting in graveyards were dug out, the trees were cut down, and the pond was covered. Lidice became a bare desert, it was erased from all maps and disappeared from history. But the world did not forget the people, and a wave of solidarity rose in response to the heinous crime. British miners established a commemorative movement and collected money for the post-war recovery of the village. Villages all over the world have been renamed and new Lidice appeared in the US, Mexico, and Brazil. Newborn children but also tanks that spread the righteous wrath of the Czechoslovaks on the battlefields of the eastern and western front were baptized according to Lidice. In the shadow of the Lidice tragedy, however, it is often forgotten that the same fate met one more village and its inhabitants - bearing the name Ležáky and the Nazis were even more cruel in its destruction.

However, two talented medal makers Roman Shamilyan and Jiří Hanuš, DiS. did not forget it and dedicated the gold coin to both villages. The mintage is stylized in the form of a photo - on the obverse side there is a five-member family; on the reverse side there is a burned picture, the baby is torn from the mother, and the other members of the family disappear completely from the picture. The touching scene is supplemented by the texts of EXTERMINATION OF LIDICE AND LEZAKY, 1942, and COMMEMORATION OF LIDICE AND LEZAKY. The obverse side bears a portrait and the name of Queen Elizabeth II, the year of the issue 2017 and the nominal value of 25 DOLLARS (TVD) - the necessary elements of the group of islands Tuvalu, which provides the Czech Mint with the license to mint its own commemorative coins.

The memory of the victims, which must never be forgotten, comes in a limited release of only 200 pieces.