According to him, the attack was commensurate with the next casualties among the Czechs, as it prevented a much greater possibility of casualties. Slovak President Zuzana aputová ranked the successful attack on Heydrich among the most significant diversionary acts of the Second World War. Thanks to Jozef Gabčík, it also has a strong Slovak footprint, he said.

In his speech, Zeman recalled the request of the resistance group Jindra, which warned of the toll among the Czechs in the case of Heydrich’s assassination and recommended his collaborator Emanuel Moravec as a target. But according to Zeman, the attack on Heydrich was not in vain for the next victim. The Czech state was threatened with extermination or exile in Heydrich’s plan, he said. If the paratroopers attacked Moravka, it would only mean replacing one collaborator with another, because he was easy to replace.

In his opinion, however, Heydrich was irreplaceable. He described him as the de facto second-in-command of Nazi Germany, and thus the successor to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. He stressed that Heydrich’s assassination was not only an event in Czech national history, but also an important event in European and world history. Because if the “criminals of Nazism and Hitler’s potential successors” are not eliminated, it could mean an extension of World War II and far greater casualties, he said.

aputová also recalls the anniversary of the attack on Heydrich at the National Museum. “Operation Anthropoid is of great importance to our two countries today, which are linked by past human ties. The successful attack on one of the architects of the Holocaust was one of the most significant diversionary acts of the Second World War. I am pleased that, thanks to Jozef Gabčík, the attack it also has a strong Slovak footprint,” said aputová. According to him, it is also a symbol of relations with the first Czechoslovak Republic.

Crime has no nationality, he insisted. “He will only win if the passive, cowardly, calculating majority allows him,” he said. In his speech, aputová linked the events of 80 years ago to the current war in Ukraine. According to him, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and this historic event remind us that the protection of democracy can never be underestimated.

A ceremonial meeting at the National Museum opened an exhibition dedicated to Operation Anthropoid. In late 1941, paratroopers Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš jumped into occupied Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany to attack Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich. They succeeded in carrying out the assassination five months later, on May 27, 1942. Three weeks later, they were killed after several hours of fighting with German troops in the crypt of the Orthodox church on Prague’s Resslova Street.