The Dead Look On

Book excerpt: The Dead Look On, first published in 1943, is a fictional account of the World War II Nazi-atrocity in Lidice, Czechoslovakia (called Dudicks in the book). The novel closely follows actual events which took place shortly after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in late May 1942. Following Heydrich’s death, Adolph Hitler and Heinrich Himmler ordered, as a reprisal, the complete destruction of the village and the execution of all men over the age of 15 – a total of 173 men in all. The village’s women, numbering 184, and children, 88, were sent to concentration camps; some children were given-over to SS families, with the remainder killed in gas chambers. Gerald Kersh (1911-1968) was the author of a number of novels and short stories.