Operation Anthropoid: the real places of the assassination and its victims

On 27 May 1942, Czechoslovak paratroopers Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš attacked Reinhard Heydrich, the acting Reich Protector, in Prague’s Libeň district; he died on 4 June. Nazi reprisals followed: hundreds executed, the villages of Lidice and Ležáky wiped out, and the paratroopers’ last stand in the church on Resslova Street. The story was told in the film Anthropoid (2016) and, back in 1964, in Atentát.

This page shows where it all really happened, and what you see of it in the film.

Prague

• Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the film: the paratroopers’ last hideout documented (page in Czech)
  The paratroopers’ last stand was filmed outside the real church on Resslova Street. The interior and crypt were rebuilt as a replica at Barrandov Studios (15 × 35 × 14 metres), mainly for the scene of the crypt being flooded.

Places of the reprisals

• The assassination site, Prague 8-Libeň (the bend at V Holešovičkách): 27 May 1942, around 10:35. The original street disappeared under a highway; since 2009 the Operation Anthropoid Memorial has stood near the Vychovatelna stop.
• Kobylisy Shooting Range: from 30 May to 3 July 1942 the Nazis executed 539 people here (463 men and 76 women).
• Lidice: on 10 June 1942, 173 men were shot, the women deported to Ravensbrück and most of the children murdered in Chełmno – 340 villagers in all. After the war 143 women and 17 children returned. (Page in Czech.)
• Ležáky: the hamlet hid the radio transmitter Libuše; on 24 June 1942 it was burned down, 33 adults were shot and 11 children murdered – 51 victims in all.
• Zámeček in Pardubice: from 3 June to 9 July 1942 the Gestapo executed 194 people here; an underground memorial opened in 2021.

Where the films were shot

Anthropoid (2016, directed by Sean Ellis) was filmed in summer 2015 in Prague and the Brdy hills. The assassination was not shot in Libeň but at a similar junction by the Bílek Villa near Chotek Gardens. Other locations included Resslova and Šafaříkova streets, the Invalidovna, Zvonařka and the courtyard of Prague Castle.

Visiting

The National Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror in the church crypt is run by the Military History Institute; admission is free – see vhu.cz. The Lidice Memorial also manages the Ležáky site: lidice-memorial.cz.

Facts from the Military History Institute Prague, the Lidice Memorial, the Czech Film Commission and Wikipedia. Updated 29 October 2026.