Operation Anthropoid

by Jakub Marek

Painted in 2021 by Jakub Marek, this Prague mural honors Operation Anthropoid, one of the most important acts of resistance in Czech history. Its location carries added weight because it stands near the site where Czechoslovak paratroopers Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík carried out the 1942 attack on Reinhard Heydrich, a leading Nazi official and one of the architects of terror in occupied Bohemia and Moravia. More than a war story, the mural represents courage, sacrifice, and the cost of resistance. Operation Anthropoid showed that Czech and Slovak resistance was not passive; it was organized, deliberate, and willing to confront one of the most powerful figures of the Nazi regime. The aftermath was devastating, including brutal reprisals against the small village town of Lidice, but the operation became a defining symbol of national defiance. Marek’s mural keeps that memory visible in the city itself. It connects modern Prague to the people who risked everything for freedom, identity, and dignity. After the attack, the paratroopers later hid in the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius, near today’s Dancing House, where their final stand became another lasting part of the city’s wartime memory. As public art, the piece does more than decorate a wall — it asks passersby to remember what happened nearby, and why it still matters.