THE daughter of a man who helped to rebuild a Czechoslovakian village after it was wiped out by Nazis during the Second World War has visited for the first time.
Muriel Stoddard visited the Czech Republic village of Lidice last week, 64 years after her father, Arthur Baddeley, had been formally acknowledged for his work in raising funds to rebuild it.
In 1942 Lidice was wiped off the map on Hitler's orders.
All of the village's 192 men were murdered, along with 60 women and 80 children, and Lidice was razed to the ground. The massacre inspired miners in the Potteries to set up the Lidice Shall Live campaign to rebuild the village.
Mr Baddeley was an official at the Miners Federation and was awarded the Order of the White Lion after the village was rebuilt from scratch in 1947.
Muriel, now aged 77 and living in Endon, has visited the village for the first time and met with a survivor of the tragedy, Marie Supikova.
She said: "It was absolutely wonderful. I think I was expecting to see a ruin where the old village was, but it was just beautiful grass.
"I feel like I've got a friend for life in Marie."
A campaign to officially link Lidice with Stoke-on-Trent is currently underway.
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