THE massacre of the residents of a village close to Prague by the Nazis during the Second World War is being commemorated by the showing of two films at Yorath Chapel in Cwmgiedd on Wednesday, November 16.

The chapel will be showing the film ’The Silent Village’ which was filmed in Cwmgiedd, near Ystradgynlais, in 1943. It will also be screening a partner film, ’The Second Life of Lidice’, about the massacre which shows some of the footage from the 1943 film.

’The Silent Village’ depicts what it would have been like if a mining village in Wales had suffered the same fate as the mining community of Lidice, which was wiped off the map by the Nazis in 1942.

In Lidice, the Nazis killed all the men, took the women to concentration camps and removed the children, who were never heard of again, to an unknown location.

This horrific action was in response to the assassination of the the area’s German commandant Reinhard Heydrich as part of the British Special Operations Executive’s Operation Anthropoid.

The following year, 1943, film director Humphrey Jennings set about making ’The Silent Village’ in Cwmgiedd, with the events in the film inspired by the terrible fate of Lidice.

Made as wartime propaganda by the Crown Film Unit, the film served at the time as a stark warning of what might happen in the event of a Nazi occupation of Britain, at the time still a very real threat, as well as a tribute to those who lost their lives, families and homes in Lidice.

In order to make it, Jennings and his crew spent six months living amongst the villagers in Cwmgiedd and in the process captured, on film, a unique snapshot of local life in a Welsh village in the early 1940s.

Yorath Chapel was the one of the locations featured in the film and its boundary wall was used in the horrific scene towards the end of the film when the men in the village face the firing squad.

In 1944 the newly produced film was screened at the chapel. Next Wednesday’s showing is a unique opportunity to see the film there for the first time since.

The companion film ’The Second Life of Lidice’ - which looks back at the Lidice massacre from a more contemporary standpoint and uses footage from the Silent Village - will be screened on the same evening with the film’s producer David Vaughan introducing his film.

Also attending the evening will be Arwel Michael, chairman of the Ystradgynlais and District Heritage Society, who appeared as a baby in The Silent Village and appears in the follow-up documentary from 2001.

Mr Michael has visited the site of Lidice many times and last year when he was there he was presented with a cutting of a pear tree which was the only thing that survived from the original village.

It was planted in Cwmgiedd in June of 2015 and is now thriving.

The evening was the idea of Ian Parsons, a theatre producer and the author of a book about Swansea’s theatrical past.

Mr Parsons said: "I had the idea a few months ago when someone showed me The Silent Village to show it at the chapel which features in the film, which is now happening on November 16.

"As I delved deeper into the story I found the Second Life Of Lidice documentary from 2001 and we are showing that as well, along with a short film bringing the story up to date with the pear sapling story added."

Elinor Gilbey, who is promoting the screenings, said: "The evening is guaranteed to be very atmospheric and moving."

Doors for the showings open at 6.30pm with the first film starting at 7pm. Tickets cost £4 and will be available on the door and online at www.ticketsource.co.uk/silentvillage. There will be refreshments available.

All the money raised from ticket sales will be given to the chapel.