The Catholic Church in the Czech Lands during the Nazi Occupation in 1939–1945 and after

Abstract

The presented study deals with the persecution of religious life in the Czech lands during the World War II when the Czech lands as the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were occupied by Nazi Germany. Its aim is to point out the Catholic Church, its hierarchy and priests as prominent patriots who did not hesitate to place the occupying power in opposition and express disagreement with its procedure. Both the domestic Catholic camp and the ties abroad towards the Holy See and its representation will be analysed. There will also be presented the personalities of priests who became the victims of the Nazi rampage in the Czech lands at the end of the study.

The basic method consists of a descriptive analysis that takes into account the comparative approach of the spiritual life before and after the occupation. Furthermore, the analytical-synthetic method will be used, combined with the subsequent interpretation of the findings. An additional method, but not always easy to apply, is hermeneutics, i.e., the interpretation of socio-historical phenomena in an effort to reveal the uniqueness of the analysed texts and sources and emphasize their uniqueness in the cultural and spiritual development of Czech Church history in the first half of the 20th century.