Evening star., 1942-09-12


Heydrich's death. A number of
priests are believed to have been
among the hostages slaughtered by
the Nazis following the assassina-
ton of the Czech protector" The
first execution Of a clergyman in
Czechoslovakia of1icially admitted by
the Nazis occurred in Prague on
June 8 OF this year, when a 60-year-
old Protestant clergyman. Frantisek
Simek. together with his 51-year-old
wife, were sentenced to death and
shot on a charge of ''harboring per-
sons involved in activity hostile to
Germany"
Execution of the church leaders
is believed to be in line with the
new policy of determination" laid
down on June by the Nazi-con-
trolled paper, Narodni Politika,
which interpreted the instructions
of Czech Protector Daluge. The
Nazi mouthpiece then declared:
Hitherto, elements hostile to the
Reich were suppressed by measures
of the Reich, but henceforward the
government itself must exterminate
the elements which threaten Czech
unity by their ambiguous attitude
This purge will first deal with those
public employees who exercise
direct influence upon the nations
soul, namely, the teachers and
priests who are chiefly responsible
for the conditions of the country"
The Nazis thus paid tribute to
the leading part which the churches
are playing in Czech resistance.
Little news of this church-inspired
resistance has reached abroad, but
its extent can be gauged by the
number of religious leaders who
are in concentration camps.
1t is moderately estimated that
about 500 priests and ministers are
being held in camps. They are
said to be receiving the usual harsh
treatment given to prisoners. High
churchmen and distinguished lay
workers have not been spared phys
ical torment and spiritual pressure.
Up till the present the Nazis ap-
pear to have been using the same
type of tactics on the Czechoslovak
churches as they have been en-
ploying against the churches in the
Third Reich itself. In addition to
imprisoning hundreds of clergymen,
they have prevented hundreds of
others from preaching. Attempts
are being made to replace Czech
priests by Germans And since the
theological seminaries have been
closed for more than two years, it
is impossible to ordain new minis
ters and consecrate new priests.
Thus, as in Germany. the Nazis
have hoped to kill off the Czecho-
slovak churches by spiritually starv-
ing them. But this policy hasn't
worked and the new tactics of ex-
termination are to be employed.
Execution Pulling.
One of the puzzling elements in
the current crop OF executions is
the fact that the four churchmen
shot last week were high dignitaries
of the Orthdox Church, and the
Nazis showed no hesitation in broad
casting this fact.
For some time Berlin has been
paying fiattering attention to the
Orthodox churches in the occupied
countries. Hitler's church experts
have worked out a plan for the
creation of a unified Orthodox
church under Nazi protection. This
plan emissions a new church which
would weld together Orthodox
churches in Paris. Yugoslavia, Po-
land, Bohemia, Slovakia, Hungary,
Austria. Rumania, Bulgaria, the
Ukraine and White Russia. The
Orthodox Church in Poland has
been selected to form the rallying
point for all other autonomous ma
tional churches in Europe to bring
them under Nazi control.
Prime instigator of this unifica-
ton movement is Archbishop Sc
raphin, described as the son of a
German prison governor in Bavaria,
who was educated in Russia and