Action K on Svatá Hora 13 - 14 April 1950

On the night of Thursday 13 to Friday 14 April 1950, the male monasteries were raided, among them the religious house of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer on Svatá Hora.

The Roman Catholic Church represented the greatest danger to the government because in a communist system where everyone was supposed to believe in one idea, it had the largest membership and offered people a hated alternative.

The Redemptorists of St. Mary's had been resisting the totalitarian regime since the communist coup in February 1948.

On June 22, 1949, the rector (superior) of Svatohora, P. Josef Hynek, was summoned to the Příbram town hall, where he was questioned by the agricultural secretary Miloslav Tesařík, also secretary of the District Action Committee of the National Front, for reading a pastoral letter of Archbishop Josef Beran and for preaching against religious unfreedom. Two days later, P. Josef Hynek was arrested, but after a long night of interrogation by members of the State Security Bureau (STB), he was released because the STB feared the reaction of the pilgrims to his possible absence from the upcoming Coronation celebration. However, the STB never let Svatá Hora out of their sight.

With two church laws of 14 October 1949, the communist regime imposed control over the life of all churches and religious societies in Czechoslovakia. The state security created a special church department and built up a network of informants. The life of religious institutions was severely restricted by the State Office for Religious Affairs. The church secretary of the then Pribram district was Šimon Kubát, a charcoal burner who used to burn myrrh in the forests of Brda.

These ecclesiastical laws, however, did not affect an important part of the Catholic Church - the religious orders and congregations, which retained a certain independence, which irritated the Communist authorities, and therefore at the end of 1949 the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia approved the liquidation of monasteries and Catholic religious orders and congregations.

The liquidation was preceded by political and ideological preparations, which were fully devoted especially to Rudolf Slánský (executed on the orders of his comrades in December 1952). Its main point was the arrest and public trial of the important leaders of the orders. The religious were subjected to brutal torture and psychological pressure, under the weight of which they confessed to treason and espionage.

On February 2, 1950, P. Josef Hynek was summoned to the office of the district secretary for ecclesiastical affairs, Simon Kubát, under an invented pretext, where he was arrested. He was later sentenced to 12 years for treason for reading the pastoral letters of Archbishop Beran.

The liquidation of the monasteries was codenamed Aktion "K". On the instructions of the State Office for Religious Affairs, Svatá Hora was raided by three StB officers and over two dozen armed SNB officers at 11 pm on 13 April 1950. The monks refused to open the monastery gates to them, so they broke them down. They occupied Svatá Hora and the representatives of the arrested rector announced that their religious house was being nationalized. Within two hours the monks had to pack up. They were expelled from Svatá Hora, placed in a transport marked with the number 52 and interned in the so-called centralization monastery in Králíky and in the internment monastery in Želivi. In total, there were sixteen of them. Later, some were sentenced to many years in prison.

The STB carried out a raid on Svatá Hora even after the transport had left; the deputy superior was taken to the STB regional headquarters after the police search and an SNB patrol was left on the spot. The next day, the administrator of the Příbram deanery, František Ježek, was entrusted with the administration of Svatá Hora.

Another blow to the state came on 26 September 1950 as a result of the so-called Action Ř, which targeted women's monasteries. Religious sisters who were taking care of the sick and small children were taken from the Exercises House on Svatá Hora and from the church kindergarten in Klička's Villa in Příbram to an internment camp.

Photos from the tour of Svatá Hora on 14 April 1950 are on the Internet: https://www.google.com/search?q=Svat%C3%A1+HOra+1950&client=firefox-b&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKzc_qsdXaAhWCMewKHdtVA34Q_AUICigB&biw=1680&bih=913#imgrc=Bn__cNP35yfM3M

PhDr. Věra Smolová, Director of SOkA Příbram

2020