Antonín Bořek-Dohalský (1889-1942)

He was born on 23 October 1889 in Přívozec near Domažlice as the son of Count František Karel Bořek-Dohalski and a Belgian noblewoman Ludovika née d´Hoop. At the age of ten, his parents sent him to the Count Straka Academy in Prague, where he received a scholarship from a fund intended for children from poor families of Czech nobility. In 1907 he graduated from the Malá Strana gymnasium. He entered the Archbishop's Seminary and then studied theology at the Czech College in Rome, where he received the degree of ThDr.

He was ordained a priest and returned to Bohemia in 1912. Until the beginning of the First World War he was chaplain in Bor near Tachov and from there he was transferred to Příbram on 1 September 1914. Here, after the arrival of Italian refugees who had to leave their homes in haste and without possessions, he devoted himself very much to welcoming them to the local population, acting as a mediator for them thanks to his knowledge of Italian. Two years later he was appointed field curate and enlisted in Halice.

After the end of the war he returned to Pribram, where he helped not only Italian prisoners. Soon he became administrator of the parish in nearby Hluboš, where he was parish priest from the New Year 1922. Two years later he went to Prague and was appointed Archbishop's secretary because of his abilities. He continued his ecclesiastical career until the occupation. Because of his ideological positions and his association with the personalities of the First Republic, he was arrested on 21 October 1941, released and re-arrested on 5 June 1942. He was imprisoned at Pankrác and after two weeks was transferred to Terezín and from there to Auschwitz. There he died shortly after his arrival in this concentration camp, on 3 September 1942.

Source. Prague 2012. Memorial Book of the Dean's Office of Příbram 1836-1962.

Prepared by: PhDr. Věra Smolová, Director of SOA Příbram