Prague Resistance in WW2: The Czech Martyrs

This is a blog post about Czech resistance during WW2. But to fully appreciate it, you have to understand a little bit more about me. 

I’m a diehard history buff. I especially like seeing in person where significant events took place or retracing the steps of historical figures. Churchill’s bunker in London. Anne Frank’s hideout in Amsterdam. The very location where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, or an abandoned watchtower where the Berlin Wall once stood. (Yep— I actually climbed it to stand where the border guards kept watch and peer through the same windows.) 

I’ll even study historical photos so I can find precisely the spot where history unfolded. I sometimes get goosebumps imagining what it must have been like to be right here as events occurred. What would I have done in their shoes? How would I have felt? How would history have judged my decisions?  

 
Prague’s History of Resistance

So naturally I did some research before visiting Prague for the first time. When I was a kid, we had Czech neighbors who defected from the Soviet bloc. I knew the city and its people had seen their share of struggles. I wanted to know more about them— the struggles and the people. 

A fascinating story about Czech resistance during WW2 caught my attention. What I later found at 9 Resslova Street in Prague’s “New Town” made quite an impression on me.  

Nazi Occupation of Prague 

During WW2 the Czech Republic was still known as Czechoslovakia. From September 1941, Reinhard Heydrich— a senior official in the SS— ruled the area as Hitler’s chosen emissary. Heydrich’s nickname, the Butcher of Prague, tells you pretty much all you need to know about him. To appreciate the significance of this story, though, it’s important to realize Heydrich was a key proponent of The Final Solution— Nazi Germany’s plan to annihilate the Jewish people.   

The legitimate Czechoslovak government was in exile and plotted with the British to assassinate Heydrich. In December 1941, Czech commandos Jan Kubiš, 28, and Josef Gabčík, 30, flew from England toward their homeland. They parachuted into the countryside near Prague, where they joined local resistance fighters to carry out their assignment.  

Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

After several operational setbacks, the pair met their quarry on the morning of May 27, 1942. Heydrich and his chauffeur were in a Mercedes convertible on their way to Nazi headquarters at Prague Castle. The car slowed for a bend in the road.   

Gabčík waited there for them. As the Mercedes braked he tried to shoot Heydrich, but the gun jammed. Kubiš instead tossed a grenade that exploded next to the car and fatally wounded Heydrich. The SS leader died on June 4, 1942, and became the only top Nazi leader to be assassinated during WW2. And as Gabčík and Kubiš surely knew beforehand, it was no small thing to kill a senior SS official. 

Reprisal & Betrayal

The Nazi reprisals were brutal and infamously included the annihilation of the town of Lidice on June 9, 1942. Kubiš, Gabčík, and several other members of the resistance went into hiding. But an intense Nazi manhunt forced them to abandon local safe houses. They found refuge for several days in the basement crypt of the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius at 9 Resslova Street. An informant betrayed them, and several hundred SS troops surrounded the church on June 18, 1942.

Inspiring Courage

The Nazis tried unsuccessfully to storm the basement. Then they focused their attention on a street-level portal into the crypt. But tear gas, flooding, and a 6-hour barrage of gunfire failed to evict the resistance fighters.

The assassins and their compatriots fought until their ammunition ran out. They either died of their wounds or killed themselves with their last bullets to avoid surrender. Their courage and resourcefulness in the face of overwhelming odds inspired two movies. The more recent one, Anthropoid (2016), stars Golden Globe winner Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan. (The plot to kill Reinhard Heydrich was code named Operation Anthropoid.)    

Memorial

Once in Prague, I found the cathedral. It’s away from the main tourist area but fairly easy to get to. To my astonishment, the front stone wall is still pockmarked with bullet holes around the portal to the crypt. A plaque in Czech commemorates the events here but is lost on English-speakers. Inside, though, is a memorial to the “Czech Martyrs”, as locals now refer to them. 

Visitors can enter the very crypt where the resistance fighters spent their last days. It’s bone chilling to see where they slept and to peer out that same portal. The crew’s desperation is evident in the tunnel they began digging in a failed bid to escape. Even the books they brought with them are still there— stained with the blood of their owners. Thinking about everything they went through gives me goosebumps as I write this.  

I can’t help but imagine what it felt like to be in the fighters’ shoes—before, during, and after the assassination. (The movie really helps to contextualize events and underscore just how complicated, daring, and— for the Czechs— costly the assassination was.) Knowing the assassins’ names and their story before I visited allowed me to “connect” with the place, with them, and with that moment in history in ways that would have been lost to a casual tourist on the street outside. 

To plan your visit to the memorial at the Cathedral, click here. 

Prague is rich with opportunities like this one— I’ll share more of them in future posts. In the meantime, WW2 buffs will want to read my article about the Eagle’s Nest in Germany. 

Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualified purchases.