Protestant Institutions such as the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. were suppressed throughout the country.
Among the murdered Czech ministers was a pastor of the Czech Brethren Evangelical Church, who was killed with his wife among the hostages executed for the assassination of Heydrich.
The leading Theological School for all Evangelical denominations, Hus Faculty in Prague and all other Protestant training schools for the ministry were closed down in November 1939, with the other Czech universities and colleges.
(d) Czech Orthodox Church.
The hardest blow was directed against the Czech Orthodox Church. The Orthodox churches in Czechoslovakia were ordered by the Berlin Ministry of Church Affairs to leave the Pontificat of Belgrade and Constantinople respectively and to become subordinate to the Berlin Bishop. The Czech Bishop Gorazd was executed together with two other priests of the Orthodox Church. By a special order of the Protector Daluege, issued in September 1942, the Orthodox Church of Serbian Constantinople jurisdiction was completely dissolved in the Czech lands, its religious activity forbidden and its property confiscated.
All Evangelical education was handed over to the civil authorities and many Evangelical teachers lost their employment; moreover the State grant to salaries of many Evangelical priests was taken away.
(e) Jews.
The racial persecution of the Jews is dealt with separately (Section IV).
In connection with religious persecutions, we may mention the statement of K.H. Frank, made on June 11, 1945 when interrogated by Col. Dr. Ecer at Wiesbaden. Frank stated that in November 1938 the Jewish places of worship in the "Sudeten" province were torn down by express order of the Party, i.e. the Party Chancellery of Munich at the head of which at that time was Rudolf Hess, and in the autumn of 1941 it was Heydrich who ordered all synagogues to be closed, because "they had served as meeting places for aggressive Jewish elements." Many synagogues were demolished, others transformed into marketing halls or into auction halls for the sale of confiscated Jewish furniture and household goods.
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1012-PS