The Protestant church in Czechoslovakia was also persecuted. The excerpt which I would like to read may be found on Page 80 of the document book, Paragraph 2:
“The Protestant churches were deprived of the freedom to preach the Gospel. The German Secret State Police watched carefully to see that the clergy observed the restrictions imposed on it. Nazi censorship went so far as to prohibit the singing of hymns which praised God for liberating the nation from the enemy. Some passages from the Bible were not allowed to be read in public at all. The Nazis strongly opposed the promulgation of certain Christian doctrines, especially those which proclaimed the equality of all men before God, the universal character of Christ’s Church, the Hebraic origins of the Gospel, et cetera. Any reference to Hus, Ziska, the Hussites, and their achievements, as well as to Masaryk and his doctrines, were strictly forbidden. Even religious text books were confiscated. Church leaders were especially persecuted. Scores of ministers were thrown into concentration camps, among them the general secretary of the Christian Student Movement in Czechoslovakia. One of the assistants of their president was executed.”
On Page 68 of this report we find information as to the persecution of the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia. This excerpt is on Page 79 of the document book, second paragraph. I quote a short excerpt:
“In the territory annexed to Germany after the Munich Pact a number of Czech priests were robbed of their property and expelled. . . . Pilgrimages to national shrines were prohibited in 1939.
“At the outbreak of the war 437 Catholic priests were among the thousands of Czech patriots arrested and sent to concentration camps as hostages. Venerable church dignitaries were dragged to concentration camps in Germany. It was a common thing to see on the road near the concentration camps a priest, dressed in rags, exhausted, pulling a cart, and behind him a youth in the SS uniform, whip in hand.”
The believers and clergy in Poland also suffered most ruthless persecution. I quote short excerpts from the Polish Government report, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 10 of the document book:
“By January 1941 about 700 priests were killed; 3,000 were in prisons or in concentration camps.”
The persecution of the clergy began immediately after the capture of Polish territory by the Germans, according to Page 42 of the Polish report:
“The day after the occupation of Warsaw the Germans arrested some 330 priests. . . . In Kraków the closest collaborators of Archbishop Sapieha were arrested and sent to Germany. The Reverend Canon Czeplicki, 75 years of age, and his assistant were executed in November 1939.”
The report of the Polish Government quotes the following words of Cardinal Hlond: