Figure 1.--Here we see a Czech boy during World War II (during 1942) in his First Communion suit. The NAZIs did not overtly suppress religion, although many clerics, especially Catholic clerics were arrested. The situation in Czechoslovakia was not as bad as in Poland. This was because the Church in Czechoslovakia unlike Poland was a major pillar for nationalist identity. SActuall Hitler and the Nazis planned to supress religion after they won the War.

The Czech Lands were united to form Czecoslovaki at the end of World War I (1918). At the time about about two-thirds of the population was Catholic. While Czechoslovakia was overwhelmingly Catholic, the Protestant minority and history of religious descent helped to forge a more tolerant Catholicism. Ther was alsdo a vibrant Jewish community. The Catholics split with Rome over the issue of papal infallibility even before Czechoslovakia was created (1870). The Czechoslovak National Church was Catholic but decidedly anti-papal, and very nationalistic with a range of influences, including Hussite and Unitarian . Relations between the Vatican and the new independent Czechoslovakia were uneasy. The papal nuncio twice left Prague in protest over perceived anti-Catholic government actions (1925 and 33). Czechoslovalia was invaded abd seized by the Germans before World War II (1938-39). Czechislovakia was oartioned by the Germans, creating a rump Slovakia satate and the Protectorate of of Bohenia and Moravia--essentikally German occupied Czecheslovakia. Czech nationalism was brutally suppresed. There was less resistamnce to the Germans in occupied Czechoslovakia than in Poland. Slovakia was a German ally--a clerical Fascist state. The president was Monsignor Jozef Tiso. Thus Catholics were less targeted than in most other countries. The Jewish community was destroyed. After World War II and a brief period of moderation, the Commuists seized control and imposed a brutal Stlinist state, launching an atheism campaiign. Unlike Poland resiatance to Communism dod no coalese around the Church., in part beause the Catholic Church was not hidtotically a major spport for Czech nationalism. Many Czechs and Slovaks ecae agnostic aor atheist. We are not sure to waht extent the Communist atheist campaign was responsibility because this same trend was obsrveable in Western Europe as well. Czechoslovakia split into Slovakia andthe Czech Repunlic (1993). While religion is no longer widely celebrated in the Czech Republic, the values instilled in Europeans by the chuches are very much in plcce in the Czech Republic today.

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Crerated: 3:11 PM 11/14/2025
Last updated: 3:11 PM 11/14/2025