Prague - Karel Boromejsky

On May 27th, 1942, Czech resistance fighters, trained by british SOE, carried out an assasination attempt on Bohemia-Moravia’s Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich’s life on his way to work in Prague. He didn’t die but was seriously wounded an died due to his injuries on June 4th. After the assassination attempt, the assassins Jan Kubis and Jozef Gabcik fled to predetermined locations for hiding. The Germans in turn began an intense hunt for the assassins and their helpers. They even issued a reward of half a million German reichsmark and amnesty to anyone who could give information about the assassins and their helpers.

One person arrested by the germans was Czech agent Karel Curda. Curda had been dropped into Bohemia Moravia by parachute in 1942 and, in fear of reprisals against his family, he revealed several safe houses and hiding locations. The Gestapo had these locations investigated and obtained information about the assassins and others involved in the assassin. One information led to the Karel Boromejsky church in Prague where Jan Kubis, Josef Gabcik, Adolf Opalka, Josef Bublik, Josef Valcik, Jaroslav Svarc and Jan Hruby were hiding.

On June 18th, a force of about 750 SS troops led by the SS-Gruppenführer, Theodor Friedrich Karl von Treuenfeld, gathered at the church. The purpose was to capture the assassins and tried to persuade them to surrender. Even the traitor Curda was there trying to get them to surrender, but the seven refused. The Germans then decided to storm the church and a two-hour fight followed. During this fight, Opalka was killed while Bublik and Kubis were severely wounded and taken to a nearby hospital. But their lives could not be saved and they were brought back to the church for identification.

The remaining five had entrenched themselves down in the crypt of the church. The Germans tried to smoke them out by throwing smoke grenades into the crypt through a small window. The men defended themselves ferocious and throw through the same window home-made hand grenades. When the Germans failed, they called in Prague’s fire department that tried to waterfill the crypt, but this was not successful either. The fire brigade’s involvement in this is in turn a tragic event. The Germans also tried to capture the crypt through an opening inside the church, but this attempt also failed. 

But the prospects for the four were bleak, they were running out of ammunition and with no possibility to escape, it was only a matter of time before they had to give up. But surrender was not an option, they knew to well what awaited them if they were captured alive by the germans. Therefore, Josef Gabcik, Josef Valcik, Yaroslav Sarc and Jan Hruby committed suicide by shooting themselves.

For his betrayal, Karel Curda received his reward, new identity and a German wife. Curda worked as a spy for the Gestapo until the end of the war. In 1947 he was arrested and tried for treason and sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out at the Pankrac prison in Prague.