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Ok, this is pretty strange, I know; I was thinking to post it on History.se, but maybe it can fit here, too, as I saw it while traveling and it was in a "famous" cemetery (...I'm not the kind of tourist for cemetery visiting, this one just happened as I stumbled on it...)

Location: Prague, Vyšehrad cemetery. I noticed the following inscription, and it struck me as something really different because:

  • the shape
  • the position (in an isolated corner with a "special" path to reach it)
  • there is written Komunismu (did they buried communism here?)

I searched for information on Google, but everything I've been able to found was in čeština, and I'm not able to read it a single word of it. But still it shows it is some kind of touristic landmark, so I'm not that off topic after all :-D

Here is the photo. Sorry for the low quality:

pnuts
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2 Answers2

29

The inscription says in Czech:

Památce kněží, řeholníků a řeholnic, obětí nacismu a komunismu

Já jsem vzkříšení a život. Kdo věří ve mne, i kdyby umřel, bude žít.

Evangelium Svatého Jana 11, 25

Translation of the first part is:

To the memory of priests, monks and nuns who were victims of nazism and communism

The second section is part of a verse from Gospel of John (11, 25), which is translated as (KJV):

I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live

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Action K is the name for the project of illegal elimination of monasteries and male catholic monastic orders that took place in the communist Czechoslovakia in April 1950. It was preceded by the staged trial of Machalka et al. involving order superiors, intended to provide ideological justification for the general public. 219 monastic houses were closed down and 2376 monks were interned during the action in Czechoslovakia. Movable and immovable property of orders was confiscated (though for real properties, this formally happened only later). The action resulted in a huge loss of cultural heritage as several monasteries started to fall into disrepair and others were intentionally destroyed; a lot of valuable printings disappeared and movable properties were misappropriated, for example an ancient furniture and so on. Soon after Action K, Action R followed. Action R was slower and it was aimed against nunneries. The last one, Action B was meant to formally eliminate all orders, but in did not materialize to a large extent. The first night when the monasteries were attacked and closed down has been nicknamed ‘St. Bartholomew’s Day of Monks’.

http://www.mistapametinaroda.cz/?lc=cs&id=217&ls=en

  1. – 14. 4. 1950 – "Action K" – forceful concentration of Czech monks, List of witnesses: http://www.pametnaroda.cz/anniversary/detail/id/42?locale=en_GB
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