K osudům pamětní desky na stěně chrámu sv. Cyrila a Metoděje v Praze
To the Fortunes of the Memorial Plaque on the Wall of the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague

Summary/Abstract: This contribution deals with the circumstances of the origins of the memorial plaque dedicated to the memory of paratroopers killed in action, Orthodox clergymen and other Czech patriots, who died for the sake of the operation to assassinate R. Heydrich. The plaque has been placed above the small window to the crypt of the Saints Cyril and Methodius Cathedral in Prague, belonging to the Orthodox Church. It is the very place where few Czechoslovak soldiers put up one-sided fight with more than hundred times bigger Nazi forces on 18 June 1942, after the successful assassination of Reich protector Reinhard Heydrich. Five years later, the memorial plaque was unveiled on the wall of the church, the author of which was a sculptor František Bělský, 26 years old at that time. The author himself was an ex-soldier of the Czechoslovak army-in -exile in Great Britain during WW II. The contribution focuses on artistic aim of the sculptor, his ideas about the form of the plaque and also reminds František Bělský’s post-war life story and work. Attention is also paid to the initiator of the origins of the memorial plaque and its realization, i.e.the Association of the Soldiers of the Czechoslovak Army-in-exile of II Resistance along with the Czechoslovak Association of Legionnaires, and the article gives basic information about it. The contribution also deals with the role of the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church and tries to express the help of the Franta Anýž firm, which the plaque cast in bronze in its foundry at Holešovice, free of charge. Attention of the study is also concentrated on the course of ceremonial unveiling of the memorial plaque, which became an important political and social event. To get the event closer, there were used articles from periodicals of that time and first of all, the manuscript of the Orthodox clergyman František Leixner “Chronicle of the Czech Orthodox Church”. The role of memorial places in the collective memory of the nation is also reflected in the study.

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