Before World War II, Czechoslovak occultists tried to use black magic to kill Adolf Hitler. It sounds like the plot to a Hollywood B-movie, and in some ways it is.

It also is absolutely true.

The characters

Jan Kefer was born in 1906¹. At the time there was a growing interest in alchemy, astrology and similar subjects. Affected by the advances in technology, many people turned to these beliefs as older religious beliefs waned.

In 1920 the Free Association of Occult Workers formed in Bohemia. Many people wanted to believe in magic. It was popular with people who’d lost loved ones in World War I, who wanted to speak to them for one last time. The Free Association grouped up to 300 occult workers at the peak of its popularity¹.

Kefer was a major figure in this association, which later became known as Universalia¹.

As Chairman of Universalia, Kefer was one of the most influential occultists in the country. He translated many esoteric works into Czech and practised astrology, alchemy and magic¹. There is no account of how successful he was at these.

The scene

Before World War II, Czechoslovakia faced an existential crisis. Kefer decided he must use occult magic to stop Hitler before a war started¹. They plotted a series of four rituals to kill Hitler¹.

So serious was Kefer that in 1938 he approached President Edvard Beneš to ask for permission, and money, to kill Adolf Hitler in this way. Beneš was hoping for a more conventional approach to the threat of Nazism. After a 30-minute conversation he replied, “Thank you, I’d rather not. I have my plan.”²

Which sounds like a polite way of saying Beneš thought Kefer was insane.

The result

Kefer didn’t stop Hitler from occupying his country. Universalia continued to try to stop Hitler and carried out rituals in the Brdy forests², south-west of Prague, with little success. Legend has it they did manage to conjure up a strange being in a ritual in Prague on Sunday 13 April 1941 at 05:00². This creature warned Kefer he would pay for his attempts with his life^{1 2}.

In 1941, the Gestapo arrested Kefer^{1 2}. The occult fascinated Nazi high command. They offered him the chance to become Hitler’s personal astrologer¹. Kefer refused, so they locked him up¹ in Pankrac prison in Prague².

Czech resistance fighter Milady Horáková was also imprisoned in Pankrac.

Kefer died at the Flossenbürg concentration camp, Bavaria, on 3 December 1941^{1 2} when camp guards beat him to death². His family received a letter confirming he was there but there is no official documentation to prove he ever was in the camp¹.

Occultists believe that it was some black magic or occult creature that took him in the end¹.

Of course.

References

1. The Czechoslovak occultist plot to kill Adolf Hitler by magic; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Praha; 2019-06-09[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. Occultism in the service of politics; Helena Stejskalová; EpochaPlus; 2020-04-06[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]

Remember: links were correct at time of publication.