Monsignor Emil Soukup

* 1939

  • "There was this... We called him 'the contraband man'. He was a captain. And he called me one day. [It was] kind of... You didn't know what was going on. Then we arranged to meet then and there, I don't know. And I had just been put on duty that day. So I went on duty and I blew it off. And that's kind of the end of it."

  • "I realized one thing, and that is that without God it is impossible. Simply put. Because I saw the anguish of the adults who prayed when it was May the sixth in the forty-fifth year. And so one realized that one couldn't even rely on adults. That he could only rely on our Lord."

  • "The memories of the liberation of Pilsen were very strong because it was very difficult. The Americans arrived in Pilsen at six o'clock in the morning on the sixth of May and we saw them fighting the Germans. Because there was a German house next to the synagogue and there were German soldiers there. They were running on the roofs and shooting at the Americans in the streets. So my personal memory was that the Americans were targeting our house as well, because there were Germans running around. For example, we had a machine gunner in the underpass of our house who was shooting between the doors at the Americans outside. So when they neutralized him, they came to our place and looked for Germans. They were sticking bayonets in the blankets."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Plzeň, 09.05.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:21:01
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - PLZ REG ED
  • 2

    Plzeň, 15.06.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 01:32:08
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - PLZ REG ED
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

We knew that the Church was under threat and that we had to protect it. We told ourselves that without priests, we‘d be beaten with caps

When Emil Soukup celebrated the first Prime Mass in the Church of St. Bartholomew in Pilsen on July 1, 1962
When Emil Soukup celebrated the first Prime Mass in the Church of St. Bartholomew in Pilsen on July 1, 1962
zdroj: archive of the witness

Emil Soukup was born on 30 June 1939 in Pilsen to Emilia Soukupová, née Červené, and Karel Soukup. He grew up together with his three brothers Vladimír, Karel and Jan. His father took over his grandfather‘s tailor‘s shop, but lost it after 1950 as part of the nationalisation. After that he was employed as a clerk in a household goods store. Mum Emilie Soukupová worked as a saleswoman at Svobodů on the Republic Square, later in the Prior department store. Emil Soukup experienced the liberation of Pilsen on May 6, 1945 and the last firefights between German and American soldiers right in front of their house. In 1945, he attended the church general school of the Congregation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Pilsen. After the persecution of the nuns by the communist regime, he continued his studies at the school in Podmostní Street, then in Komenský Street and spent the last year on a one-year apprenticeship course. From 1954 he attended an eleven-year high school, today‘s Masaryk Grammar School. From 1957 he studied at the Roman Catholic Cyril and Methodius Divinity Faculty in Prague, based in Litoměřice, where he was ordained a priest on 24 June 1962 and received state approval. On September 1, 1962, he started working as a chaplain in Domažlice, after which he completed a two-year basic military service as a radio operator in Jičín in October 1962. State Security tried to enlist his cooperation during the military service and afterwards, which he reportedly refused. From 1964 he continued his clerical service in Domažlice, where he experienced the occupation of Czechoslovakia after four years. From 1969-1974 he worked in the parish in Lomnica nad Lužnicí, and from 1974 in Český Krumlov. From 1972-1982 he was a member of the Association of Catholic Clergy Pacem in Terris, where he held various positions within the South Bohemian Region. In 1993, he was accepted into the newly established diocese of Plzeň and became parish priest in Domažlice. From 1 September 2001 to the end of June 2019 he served in the cathedral parish of Plzeň. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him a papal chaplain on 1 September 2009. Emil Soukup returned to Domažlice on 30 June 2019. At the time of the filming (2023) he lived in Pilsen.