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 life1 2.
In 1941, the Gestapo arrested Kefer1 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 19411 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.