Brother Müller endeavored to phone the Prague Bethel, but no one answered. Something serious had obviously occurred there too. He quickly returned to Prague. However, as he neared the Bethel building, he saw two men who were pretending to be workmen but who were watching the Bethel Home. At Bethel he met a brother who reported that several State Security agents had searched the entire premises and sealed the office. Within 45 minutes of his arrival, two officials from the Ministry of Interior appeared at the Bethel Home and announced that the building had been confiscated. Brother Müller protested, pointing out that a confiscation must be preceded by a court order. After they left, he managed to move some of the files that the State Security had not found to his parents’ house. But when he returned to Bethel, a State Security agent was waiting with orders to arrest him and the two sisters who were with him. The other members of the Bethel family had already been arrested.

Had a court order been issued that quickly? No. Months later, while the brothers were under detention, Brother Kapinus, who was among those being detained, received a letter. It contained the decision of the Ministry of Interior, dated April 4, 1949—over four months after the fact—to discontinue the Society’s activity and confiscate its property.

[Pictures on page 175]

Bethel family and branch office after World War II