Josef Müller

Josef Müller was born in 1909 in St. Katharina/Krs. Tachau (Bohemia) and graduated from the humanistic grammar school in Mies near Pilsen in 1931. He then studied theology at the German Charles University in Prague, where he joined the student fraternity Vandalia Prag. In 1936, he was ordained a priest in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

From 1938 to 1941, he worked as a parish administrator in Lochotin in the district of Ludiz [Zlutice]. There he was arrested by the Gestapo on 8 November 1941 for his Christ the King sermon and charged with pulpit abuse and offenses against the Treason Act. During his 18-month imprisonment in the Gestapo prison in Karlovy Vary, he was put to forced labor in an industrial plant and other hard labor. On May 15, 1943, he was transferred to Eger and sentenced to a further 18 months in prison by a special court. He was released early to his parents due to his inability to serve his sentence, but was strictly forbidden to engage in any professional activity.