Jewish Heritage of Bohemia and Moravia — Josefov, the Maharal, and Terezin

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Jews in Bohemia and Moravia have a documented history stretching back at least to the tenth century. Prague was one of the most important centres of Ashkenazi Jewish culture for over a thousand years. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Bohemian kehillot were among the wealthiest and best organised in Europe. The figure who more than any other shaped the Jewish identity of Prague was Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, known as the Maharal (c. 1525–1609). As chief rabbi of Prague for many decades, he was one of the most important figures in Jewish religious thought and philosophy of the era. His teachings on the significance of the Torah, the nature of exile, and messianic hope exerted enormous influence on later Hasidism and modern Jewish philosophy. The legend of the Golem — a clay creature brought to life by the Maharal to protect the Prague ghetto — has survived as one of the most recognisable symbols of Jewish culture in Europe. The Jewish quarter of Prague — Josefov, named in honour of Emperor Joseph II who issued the Tolerance Edict in 1781 — was until the end of the nineteenth century one of the most overcrowded parts of the city. The great reconstruction of 1895–1913 demolished most of the historic fabric, leaving only the synagogues and cemetery as testimony to several centuries of Jewish life. Under Austro-Hungarian rule the Jews of the Bohemian lands enjoyed gradual emancipation and access to education, the professions, and commerce. In the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938) the situation of the Jewish community was exceptionally favourable compared to the rest of Central Europe: full civil rights, religious freedom, and no official restrictions. The 120,000 Jews were one of the most assimilated and well-educated Jewish communities in Europe. The Munich Agreement of September 1938 and the cession of the Sudetenland to Germany was the first shock. In March 1939 the Wehrmacht entered Prague and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was established. The Nuremberg Laws were immediately implemented. Jews lost their property, access to professions, and schools.

Josefov — the historic heart of Jewish Prague — survives in a remarkable form. The historical paradox is that Adolf Hitler planned to preserve the Prague synagogues and cemetery as a museum of the extinct race after the planned Final Solution. This cynical design meant that six synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery survived the war almost intact. The Old-New Synagogue (Staranova synagoga), built around 1270, is the oldest functioning synagogue in Europe. Its Gothic architecture and interior details — including the rabbis' chairs and the bimah — remain essentially unchanged since the fourteenth century. The Pinkas Synagogue serves as an epitaph, with the names of 78,000 Czech Jews murdered in the Holocaust inscribed on its walls. The Jewish Museum in Prague, which administers the entire Josefov complex, is one of the most important Jewish museums in Europe. In the Old Jewish Cemetery approximately 100,000 people rest in a space almost devoid of room for individual graves; the gravestones are layered one upon another. The gravestone of the Maharal — an important site of pilgrimage to this day — is surrounded by hundreds of notes with requests left by visitors.

Terezin — an eighteenth-century fortress built by the Habsburgs, situated approximately 60 km north of Prague — became in November 1941 a concentration camp for Jews from the Protectorate, and subsequently from across Europe. The Nazis cynically used Terezin as a propaganda showcase: when the International Red Cross visited the camp in June 1944, the Germans temporarily improved conditions and staged a Potemkin village — gardens, cafes, orchestras. The propaganda film produced after the visit was titled Der Fuhrer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt. Approximately 140,000 Jews from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, and other countries passed through Terezin. Approximately 33,000 people died in the camp directly from hunger, disease, and brutal treatment. The remainder were transported to extermination camps — principally Auschwitz-Birkenau. The total number of victims is estimated at approximately 80,000 Czech Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Terezin was also an unexpected centre of cultural life: imprisoned artists, writers, composers, and teachers created music, literature, theatre, and painting in the camp. The drawings of the children of Terezin — 15,000 works preserved by the teacher Friedl Dicker-Brandeis — are today one of the most moving testimonies to human dignity in the face of annihilation.

Josefov in Prague is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the historic city centre. Six synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery are open to visitors through the Jewish Museum. Terezin — today a small town 60 km from Prague — has the Ghetto Museum, the Small Fortress (Gestapo prison), and a cemetery. The Museum documents the history of the camp, the life of the prisoners, and the Nazi propaganda lies. In Brno, Olomouc, Ostrava, and Plzen synagogues, cemeteries, and Jewish cultural centres survive, forming a network of possible stops on a route through Bohemia and Moravia.

A recommended two-day itinerary based in Prague: Day 1 — Josefov: the Old-New Synagogue, the Pinkas Synagogue, the Old Jewish Cemetery, the Maharal's grave, the Jewish Museum. Day 2 — Mercedes V-Class to Terezin (approximately 60 km, one hour): the Ghetto Museum, the Small Fortress, the cemetery and crematoria. Return to Prague or onward travel to Dresden, Leipzig, or Wroclaw. For groups researching genealogy: visits to the National Archive in Prague or the Czech Genealogical Centre.