Jewish Museum in Prague

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The Jewish Museum in Prague, Cz Muzeum v Praze Židovské in Josefov contains an extensive collection of synagogue objects of Jewish communities in Bohemia and Moravia. It was 1943-1945 Jewish Central Museum of SS to organize exhibitions about Judaism.

History

The Museum 1906-1939

A first museum was founded in 1906 by the historian Hugo loved ones and Augustin Stein, the representative of the Czech Jewish community and later head of the Jewish community in Prague. The goal was initially preserving precious cult device that Prague synagogues that were demolished in the early 20th century as part of the reconstruction of the Jewish community.

Closing and reopening by the SS

With the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia on 15 March 1939, the museum was closed. As part of the engagement in this time closures of the synagogues investigated the Jews living there, their synagogue objects to protect from looting to Prague to create, to catalog them and store.

A circular of the Jewish Town Hall in Prague from 1942 with an invitation to the Jewish religious communities to send their goods and chattels to the Prague Museum, meant that in addition to Torah scrolls and large quantities candlesticks, Toramäntel, Toravorhänge and the contents of entire archives to Prague sent. In this way, accumulated approximately 100,000 synagogal items that have been cataloged by up to 40 employees.

The Eichmann Unit under Adolf Eichmann, built in 1942, the museum as a Jewish Central Museum of the collection of liquidated from the Jewish communities and synagogues of Bohemia and Moravia confiscated sacred device. It was founded on a proposal Augustin stone. After tough negotiations, the Nazis approved the project for the establishment of the museum, though for entirely different motives than the founder of the museum. Shortly after the Wannsee Conference on the Final Solution of the Jewish Question is restored in Prague synagogues and incorporated it to the Central Museum.

SS Second Lieutenant Karl Rahm approved on 30 November 1942, the exposé of the first exhibition "Jewish life from the cradle to the grave ". Whether cream supervisors Adolf Eichmann and Reinhard Heydrich in Prague acting were aware of the project, is not documented. A study was the " group economy" informed the Office of the Reich Protector. Within four months the exhibition was ready created and approved by SS -Sturmbannführer Hans Günther, whose instruction, an addition was made to the " bloody ritual " of kosher ritual slaughter. He ordered that the exhibition was open to him and his entourage only. Moreover, visitors, it remained closed.

The Central Jewish Museum was opened by the SS as a "museum of an extinct race" on 6 April 1943.

Overall, by 1944 four exhibitions were organized. The fifth, should carry the theme "History of the Jews in Bohemia and Moravia " could not be aligned, as too many of the Jewish people, including the then head Dr. Polak, imprisoned or deported already were.

Topics

With the establishment of the Museum of Jewish actors joined the hope of being able to protect their valuable religious objects from vandalism and looting. It was considered first for possible they recover later, a prospect that seemed increasingly unrealistic with the ongoing persecution.

Little is known about the motives of the Nazis because they destroyed most of the documents prior to their departure from Prague. Secured are only the name " museum of an extinct race" as well as a certificate from the January 1945 confirmation of preservation of the graves at the Old Jewish Cemetery.

The exhibition did not exhaust itself in the reproduction of the dominant anti -Semitic propaganda. Instead, it offered a relatively realistic and scientifically objective insight into the religious life of the Jews in Bohemia and Moravia. Studies suggest that the museum has been set up for internal training of SD cadres.

New beginnings after the Second World War

The shrunken to less than 1000 members Jewish community took place after the end of World War II before a fully -preserved museum. This consisted among other things of a synagogue, eight community centers and 50 warehouses.

In 1950 the Museum of the City was offered. A private continuation was due to the aging of the faithful as well as the small number of members of the Jewish community no longer possible. Hana Volavkova was in 1950 the first leader of the " State Jewish Museum ."

Today the museum next to the classic form of an exhibition with the help of electronic media presented the current Jewish life in the Czech Republic. Additional music events annually attract about 500,000 visitors in the rooms.