Jewish monuments in Bohemia as viewed by the state and Jewish leaders from 1945–1989
Jewish monuments in Bohemia as viewed by the state and Jewish leaders from 1945–1989

Author(s): Blanka Soukupová
Subject(s): Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Jewish monuments; Bohemia; 1945–1989
Summary/Abstract: The study is based on the thesis that monuments are not only highly valuable in terms of art and history, but they also have specific meaning for certain groups of people (nations, minorities). It addresses the problem of what qualities were taken into account by the Czechoslovak state and the Jewish minority in the case of Jewish monuments in the Czech lands after the Second World War. The text concludes that although Czechoslovak elites declared the global artistic and historical significance of Jewish monuments (albeit only in Prague), they failed to provide them with adequate care. Thus, maintenance and repairs (often not entirely successful) were reserved for the Terezín concentration camp and select monuments, mainly in Prague. For the fraction of Jews that survived the Shoah, Jewish monuments became a source of self-esteem and new self-identification with the Czech space. However, not even the small number of Jewish religious communities could prevent the decay of synagogues, cemeteries and other monuments. The situation of poorly secured regional monuments was the most tragic. Jewish communities were often forced to sell them or rent them out. This unfavorable state of affairs worsened after the defeat of the Prague Spring (August 1968), when all hopes for improved monument care associated with the “Golden Sixties” vanished. The period of “normalisation” was then marked by the extensive and rapid demolition of a number of historically valuable buildings, which were forced to “give way to the public interest”.

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