Jewish Religious Community in Prague under the Nazi Occupation

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Czechia

Holding institution:: Archives of the Jewish Museum in Prague

Holding institution (official language):: Archiv Židovského muzea v Praze

Postal address:: Stroupežnického 32, Praha 5, 150 00

Phone number:: 00420222749111

Web address:: http://www.jewishmuseum.cz/

Email:: office@jewishmuseum.cz

Reference number:: 312

Title:: Jewish Religious Community in Prague under the Nazi Occupation

Title (official language):: Židovská náboženská obec v Praze za okupace

Creator/accumulator:: Jewish Religious Community of Prague

Date(s):: 1939/1947

Language:: Czech; German

Extent:: 1.65 linear metres

Type of material:: Textual material; Photographic images

Physical condition:: good

Scope and content:: The preserved official agenda makes it possible to become familiar with the administrative structure of the community, and also contains circulars and regulations, official memoranda and all manner of summaries and statistics and correspondence with rural communities. The most valuable material is the reports on the activities of the JRC (Judenrat) and Treuhandstelle. Only fragments have been preserved from the activity of most departments, in many cases only individual files. From the years 1945–1947 the organisational circulars of the National Administration dealing with the activity of the Judenrat, the circulars of the preparatory committee of the JRC in Prague and several other documents concerning the renewed Jewish Religious Community and the creation of the Council of Jewish Religious Communities.

Archival history:: This archival collection consists of the rump of documents of the Jewish Religious Community Prague (Judenrat) from the period of the Nazi Occupation of the Czech lands. (The JRC was renamed to the Judenrat effective 8 February 1943.) This is the archival material set aside under the JMP Holocaust Department after the organisation of the war archival materials at the beginning of the 1970s.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Jewish religious community in Prague has a long and rich history which begun in the 10th century. In the 11th century, there were two separate Jewish settlements in Prague. The settlement of the later Jewish Town was established in the 12th century at the latest. The Jewish Town had its own self-government. The Jews lived mandatorily here up to the 19th century when they were able to move to the city of Prague. The densely build-up and overpopulated ghetto suffered from plague epidemics (1680, 1714) and fires (1689, 1754). The population was also affected by huge pogroms (1096, 1389 and 1744) and by expulsions (1541-1545, 1557-1567 and 1745-1748). The Jewish Town was the centre of trade and handcrafts, the seat of the rabbinate, yeshivas and print houses. Many significant personalities are connected to the Prague Jewish community-rabbis, philosophers, historians, writers and artists.

From July 1939 the Jewish Religious Community of Prague was subordinate to the Prague-based Nazi Central Office for Jewish Emigration (Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung Prag), which in August 1942 became the Central Office for the Settlement of the Jewish Question in Bohemia and Moravia (Zentralamt für die Regelung der Juden-Frage in Böhmen und Mähren). Aside from resuming its pre-war activities, the Jewish community saw to a number of administrative tasks relating to the persecution of the Jewish population. As a result of deportations that were being carried out, the activities of Jewish communities outside Prague were discontinued on 27 March 1942 and their administrative tasks were transferred to the Jewish Community of Prague. As of 8 February 1943, the Jewish Community of Prague was renamed the Jewish Council of Elders; it existed under this name until the end of the war. The Jewish religious community was reinstated after the war.

Access points: locations:: Prague

Subject terms:: Holocaust; Jewish community; Jewish community records; Jewish councils; Nazism; Nazism--Nazis; Occupation (military)

Finding aids:: Hamáčková V: Židovská náboženská obec v Praze za okupace, 1939 - 1947. Prozatímní inventární seznam, 1978, s. 21, ev.č. 307.

Yerusha Network member:: Jewish Museum Prague

Author of the description:: JMP Survey, 2015.

fullscreen: Jewish Religious Community in Prague under the Nazi Occupation

Collection

Downloads

Full record

Image fragment

Formats and links

Formats