Czech exhibits mark 70th anniversary of transports to Auschwitz

The museum in the Czech town of Jihlava is marking the 70th anniversary of the WWII-era transports of the Jewish population from the Vysočina region to Nazi concentration camps. Of the more than 1 300 Jewish people who were forcibly removed, not quite 100 survived the war, according to available data. Two exhibits opened in the museum Friday detailing the tragic wartime fates of those people. Historian Ladislav Vilímek told the Czech Press Agency the displays include a Torah and tablets of the Ten Commandments that evidently were used in Jihlava’s synagogue. The exhibits will run until 18 November.

In 1942, Jewish people living in the Vysočina region were deported in two transports (Av and Aw) to the concentration camp at Terezín. The Jihlava exhibit, entitled “Shoah Jihlava 1939-1945” (ŠOA Jihlava 1939-1945) is dedicated to the fate of the Jewish population of Jihlava. The exhibit maps the tragic story of Dr Rudolf Goldmann and of the people who helped hide him from the Nazis. Visitors can also learn the story of a photograph taken of a Jewish girl, Helena Böhmová, which was found 70 years later in the collection of a photographer from Žďár nad Sazavou, Vilém Frendl. Various facts also depict the fate of Rabbi Arnold Grünfeld, who was murdered in a euthanasia institute near Dresden.

Another exhibit, entitled “Neighbors who Disappeared – Tribute to Child Holocaust Victims” (Zmizelí sousedé – Pocta dětským obětem holokaustu), presents the results of research performed by schoolchildren throughout the Czech Republic who joined this project, which is being run by the Jewish Museum in Prague (see http://www.zmizeli-sousede.cz/aj/index.html). Work on the Vysočina region towns of Chotěboř, Havlíčkův Brod, Kostelní Myslová and Telč is being presented in Jihlava.

Ms Judita Matyášová will visit the museum to tell the story of a group of Jewish children from Czechoslovakia who were saved in Scandinavia during the war. Some of the children saved came from the Jihlava region. Her lecture will take place on Tuesday, 18 September at 17:00.