Jewish Prague

Small sample of names on the wall
in Pinkas Synagogue

Before World War II, Prague had a thriving Jewish population.  The Jewish Quarter section of Old Town has multiple synagogues and is a short walk from our hotel.  However, the Holocaust took a toll on the Czech Jewish population.  The Pinkas Synagogue, built in the Gothic style in 1535, is now a memorial to the over 77,000 Czech Jews killed during World War II.  The names are hand painted on every wall by family name along with the dates of birth and death as they are known.  This is a simple but stark reminder of the atrocity of this time period.  The Jewish Community in Prague was decimated and only 1,600 survived the war.

Close up of names

Jews in Prague were often treated as second class citizens, centuries before Holocaust.  In fact, Prague Jews had to wear emblems signifying they were Jewish, long before the Star of David associated with Hitler's reign in Germany.  This practice started in the 1200s and was finally discontinued in the 1700s.  The Old Jewish Cemetery contains the remains of Czech Jews from as far back as the 1400s.  There wasn't enough room to bury all who needed a space, so burials were done one on top of another, as many as 10 deep.  Over 12,000 gravestones are crowded in the space, having settled,

Old Jewish Cemetery

fallen, and broken over the decades.