Sedlec-Prcice
Encyclopedia
Sedlec-Prčice is a town in the Czech Republic
. The town is sixty kilometers south of Prague.
There is an old synagogue on the town square that now hosts a small factory that makes sporting equipment. Not so much as a commemorative plaque attests to the building's past. A careful check of the doorjambs of the synagogue and houses around it might turn up an overlooked mezuzah
or, at least, the nail holes.
Located in a field somewhere beyond the town is the old Jewish cemetery, founded in 1867.. There are still said to be a small number of gravestones hidden in the overgrowth. The cemetery is owned by the local Jewish community.
With all the Jews gone, a centuries-old interdependent community slowly built up and enriched by diverse connections, perspectives and a wholeness and continuity between the physical and the spiritual is gone along with them. That was destroyed one September morning in 1942 when eight families, twenty-six Jews, were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp
.
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. The town is sixty kilometers south of Prague.
There is an old synagogue on the town square that now hosts a small factory that makes sporting equipment. Not so much as a commemorative plaque attests to the building's past. A careful check of the doorjambs of the synagogue and houses around it might turn up an overlooked mezuzah
Mezuzah
A mezuzah is usually a metal or wooden rectangular object that is fastened to a doorpost of a Jewish house. Inside it is a piece of parchment inscribed with specified Hebrew verses from the Torah...
or, at least, the nail holes.
Located in a field somewhere beyond the town is the old Jewish cemetery, founded in 1867.. There are still said to be a small number of gravestones hidden in the overgrowth. The cemetery is owned by the local Jewish community.
With all the Jews gone, a centuries-old interdependent community slowly built up and enriched by diverse connections, perspectives and a wholeness and continuity between the physical and the spiritual is gone along with them. That was destroyed one September morning in 1942 when eight families, twenty-six Jews, were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
.