History Of The Jews In The Czech Republic
Jews in Bohemia, today's Czech Republic, are predominantly Ashkenazic Jews, and the current Jewish population is only a fraction of the First republic's Jewish population. As of 2005, there were approximately 4,000 Jews living in Czechia. There are ten small Jewish communities all around the country (seven in Bohemia and three in Moravia). The umbrella organisation for the Jewish communities in the country is the Federation of Jewish Communities (FŽO). Services have been held in Prague and some other cities.
As part of the original Czechoslovakia, and before that the Austro-Hungarian Empire the Jews had a long association with this part of Europe. Throughout the last thousand years there have emerged over 600 Jewish communities in the Kingdom of Bohemia. According to the 1930 census, Czechoslovakia had a Jewish population of 356,830.
Most Slovak Jews were deported by the pro-Nazi Slovak Fascist government directly to Auschwitz, Treblinka and other extermination camps, where they were murdered. Most Czech Jews were initially deported by the German occupiers with the help of local Czech Nazi collaborators to Terezin, known in German as Theresienstadt concentration camp and later killed. However many Czechoslovakian children were rescued by Kindertransport and escaped to the United Kingdom and other Allied countries. Some were reunited with their families after the war while many lost parents and relatives to the concentration camps.
Read more about History Of The Jews In The Czech Republic: Jewish Prague
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