Today was my first official school trip and we got to go to a medieval Jewish ghetto. It was a two hour bus ride through the beautiful Czech countryside to Třebíč. The reason we were going to this specific town is that it is the last standing medieval ghetto in all of Europe. When the ghetto was still in use it was different from other Jewish ghettos in that most of the Christians in the city came into the ghetto to work. The Jews had a leather business where a lot of the town was employed, so relations between the Jews and the Christians were very good. When the Jews were taken during the holocaust, the Christians lost friends which is part of the reason they worked so hard to keep the ghetto the way it was back then. The ghetto was right where we expected it to be, next to the river and below the church (this is where almost all Jewish ghettos are found). The ghetto, on the other hand, was not at all what I expected. There are no longer any Jews living in Třebíč, but the people who live there have kept the ghetto like it was and now have opened a museum. The ghetto is slightly run down, but this is possibly from the flooding this summer more than anything. In the houses of the ghetto, young families mostly live there and the outsides of the homes have barely changed. It was difficult to think of the ghetto as once being a ghetto when there were happy children all over and there was no walls blocking us in.
One thing to that is distinctive of Jewish ghettos is the interesting architecture. Due to how many people there were living in the ghetto, people needed to be creative when trying to figure out how to make more space. It was very common to build out the second story of a house over the street. This would leave room for carts and people to move while giving the people in the house more space to live. Sometimes entire walkways would be covered leaving only a tunnel.
"The Jewish Quarter of Třebíč placed in Moravian town Třebíč in the Czech Republic is one of the best preserved Jewish ghettos in Europe. Therefore it was listed in 2003 (together with the Jewish Cemetery and the St. Procopius Basilica in Třebíč) in the UNESCO World Heritage List and it is the only Jewish monument outside Israel specifically placed on the List."
(Třebíč, Jewish Ghetto)
(Třebíč, Jewish Ghetto)
(Třebíč, Jewish Ghetto)
(Třebíč, Jewish Ghetto)
(Třebíč, Jewish Ghetto)
(Třebíč, Jewish Ghetto)
(Třebíč, Jewish Ghetto)
(Třebíč, Jewish Ghetto)
(Třebíč, Jewish Ghetto)
(Třebíč, Jewish Ghetto)
(Třebíč, Jewish Ghetto)
(Třebíč, Jewish Ghetto)
Once we finished our tour of the streets of Třebíč, we went to the Rear Synagogue. The synagogue is no longer used for services but has been turned into a museum and gallery for local art work. Perhaps the most impressive piece in the entire exhibition was a model of all of the Jewish ghetto done by a local artist. It is an exact replica of what the ghetto would have looked like during the times of the Jews and was made entirely out of wood. Attached to the church is a home that was set up to look like it would have looked during Medieval times, with a little shop down below.
"The synagogue, also known as "New" (Neuschul), dates from 1669. After 1837, a new part of women's gallery was added to its northern part (according to Jewish religious traditions men and women were not allowed to share the same space in the sanctuary). Since 1925, the synagogue has not been used any more for religious purposes and was converted into a storehouse. Due to lack of maintenance the structure fell into disrepair in the 1980s. The complex and expensive full renovation was completed in 1997 and the synagogue was reopened in that year."
(Rear Synagogue)
(Rear Synagogue)
(Rear Synagogue)
(Rear Synagogue)
(Rear Synagogue)
(Rear Synagogue)
(Rear Synagogue)
(Rear Synagogue)
After the tour of the synagogue we headed off to this older ladies house who lives in one of the old homes of the ghetto. She told us about her home and how it was owned by a wealthy person because it had a private well and tall ceilings. She then let us look around her pottery studio where she sells souvenirs to tourists. Once we were done at her house we went to have a wonderful meal of chicken schnitzel and potatoes with honey cake for dessert. After lunch we got on the bus and headed up the hill to the Jewish cemetery. The cemetery was originally close to the town but the king didn't like that he could see it so the Jews were forced to move it to the back side of the hill. The cemetery was like no other I have seen before. Besides the fact that there were hundreds of graves piled down the hillside, you could see the obvious effect of the holocaust. On many of the crypts there was space for a whole family to be buried there but only one or two names were there because the rest of the family had been killed during the holocaust. Also beside many of the crypts were separate pieces of stone where the names of family members who had died during the holocaust were listed. Another thing that was different was that there was a time when many of the graves were written in German because that was the common language. After the holocaust some families went to their ancestors graves and chiseled the German off of the grave stone.
"It was apparently founded at the beginning of the 17th century and expanded by a new part in 1888. According to tradition, approx. 3000 tombstones are found on the burial ground (the oldest dates back to 1625), including valuable Baroque and Classical type stones. Next to the cast-iron gate is the ceremonial hall from 1903 with a fully preserved exterior and interior."
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
(Třebíč, Jewish Cemetery)
