14^th-16^th c.  Jews began settling in Klatovy, Southwestern Bohemia , and formed a community there.

17^th-early 19^th c.   Jews were banned from Klatovy.  The Jewish community dispersed, returning in the mid-1800s when the ban was lifted.

1873       A synagogue was built and consecrated in Klatovy for the approximately 600 Jewish residents.  Probably around the same time, a Jewish cemetery was established.

The synagogue is still standing and is presently used as a health club.  The cemetery is still there and open to visitors.  Directly through the gates  stands  a memorial to the 595 Klatovy Jews who perished during the Holocaust.

Picture provided by Leslie and Bill Ducey who visited the temple a few years ago on vacation.

1914-1918            Klatovy’s Jewish population greatly increased as 1,100 East European Jews fled from the war in the East and settled there.

1920s-1930s         Klatovy’s Jewish population decreased to around 350.

1938       Germany annexed the Sudetenland, the Western part of Czechoslovakia with a high German population

1939       The German army marched into Prague and occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia

1941       All Jewish congregations in Czechoslovakia were ordered to cease operations. The Klatovy Synagogue was pillaged by Czech Fascists.   Jews over 6 years old were ordered to wear a yellow Jewish star.  The first deportations of Jews began in October. 

1942       In March all Jewish communities (except Prague ) were officially abolished.  The mass deportations of Czech Jews began.  The Jews of Klatovy and surrounding villages were concentrated in a school building, then deported on the 26^th and 30^th of November.  They were first sent to Terezin.

There is a plaque affixed to the wall of this school in memory of the Jews of Klatovy which says in Czech: ‘Before the journey into darkness…In memory of our Jewish fellow-citizens who in November, 1942, spent their final hours here on route to Terezin and Auschwitz…from the teachers, students, and employees of SPS Klatovy’ [SPS are initials for the Central Industrial School]

1943       In the months of January and September, most Klatovy Jews in Terezin were sent by transports to the extermination camp in Auschwitz .  Few survived.

Seven Jewish scholars, realizing that the Jewish people were going to be destroyed, submitted a plan to the Nazis to save the Jewish ritual and cultural treasures from the now-abandoned synagogues by bringing them to the Prague Jewish Museum to be cataloged and preserved.  Over 2000 Torah scrolls were warehoused in the Michle Synagogue, outside of Prague . The Jews involved in saving these treasures were ultimately deported to Terezin and perished in concentration camps.

1945       In May, Germany was defeated.  Once again, Czechoslovakia was self-governing, this time was a country largely without Jews.  A total of 55 Klatovy Jews survived and returned to the city, only to leave a year or two later.

One who survived and stayed was Karel Stern, who became the caretaker of the cemetery.  He passed away in 1987.

1948       The Communists took over the Czech government.  The Torah scrolls in the Michle Synagogue were now owned by the Communist government

1963       An American art dealer in London who sold works by Prague artists noticed the scrolls listed in a catalogue of Hebraica published by a Czech government-owned bookshop.  He expressed interest and was shown almost 2000 scrolls housed in damp conditions in the Michle Synagogue.  He contacted the Rabbi at Westminster Synagogue in London to tell him about the find. A congregant there offered to buy the scrolls. 

1964       The art dealer negotiated a deal with Artia, the Czech State corporation responsible for trade in works of art, and on February 7 two trucks loaded with 1564 Czech Torah scrolls arrived at Westminster Synagogue.  The scrolls were then sorted, examined, and cataloging.  The Memorial Scrolls Trust was established to carry out the task of conserving, restoring and distributing the scrolls.

In 1975, Temple Beth Boruk applied for the permanent loan of a Czech Torah scroll from the Memorial Scrolls Centre of London , England , and paid the Centre $350. In 1976, the Torah acroll from Klatovy arrived in Richmond , Indiana , with an identification number (545) on the brass plaque affixed on a disc of one of its wooden rollers.            

1989       The “Velvet Revolution” occurred in Czechoslovakia , resulting in a new democratically elected government headed by Vaclav Havel.

1999       The Czech Torah Network, an educational organization established by Susan Boyer, started its mission to encourage remembrance and Jewish spiritual continuity among the synagogues and religious institutions that have Czech Torah Scrolls.

Rabbis and members of North West Surrey Synagogue and Congregation Shaaray Tefila, some of whom had ancestors from Klatovy, made a pilgrimage to the town in October, 2006 and brought their Torah scrolls to be read aloud (during a Bar Mitzvah ceremony) for the first time in 67 years.

Since the population of Klatovy and surrounding communities were deported in November of 1942, all  congregations with Klatovy scrolls on permanent loan are encouraged to dedicate one Shabbat service in November honoring and remembering the Jews of Klatovy sent to Terezin and ultimately to Auschwitz as a way to perpetuate their memory.

Congregations with Torah scrolls from Klatovy on permanent loan from the Memorial Scrolls Trust (Westminster Synagogue):

 Weybridge, Surrey , U.K.                     North West Surrey Synagogue*                                       

Ramsgate , Kent , U.K                         Thanet & District Reform Jewish Synagogue               

  Fullerton , CA                                       Temple Beth Tikvah          

  Minnetonka , MN                                 Temple Bet Shalom

Wallingford , CT                                   Congregation Beth Israel

Orlando , FL                                        Congregation of Reform Judaism

  Sarasota , FL                                       Temple Emanuel

Richmond , IN                                     Congregation Beth Boruk

St. Louis , MO                                     Congregation B’nai Amoona

Winston-Salem , NC                             Temple Emanuel

Bedford Corners, NY                              Temple Shaaray Tefila*

Dayton , OH                                          Temple Beth Or

Dallas , TX                                            Temple Emanuel

Information was gathered  from correspondence with the following people and information from the following sources:

Susan Boyer, Czech Torah Network (http://www.czechtorah.org/trust.php)

Jeffrey Kohn, congregant, Temple Shaaray Tefila, Bedford Corners, NY

Michael Heppner, Research Director, Memorial Scrolls Trust, Westminster Synagogue, London (heppner@tesco.net) 

Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust (Earlham College owns this)

A guide to the Holocaust Torah & Case of Congregation of Liberal Judaism, Orlando , Florida