Holocaust victims will have a memorial in Liberec

Liberec - A memorial that will commemorate the victims of the Holocaust is being created in the chapel at the Jewish cemetery in the Liberec district of Ruprechtice. The Jewish community will publicly present it for the first time on Sunday, November 9, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the so-called Kristallnacht, during which German Nazis burned all synagogues. Before the war, around 1,600 Jews lived in Liberec, and only 37 of them survived the concentration and internment camps, said Pavel Jelínek, the vice-chairman of the local Jewish community, to the Czech News Agency today. He is one of those who survived.
    The community originally wanted to install memorial stones with a brass surface and the names of victims in the sidewalks in front of the houses where Jews lived, created by the German artist Gunter Demnig, known as Stolpersteine. In the sidewalks and paving of 345 German cities, more than 15,000 are embedded; the first ones are also in Prague and Kolín. "In Liberec, there would have to be well over 1,000, which would be expensive and also technically complicated, so we were looking for another option," explained the community's secretary, Lea Adamová.
    Students from the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Liberec worked on the memorial design. Among four projects, the idea of student Štěpán Gudev won. The unique memorial consists of a drywall structure in the shape of a cube. Grooves lead from the ceiling down the walls to the floor, connecting the names of extermination camps with boxes containing the names of victims inscribed on a scroll. The memorial is located in the ceremonial hall, and the exterior of the former chapel, which was used as a coffee storage during the totalitarian regime, has not changed.
    The construction of the memorial cost more than seven million crowns. The Liberec City Hall contributed 4.5 million, and the regional office provided 2.5 million crowns. The remaining costs will be covered by a foundation for Holocaust victims.
    In addition to the memorial, the Jewish community will open an exhibition titled Jews in the Struggle and Resistance in the synagogue space. It commemorates Jews who fought in the Czechoslovak Army. "We want to show that we were not just sheep being led," added Adamová. Among the Jews living in Liberec today is Editha Weitzenová, who worked as a radio operator for the British Army's air force.
    The first Jewish families arrived in Liberec in the 15th century as they fled from Prague before the plague. After the war, 1,211 Jews were registered in Liberec, but only 37 long-time residents survived the concentration camps. However, most of them left the country after 1950 and after 1968.
    The Jewish community today has 67 members from the entire Liberec Region and the Šluknov region, with an average age of 56 years. They meet for worship in the new synagogue, which has been part of the Regional Scientific Library since 2000. The community organizes lectures, a café for seniors, and primarily offers social counseling.