Jewish Prague

At the outbreak of the Second World War, there were about 90,000 Jews in Bohemia and Moravia, of whom nearly 80,000 were killed in the Holocaust. Most either died in the ghetto of Terezin or were deported from Terezin to Aushwitz.

Under the communists, Jews in Czechoslovakia continued to suffer persecution. There was a thaw and an attempt to right wrongs during the short lived Prague Spring in 1968, but after the Soviet-led invasion, the Czechoslovak communist regime remained one of the most oppressive in Eastern Europe against all religious practice.

The communist regime saw its end in 1989 and Jewish life has begun to flower once again particularly in Prague. On December 31, 1992 Slovakia and the Czech Republic peacefully severed their federation partnership. Today the Jewish population of Prague numbers approx. 7,000. There is also a growing ex-patriot community and thousands of Jewish visitors annually.