When Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939 (the Munich Agreement, Chamberlain and all that), he of course wanted to send all the Jews to the concentration camps. He stole and/or destroyed Jewish synagogues, properties etc, but he never touched the Old Jewish Cemetery of Prague. He said he wanted to preserve it - and turn it into a museum of European Jewry.
Ironically - even sinisterly - it HAS been turned into a museum already. Entry into the burial ground of, among 100,000 others, Rabbi Loew (of Golem fame), sets you back with 20 euros. The cemetery has been cleaned up, black-clad security guards and all, but I fear some of its erstwhile atmosphere of poignant abandonment in the middle of a bustling city has been lost.
When Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939 (the Munich Agreement, Chamberlain and all that), he of course wanted to send all the Jews to the concentration camps. He stole and/or destroyed Jewish synagogues, properties etc, but he never touched the Old Jewish Cemetery of Prague. He said he wanted to preserve it - and turn it into a museum of European Jewry.
Ironically - even sinisterly - it HAS been turned into a museum already. Entry into the burial ground of, among 100,000 others, Rabbi Loew (of Golem fame), sets you back with 20 euros. The cemetery has been cleaned up, black-clad security guards and all, but I fear some of its erstwhile atmosphere of poignant abandonment in the middle of a bustling city has been lost.