Jewish Prague

The perverse desire of the Nazis to establish a museum of the Jews after wiping them out is responsible for the remarkable remnants of the Jewish community still to be found in Prague.  Although more than 100,000 Jews died in the camps and ghettos, Torah scrolls and hundreds of religious and historical articles were preserved in the several synagogues also preserved in Josefov, the old Jewish area, and are now on display as part of the Jewish Museum established by those who returned.

 

Easily the most moving sight is the Old Jewish Cemetery, which holds the remains and tombstones of those buried here between the 12th and 18th centuries.  Given the small size of the cemetery the dead were buried in layers, the newer dead atop the older.  Finally another cemetery was established outside the central city, where Franz Kafka, perhaps Prague's most famous Jew, was laid to rest.

The tomb of Rabbi Loëw, who legend says conjured the monstrous Golem to protect the Jewish community of Prague from their oppressors, is marked by the traditional stones left on graves in remembrance of the dead, along with small bits of folded papers holding prayers left by the faithful.  A French couple near us left their bits of paper before moving on.

The old cemetery is a small forest of tombstones, some fallen, some leaning against each other for support, some entirely effaced, all dripping in the rain and covered with fallen leaves.  A more melancholy sight is hard to imagine, until you remember that the descendants of these buried Jews have no burial places of their own, having been scattered to Theresienstadt, to Auschwitz, to smoke.

Impressions of Prague

The first thing that struck me walking out into Prague was the architecture, the incredible range of style, line, curve, color, decoration, the centuries encompassed within a square mile in the center of the city.

The Old Town includes the enormous bulk of the Church of Our Lady of Tyn, with towers that look like they might have sheltered the Wicked Witch of the East's flying monkey squadron, but that bulk is wrapped by Disney-colored, whipped cream encrusted buildings out of The Student Prince.

I'm embarrassed to say that for a history buff, I know very little Czech history.  I do know they're fond of defenestrating people, a method of getting rid of opponents unique to them as far as I know.  (The Ottomans used to throw people into the sea tied in sacks; everyone's got their favorite method I suppose.)  A lot of what we see in modern day Prague dates from the reign of Charles IV, King and Holy Roman Emperor , who built one of the major attractions, the Charles Bridge, now clogged with tourists and touts but still impressive, particularly from a distance.

 

The over-the-top tendencies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are responsible for much of the rest of what we come to Prague to see.  However, that all of this is still available to see is apparently due to the fact that Prague was not heavily bombed during World War II and so much that was lost elsewhere in Europe is preserved here.  So in a perverse way one might say that Neville Chamberlain preserved Prague, I suppose.

     

Even outside the old city center, much of it overrun as it is by tourists from everywhere in Europe, they take their decoration seriously.  The towers and turrets atop every apartment building, my god!  You have to be careful not to trip over the cobbles while looking up all the time.

 

 

And the candy colored facades surprised me.  I wonder if it's a reaction to the long dark winters.

You'll notice that many of the photos here show sun.  That was a short period, folks.  For the first time I really understand the phrase "leaden sky".  For the rest of the three days we were there, it rained, or if not actually raining, looked like that's what it really, really, wanted to do.

Both Gene and I noticed, by the way, how empty the streets appeared, aside from the tourist-thronged areas.  Unlike Paris, New York, San Francisco, London, we felt as if we were alone for blocks at a time as we walked around.  The restaurants seemed full, the trams had people on them, but there was little street life.  We missed that.

What the streets had plenty of was ornamentation.  Many buildings still bore the symbols of the use to which they were first put, like the violinmaker's house

Or the fellow who supplied your golden cups.

For those who didn't work for a living, the ornamentation ranged from a pretty bird over the door to an enormous figure holding up the porch.

A center of Art Nouveau decoration as well, Prague buildings don't lack for that style either.

It's actually rather overwhelming, so much to see, ricocheting from one century to another and back again.  

A Pause in Prague

We're in Prague for a few days and there's just too much to see to leave time for posting.  I've already taken over 500 photos! 

The towers above belong to Our Lady of Tyn.  As an example of how fascinating and mixed up Prague is, the windows of Franz Kafka'a childhood home look into the porch of this church.

I'll post some photos and write about the visit soon.  For now, we're off to see the sights.