WRITTEN WORKS

Authors:
Míša and Vilča Brandtovy
Alča and Magda Rechovy
Lenka Petříková
Anička Panceová
Jana Josnedlová
Led by Ivona Brožová

This project was carried out as part of the activity of „Girls' Christian Group in Velhartice" and „Civic Education"

We would like to give many thanks to all of those who have helped us. Mainly:

The county archive in Klatovy
The County Museum in Klatovy
The Museum of Šumava in Sušice
Mr. Hanzík - the head librarian of Velhartice public library
Mr. and Mrs. Pruner (who have talked with us about Velhartice during the time of the 2nd World War)
Mr. Hasnedl (who has provided some of the key documents for our report)
Mrs. Vladča Vališová, teacher, (for support with our work)
Mrs. Marie Hanzíková (for interesting stories)
The Educational Cultural Centre of the Jewish Museum in Prague
Museum of Dr. Šimon Adler
Mrs. Eva Erbenová (for wonderful stories which helped us to understand the harsh fates of Jews in the 2nd World War)

1. General information

I. The following are information concerning the history of Jews in Velhartice and surrounding areas, which we have found:

The oldest written information about Jews in Velhartice come from the year 1734, when there were 3 Jewish families here, with 11 members. They were:

- Abraham Isaac ben Lévi with his wife Rosina (they had 2 daughters and 2 sons)
- Rubín Abraham ben Lévi with his wife Bunem
- Abraham Strohbenda ben Juda with his wife Rikl (they had 1 child)

These Jews used to bury their dead at the cemetery in Kolinec. They prospered and on August 7th 1799, they opened a praying room. Rabbi Bern. Schwarzkopf from Dlouhá Ves taught here from the year 1808. From 1845, the mayor of the Jewish community in Velhartice was Moises Epstein. In the alphabetical list of Jewish communities in Czechlands from the year 1850, Velhartice are said to have had 14 Jewish families. At this time, Jews owned a wine distillery, which was in house number II (this house still stands in Velhartice).

On June 29th 1916, Jewish emigrants from Poland, where large pogroms were going on, came to Velhartice. 50 Jews were housed in 14 houses. The current town mayor of Velhartice, however, didn't have sympathies for Jews. Although he received a letter from the National Jewish Council, which informed him, that the expulsion of these fleeing Jews back to Poland is unlawful, he didn't allow them to stay and they had to leave.

Jews in Velhartice once had a synagogue which stood on the site where there currently stands a fire armory. The synagogue also served as a school, where Jewish children were taught Hebrew and the history of the Jewish people.

Both the community and the synagogue perished during the occupation in the 2nd World War, when the greatest oppression of Jews began. This pogrom gradually turned into a systematic and continuous destruction in concentration camps. 25 citizens of Velhartice were killed by the holocaust.

II. An outstanding member of the Jewish community

We would like to remember the story of an interesting man who comes from our district. His name is Šimon Adler. Who was born and lived in Dobrá Voda near Hartmanice.

Today his house serves as a museum, where the visitors can find information not just about the life of this man and his family but also about the Jewish culture.

Biography of Šimon Adler
Šimon Adler was born on March 9th 1884 in Dobrá Voda near Hartmanice. His father, Wihelm Adler, was aJewish merchant. This family has lived here for 400 years. In Hartmanice, Šimon Adler absolved the elementary school, then he went to the Theological preparatory school in Topolčany, which he finished in 1901. He then continued his studies at the rabbi seminar in Frnakfurt and at the Wurzburg university, the Giessen University and the Basilei Univerziáty. On March 3oth 1912, he graduated in Zurich and in 1913, he received his doctorate at the Basilei University. He was also a special student of the Charles University in Prague. He was a rabbi. First he worked as a rabbi in Staňkov near Domažlice, later in Zbraslav and finally in the High Synagogue in Prague.

On June 20th 1919, he married Rosalia Schiffer, with whom he had three sons: Matityahua (1920), Joachim (1923) and Wolfgang (1928).

Šimon Adler worked as registrar and archive keeper and in 1928, he was nominated as a member of the Conservation Committee. While doing this work, he collected materials, which he could later use for his studies on Jewish rights. By doing this work he was exculded from the initial transports to Terezín, but in March 1943, he was taken to Terezín together with his wife and his youngest son and a year later to Auschwitz, where he perished in the gas chamber together with his wife.

III. A list of communities with Jewish historical building in the Klatovy district.

The names on the memorial from 1948 on the Velhartice Jewish cemetery

Insignia on the memorial: They died a long way from their homa as victims of Nazi crimes during german occupation in 1939- 1945, grieved by their relatives and friends. Your presence in our memory eill remain sacred, we will never forget!

2. Information from written documents.

I. Documents from the district archive in Klatovy

Various documents which are deposited in the district archive support the information concerning the property of Jews in Velhartice, which we heard from contemporaries.

Jews owned two factories in Velhartice, of considerable size and local importance. It was the leather tanning factory, which was acquired by Šimon Pollak in k1882 ůand passed on to his sons who contributed to its gradual expansion. In 1899, it was inherited by his sons Adolf and Vilém, in 1933, by his grandsons Karel and Bedřich. The official name of this company was

Šimon Pollak And Sons,
Leather Tanning Factory
In Velhartice

The second factory was a paper mill, which was bought by Šimon Pollak in 1889 and give in 1910 to his son David Pollak and Marhus Klinger. In 1926 the company was renamed:

Klinger And Pollak Company
In Velhartice

On November 30th 1943, the factory was confiscated by the land office. Since then, production was never renewed.

The leather tanning factory was nationalized after the war. It served the manufacture of leather haberdashery, and in 1956 it was renamed the "Plzeňské Dílo", which exists still today.

3. Accounts of contemporaries and wittnesses

We interviewed some contemporaries on the issue of the period of the 2nd World War. Our grandparents as well as older citizens of Velhartice.

We heard interesting stories from:
Mr. and Mrs. Pruner (grandparents of Alena and Magda)
Mr. and Mrs. Hanzík and others

We were told, that Jhews in Velhartice had good reputation because they owned the two important factories - the paper mill and the leather tanning factory, which employed majority of the town's inhabitants. Mr. Hasnedl likes to remember that period very much.

Bedřich and Karel Pollak are said to have been very kind and at times when someone would need help, they wouldn'd be grudging and they would gladly give away unused wooden material from the factory and so on. "Velhartice would have had much more inhabitants today, if Jews hadn't gone to the concentration camps! When the factories run by Jews were closed, many people had to move to cities to find work. Before the war, Velhartice had some 1400 inhabitants, now it has dropped to just 480," we were told by Mr. Hasnedl.

Mrs. Prunerová remembers when Jews were forbidden to send their children to school. She recalls the day when members of SS came to Velhartice in trucks and deported all of the Jews who lived here. She was, as well as Mrs. Hanzíková, sad to see their young friends leave, although they had no idea where it was, they were being taken, what to think of it. They found out after the war, what had happened to them.

Mr. Pruner also told us a sad story, of which Jews were accused - the Pollak brothers.

The family of K. Pollak employed a young girl from Přestanice in their household. This girl once got lost just before Easter and couldn't be found. Finally the body of the girl was found in a nearby fishpond. Bhecause the girl was known to be happy and careless in her mind, no one understood, what had happened. It was at the same time that Jews were intenrionally accused of ritual murder of a young girl in the Příbram district. Everyone has heard this story and connected it with the Velhartice case. A stry was construed, that the Pollaks needed the blood of the young christian girl for Jewish Easster rituals. Of course it was proven to have been a suicide, but the story is still remembered by local people. "what frightens me most, is that people still believe it", we were told by Mr. Pruner. Mr. Hasnedl brought a photograph (see the appendix), to recall the old times.

Mrs. Prunerová remembers her classmate Lili, whose story is especially interesting.

Vally Lilian Klingerová
Lili was born on July 3rd 1928. Her mother died as a result of her birth in the Klatovy hospital (July 14th 1928). Eventually Lili has inherited also her mother's name.

The small girl was being brought up by her father and her tutor Elsa Lewyová who came from Prague. When she was six years old, her father shot himself. Lili was left alone with her mistress. They lived together with another Jewish family - Drucker - in one house. Lili had many relatives in Sušice and other towns, who often came to see her in Velhartice. She often played in the garden of the Pollak's house and families in Velhartice took often care of Lili. (Both the house where she lived and the villa of the Pollaks still stand unchanged today.)

Mrs. Prunerová remembers, that Lili used to bring rich snacks to school which she shared with her every time. She doesn't remember the exact time when Lili stopped coming to school. It must have been at the beginning of a school year, because she remembers how Jewish children stopped coming to school but it didn't happen from day to day.

Lili was taken away together with all other Jewish families with their children to join the transport in Klatovy. In Klatovy, Jews were locked in the business school and later deported to Terezín. The first transport left with 98 people from the Klatovy train station on November 26, 1942. The second left with 619 people on November 30, 1942.

Most of the Jewish prisoners in Terezín were deported to Auschwitz, where they died. According with the memorial in the Velhartice Jewish cemetery, we believed that Lili perished in the same way. However, having studied other documents, we found out, that Lili's name isn't included on the list of Jewish deportees from Klatovy to Terezín. Because the list we had was incomplete, starting with number 66, we thought that Lili was probably among the missing 65 names. Another surprise came, when we visited the Pinkas synagogue in Prague, and found out that Lili isn't listed here either, although all the other names from our memorial are. (It is also interesting, that neither Mr. V. Pollak, b. 5. 25, 1894, is included on the list of deportees.)

We called the Jewish Community in Prague, to ask if Lili's name in in their database, they didn't find her either. It is possible, that Lili never boarded the transport train at all. Because the lady who gave us information from the archive of the Prague Jewish Community, knows some other ways to help us find out something about Lili, we would like to try these after the summer vacation.