Heřmanův Městec


Heřmanův Městec is a town in Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It is located at the northern foothills of the Iron Mountains at an altitude of 275 meters above sea level. It has a population of around 4,800 inhabitants.

Notable people

were living in Heřmanův Městec as early as the first half of the 15th century and it represents one of the oldest documented Jewish communities in the Chrudim District. A minyan was recorded as early as 1570. The Jewish community continued to grow and thrive over the years.
Eventually, Heřmanův Městec became the seat of the district rabbi. The Jewish population peaked in 1849 at 840 and began to decline as both Jews and non-Jews left rural areas to pursue employment in cities as part of the industrial revolution. During the occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II, most of the approximately 60 remaining Jews were deported to the Tereźin concentration camp in December 1942. Few survived the war and the Jewish community was effectively destroyed. In 2001, through the efforts of the local inhabitants, the Jewish cemetery was restored along with the Synagogue and rabbi's home which now serve as a cultural center.

The Beginnings of a Jewish Community in Heřmanův Městec

The town was the property of a series of aristocratic landowners who enjoyed a mostly positive relationship with the Jewish community. The Jewish community paid a fixed annual sum of money to the landowning gentry. During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, Jews living in the town were mainly engaged in trade and money-lending. The location of the town along the road connecting Prague with Moravia brought a great number of merchants into the area. A Jewish settlement grew up on single street which eventually had its own mayor, police, and other officials.
According to oral tradition, the Jewish cemetery in town dates back to the 1430. Usually, when Jews move into an area, one of their first community actions is to purchase land for a cemetery. There is documentation from 1667 that additional land was purchased for the purpose of enlarging the Jewish cemetery. There are records of additional extensions that took place in 1685, 1709, 1723 and 1838. The cemetery eventually reached almost 4,000 square meters. In 1643, the Jewish community united to form a Chevra Kadisha. The date of the construction of the first synagogue is unclear, but it was destroyed in a large town fire in 1623.In 1661 the Count Jan Karel Špork became the owner of the estate which included the town. Under his administration, the local Jewish community flourished. The Count encouraged Jews to move into houses that were abandoned during the Thirty Years' War along a single street leading to the Jewish cemetery. He allowed the Jews to rebuild their synagogue, which was destroyed in the 1623 fire.
In 1680 the town was visited by a plague that claimed many lives, leaving a large number of dilapidated houses behind. In 1686, Count Ferdinand Leopold Špork called upon the Jews from the region to inhabit the abandoned houses. At the turn of the 17th century the town became the seat of the regional rabbi.

Repression and Emancipation 1726–1939

The ruling Habsburgs introduced restrictions on Jewish movement, residence, marriage, and other matters of everyday life. In 1727 the vice regent's office in Prague confirmed a regulation concerning the distance between Jewish dwellings and Christian churches that led to the synagogue of Heřmanův Městec being torn down because it was too close to the town's Catholic church. Eventually, Jewish self-government was abolished, and the Jewish settlement was surrounded by an enclosure with three gates. All Jews were required to live in this part of town, effectively establishing a Jewish ghetto in Heřmanův Městec.
Until construction of a new synagogue in the Baroque style in 1760, the Jewish community used a private home as a house of prayer. Count Jan Václav Špork, who then owned the town's land, is said to have financially supported construction and laid the foundation stone for the new synagogue, which is in the same location as the current synagogue.
For over a century the Jews of Bohemia including the Jews living in Heřmanův Městec had to endure a number of restrictions with regard to employment, where they could live, what they could study, and limitations on marriage. For a period only the first-born sons were allowed to marry. Despite the restrictions of the ruling Habsburgs, the relationship with the local gentry was generally positive.
In 1848 serfdom was abolished, and the Jews living in Heřmanův Městec were emancipated and allowed freedom of movement. As a result, many Jews left the town for employment opportunities in industrialized cities such as Prague or emigrated abroad.In 1870 construction of new synagogue, with the backing of the aristocratic landowner, on the same site as the 1760 building was started. This building was in the Neo-Romanesque style by the architect Frantisek Schmoranz. The architect had some lofty plans which had to be abandoned because the Catholic clergy feared that the synagogue might outshine the nearby St. Bartholomew's church. The original design had a tower with a stairway leading to the women's gallery. After design changes, the synagogue provided access to the women's gallery via a covered passageway from the school building next door. A stone-hewn image of the Ten Commandants adorned the top of the building. Due to the reduction in size, the building was not really sufficient to support the large crowds which attended worship services especially on holidays. As the Jewish population declined toward the latter part of the 19th century, the building became sufficient.
With the relaxation of restrictions on Jews, by the late 1800s the town and its Jewish inhabitants had a thriving role in the production of shoes. There were several Jewish-owned handmade and machine-made shoe production companies. The Falk family owned a handmade shoe factory; and the Löwit family production company had a shoe factory in town that employed 300 workers. Most of these companies had international exports. As Jews were now permitted to study without restriction, many of them also pursued opportunities as attorneys, physicians, and other professions. In 1891, Heřmanův Městec became the seat of a district rabbi, with the dependent communities being Chrudim, Hroubovice, and Drevikov. This was a logical decision given that the Heřmanův Městec Jewish community had a long established protected status, a positive relationship with the landowning gentry of the town, and had a rabbi in residence. While the town itself had less than a 100 Jewish inhabitants, it served a broader Jewish community of 500 Jews in the region including Chrast, Chrudim, Hroubovice, Přestavlky, Slatiňany, Hlinsko, Svratká, Trhova Kamenice, Nasvrky, and Seč.

German Occupation 1939–1945

On March 16, 1939, Nazi Germany established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The Heřmanův Městec Jewish community was now under the rule of Nazi Germany and the Nuremberg Laws restricting Jewish rights were the law of the land. In 1940, Jews living in the Protectorate were deprived of the ability to do business, they were dismissed from government service, Jewish children were denied the right to attend school, and worship and assembly were forbidden. In Heřmanův Městec the Ten Commandants on the synagogue were removed, and the building was used by the German army for storage. Local residents planted vegetation around the Jewish cemetery in an attempt to hide it from the view of the German occupiers.
On December 3, 1942, most of the Jews of Heřmanův Městec were ordered to assemble at a meeting point in the nearby town of Pardubice and transported to the Tereźin concentration camp two days later. Many of those were eventually transported to Auschwitz.
During the occupation by Nazi Germany, Jewish ritual objects, including over a dozen Torah scrolls, were transported to the Jewish Museum in Prague. These eventually became part of the Memorial Scrolls Trust collection housed at the Westminster Synagogue in London. It is likely that so many Torah scrolls were attributed to Heřmanův Městec because it was the seat of the district rabbi. As the Jewish community in the area shrank during the late 1800s and early 1900s and other synagogues closed their doors, their Torah scrolls probably were sent to the synagogue in Heřmanův Městec. Thus, by 1940, Heřmanův Městec had a large inventory of Torah scrolls.

Postwar and Restoration

In 1945 at the end of World War II, only two members of the Jewish community returned to Heřmanův Městec. The once thriving Jewish community in the town was now effectively gone. After World War II the synagogue was used mainly as a warehouse. The synagogue, rabbi's house, and cemetery received little maintenance or care and deteriorated. At one point, the Bohemian Brethren Evangelic Church purchased the synagogue and adjacent rabbi's house which were used as a storeroom and a prayer house, respectively. Many of the former homes of the Jewish community were razed between 1980 and 1982 as part of a redevelopment effort.
In 1986 the Town of Heřmanův Městec purchased the synagogue. The Jewish Culture Preservation Society was established in Heřmanův Městec at the suggestion of Ladislav Mareš, a son of Hermína Marešová, a Jewish woman who had married a non-Jew prior to World War II. Ladislav Mareš was not deported during the Nazi occupation because he was not registered as part of the Jewish community. Hermína Marešová was liberated from Bergen-Belsen and returned to Heřmanův Městec after the war.
The Jewish Culture Preservation Society raised funds and coordinated efforts to restore important Jewish sites in Heřmanův Městec. In the early 1990s much of the cemetery was restored. Wild vegetation was cleared, gravestones were reset and inventoried, the surrounding walls were repaired, and the Chevra Kadisha building and caretaker's home were restored. In 1991, the synagogue and the Jewish cemetery of Heřmanův Městec were declared national cultural monuments. Using plans from 1870, the synagogue building and adjacent rabbi's house were restored in 2001. The synagogue was furnished with replicas of the original benches, and the painting and stained glass windows were restored. The only major architectural change is the size of the bimah. It was enlarged to better serve as a stage in support of its new role as a concert hall. The rabbi's house is now the home of the Cyrany art gallery.

The Jewish Cemetery

The Jewish cemetery, which dates from the 15th Century, is among the oldest and best preserved Jewish cemeteries in the Czech Republic. It is almost 4,000 square meters, and contains over 1,000 tombstones. It is owned by the Jewish community of Prague and maintained by a local caretaker. The oldest preserved and legible gravestone is from 1647. The tombstones, especially the older ones, are mostly made from sandstone; the newer stones are made from marble. Inscriptions are in Czech, German, Hebrew, and various combinations.
A restored mortuary building, which dates from 1838, is situated in the middle of the cemetery. This building was used by the Chevra Kadisha to prepare the deceased for burial. Today the mortuary building contains a restored hearse that came from the Jewish cemetery in Hořice.

Jewish Population in Heřmanův Městec

1570 – 10 Jewish families
1724 – 277 63 families
1826 – 492
1849 – 840
1859 – 721
1880 – 434 ;
1893 – 300 plus another 785 in the surrounding villages
1900 – 240
1903 – 300
1921 – 87
1939 – 60

The Rabbis of Heřmanův Městec

The following people served as the Rabbi of Heřmanův Městec:
Judah Löb Borges, a member of the community distinguished for his Talmudic and literary attainments, officiated temporarily when there was a vacancy in the rabbinate.

Jews Deported by the Germans

The list below depicts Jewish citizens of Heřmanův Městec that were deported by the Germans in 1942. The list is mainly based upon material compiled by Ladislav Mareš and was cross-checked against other sources.
These are the people who boarded the train from Pardubice to Terezín on December 5, 1942.
NameDispositionAge at Death
Marta AgularovaAuschwitz 194417
Irma AgularovaAuschwitz 194415
Marketa AgularovaAuschwitz 194413
Julie AgularovaAuschwitz 194411
Kamila Agularova-VohryzkovaAuschwitz 194358
Oldrich AlgularAuschwitz 19447
Stepan BarbierAuschwitz 194471
Elsa BarbierovaAuschwitz 194452
Kamila BrikovaLiberated in 1942 at age 73
Leo BrosanAuschwitz 194346
Elisabeta EisnerovaTerezín 194381
Terezie EnglanderovaTerezín 194480
Ota FlorAuschwitz 194342
Marketa FlorovaAuschwitz 194339
Vera FlorovaAuschwitz 19439
Marie Florova-VohryzkovaAuschwitz 194365
Rabbi Isak FolkmannTerezín 194385
Arnostka FolkmannovaTerezín 194467
Marie FuchsovaAuschwitz 194483
Artur FuchsAuschwitz 194445
Karel FuchsAuschwitz 194416
Helena FuchsovaAuschwitz 194411
Zdenka FuchsovaAuschwitz 194451
Emil GoldmannAuschwitz 194364
Bedriska GoldmannovaAuschwitz 194353
Jan GoldmannAuschwitz 194323
Kamila GoldmannovaAuschwitz 194479
Oskar GoldmannAuschwitz 194356
Karel GoldmannAuschwitz 194354
Marta GoldmannovaAuschwitz 194353
Pavel GoldmannAuschwitz 194314
Hedvika KohnovaAuschwitz 194343
Hermina MaresovaTo Auschwitz, Neuengamme/Tiefstack, Neuengamme/Neugraben, liberated from Bergen-Belsen at age 53
Anna PasserovaTerezín 194368
Anna PipalovaAuschwitz 194429
Jiitka PipalovaAuschwitz 19445
Hermina PokornaTerezín 194282
Julius PollakAuschwitz 194349
Karolina PollakovaAuschwitz 194349
Karel PollakAuschwitz 194319
Zdenek PollakAuschwitz 194315
Regina PollakovaAuschwitz 194475
Artur RichterAuschwitz 194363
Klara RichterovaAuschwitz 194359
Josef RichterAuschwitz 194330
Jana ScharpnerovaAuschwitz 194475
Kamila SchickovaAuschwitz 194447
Rudolf SpitzTerezín 194369
Zofie TraubovaAuschwitz 194469
Vitezslav WachsmannAuschwitz 194449
Berta WachsmannovaAuschwitz 194444

These are the people who boarded the train from Pardubice to Tereźin on December 9, 1942.
NameDispositionAge at Death
Evzen BassAuschwitz 194467
Julie BassovaTerezín 194358
Frantisek OesterreicherAuschwitz 194431

Other trains to Tereźin and incomplete data
NameDispositionAge at Death
Josef AgularMauthausen 194236
Rudolf KacerTerezín 194565
Rudolfina Klausovaliberated from Terezín at age 49
Arnost LowitMauthausen 194245
Vilem PokornyAuschwitz 194258
Karel SchultzAuschwitz 194453
Olga Ucnovaliberated from Terezín at age 51
Pavel WeissbarthAuschwitz 194343