Location
Česko > Jihočeský kraj > okres Tábor > Tábor > Tábor
Location Details: Former old Jewish cemetery
Coordinates
49.408851, 14.654819
Type
Holocaust monument / memorial, Block, Upright stele or slab
Location
Cemetery (destroyed)
Textual Content
Dedication
Whom the Monument Commemorates
Jewish victims
Jewish victims from Tábor and the surrounding area
Iconographical Subject
Magen David, Book of life
Material
Fine-grained granite, concrete
Dimensions
Width: 140 cm
Height: 140 cm
Depth: 35 cm
Commissioned By
Synagogue congregation in Tábor
Dates
The granite monolithic architecture (the central part of the monument) with a rounded brick addition on its left side stands on a double bed of concrete blocks and bears an inscription dedicated to the memory of the victims in both Czech and Hebrew. In front of the mass of the monument is a sculpture of the Book of Life made of dark rock, lined by a gilded carved barbed wire motif. To the right, at the base of the monument, is a block also made of black rock with an inscription calling for peace, as was appropriate to the climate of the time.
(On the stele)
NA PAMÁTKU MUČEDNÍKŮM
Z LET 1939–1945
יד ושם לקדושינו
קרבנות ממשנת זדון ורשע של הנאצים
בשנות התרפ״ט – התש״ה
(On the sculpture)
JIMŽ
KNIHA ŽIVOTA
BYLA PŘEDČASNĚ
ZAVŘENA
(On the block at the bottom of the stele)
MÍR
VŠEM
The intention to build a monument to the victims of the Jews of Tábor can be traced back to 1950. Negotiations with the District National Committee were complicated, but finally the monument was unveiled on 23 October 1955. The initiator was the Tábor synagogue congregation, which was part of the Jewish religious community in Pilsen. As evidenced by contemporary photographs, many people attended the ceremony. In addition to the officials of the congregation (Josef Blann, Štěpánka Böhmová, Karel Goldstein), the chairman of the Jewish Religious Community in Pilsen, Alfred Ornstein, the chairman of the Council of Jewish Religious Communities, Emil Neumann, Chief Rabbi Gustav Sicher and Regional Rabbi Emil Davidovič arrived, and the prayers were sung by Chief Cantor Rudolf Fischer from Pilsen. The actual unveiling of the monument was performed by the religious secretary of the Regional National Committee, writer and archivist Robert Mixa (1909–1965) together with Rabbi Sicher.
The area of the cemetery, stripped of tombstones during the occupation, was then considered a park by the town and its political representation. It was only in April 2000 that the cemetery was transferred to the ownership of the Jewish Community of Prague by a decision of the city council to exchange it for the damaged part of the new Jewish cemetery at Písecký rozcestí (Prokop the Great Square).
Most of the victims, Jews from the Tábor region and adjacent districts, were deported by transports Bz and Cb on 12 November and 16 November 1942.
State district archive in Tábor, coll. District national committee Tábor, inv. No. 2219, box 1264.
Private archive of Hana Jančíková, photograph of the unveiling and a printed invitation – photocopies are kept in the archive of the Hada Tábor association.
Archive of the Jewish Museum in Prague, memorial book.
Archive of the Jewish Museum in Prague, coll. Richard Feder (1875–1970), photograph.
Hana Jančíková et al., Židé v Táboře: Zapomenutá historie židovské komunity, Tábor 2010, p. 28.
Tomáš Novák, Poválečné dějiny židovského obyvatelstva a jeho kultury na Táborsku (bachelor thesis), Faculty of Education, Masaryk University in Brno, Brno 2014, pp. 66–68.
Odhalení pomníku padlým a umučeným v Táboře, Věstník židovských náboženských obcí v Československu XVII, 1955, No. 12, 1 December, pp. 5–6.
Město smění židovské hřbitovy, Týdeník Táborsko, 2000, 26 April, p. 2.
Cultural Heritage Monument reg. No. ÚSKP 36478/3-4644 – Jewish cemetery
Karel Vošta
