Session details

Organizer(s)

Martin Pekar (Pavol Jozef Šafárik University) and Andrea Pokludova (University of Ostrava)

Keywords

Jewish communities, Urban elites, The Holocaust

Abstract

The remnants of Jewish culture (synagogues, cemeteries) can be traced all over the European urban space. The topic of the Holocaust is an inseparable part of modern history of the 20th century. Central and Eastern European cultural and urban history deal less with Jewish communities in the formation process of modern civil society after 1848 which has a causal connection with the Holocaust issue. Slow acquisition of civil rights and freedoms, mainly equal rights to education and enterprise, and freedom of movement, led to moving out of traditional Jewish quarters/villages/ghettos and at the same time to moving to town centres and newly created industrial areas. „New“ Jewish communities were emerging quite dynamically and faced everyday problems with integration, assimilation and multiculturalism during society-wide modernisation. Research and knowledge of the stated phenomena and processes in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century as well as the knowledge of majority-minority interaction in the urban environment is an inevitable precondition for detailed understanding of social background of the anti-Semitism and its consequences in form of anti-Semitic policy during the Holocaust.

The process of establishing communities and relations in the long 19th century:
- Social structure, territorial mobility, network of economic and social bonds (specifications and phenomena).
- Economic, social, political and cultural roles and functions in urban society at the turn of the 19th and 20th century.
- Integration limits/assimilation.
- „New“ Jewish communities and Zionism.
Confrontations (first half of the 20th century):
- Identity changes of the Jews living in urban communities after the year 1918 – reasons, forms, and consequences.
- Anti-Semitism and confrontation of Jewish communities in European towns in the period between wars.
- Jewish communities being subject and object of town policy.
- Social mobility of Jewish urban elite in confrontation with the changes in state regimes in the first half of the 20th century.

Case studies, research works, more complex analyses and comparative-oriented contributions are accepted.

Papers

The Social Status of the Interwar Municipal Elite of Jewish Origin During the Holocaust (on the Example of the Town of Prešov)

Author(s)

Zuzana Tokarova (Pavol Jozef Safarik University)

Keywords

The Holocaust, Municipal Elite, 1939-1945

Abstract

The main aim of the paper is the analysis of vertical social mobility of non-political municipal elites of Jewish origin in the time of the Holocaust. On the example of the town of Prešov, I follow up on the previous research of the social status of the political Jewish interwar elite during the Holocaust and its impact on the survival of the Holocaust. Although no causality between membership in the former political elite and a higher chance of surviving the Holocaust has been proven, in the case of non-political elites, the research may lead to different conclusions. Since nationally and confessionally heterogeneous interwar Prešov provided the Jewish population with relatively broad options for involvement in the life of the town, a relatively influential Jewish elites participating in the development of the town were formed. The change of regime and consolidation of the Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party’s hegemony from October 1938 meant a fundamental change in their life so far. They not only had to face discriminatory measures of anti-Jewish policy but also a struggle for survival. In this context, my attention is focused on changes in the social status of selected groups of former municipal elites of Jewish origin (economic, social, religious, cultural etc.) in order to find out whether and to what extent there was a vertical mobility within the social structure of the Jewish community and whether membership of the former elites possibly meant a better chance of survival of the Holocaust. The comprehensive analysis of a social sinking of representatives of interwar Jewish elites during the Holocaust can help to reveal the changes in the social structure of society and clarify the social background of the Holocaust.

Crossing the Borders of Jewish Ghettos in the Bohemian Lands

Author(s)

Daniel Baranek (Jewish Museum in Prague)

Keywords

The Holocaust, Jewish Ghettos, Bohemian Lands

Abstract

Since the mid-19th century, Jewish communities in the Bohemian lands has been fundamentally influenced by migration, which was made possible by the emancipation of Jews. Inter-urban migration, formation of new Jewish communities in attractive localities and population decline of “traditional” Jewish communities has been subject of research since the end of 19th century (e.g. Theodor Haas, Die Juden in Mähren, 1908; Jana Vobecká, Populační vývoj Židů v Čechách…, 2007). On the contrary, intra-urban migration in individual “traditional” communities, i.e. migration from the Jewish ghetto to the “Christian” part of the town, has not been researched deeply yet. Even in monographs about “traditional” Jewish communities (e.g. Jaroslav Bránský, Židé v Boskovicích, 1999), the intra-urban migration is mentioned only cursorily.

This aim of this paper is therefore to explore intra-urban Jewish migration in several towns in the Bohemian lands (Hranice/Mährisch-Weisskirchen, Kroměříž/Kremsier, Kolín), to reveal temporal and spatial dynamics of this intra-urban migration and to trace factors, which accelerated or hindered penetration of Jews from the ghetto into the “Christian” town. This research is based on combination of data from 1857–1921 censuses and from archival maps.

Furthermore, the paper focuses not only on crossing the physical but also mental borders of ghetto. It considers the intra-urban migration as a part of cultural exchange between Jewish and non-Jewish inhabitants and it deals also with the question of participation of Jews in communal politics and local associations and with the reaction of local anti-Semites. This research is based mainly on lists of city councillors, association members, charitable donors and newspaper news.