Jewish tombstones used to pave Prague landmark

The cobblestones had Hebrew lettering and Stars of David on their undersides.

By Aaron Sull, World Israel News

It has been long suspected that Prague’s Jewish cemeteries were looted by the communists to provide stones needed for restoration projects.

The rumor turned into fact on Tuesday after the renovation at Prague’s historic Wenceslas Square unearthed cobblestones made up of Jewish gravestones.

Soon after this disturbing discovery, Prague’s city council gave the Jewish community permission to inspect the site.

Upon inspection, the stone cut squares were found to have Hebrew lettering and Stars of David on their undersides, a clear indication that they were taken from Jewish cemeteries.

“We feel this is a victory for us because until now this was just a rumor. Maybe there were Jewish stones here, but nobody knew,” said Rabbi Chaim Kočí, a senior Prague rabbi.

“We are making something right for the historical record. These are stones from the graves of people who were dead for maybe 100 years and now they are lying here. It’s not nice,” he said.

The plan is to have the headstones collected and built into a living monument at Prague’s old Jewish cemetery in the city’s Žižkov district, a cemetery that was largely destroyed by the communists who built on top of it a public park and a TV transmission tower.

A project called “Finding the Lost Face of Jewish Cemeteries” was launched in 2019 to help identify and remove street cobblestones made of Jewish tombstones used in Prague’s high street Na Příkopě and at Wenceslas Square. The initiative was inspired after Leo Pavlat, the director of Prague’s Jewish museum, stumbled upon two loose cobblestones made up of Jewish gravestone fragments at Na Příkopě earlier that year.

Today Prague’s Jewish population numbers roughly 4,000 people. During the communist era, roughly 8,000 Jewish residents lived in Prague, down from 50,000 in 1946 and a far cry from the 350,000 believed to live there prior to the Holocaust.