In June 1942 the Germans began the
deportation of Jews from the Czech town of Kolin. Before this time the
town had had a thriving Jewish population., After it none remained.
The Germans collected up remaining Jewish relics from Kolin and other
decimated Czech communities and stored them in Prague. Their intention
was to create a museum of a dead people. In many cases Jewish artefacts
were well preserved. After the war the Communists seized power and,
although a few surviving Jews returned to Kolin, the community could not
recover. Today no Jews remain.
Under the Communists, Jews and
other peoples continued to suffer cruel oppression. Circumstances were
such that many Czechs Jews were driven to conceal their origins from
their own families. I myself have spoken to young Czechs whose parents
have only revealed their Jewishness subsequent to the fall of
Communism.
In the 1960's large sums of money
were paid to the Czech authorities to obtain the release of Jewish
artefacts from those remaining from the Nazis' collection. The
Westminster Synagogue played a leading role in the rescuing and
preservation of Czech Torah scrolls, and our Kolin scroll came via
them.
In a family service on 14th June
2003, South London Liberal Synagogue honoured the memory of the Jews of
Kolin. Their scroll was unrolled several feet across the Bimah and held
upright for the Torah reading. The congregation said the Torah
blessings in unison. A history of the community and other special
readings were also given. At the end of the service we said Kaddish.
In addition, we are fortunate to
own the Rabbi's chair from the former main synagogue in Kolin. We
obtained this in the mid 1980's and our late member Brian Edwards spent
a year lovingly restoring it.
Neither the Nazis nor the
Communists succeeded in destroying the Jewish people. South London
Liberal Synagogue and all the other Jewish communities around the World
are living proof of this -
Philip (webmaster)
The Rabbi's chair from Kolin
(For a detailed recounting
of the history of our scroll please read the Czech Scroll article by
Michael Hepner (of North London Progressive Synagogue) on the following
link:
http://www.ccj-hillingdon.org.uk/news.htm)
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