The Socio-Political Context

The main historical circumstances facing Czech and Slovak Jews after the Second World War were the memory of Shoah, the state socialist/communist transformation initiated by the communist coup in February 1948, and the creation of the state of Israel in May 1948. After the Second World War, Czech and Slovak politicians sought to build a nation-state of Czechs and Slovaks, which would be binational but otherwise ethnically monolithic. To this end, most of the ethnic Germans and Magyars were deported, and the remnants of Jewry were allowed to emigrate. ¹ Half of all Czechoslovak Holocaust survivors, 22,000–24,000, emigrated to Palestine/Israel in 1945–50, and an additional 3,000-5,000 emigrated elsewhere. ² This left behind only 15,000-18,000 Czech and Slovak Jews, less than one-tenth of the prewar figure. ³ Only nine of 153 prewar Czech Jewish communities were reestablished, and most were very small. The largest was in Prague, with approximately 2,500–3,000 members, many of whom internal migrants from other parts of Czechoslovakia. ⁴