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A photographic project by Štěpán Bartoš about the Jewish places of worship in Bohemia that disappeared during the Protectorate period, the post-war period 1945-1948 and the long period of communist totalitarianism until 1989.
During certain periods of the last century, two criminal regimes, which caused immeasurable personal and material damage, ruled over the territory where the Czech Republic is now a state entity. Since 1938 it was German National Socialism and in the post-war period Communism imported from the Soviet Union. Both totalitarian systems had several things in common. One of them was anti-Semitism – whether loudly vulgarly declared in Germany or partially disguised as a fight against Zionism in Stalinist Czechoslovakia.
The tragedies it caused for millions of people are now common knowledge. Besides the wasted lives, this period also brought great damage to Jewish material culture.
Since the Middle Ages, synagogues have been at the centre of the religious, educational and social life of Jewish communities. The 19th century in particular brought considerable emancipation, which manifested itself outwardly in remarkable architectural achievements, often inspired by the diverse architectural styles of the past.
The synagogue thus became an unmissable part of the urban design of many Czech towns and villages. Sometimes as a stately temple at a prestigious address, elsewhere and more often as a more modest building in the Jewish quarter of the village.
Already the first half of the 20th century, however, brought a certain decline. Some Jewish communities disappeared, religious life was concentrated in larger congregations, and many synagogues no longer served religious purposes or were used only sporadically. A decisive turning point was the Nazi pogrom in November 1938, known as “Kristallnacht”, which in an instant caused irreparable damage to the buildings and especially to the interior furnishings, which were desecrated and destroyed in what was then already the seceded territory of Czechoslovakia.
The whole subsequent period – the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the post-war period 1945-1948 and the long period of communist totalitarianism until 1989 completed the work of destruction. The synagogues without their mostly murdered visitors fell into disrepair, were rebuilt and devalued. The regime, with no regard for history and no sense of beauty, redeveloped entire neighbourhoods for the construction of soulless housing estates, oversized car parks or ostentatious communist palaces.
In the photos we see the places where synagogues used to stand. Most of them disappeared between 1938 and 1989. Sometimes it is obvious that “something is missing” from the picture – only the synagogue has disappeared and other buildings in a similar architectural style have remained. This is especially true of the aftermath of Kristallnacht in the Sudetenland. Most of the time, however, it is difficult to imagine the original urban situation of a place through which the so-called construction of socialism swept. It was sometimes quite difficult for the author to find the right place to create the picture…
MAGnEUROPA
Accompanying the exhibition in the photo-gallery Galerie nEUROPA, the MAGnEUROPA was published.
The small exhibition catalogue is available for purchase.
Events
In addition to a website showing all the photographed sites, several photo exhibitions with a selection of the sites will be presented in the Czech Republic and Germany. The surface of the photographs will be mechanically or thermally processed to suggest the outlines of the synagogues that once stood there.
- Unsichtbare Synagogen – Exhibition venues sought
Unsichtbare Synagogen is a photographic project by Štěpán Bartoš about the Jewish places of worship in Bohemia that disappeared during the Protectorate period, the post-war period 1945-1948 and the long period of communist totalitarianism until 1989. In order to give the project even more visibility in Germany, other exhibition venues in Germany are currently being… Read more: Unsichtbare Synagogen – Exhibition venues sought
Unsichtbare Synagogen – Neviditelné synagogy
A photographic project by Štěpán Bartoš about the Jewish places of worship in Bohemia that disappeared during the Protectorate period, the post-war period 1945-1948 and the long period of communist totalitarianism until 1989.
Period
07.2021 – 12.2021
Leading partner
Art Space NOV, Pardubice, Czech Republic
Project members
Art Space NOV
Štěpán Bartoš (Photographer, author and project coordinator)
Mgr. Renáta Růžičková, SOA Pardubice (Historian, Researcher)
Anna Vavrečková (Webmaster)
Ing. Jan Sláma (Consultant)
Kultur Aktiv
Simon Wolf (Exhibition curator)
Supported and funded by
