Our Kladno Scroll Czech Memorial Weekend Michael Heppner 6 June 2008

The Scrolls, the Church, the Mystery

Michael Heppner is a member of NPLS and the original investigator (with Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein) of the history of our Czech and Slovak scrolls. He is now the research director of the Czech Memorial Scrolls Trust

 
Why has Northwood got three Czech Scrolls?  Two of them – from Trebon and from Kolin - came because we needed them for our services when we were a young congregation.  The Scroll from Kladno came because we offered to care for a seriously damaged Scroll – or half a Scroll – from the last part of Numbers to the end of Deuteronomy - the one in the glass case.

We have done quite a lot to fulfil our responsibility to our memorial Scrolls over the past 30 years – yes it is 30 years since Andrew's landmark sermon on Yom Kippur 1978.  We have held a Scroll Shabbat every year and we have set an example to congregations across the world.  We have collected information. We have held seminars and workshops.  We have visited the Kolin and Trebon places and tried to make an impact.     Congregations in this country, in many parts of the USA and beyond have copied us and shown us what more can be done to build the lost congregation of their Scroll into the life of their living congregation.

In some ways, having three Memorial Scrolls has proved to be too much for us.  The Kladno Scroll that we offered to care for has been neglected.  We just haven't had enough people who have volunteered to become involved in the work of finding out, making contact with the town and fulfilling our obligation to honour and cherish the Jews of Kladno and their heritage.  Andrew and I have been there more than twenty years ago. But otherwise have we justified our stewardship of the Kladno Scroll?

And yet, recent events have shown that Kladno was potentially the most responsive of all the three communities with whom chance has linked us.  The reason is that the Kladno Synagogue is not only standing, but it has been a place of worship from the time it was built in 1884 to this day.  It has a congregation. It has services and it has people who care about its Jewish past.  For all our efforts in Kolin and Trebon, it is in Kladno that there is the most positive attitude towards the Jews of our Scroll and their heritage.

Those of you who have had anything to do with the Czech Memorial Scrolls will know that they attract co-incidences.

It was after the Scroll Shabbat in June 2006 that I felt that we had to be more involved with our Kladno Scroll that was receiving virtually no attention – especially compared with our Kolin and Trebon Scrolls.

How was I to know that in October of that year an enquiry would come to the Memorial Scrolls Trust from an American congregation that wanted to know something about the history of their Scroll 458 which had come from Kladno?  I was able to get her off to a flying start by sending her my notes from January 1981, and the talk I gave here on 10 June 1988 – 20 years ago in four days time.  She was not starting from scratch.  She knew that the synagogue was a church.  She now knew about Rudolf Salus, the survivor whom I had met and who had told me about the hidden Scrolls of Kladno.  She knew that Jews had lived there since 1685

That was enough to get Ellin going.  And the thing that she latched on to was that there were people at the Hussite church that had taken over the synagogue building – and she could contact them – and she did.

That was how she was put into contact with Eva Bodlakova and elder at the Hussite church who offered to help find out about the Jews of Kladno.  Meanwhile Eva had also been called by a contact of our Ruth Weyl who, as part of the NPLS Czech Connection had wanted to get a contact for us with the Kladno church.

Eva's friend Irena Veverkova from the regional archives offered to help and her colleague Kveta had already wanted to research the history of the Kladno synagogue and was hoping eventually to produce an exhibition!   Here was the team.

Ellin also enlisted the help of Beit Terezin in Israel to get a list of the Jews deported from Kladno.

Eva was a real find.  She had been to Israel twice and had been to Yad Vashem and together with her friend Jarmila Chrytilova - the assistant pastor at the Kladno Church - she had been to the Jewish Museum in Prague to see the "Second Life of the Czech Torah Scrolls" exhibition which tells the story of the saving of the Czech Scrolls and how they came to Westminster and were distributed across the world.

Ellin told Eva of my contact with Rudolf Salus, and she set out to find him and to find out about the mystery of the hidden Scrolls. 

Meanwhile Congregation Beth El had arranged to hold a Kladno Shabbat for 24 February – the Jews of Kladno had been deported on 22 and 26 February 1942.  In the church in Kladno they also said special prayers for the Jews of the town and they read out some of the names of the lost Jews of Kladno.

Rudolf Salus had died in 1986 – and some of his documents were donated to the town museum by his wife.  They did however trace Josef Salus, a cousin, and Eva conducted an interview with him. Josef was one of the group of 1000 young men from Auschwitz who were sent as slave labour to the artificial petrol plant at Schwarzheide.  Many died, partly as a result of allied bombing, but about 200 survived, and that is better than f they had stayed at Auschwitz .

In December 2007 a party from Fairfield went to Kladno on their way to Israel . Their schedule meant that they had to be in Kladno on Christmas Day, which seemed an unfortunate choice since the museum and other places of interest would be closed, the church would want to focus on the importance of Christmas and families would want to be left alone.

A few of days before the Americans flew to Europe Eva reported that they had found a survivor – Petr Hermann – who was deported from Kladno as a 16 year old boy, and who, after living for 30 years in Venezuela, had come back to live in Prague.  The day before they left, Ellin emailed him and asked if they could meet.

Christmas 2007 at the Hussite Church was different.  After the Christmas service, there was a special ceremony in the synagogue cum church.  Instead of staying at home with their families many people came to be there.  The church which normally attracts 30 to 40 people was full.

The Mayor – Dan Jiranek - was there
The town historian
The Director of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem – Karel Sedlacek
The Pastor and his wife
and Petr Hermann

The pastor's wife began the ceremony by making a public apology to all the Jews for the Czech complicity in not doing enough to save the Jews.  One has to wonder if there was much that they could have done.

After the prayers and presentations, the choir sang Jewish and Israeli songs and Mr Sedlacek sounded the shofar

And there is the small matter of the hidden Scrolls.  Jarmila Chytilova told Eva about Vera Laznovska, who used to work in a shop on the high street.  She remembers a lot about the Jews who lived in Kladno.  She gave the names of the Jews who had shops on the high street.  She remembered many of the Jews who used to come into her shop.  As the time of deportation grew near, she remembers the people coming to her shop and asking advice on what to take to Terezin.

Then Vera said to Jarmila "Can you remember?  It was when the painters found the books, built in somewhere here.  It was when your father was pastor here."  She was referring to the Hidden Scrolls.  Pastor Benes did not want the Communists to find out about the Scrolls.  But Rudolf Salus was told.  And Salus to me – and didn't know whether to believe him.  So at last we know that it was true.  But what happened next to the Scrolls.  That is something that we have to find out. 

On Sunday 8 June 2008 in Fairfield Scroll 458 from Kladno will be re-dedicated.  And who will be there?

Mayor Jiranek, Irena Veverkova (the town archivist) and Eva Bodlakova - Kladno's Ellin Yassky

And what are we going to do?  Our neglected Scroll from Kladno deserves our attention.  It has a story to tell, and it can put us in touch with a group of Kladno people who want to share our link with the Jews of Kladno.  Fairfield has shown how to connect with the Jews of Kladno and the Czech congregation that shares our interest in the Jews of our Scroll, their fate and their heritage.

We need to build on the partnership with the Americans.  We need to go there and review the information that the local people had dug up and get to know the people who have provided so much background information.  They should receive our recognition and encouragement.  The Mayor, the museum, the archives, the church.

Kladno is a town without Jews, but with many people who are interested in its Jewish past and heritage and who want to get to know us.  We must not disappoint them.  We should encourage them.  This way we, and other Kladno Scroll congregations, can bring a Jewish presence back to Kladno.

We offered to care for a seriously damaged Scroll 1496 – with the last part of Numbers and the Book of Deuteronomy.  Congregation Beth El has given us the chance to do the job properly ?   We need volunteers from NPLS to work alongside Ellin Yassky's research team in Fairfield on this intriguing project.