Jewish culture

I visited the Museum of Jewish Culture this morning and some nearby sites of related interest. The Museum, operated by the Slovak National Museum, opened in 1994 and charges 200 SKK admission (about $8.00). It is located at Židovska in a 17th century mansion built by Count Pálffy Zsigray.

The Museum faces the expressway built by the Communists. The old Jewish community was levelled to build it.

The most moving part of the exhibit was the historic timeline and photographs showing the history of the Jews in Slovakia, almost as old as the Slav's presence. These photos show the Jewish community the Communists destroyed. The Museum building, one of the few left standing, is visible in the center right.

Another part of the exhibit shows the Nazis rounding up the Jews and sending them to their deaths at the concentration camps north of here in Poland. At least 60,000 Slovak Jews died in the Holocaust.

The Museum also houses an extensive collection of historic artifacts, from menorahs and prayer cloths to this antique furniture.

The Jewish community was forced to locate outside the protection of the medieval walled city. Remnants of those walls can be seen on the other side of the expressway.

A few blocks to the south, adjacent to St. Michael’s Cathedral, is a monument to the Holocaust, with “never forget” in Slovak and Hebrew at the base.

In this week’s Slovak Spectator, the English-language newspaper I read regularly, a front-page story reported the arrest of 11 Slovak neo-Nazis at a rally in Serbia in honor of the birthday of the notorious Nazi Heinrich Himmler. The editorial warned that neo-Nazis are not just a “bunch of dim individuals,” but a too-pervasive remnant of a dark chapter in history that should concern everyone. Although I have seen plenty of graffiti in this city, I am at least relieved that I have not seen any swastikas.

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