THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
The Czech Republic has some 5,000 Jews out of a total population of 10.5 million. The great majority are concentrated in Prague, with smaller communities in Brno, Plzen, and Olomouc. The main communal organization is the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Czech Republic; other Jewish organizations include the Society for Jewish Culture, and the Union of Jewish Youth.
The community is largely secular, but religious activity, which until recent years was mostly centered on the holidays, is increasing. The Lauder Foundation sponsors a Talmud Torah and a Jewish kindergarten. However, the Czech Federation of Jewish Communities is aiming at broadening its communal activities and membership to include non-Orthodox organizations and become more pluralistic.
International Jewish organizations take an active part in the restoration of Jewish sites and property as well as in fostering educational activity at the Terezin concentration camp site.
There has been a significant revival of Jewish life, marked by the exploration of Jewish roots, and many Czechs are showing a greater interest in the Jewish legacy of their country. This upsurge of interest in Jewish culture, also stimulated by the presence of Jews from Western countries, is well reflected in the Czech media and in numerous cultural activities.
Since the establishment of the Rychtezky Commission, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Rychtezky in March 1999, there has been considerable movement on the issue of restoration of Jewish communal property seized during the war by the German authorities and later by the communist regime. In March 2000 the Czech government created the Holocaust Victims’ Foundation and allocated an initial 300 million kroner (about US $8 million) to the foundation to advance the restitution of Holocaust-era Jewish communal and private property. In May 2000 the Czech parliament enacted legislation to restore Jewish property plundered during the Holocaust to the original owners (or their legal heirs). This legislation was ratified by the Czech Senate in July and approved by the president. It covers properties seized during the period September 1938 to May 1945. The new legislation also paves the way for the transfer of 63 paintings from the National Gallery to the Jewish Museum in Prague. Plundered Jewish objects d’art have also been listed on an Internet site to facilitate their return.
POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS
While there has been no significant growth in the number of members and sympathizers of ultra-right organizations, they are still very much present in the Czech Republic. In fact, persistent economic difficulties and political instability could be a breeding ground for increased extremism.
The Assembly for the Republic–Czech Republican Party (AFR-RSC), led by Miroslav Sladek, continued to disseminate racist, xenophobic and anti-Western propaganda, despite the dramatic loss of support it suffered in the 1998 election (see ASW 1998/9, 1999/2000).
Since 1998 there have been significant developments among extra-parliamentary extremists in the Czech Republic. Skinheads, who constitute a major and dangerous element among extremists, especially in their opposition to Roma and foreigners, have intensified their efforts to win respectability (see ASW 1999/2000). The independent Movement for Civic Solidarity and Tolerance, which monitors neo-Nazi activities and has anarchist leanings, suggested that the skinheads wanted to fill the political vacuum left by the Republican Party, which was effectively removed from the political arena after the 1998 election. Jakub Polak, a founder of the Movement for Civic Solidarity and editor-in-chief of the anarchist magazine A-Kontra said that the “skinhead movement is so political and its methods so sophisticated that it avoids methods to link it directly with Nazism” (Prague Post, 25 April–1 May 2001).
Another development has been the heightened profile of the ultra-right-wing National Alliance. Alliance leader Vladimir Skoupy, a Holocaust denier, gained considerable publicity with his extremist speeches and statements. He was arrested in February and in June 2000, and found guilty of “support and propagation of a movement that aimed at suppressing citizens’ rights and freedoms and defaming a nation, race or conviction.” He was given a one-year prison sentence and a our-year suspended sentence, which he was expected to appeal.
The National Alliance, often called the National Social Alliance, is known for its ties with skinheads, and may provide some of the cover for the skinheads’ attempts to legitimize their activities. However, if Czech skinheads are indeed endeavoring to change their tactics and win “respectability,” their cooperation with the National Alliance reveals their true nature, since the latter, especially its leader Skoupy, engages in vitriolic racist and antisemitic propaganda. In 2000 the Czech Interior Ministry refused to register the National Social Alliance as a political party (see ASW 1999/2000).
ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITIES
A neo-Nazi rock concert held outside Prague in April 2001 and attended by some 400 fans caused a public uproar in the country. The concert was attended by neo-Nazis from Slovakia, Poland and Germany. Among the groups was the Slovak band Juden Mord (Death to the Jews), whose album jacket features the gates of the Auschwitz death camp (see JTA, 11 April 2001). The concert’s timing was linked to Hitler’s birthday which, according to The Prague Post, has become a rallying day for skinheads and neo-Nazi groups. Another smaller concert was also held in the same month. Both were described by the organizers as “private” events (see below).
Extremist publications with antisemitic content include Narodni Boj (National Struggle), Pochoden Denska (Torch of Today) and Dnesek (Today). Several dozen small skinhead publications with racist content appear on an irregular basis. The main skinhead magazine Vlajka publishes antisemitic material.
The National Alliance serves as a major channel of fascist propaganda. Prior to his arrest in 2000, Skoupy made speeches denying the Holocaust and used Nazi symbols at demonstrations.
ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA
Denial of the Holocaust in the Czech Republic is rare. In the past few years, Czech society has attempted to cope with some of the taboos on the years of the Nazi occupation, enforced during the period of the communist regime. This has included soul-searching on the nature of collaboration and the low level of effective resistance. Moreover, recent Czech scholarship has emphasized the suffering and fate of the Jewish community.
However, basic information about the Jews and their past is still lacking in Czech schools (see ASW 1999/2000). In 2000/1, there were signs of a growing awareness among historians and educators of the need to include the Holocaust and antisemitism in the school curriculum. Follow-up activities and practical results to the Stockholm Forum of January 2000 were expected to be felt in educational activities during 2001.
RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTISEMITISM
Since early 1999, the Czech authorities have been actively endeavoring to stamp out racism. Their attempts to enforce the law follow European Union warnings on the prospects of the Czech Republic joining the community should racist attacks persist. The major targets of racist attacks continued to be the Roma, whose fate, as in other East and Central European states, is a major topic in the public and political discourse.
Police investigations and legal procedures against perpetrators of racist attacks are often slow, as is the case in other East European states. The legal authorities are aware of the urgency of dealing with the growing number of racist attacks – the steps againVladimir Skoupy reveal some progress in this regard. The neo-Nazi rock concert in April 2001 may serve as a new test case for the authorities. Following strong public criticism that the police failed to act during this neo-Nazi event, Interior Minister Stanislav Gross said that the fight against far right activities will become a “top priority.” Vladimir Skoupy’s response was that “if Gross’ activities damage our organization we will file a lawsuit against him.” President Vaclav Havel hoped that the police role would be properly examined (JTA, 11 April 2001).
In fact the neo-Nazi concert scene is regarded by skinheads as a challenge to their ability to act in the face of public uproar. In the case of the larger “private” concert held in April 2001, the police maintained they had no legal right to interfere, a claim strongly rejected by Jewish community leaders, such as Tomas Jelinek, vice chairman of the Prague Jewish community, who said that “when you have a band called Juden Mord, what more do you need?”
Many critics felt that the Czech Republic was a convenient location for such activities because the authorities have done little to deter them. According to both Prague Post and JTA, leftist and anti-racist groups claimed that there was police complicity with the neo-Nazis because some officers sympathized with them.
One of the strongest reactions came from Chief Rabbi Karol Sidon, who warned of “neo-Nazi tendencies” among segments of society. The Czech Council of Bishops supported Sidon ‘s stand on 21 May 2001. Activists of the Roma community also joined the condemnation of neo-Nazi activities and of racist intolerance. Jewish-Roma cooperation on these issues tends to be ambivalent: on the hand, there is a natural affinity between opponents of racism and all forms of intolerance; on the other, some Roma activists reject cooperation with the Jewish community and the Czech establishment because previous Roma calls to combat racism did not meet with an adequate response.
The strong reaction from the Jewish community, from public figures and from the Czech media has generated so much public debate that the Czech Senate will probably hold a discussion on the overall issue of racism and intolerance in the course of 2001.
