Langos via leipzig: Once a ghetto

Virtually no Jews live now in Trebic in Czechia.

While their population peaked late in the eighteenth century, as a group the remaining Trebic Jews were virtually wiped out in the Holocaust. Only 10 survived, with all the heart and stuffing knocked out of them.

Before that, Jews wandered up and down to their cramped little ghetto on the side of the hill in Trebic via steep stone stairwells and narrow switchback alleys with cobbles underfoot.

Their old Jewish Quarter in Trebic, called Zamosti, is now another of the inscribed UNESCO World Heritage sites we visited and it is the only Jewish site, outside of Jerusalem, to be so listed. Their cemetery is included with it.

Their lives, even then, were prescribed, restricted. They were allowed to produce spirits and gloves, work in the tannery industry (Thomas Bata actually owned and ran a shoe making business in the town before the war), and trade in second-hand goods.

They had their own cemetery. Restricted even in death. Traditionally, this was because Jewish cemeteries had to be located out of sight of others; and often, could be found only in places that no one else would use, for example, near the scaffold.

The Jewish cemetery in Trebic has nearly 11,000 people buried there and over 3,000 gravestones some dating from the 17th century. It is a green and peaceful place high on a hill on a site that developers, these days, would kill to access.

Today the entire ghetto is being restored given its UNESCO listing. It brings tourists, so money is spent. Tiny little terraced buildings huddled together down the hill are being turned into cafes, bars and shops. In parts, it is bordering on charming – in a way it likely never was in reality.

It is home, at the moment, to many of the town’s local Romany population – but one would guess, that their time, too, may well be limited in Zamosti.