The Czech town of Kolin, in central Bohemia, will salute its 600-year-old Jewish community, which was almost obliterated when the Nazis rounded up virtually every Jew for deportation to death camps on June 13, 1942.
The town council has decided to mark the 50th anniversary of the mass deportation. It occurred three days after the Nazis razed the village of Lidice, killing its entire male population in reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi governor of Bohemia and Moravia who helped plan the Final Solution.
A memorial plaque will be unveiled and schoolchildren will be asked to write essays about the contributions of Jews to the development of their town and the suffering they endured.
In addition, Kolin’s ancient synagogue will be restored and turned into a Jewish museum. Jews have lived in Kolin since 1376.
The commemoration was arranged by Mayor Jiri Burs and Hanah Greenfield, a survivor of the deportation who now lives in Israel.
Invitations to attend the memorial next June have gone out to members of Jewish congregations in the United States, Britain, Australia and Israel, which have Torah scrolls originally from the Kolin synagogue.
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