Jews in Czechoslovakia have been asked to pay joint tribute to the memory of victims of Nazi persecution at Terezin, one of the most notorious of the extermination and deportation camps, next Sunday. An appeal to Czechoslovakian Jews to this effect was published in the “Vestnik,” a monthly periodical issued by the Council of Jewish Communities in Bohemia and Moravia.
Quoting the magazine, the World Jewish Congress information department here said that after a long interval, the Council is joining with the Central Council of Jews in Slovakia in its effort to make Jews from all parts of the country take part in this day of remembrance. Services at the Terezin cemetery and at the memorial for Jewish victims deported from Terezin will be conducted by Chief Rabbi Gustav Sichel and Rabbi Dr. Richard Feder–himself a former Terezin inmate. Other rabbis and representatives of Jewish communities in Bohemia and Moravia, as well as the principal cantors of Prague, Brno, Pilzen and Usti are also scheduled to participate in the August 26 ceremonies.
The World Jewish Congress also said that it appeared from the announcement that official facilities to the extent of a 25 per cent reduction in train fares has been offered to the participants, and that three express trains will stop at the Terezin railroad station that day, to enable participants to avail themselves of special coach service to the cemetery. Coaches of the state railway system will run directly to Terezin at reduced rates from Prague, Karlovy Vary, Liberec and Pilzen.
During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia close to 140,000 Jews were deported to Terezin, of whom more than half were taken from their homes in Bohemia and Moravia. 43,000 Jews were deported to Terezin from Germany, over 15,000 from Austria, nearly 5,000 from Holland, 1,500 from Slovakia and about 500 from Denmark More than 33,000 Jews died in Terezin and of 87,000 others who were deported from Terezin to the East, only 3,000 are known to have survived.
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