Category: Uncategorized

For a sandwich at Hahn's 

At the Hahns' Bread Thursday 4 April at 6 pm At the turn of the century, Gustav and Hermína Hahn opened a delicatessen on Kobližné Street. The business did very well, and their son and his wife later found employment there. The family moved from Kobližná Street to Grohova Street to a newly built modern house. It is one of the houses whose stories are told in the current exhibition OUR HOUSES in Malý Mehrin. Mr. Jiří Hála, the grandson of the Hahns, left us a memory of his family home when he visited the exhibition. He and his parents were deported to Terezín when he was less than five years old. That is why he says that he belongs to the one and a half generation of memorials. Holocaust survivors are referred to as the first generation, their children as the second. Mr. Jiří Hála has accepted our invitation to join us for a debate with historian Táňa Klementová in April, and you can be there. Admission is voluntary.

Genealogical research - the journey there and back again

Genealogical research - a journey there and back again Monday, March 25 at 6 p.m. For many of us it is certainly exciting to know the answer to the question Who were my ancestors? Not only the unknown and nameless, but especially those closest to us who lived in specific places and with whom we share DNA and many character traits... As Wikipedia says: Genealogy (Greek: génos, Latin: genus = genus) is an auxiliary historical science that studies the relationships between human individuals resulting from their common ancestry. Julius Müller, director of the Toledot Society, a centre for Jewish genealogy in Prague, which was founded in 2001, often and gladly enters into these secrets. Toledot is Hebrew for generation. Admission is voluntary.

TGM and Jews, Jews and TGM

TGM and the Jews, the Jews and TGM MENDEL MUSEUM REFECTATOR Mendlovo nám. 1aTuesday 12 March at 3 pm G. Masaryk is still perceived today, especially as a result of the Hilsner affair, as a politician with a positive attitude towards the Jewish minority. However, Masaryk's attitude towards Jews was not as clear-cut as is often stated. The lecture will focus on the changes in Masaryk's views on Judaism and the events that influenced his attitudes. It will also present the relationship of important Jewish personalities to the founding of Czechoslovakia and its first president. The lecture by historian Táňa Klementová will take place as part of Masaryk Days organised by Masaryk University. For more information on the programme, please visit www.masarykovydny.cz. 

Family heritage

Family heritage Monday 11 March at 6 pm Two inspiring women have accepted an invitation to talk about how they deal with the complexity of family heritage in their lives. The first of them, Eva Lustigová, daughter of the writer Arnošt Lustig and Věra Weislitzová, author of the film Your tear, my rain, is coming to Brno to present the book Arnošt's Journey as part of Masaryk Days. We will talk not only about it, but also about other projects through which Eva is developing her father's legacy. We will also recall her mother's poetic work. The second panelist will be Karen Kruger, granddaughter of the Türkle family from Brno, who successfully screened her documentary film Letters from Brno last year. Based on dozens of letters that came to Karen as part of her inheritance, the film traces her journey to understand her family's past and to find her own roots. Moderated by Táňa Klementová. The debate will be in English, simultaneous translation will be provided on site. Admission is voluntary.

Shoah in Czech radio play

Shoah in a Czech radio play Tuesday, February 27 at 6 pm Exactly one month ago we commemorated Holocaust Remembrance Day and the prevention of crimes against humanity. In the wake of it, we present a lecture by radio columnist Mgr. Přemysl Hnilička. He will take us through the history of radio drama and present examples of how and when Czech authors dealt with the topic of the Holocaust - and when this topic was not allowed. There will be excerpts from plays by Ludvík Aškenazy, Arnošt Lustig, Jaromír Ptáček, as well as representatives of the younger generation. It will offer a broader insight into this area with the promise of a possible treatment of "Moravian Jewish stories", which we want to focus on in particular. Admission is voluntary.

Hachshars in Czechoslovakia

Hachšary in Czechoslovakia Monday 26 February at 6 pm Hachšary - agricultural training centres - began to be established in interwar Czechoslovakia in the 1920s. They were intended to provide Jewish youth with training in agri-culture and crafts, as well as practical training for life in collective settlements - kibbutzim. The ideological training of the hachshars was based on the concept of socialist Zionism and aimed to create an agricultural and working class in Palestine. In addition to practical skills, the training camps emphasized the equality of members, and required a sense of responsibility, duty, justice, and a strong sense of solidarity among the members. The lecture by Daniela Bartáková from the Masaryk Institute and the Archives of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic will also attempt to capture the changes in the whole concept in response to the approaching beginning of the war and the need to ensure the eviction of as many Jewish youth as possible. Admission is voluntary.

Brod and us

Brod and us Tuesday, 23 January at 6 p.m. Under the slightly mysterious name of Petr Brod, a journalist and an extraordinary personality of Czech post-war history, who was born in 1951 and lives in Prague. In 1969, however, he legally emigrated with his parents to Bavaria, where he first studied political science, history of Eastern and Southeastern Europe and journalism at the University of Munich, and later went on to study at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Harvard University. His varied work record includes various positions at BBC Radio and Television in London, work for Radio Free Europe and a stint on the editorial staff of the Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung. We are delighted that Petr Brod has accepted our invitation to Malý Mehrin to talk about his ancestors, his life and work at home and in exile, his interest in Jewish history and his links with Moravia and Brno. He will also talk about his library, which will become the basis of the library of the new Moravian Jewish Museum Mehrin

OUR Houses - exhibition opening

OUR HOUSES - exhibition opening Thursday 4 January at 6 pm The use of possessive pronouns represents an interesting phenomenon in modern Czech history. MY... YOUR... HER... HIS... OUR... YOUR... THEIR... ALL? On the streets of Brno, as we live in them today, stood over seven hundred houses officially purchased by the Eviction Fund for Bohemia and Moravia during 1941. The original owners of the houses were forced to sell them on the basis of their official designation as Jews, or they lived in marriages with people so designated without wanting to sell THEIR houses. They did not always seek eviction. Some houses were resold by the Fund to private individuals or to the city of Brno, most were kept and rented out. After the end of the war, the owners changed hands again, but only rarely did a house return to the hands of the original ones. In the broadest sense of the word, the designation OURS includes all those who have ever lived in THEIR houses, worked in them, dreamed of something... It also includes us who pass them daily and they form the backdrop of OUR own lives. The exhibition comprehensively presents the theme of the arisation of immovable property by the Eviction Fund in Brno. It takes a closer look at eight selected houses. The presented set of information belongs to the gears of the Holocaust, although OUR interest does not end there. The stories of the individual houses, of course, took different paths after the end of the war. And it is more than likely that they entered your life as well.

The labyrinth of normalization in us

The Labyrinth of Normalization in Us Tuesday, December 19, 5 p.m. Martin Šmok, author of the exhibition Labyrinth of Normalization and the book of the same name at the Jewish Museum in Prague, will discuss the lasting reverberations of the normalization of anti-Jewish propaganda and its new life in the countries west of our borders. The lecture is coupled with a call to Brno historians and scholars to explore the difficult role that Brno-born Bedřich Bass took on during this period. Admission is voluntary.

E+I correspondence

Correspondence E+I Thursday, December 14 at 6 p.m. You may have already written to your Jesuits about the new audiobook of the correspondence of Voskovec and Werich, which was recently released. We take inspiration from the notorious phrase to invite you to an evening of letters exchanged across the ocean between Princeton and Brno by Messrs. Albert Einstein and Hugo Iltis. Based on correspondence from members of the Iltis family, historian Tania Klementova's lecture will recall the life story of botanist, geneticist and gifted educator Hugo Iltis (1882 Brno - Fredericksburg 1952), who made a major contribution to the rediscovery of the personality and work of Johann Gregor Mendel. At the same time, he tirelessly opposed the Nazi idea of the superiority and inferiority of the human races as its popularity grew in the second half of the 1930s. He also confirmed his belief in the dangers of the spread of racism after the war, when he demanded at the Nuremberg tribunal that scientific proponents of Nazi racial ideology be tried as war criminals. Admission is voluntary. Photo source: Albert Einstein : in his study in Princeton, New Jersey, Leo Baeck Institute, F 84514.