Seminar of the Jewish Community and Communist Society (Attempt at Analysis of the Year












            ******************************************************************************************

            * Blanka Soukupová
            ******************************************************************************************
            Seminar of the Jewish Community and Communist Society (Attempt at Analysis of the years 19

            židovská komunita a komunistická spoločnosť (pokus o analýzu rokov 1948-1968)].

            Institute of Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Holocaust Documentation C

            April 2009, Bratislava, Slovakia.



            The first day of the spring Bratislava seminar took place in the framework of the solution
            Reflections of totalitarian systems - relation of the Jewish community and state power aft

            of project, Peter Salner, assistant head, Blanka Soukupová), which is one of the main goal
            Ethnological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In his introduction, Peter Salne
            the consequences of the Shoah for the Jewish community in Czechoslovakia (lessening of the

            unfortunate changes of its demographic structure generally, change of its value orientatio
            and for the first time in history also the possibility [!] of choosing further strategies 
            One of those strategies (emigration to Palestine [Israel]) was addressed by the Bratislava

            Ivica Bumová of the Institute of Jewish Studies of Comenius University in Bratislava. Unti
            20,000 Jews left the state. The second, very timely with regard to the strengthening influ
            historiography on Slovakia, was a paper presented by Jaroslav Franěk, chairman of the Cent

            Jewish Religious Communities in the Slovak Republic. Franěk dealt mainly with the well-kno
            (1952), which he compared to a medieval Inquisition trial. He further pointed out that Slo
            was willing to rehabilitate fully only the non-Jewish victim of the largest Czechoslovak t

            Dr. Vladimír Clementis, at that time Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the current Slovak so
            allegedly exists the stereotype that communist means Jew. He compared the history of so-ca
            communism with the beginnings of Christian society. Prague anthropologist Blanka Soukupová

            intellectual world of the Jews in the Czech lands in the 1960s at the time of relaxation o
            as well as a time of hope within the intentions of reformed communism. The renewal of the 
            the Jewish representatives wanted to realize it, was also a renewal within the boundaries 

            Party. The Jews enriched social discussion with the topics of multi-ethnicity and multicul
            Czech lands before the Second World War. At the conclusion of the first day of the seminar
            the Bratislava ethnologist Monika Vrzgulová, Peter Salner presented his paper. Salner, con

            period 1945-1953, underscored the postwar ideological differentnesses of the Jewish minori
            causes of its tendency toward communist ideology and post-Holocaust relation of the minori
            (Israel).


            While the first day was devoted to analyses of the relation of the Jewish community to com
            society, the second day was dedicated to the subjective experience of the Shoah after the 

            organizer of this panel was Monika Vrzgulová, the head of the project Construction of life
            minority of Slovakia after 1945 in biographic narratives. In the introductory paper, the w
            Bratislava philosopher Egon Gál reflected on the theories devoted to possible recurrence o

            The Prague anthropologist Hedvika Novotná introduced the audience to the theoretical frame
            thesis dealing with memory of the Shoah. The central point of her paper was Halbwach's and
            interpretation of memory. The Prague psychologist and psychotherapist Monika Hapalová anal

            individual Jewish memories from a psychological point of view. At the conclusion, Monika V
            about the influence of a collection of testimonies on the researcher in the course of his 
            path (using her own example) and about the character of the remembrances of the respondent

            historic periods.

            The space of the Jewish religious community in Kozí Street and the ritual dining room cont

            scientifically demanding, though friendly, atmosphere of the seminar. The second evening t
            of the Day of remembrance of the Holocaust and heroism (Yom Hashoah Vehagvurah) also took 
            Its focal point was the solemn lighting of the candles and the projection of the documenta

            Israel television Children from a photograph about the fate of Slovak children who survive
            Those children were photographed for propaganda purposes by the Soviet liberators at the m
            concentration camp.


            Blanka Soukupová [ URL "LM-364.html "]