Salner, Peter: Premeny židovskej Bratislavy /Changes in Jewish Bratislava/












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            * Blanka Soukupová
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            The new book by the Bratislava ethnologist and chairman of Bratislava's Jewish Religious C

            Salner, the author of several very successful books about the capital of Slovakia, was pub
            Bratislava-Pressburg edition in a beautiful graphic layout of the well-known Bratislava pu
            Not only the title, but also the cover, on which there is a photograph of the former neolo

            which was razed in 1969 for the construction of a new bridge across the Danube, speaks of 
            purpose of connecting his two large research topics: postwar Bratislava and the world of t
            minority, both on the official level (community, associations), and on the individual leve

            individuals) into one whole. Salner decided to cover the relatively long period of 1945 to
            conclusion of the book, even extended into the years of normalization, the analysis of whi

            continue in his next volume.

            Research of the situation of the Jews in the Czech lands in the years l945 to 1968, unfort

            reflected in the book (with the exception of an article by the distinguished Czech journal
            Brod [1999] summarizing the results of existing research), already showed that such a time
            itself contains several periods. In the years of the renewal of the community (1945-1947) 

            formed, in the environment of the Czech lands, a minority institutional platform, renewed 
            institutionalized memory of the Shoah, emphasized Jewish resistance (the myth of the Jews 
            the slaughter was strictly denied). The Jews - and with respect to postwar anti-Semitism, 

            with restitutions, the problems of acquiring documents about so-called national reliabilit
            their strategies of the future, including emigration to Israel or to Western Europe or Ame
            of emigration were provoked by the February Revolution in 1948 and the tragic year of 1968

            not leave chose a strategy of inconspicuousness, assimilation, or remained members of the 
            community, whose tactic became the reconciling of Jewish tradition and radically socialist
            year 1950 brought a breakthrough when there was a marked deterioration of the relation of 

            a Soviet satellite, to Israel. However after February 1948 the Zionist movement had alread
            In the Stalinist period of the communist regime (1948-1955) the position of the Jewish min
            deteriorated. The introduction to Salner's book, written by Jaro Franěk, also mainly revol

            problem, especially then around the Slánský trial, generally communist anti-Semitism and t
            of the Jew-communist, alive up to the present, and also the inability of today's Slovak so
            to terms with postwar anti-Semitism. Sovietization of the Czechoslovak society afflicted t

            Czech Jews through the reduction of their communities, an insufficiency of spiritual leade
            over reduced religious and social life by the communist party. The community wrestled with
            obtaining kosher groceries. On the other hand a certain renaissance of Jewish culture cont

            official level maneuvering between Judaism and communist ideology, including transformatio
            victims into an image of socialist heroes, continued. Conservative de-Stalinization in the
            1960, accompanied by the destruction of many Jewish monuments, was accompanied by the acti

            from the Czech lands who were abroad. And actually that, or a relaxation of the social atm
            international level, quite possibly foreshadowed the 60s, mainly the period 1963 to 1966/7
            phenomenon returned to the consciousness of Czech society.


            Promising rudiments of a certain democracy, contacts between Czech and Viennese Jewish rep
            activization of Jewish youth ended with the suspension of diplomatic relations with Israel

            in Jewish thought filled the function of refuge of brothers and sisters and the cradle of 
            with the defeat of the so?called Prague Spring (1968). Celebration of a millennium of Czec
            was postponed twice and deprived of its international context. Thanks to Salner, it is pos

            compare Czech development with Slovak development; however, the author - probably with ref
            character of his material - in some cases did not consistently explain the causes of histo
            Jewish Bratislava.


            Salner, who emphasized the fact that he dealt with his "personal" topic (by way of the boo
            dialogue with his deceased parents) in his readable text used the oral-historic interview 

            e-mail (!) correspondence with postwar Jewish emigrants, fragments of archival material of
            religious community in Bratislava, professional (mainly Slovak, but also German, and also 
            reserve Czech, but not Polish, American, etc.) literature, published memoirs, and his own 

            sources of a major nature. He methodically enriched our current knowledge of the division 
            invisible (they did not express themselves in public, but only within the framework of the
            and visible (they appeared in public, strove for assimilation and for complete equality wi

            Important, although not original, it also turned out that he attempted his analysis of the
            Jewish community (3,500 Bratislava Jews survived the Shoah) to combine with the results of
            and the character of the totalitarian regime.


            The structure of the book is interesting. In the first chapter Salner deals with the chara
            Bratislava and subjectively experienced problems of the Jews after 1945 (the change in rel

            their own ideological orientation, hatred of the majority of German and Hungarian Jews, et
            of Bratislava, problems of ethnically mixed marriages, chronically known difficulties with
            apartments [but not with restitution], coping with the fate of their relatives) and partly

            to expressions of postwar anti-Semitism (applications for name changes, emigration, streng
            visions of assimilation). In Slovakia there was also a revival of the community thanks to 
            of Jewish youth at the end of the 1950s and 1960s. The second chapter, sort of the core of

            then describes the activities of the rapid activization of the neological and orthodox Bra
            religious community, that is, centers of invisible Jews. Despite material lacks, in the ye
            it was possible to see a development tendency similar to the one in the Czech lands (loyal

            in exchange for the possibility of activities of Jewish institutions, maneuvering between 
            communist ideology, a stubborn attempt to maintain one's own religious and social life). A
            feature, however, became discord between orthodox and neological Jews (an independent sub-

            dedicated to the conflicts in the community). On the contrary, the fate of religious build
            Salner also points out in the process the threat to the orthodox cemetery in the 1960s. Th
            analyzes - again mainly with personal memories - the profile of members of emigration wave

            where mostly secularized Jews went. Also in Slovakia, just as in the Czech lands, the expe
            camps and associations mainly for Jewish youth compensated for real life. Similar also wer
            emigration (anti-Semitism, orphanhood), or non-emigration (worry about relatives, professi

            Israel. Part of this chapter, however, is the development of official relations to the Jew
            the anti-Zionist character of the political trials in the 50s. The Zionist movement disint
            emigration of almost 4,000 people after 1968 (whose experiences of August 1968 are brought

            of a few impressive documents of personal character) was no longer directed exclusively to

            Peter Salner's new charming and readable book brings another extraordinarily important vie

            Bratislava Jewish community after the Second World War. He enriches our current knowledge 
            original material, but also methodically. He presents a view built mainly on the basis of 
            of personal and institutional character. In it is the power of work, but also its certain 

            - despite the indisputable obsoleteness of the current Salner picture of postwar Jewish Br
            augmented by and not always quite consistent connection of Bratislava events to the state 
            socio-political situation.


            As for the unique period photographs, sensitively accompanying the text, I would welcome r
            source of the document or a more complete description although the book is, of course, des

            wider public.

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