The Judaica collection from the Jewish Museum in Prague

Among the tragic stories of the Holocaust, often told but rarely understood, is the legend surrounding the genesis of the vast collection of Jewish ritual objects in Prague. It was meticulously catalogued by curators of the Prague Jewish Museum during the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia.

Between 1942 and 1945, the museum was transformed into the largest depository of objects of Judaica in the world. To this day, the idea of the Nazis’ intention to create a “museum of an extinct race” still prevails.

Drawing on recent research by the post-communist generation of Czech historians, Dr. Jana Vytrhlik discusses the myth and introduces a more perceptive and accurate account of the past events in Prague.

Dr. Jana Vytrhlik is a Prague-born art historian specialising in Judaica and synagogue architecture with a PhD in Art History, University of Sydney. Jana worked in the Jewish Museum in Prague, Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and the Sydney Jewish Museum. In 2016, Jana joined the Great Synagogue Sydney as the curator of the Rosenblum Jewish Museum.

_